From 1823 until about 1920 steamboats plied the Tombigbee between Columbus and Mobile. For many of those years the river was Columbus’ principal artery of commerce. Those times brought many steamboat accidents and accidents involving people living and working along the river. As might be expected, stories soon developed around these incidents, with many strange or frightening tales being told.
Flatboats and keelboats were traveling from Columbus to Mobile by 1819. It was in March of 1823 that the Cotton Plant was the first steamboat to make its way to Columbus from Mobile. The first recorded loss of a Columbus trade steamer was in 1825. In May of 1825, the side-wheeler Allegheny was headed to Mobile from Hamilton when she struck an underwater snag, called a deadhead, and sank near Columbus. In this first steamboat accident no lives were lost. Of the first seven steamboats in the post-1823 Columbus-Mobile River trade, five had exploded or sunk by 1828.
In these Tombigbee steamer accidents, the loss of life, if any, was usually small. Two people died when the Azile struck a snag and sank at 10 Mile Shoals below Columbus in 1856. The City of Columbus burned and sank at the Columbus Wharf in 1911 without loss of life. The Vienna hit a snag and sank at Moore’s Bluff below Columbus in 1906 without any loss of life.
In 1878 the boilers of the steamer Fanny W, which was owned by two Black Columbus businessmen, Wesley and Eli Hodges, exploded between Columbus and Waverly. It was reported that 8 to 10 people were seriously injured and Wesley Rienhart, the boat’s fireman was killed. The boat drifted down river and lodged against the west bank just north of the present-day bridge to the Island. Rienhart was buried on the Columbus riverbank between what is now the mouth of Moore’s Creek and Ruben’s Catfish Restaurant. Uncle Bunky once told me that when he was a child a flood uncovered the remains of an old riverboat behind Bob’s Place in the very spot where the Fanny W was said to rest.
However, sometimes there was a great loss of life. That was the case with the 150 foot long stern-wheeler W.H. Gardner that was traveling to Mobile from Columbus with over 500 bales of cotton and a full compliment of passengers. On March 1, 1887, she caught fire and burned at Howard’s Bar just south Gainesville, Alabama, killing 22 people.
Two of the steamboat disasters, that I have written about before in greater detail, have well known ghost stories surrounding them. They are the burning of the Steamer Eliza Battle in 1858 and the explosion of the James T. Staples in 1913. The burning of the Eliza Battle in 1858 during an ice storm on a freezing flooded Tombigbee has become an internationally known ghost story. She is even listed on Wikipedia as a “Legendary Ghost Ship” along with the “Flying Dutchman” and a few other famous ghostly vessels.
Few ghost stories compare in strange and supernatural associations with the 1913 loss of the Steamer James T. Staples. Norman Staples in 1908 had decided to construct the most palatial boat built on the Tombigbee since the Civil War and he named the boat the James T. Staples, after his father.
By late 1912, Norman Staples was having severe financial problems and he lost his steamboat to creditors in December. Staples could not accept the loss of his steamboat and in early January 1913 took his own life with a shotgun. The boat’s new owner’s directed that her captain ignore the former owner’s funeral and proceed up river from Mobile on the boat’s regular run. Rather than be disrespectful, the captain declined and quit. After several unusual occurrences, including Staples’ ghost being reported on board, most of the crew also quit.
With a new captain and crew, the Staples steamed out from the Mobile Wharf and headed up the Tombigbee.
Norman Staples had just been buried at Bladon Springs Cemetery near the river and when the James T. Staples reached the place on the river closest to its former owners grave its boilers exploded, killing 26 people and sinking the boat. Those who were rescued were transported to Mobile by the John Quill, a Columbus-Mobile packet boat. Unlike most ghost stories, the unusual circumstances surrounding the Staples’ loss were picked up by news media and the January 13, 1913, Columbus Commercial had a front-page account of the loss of the James T. Staples. The article actually commented on the strange circumstances surrounding the disaster.
The Eliza Battle was a palatial steamer that left Columbus for Mobile on February 28, 1858. It was raining, and the Tombigbee was flooded as the steamer departed Columbus with about 45 crew and 60 passengers and 1,400 bales of cotton. As she proceeded south the temperature dropped 40 degrees in two hours, and rain turned to sleet and ice.
At 2 a.m. on March 1 the steamer was about 40 miles south of Demopolis when the stern was found to be on fire. As the alarm spread passengers and crew encountered the stern ablaze and the bow covered in icicles. The only choice was to freeze to death or burn to death. Out of control, the boat drifted into a flooded forest and many people were able to escape into trees. Several freezing hours passed before help arrived. In the end, 15 passengers and 14 crew died.
It is told by fishermen on that part of the Tombigbee that on cold winter nights a fog bank will sometimes drift down the river in which may be seen a burning steamer, and from which may be heard passengers and crew of the Eliza Battle eternally crying for help. I had one fisherman tell me he was on the river once near where the Eliza Battle sank and a strange glowing fog bank began rolling down the river. I asked him what happened next and he said he got away from there as fast as his boat would go.
Though steamboats are the most image-evoking apparitions, they are not the only ghosts along the river. I have heard two ghostly stories about the Tombigbee at Columbus, and both are set at the site of the old ferry crossing at the foot of Main Street which was the location of the 1870s iron bridge. It is now the location of the new bridge and on the Columbus-side of the Riverwalk.
Carolyn Kaye has described to me how two people have seen an apparent ghostly image along the Riverwalk. It was of a man rowing an old wooden john boat down the Tombigbee. He was wearing an old fashion looking white shirt and a straw hat. Just as he reached the new bridge he vanished. He is not the only vanishing apparition at that location.
Uncle Bunky’s mother and Aunt Eva often told him of how late in the afternoon an old man in a heavy overcoat and hat would slowly walk behind old Bob’s Place toward the river. They both said no matter where on the path he was, his back was always turned toward them and they never could see a face. Just as he approached the river bank he would vanish. That was also where an early 1800s ferry landing and later the 1877 bridge were located. Bunky recalled his mother saying that had happened on several occasions. It was the same location on the river where the man in the john boat had vanished.
When we think of area ghost stories we don’t need to just think of haunted houses. There are some pretty strange stories along the banks of the Tombigbee, too.
Rufus Ward is a local historian.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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