The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 288
717 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Russell Bartlett, the first United States Boundary Commis-
sioner, said:
In October, 1846, a successful attempt was made to ascend the Rio
Grande in the United States steamer Major Brown, by order of General
Patterson, with a view to ascertain whether or not it were possible to
open a communication between Carmargo and the Presidio del Norte.
This vessel drew but two feet of water. She experienced few obstacles
in reaching the river Salado, nearly a hundred miles by water above
Mier. Above this there was a series of continued shoals, rocks and rapids,
among which the boat repeatedly grounded. She at length reached Laredo,
a town about six hundred miles by water above the mouth of the river.4
Because of a fall in the river while the Major Brown, Mark
Sterling, master, was at Laredo, the steamboat was tied up
there for several months."
The military need for navigation on the Rio Grande ended July
4, 1848, with the promulgation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidal-
go, and the river boats then being operated were sold by the
quartermaster to Charles Stillman, Matarmoros merchant and
founder of the new town of Brownsville, as a river port, on
the American side. Stillman's steamboating was, to him, dis-
appointing. The boats were not well designed for Rio Grande
service, besides having been rather well used up. Stillman
thought his Brownsville-Matamoros ferry a more profitable
venture; and two of the veteran river boats, the Whitesville
and the Frankland, were abandoned at Brownsville in a way that
blocked the only available ferry landing which Stillman did not
control. The ships were removed in December, 1849, by the sher-
iff of Cameron County on order of the commissioners' court.
Mifflin Kenedy, meantime, had quit the steamboating which
brought him to the Rio Grande for a commercial venture in
the Mexican trade. Stillman's steamboating was, for the most
part, conducted by river-boat captains James O'Donnell and
Richard King. King, an experienced young steamboatman on
shallow Southern rivers, entered the government service on
the Rio Grande in 1847 as pilot of the Corvette, of which
Mifflin Kenedy was master. Later he became master of the
Colonel Cross. Stillman, anxious to be rid of a losing venture,
sought to interest Mifflin Kenedy in his line of steamboats,
and Kenedy sought counsel and assistance from O'Donnell and
4John Russell Bartlett, Personal Narrative (London, 1854), II, 509.
5See Lamar Papers, Nos. 2235, 2237, 2239, 2252, 2257, 2269, 2279, 2281,
VI, 22-40.288
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946, periodical, 1946; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146056/m1/321/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.