206 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

stages, or relays, between Fayetteville and Philadelphia, before

the first steamer was put on the Cape Fear. Among the pio-

neers of steamboat building and operating on the Cape Fear
River, though perhaps not the first, was Mr. Seawell. One of
the first boats to ply the stream bore the same name as one of
the last—the City of Fayetteville. It was launched not far
from the Clarendon Bridge, and it has been related that some
one having prophesied that it would ‘turn turtle’ when it
reached the water, the architect boldly rode its bow as it slipped
off the ways, and the event justified his faith in his work

“It is impossible, with the lapse of time, to enumerate all the
craft that formed the Cape Fear merchant marine. The Henri-
_ etta, Fanny Lutterloh, Cotton Plant, Zephyr, Magnolia, Halcyon
Governor Worth, North State, A. P. Hurt, D. Murchison, nid

R., &. Lee are recalled as leading among the passenger and
freight steamers from the thirties up to and for some time
after the War between the States. Equally impossible would
it be to give the names and record of the services of the faithful
captains,

“Notable commanders in the history of Cape Fear navigation
were Captains John P. Stedman, who lost his life by the ex-

plosion of the boiler of the Fanny Lutterloh, Rush, A. P. Hurt
after whom a steamer was named, Phillips, Skinner Gisem:,
Worth, Smith, Garrason. The captain’s rule on board Wis
autocratic but patriarchal. He sat at the head of the table and
served the passengers as the father of a family would his chil-
dren. The fare was plain but wholesome and abundant. and
with good weather and a fair depth of water, the trip between
Fayetteville and Wilmington was very pleasant. The river
goes on its way to the sea with many a wind and bend. its
banks steep and heavily'wooded, the wild grape climbing the
tall trees, and the wild jasmine and flowering honeysuckle giv-
ing forth their fragrance. Those veteran captains knew the
river well and most of the people on either bank clear to Wil-
mington; the pilots, many of whom were negroes, knew ever

crook and eddy of thestream. Dan Buxton, an esteomed ooleréd
man of this city, has a record of fifty years faithful service as
a pilot on the Cape Fear. The late Col. Thomas S. Lutterloh
always a large boat owner, is said to have been the first Coins
berland man to become sole owner of a steamer on the river
Many of the business men of Fayetteville and Wilmington vere
stockholders in these boat lines.

Early Years 207

“The oldest inhabitants still look back on those times as the
‘oood old days’ of Fayetteville. The merchants were not the
progressive men of the 20th century; they were conservative
and cautious and honest as the day, with their word as bond.

They made money slowly, but they lived simply, and gradually
accumulated modest fortunes.”

Mr. Myrover overlooked in his sketch a very prominent Cape
Fear mariner, who, during his long and useful career, com-
manded successively the well-known river steamers H enrietta,
Brothers, Scottish Chief, James R. Grist, James T. Petteway,
and John Dawson. A hearty, genial, bright-eyed Scotsman
of superior attainments was Capt. John Banks, in some respects
the most notable of all the river captains. He was a highly

esteemed citizen of Wilmington and he owned a valuable resi-
dence on the corner of Market and Seventh Streets, where he
reared an interesting family, several members still surviving.
Other commanders were Capt. James Barry, of the A. P. Hurt;
Captain Driver of the Flora Macdonald ; Capt. Roderick Mac-
Rae, of the Rowan; Captain Stedman, of the Kate McLaurin;
Capt. Jesse Dicksey, of the Black Rwer; Captain Peck, of the
Nellie Hart, and Captain Jones, of the Enterprise. There were
two other boats, the North Carolina and the 7. S. Lutterloh,

the names of whose commanders I have forgotten.

United States Minister E. J. Hale says:
‘From the close of the Revolution and up to the building of

the Wilmington and Raleigh [Weldon] Railroad and the Ra-
leigh and Gaston Railroad (about 1838), the great mail stage
lines from the North to the South passed through Fayetteville.
There were four daily lines of four-horse post and passenger
coaches to Raleigh, Norfolk, Charleston, and Columbia; and,
in addition, two tri-weekly lines to New Bern and Salisbury.
“The Legislature sat in Fayetteville in 1788, 1789, 1790,
and 1793. At the convention at Hillsborough in 1788, called to
deliberate on the acceptance or rejection of the United States
Constitution, Fayetteville failed to secure the location of the
permanent capital by one vote, that of Timothy Bloodworth, of
New Hanover, who subsequently was elected to the United
States Senate. The ordinance adopted fixed the location of the
capital on Joel Lane’s plantation in Wake, on the ground that
this point was nearer the centre of the State than Fayetteville.”