When the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Department of Highways contracted for temporary ferry service at Shawneetown, Illinois, this week, it resumed a service that is floating on more than 200 years of history. The temporary ferry is running three days a week to help farmers move their heavy equipment across the Ohio River while the Shawneetown Bridge is reduced to one-lane traffic for painting.
Ted Merryman, Chief District Engineer with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Department of Highways, says highway employees who were working on the project were aware that the crossing had a rich history tied to early settlement of the region.
"Shawneetown is the oldest town in Illinois. The crossing between Shawneetown and Blackburn landing on the Kentucky side has a lot of history," said Chief District Engineer Ted Merryman. "Some members of our staff had an interest in local history, so they put out some feelers to what area historians could turn up."
Jon Musgrave, an instructor at Southeastern Illinois Community College, and Crittenden County amateur historian Brenda Underdown were among those who responded. They found credible mentions of ferry traffic at the site going back to 1802.
"Governor John Reynolds's book 'My Own Times' has some references, but there are some conflicting dates and still other references with no specific date for the first ferry at Shawneetown," Musgrave said. Reynold's book notes that, "About the year 1804, La Bauissier, a Frenchman, located on the Ohio River; he fished, traded with the Indians, and kept a ferry."(p. 63)
Musgrave says Goodspeed's 1887 "History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Illinois" has a somewhat different version of events.
"The first town plat was approved April 30, 1810, and the establishment of the land office in Shawneetown was approved February 21, 1812, but no land entries were made until July, 1814."(p. 92) Later, it mentioned the first ferry, but without a year, saying simply: "Alexander Wilson was the first to run a ferry across the Ohio River at Shawneetown." (p. 93) Professor George W. Smith provided an earlier date, although he was writing at a much later date in his 1912, "History of Southern Illinois." Smith states that, "Alexander Wilson an early emigrant to Illinois settled at Shawneetown so early as 1802 or thereabout and operated a ferry across the Ohio River." (p. 471-472)
Musgrave says it should be noted that most of the sources that peg Wilson's ferry so early also have another early settler, Michael Sprinkle, at Shawneetown in 1800, which doesn't appear to be the case in the records. "I think he was still in Vincennes, or even the Red Banks (Henderson), Kentucky, area at this point."
Brenda Underdown says a major road that appears in survey maps of the period go to Flynn's Ferry which crossed the Ohio River at Weston, Kentucky in present day Crittenden County.
"The Livingston County Commissioners Court authorized John Grey to operate a ferry there on October 3, 1803," in Livingston County Court Order Book A. Underdown says that landing is about 15 miles downstream from Shawneetown. She also noted that records and narrations of the time have a number of different spellings of the town name.
Another account from toward the end of that month that indicates the American settlement of Shawneetown didn't exist yet. Thomas Rodney, a federal judge who was traveling down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to what's now Mississippi provides some additional observations about the area. "[Mr. Johnson] told me the nearest way to the Saline Creek Springs is from the Shawnee Town. That it is only ten miles from there and a good road. That the said towns (not now inhabited) is where the salt is brought to from those springs (Friday, Oct. 28, 1803). Shawnese Towns, that is a ledge of rocks on NW shore 12 miles below Wabash and 7 above the Saline Creek." Rodney also mentioned a that a French family had settled just below the mouth of the Wabash. It's possible that this is Reynolds' La Bauissier. As to Wilson's ferry, it would appear Wilson established his ferry sometime prior to 1809 when William Henry Harrison served as governor of Indiana Territory, which at that time included Illinois. An act of the Illinois Territorial Legislature in 1814 mentions the ferry in a settlement of Wilson's estate.
Doubts had arisen concerning its legitimacy since its landing at Shawneetown was public ground and not owned by Wilson or his heirs. The law confirmed Wilson's authority to operate the ferry, but also placed the ferry under the general territorial laws governing the operation of ferries.
"The Randolph County Court permitted Wilson to operate a ferry in 1810," Musgrave said. "But I don't know if this represents the first time he was able to obtain a license.
Glen Minor's book, "Cemeteries of Gallatin County, Illinois" quoted extensively from the first commissioner court records in Gallatin County dated 1810:
"....license granted to Alexander Wilson, to keep a ferry from the rocks near upper end of Shawanoetown, and to cross the rive. He was allowed the following rates; wagon and 2 horses or oxen $1; same with 2 wheels .75; person over 7 yrs horse or mule $.25; meat cattle $.125; sheep or hogs $.0625 each. (Sept. 6, 1813)."
The Shawneetown Ferry was discontinued when the Earle C. Clements Bridge opened at Shawneetown in 1956.
Reestablishing the ferry during the painting of the bridge has extra sentiment for Operator Lonnie Lewis.
"I recently attended a family gathering where some of the folks shared genealogy information they had gathered. We were told there is credible evidence that my family is descended from the Fords that operated a Ferry just above Cave-In-Rock. We were told that members of the family dropped the Ford name because of the association with the infamous gang of river pirates known as the Ford Gang that attacked pioneers as they crossed the river," Lewis said.
The ferry was moved from Fords Ferry to Cave-in-Rock, also in an effort to escape the reputation of the river pirates. When Lewis purchased the assets of the Cave-in-Rock Ferry Company he inherited more than 200 years of history at that site.
"The Cave-in-Rock Ferry is actually older than the state of Kentucky. It was chartered by West Virginia, while Kentucky was still a part of that territory," Lewis said.
Lewis has a total of six boats, including the two ferries. He and his 16 employees provide harbor service and short trip towing to river businesses along the Ohio River from the Wabash River down to the Smithland Dam. T.C. Chambers, with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Department of Highways, says both highway officials and area farmers appreciate his willingness to provide a temporary ferry while the Shawneetown Bridge is being painted.
