Edna (Towboat, 1885-1905)

Photographer

Barrette, Thornton

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Towboat
• BUILT: 1885 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• BECAME: Willow Point (1906)
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Renamed Willow Point in 1906 while under U.S. Department of Engineering ownership
• OWNERS: Hugh O'Donnell (captain); U.S. Department of Engineering (1892)
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T0689; On July 6, 1892 she took a part in the famed Homestead Riots on the Monongahela River. Hugh O'Donnell, elected "captain" of the strikers, chartered this boat and sighted the Little Bill approaching the Homestead Works of Carnegie Steel Company with Pinkerton detectives loaded in model barges Monongahela and Iron Mountain. She was bought by U.S. Department of Engineering at Cincinnati in 1892 and listed as a survey launch. Rebuilt in 1896 and then listed as a "steamboat" rather than a launch. She was a single deck job with a single stack and a skylight on the roof, part way back