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The first steamboat brought
to the Rio Grande was the sidewheeler Ariel, owned by Henry Austin, a cousin of
Stephen F.Ausitn. Henry Austin (1782-1852) was familiar with the extensive trade
that already existed in the area, and thought he improve upon it (and make his fortune)
with the advantages of a steamboat. Austin arrived on the river in 1829 but was
frustrated with the pace of business on the Rio Grande and the navigational hazards of the
river. Austin later tried his luck on the Brazos River with similar results. Ariel
was finally abandoned on Buffalo Bayou, and Austin established a plantation, Bolivar, on
the Brazos. Henry Austin is buried (left) in Galveston. |
The great boom in steam navigation on the Rio Grande came during the war with Mexico in
1846. The Rio Grande Valley, and the area around Fort Brown (right; click to
enlarge) in particular, became a staging area for one of the major U.S. campaigns against
Mexico. The U.S. Quartermaster Department brought 30 or more steamboats to the Rio Grande
during the and immediately afterward to transport, troops, supplies and and other
materials in support of the army. The sidewheeler Corvette was one of the first
Army steamboats to come to the river.
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The war had demonstrated the
practicalities of steamboat navigation on the Rio Grande, and several businessmen
established themselves quickly in the trade. The most prominent of these were
Richard King (left, seated) and Mifflin Kenedy (left, standing), who had both come to the
Rio Grande as civilian river pilots under contract to the Quartermaster Department. King
and Kenedy formed a partnership that was to dominate the Rio Grande steamboat trade for
many years, and that would form the financial basis of their substantial land holdings,
including the famous King Ranch. |
Steam
navigation, at least on a small scale, would endure on the Rio Grande for sixty years,
longer than on any other major Texas waterway. One of the last boats on the river
was the sternwheeler Bessie (right), which made her last run around 1906. |
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