Keystone State (Packet, 1890-1913)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Packet
• BUILT: Harmar, Ohio at the Knox Yard, 1890
• BECAME: Majestic
• OWNERS: Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line (1890); Levi Sparr (October 1909); Dixon and Cohen; Chicago and Gulf Transportation Company; Captain D. Walter Wisherd and Sam Gregory (winter 1913)
• OFFICERS & CREW: March 10, 1890 (maiden trip): Captain Thomas S. Calhoon (master in 1890, also in 1892), Charles W. Knox (purser and clerk), Harry Ollom and T. S. Sandford (pilots), George Knox (chief engineer), Ben Baker and James Martin (mates), George Day (steward), Logan Noll and George Donnelly (assistant clerks), Charles McDaniel (second engineer); Captain Charles W. Knox (master, March 1895); Captain George Knox (master, 1895); J. Henry Best and William D. Kimble (pursers); E. Dayton Randolph and "Billy" Anderson (pilots for many years); Daniel M. Lacey (clerk, 1898); William D. Kimble (clerk, 1901); William T. Terry (carpenter, spring 1901; while removing the whistle during high water, he was shot and killed by the resident of a nearby shantyboat); W. R. Barringer (clerk, 1906); Pres Ellison (clerk at one time); Captain Milt Harry (master, 1913)
• RIVERS: Ohio River; Mississippi River; Illinois River
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - 3288; Built for the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Packet Line with cabin equipment from the Katie Stockdale, she was the "huckster" boat, leaving Pittsburgh Mondays. She was sold to Levi Sparr, Williamsburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania and taken to Point Pleasant. The Kanawha Dock Company built her a new hull but never got paid. They attached the boat for debt and she remained in litigation until Dixon and Cohen, wholesale fish merchants, bought her for the St. Louis-Peoria trade. In 1913 the Chicago and Gulf Transportation Company bought her, put new boilers on her at Paducah, but could not pay the bill. Dixon and Cohen took her over again, with Andrew J. Franz, manager, and ran her St. Louis-Peoria until winter 1913, when Captain Wisherd and Sam Gregory bought her and converted her into an excursion boat, renamed Majestic