Jeffboat was originally established as the
Howard Shipyards in 1834 by James Howard when he started his first boat, the
Hyperion. The Howard family controlled the company for 107 years, building over 3,000 ships.
19th-century steamboats The
Joe Fowler is a former steamboat built at the Howard Shipyard in 1888. The sternwheeler was designed for packet service between
Evansville, Indiana and
Paducah, Kentucky.
Joe Fowler was a
United States Mail carrier, and after seven years of service, had logged over 327,000 miles and transported over 152,000 passengers without a fatal accident. In 1914, new owners replaced the steamer with high-pressure boilers designed for the western rivers. After this time,
Joe Fowler ran excursions around the
Pittsburgh and
Wheeling, West Virginia areas, before hosting a cruise down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers for
Mardi Gras in
New Orleans, and a long summer cruise from Pittsburgh to
St. Paul, then back to
Louisville. After 1917, it was sold, refitted to better serve excursions, and renamed
Crescent. The
Emily is a former sternwheeled steamboat built at the Howard Shipyard in 1891. The single-boiler steamer began in ferry service at
Kenova, West Virginia, and later operated at
Wheeling, West Virginia.
Emily was sold three times, starting in 1902. The third buyer was Henderson Ferry Company of
Henderson, Kentucky, which renamed it the
Dixie Bee Line. It burned in Henderson in 1926. After a rebuild, it ran as the ferry
Ohio No. 2. In the 1930s, it was renovated for packet service, and renamed
Joe Curtis, and plied the waters near Memphis until it struck ice and sunk on January 25, 1940. ==20th century==