General Terry (Packet, 1878-1888)

Date

• June 10, 1888

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: Freedom, Pennsylvania at the McCaskey & Kerr yard, 1878
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Wrecked at Omaha, Nebraska on June 30, 1888
• OWNERS: James Rees and Sons Company; Block P Line; Benton Packet Company
• OFFICERS & CREW: J. Q. A. Parr (clerk, 1878); Captain R. L. Woolfolk (master, 1888); William Simms (pilot, 1888)
• RIVERS: Missouri River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 2279; Built for W. A. Burleigh, Miles City, Montana, and James Todd. There was trouble about payment and James Rees and Sons Company filed a lawsuit and took interest. Her first trip was from Pittsburgh to Fort Benton, Montana, and return to McKenzie's Point. J. Q. A. Parr was clerk on her for the first seven trips. Later she was in the Block P Line and made seven trips in all to Fort Benton, the last one in 1887. In 1881 she helped transport Native Americans from the Yellowstone to Dakota after Chief Sitting Bull surrendered. In June that year she took 10,000 buffalo robes out of the Yellowstone; the load hid the boat, except for the pilothouse and stacks. She transferred this cargo to the C. K. Peck at the mouth of the Yellowstone River. The Benton Packet Company owned her at the last. While transporting troops from Fort Yates, North Dakota to Kansas City, Missouri, she took a sheer and hit a pier of the new Union Pacific railroad bridge at Omaha, Nebraska, and sank. Captain R. L. Woolfolk was in command and William Simms was pilot. The Union Pacific paid the loss claims
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Wreck of the steamer General Terry, June 10, 1888, at Omaha, Nebraska