Josie (Packet/Towboat, 1873-1895?)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet/Towboat
• BUILT: 1873, Madison, Indiana
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Burned and sank at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, 1895, perhaps later
• OWNERS: Diamond Jo Line; Eagle Packet Company; J.F. Lieble
• OFFICERS & CREW: ca. 1875: John Killeen (master), Ned West and Harry Rider (pilots); 1880: J.B. Davis (master); William R. Tibbals and Campbell Hunt (pilots); 1882: Robert F. Sherwood (master); 1883: James M. Best (master); Captain Warren Renfrew (pilot), Captain Henry Leyhe (master); ca. 1885: Captain Sam Shrodes (master)
• RIVERS: Mississippi River; Illinois River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 3135 & T1468; April 23, 1881 and April 10, 1885, she was the first boat of the season to arrive at St. Louis from below. While owned by Eagle Packet Company and used as a towboat, she collided with the L.E. Patton at Peters Towhead below Memphis. She was run ashore and sank. Her master at the time was Captain Henry Leyhe and pilot was Warren Renfrew. Charles Hunter of the Patton-Tully Company helped raise her. In 1895, possibly later, she burned opposite Commerce, Missouri at Cape Girardeau under the command of Captain Sam Shrodes. The wreck floated down the chute of Bernum's Island. She was enrolled at the Port of Galena on June 27, 1874, then the Port of Dubuque, April 1879 and again April 4, 1883