For 97 years, between 1823 and 1920, steamboats plied the Tombigbee between Columbus or Aberdeen and Mobile. Along the Tombigbee in Mississippi there were at least eight steamboats sinking, burning or breaking up reported. Other steamers headed to Mobile from Mississippi burned or sank along the river in Alabama. Several of those river disasters and tragic events produced strange or ghostly stories worthy of Halloween night.

The first recorded loss of a Columbus area trade steamer was in May 1825. The steamboat Allegheny was headed to Mobile from Hamilton when she struck an underwater snag, called a deadhead, and sank near Columbus. In that first steamboat accident no lives were lost. That though, was not always the case.

Four steamboat disasters on the Tombigbee come to my mind with strange, if not ghostly, events surrounding them. They are the burning of the Steamer Eliza Battle in 1858, the boiler explosion of the Fanny W. in 1878, the burning of the W.H. Gardner in 1887 and the explosion of the James T. Staples in 1913.

In 1878 the boiler 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 eight to 10 people were seriously injured and Wesley Rienhart, the boat’s fireman, was killed. The boat drifted down river until she lodged and burned against the west bank just north of the present-day bridge to the Island and behind the old Bob’s location.

Rienhart was buried on the Columbus riverbank between what is now the mouth of Moore’s Creek and Ruben’s Catfish Restaurant. The late 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.

Bunky’s mother and his 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 riverbank he would vanish. That was right where the Fanny W. had come to rest.

The Eliza Battle was a 200-foot-long palatial steamer that left Columbus, though possibly Aberdeen, for Mobile on Feb. 28, 1858. Her tragic story has become an internationally known ghost story. And she is even listed on Wikipedia as a “Legendary Ghost Ship” along with the “Flying Dutchman.”

It was raining, and the Tombigbee was flooded as the steamer departed with about 45 crew, 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. 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 in the icy river or burn to death on the boat. Out of control, the boat drifted into a flooded forest and many people escaped into trees. Several freezing hours passed before help arrived. In the end, 15 passengers and 14 crew members 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 once had a fisherman tell me he was on the river 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 he could and never looked back.

While I have heard of no ghost story about the W.H. Gardner, there are enough strange connections to make it worthy of a Halloween ghost story. The 150-foot stern-wheeler was traveling to Demopolis from Columbus with 464 bales of cotton and a full complement of passengers when on March 1, 1887, she caught fire and burned. The Gardner was just south of Gainesville, Alabama, which had been one of the Eliza Battle’s last stops. Her captain was Frank Stone who had been second clerk on the Eliza Battle and was the son of the Battle’s captain. In addition, the Gardner burned exactly 29 years to the day of the burning of the Eliza Battle. Twenty-two people lost their lives on the Gardner.

Few ghost stories, though, 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 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 owners directed that her captain ignore the former owner’s funeral and proceed upriver from Mobile on the boat’s regular run. Rather than disrespecting the former owner, 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. When the James T. Staples reached the place on the river closest to its former owner’s grave, its boilers exploded, killing 26 people and sinking the boat. Those who were rescued were transported to Mobile by the John Quill, an Upper Tombigbee packet boat. Unlike most ghost stories, the unusual circumstances surrounding the Staples’ loss were picked up by news media and the Jan. 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.

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. It was ghost stories written by Kathryn Tucker Windom about the Eliza Battle and the James T. Staples that first got me interested in the ghosts of the Tombigbee. Her 13 Alabama or Mississippi Ghosts books are perfect Halloween reads.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].

READER FAVORITES

• 

  Our View: Betting on trouble

  By Dispatch Editorial Board • 16 hours ago