The General Ashburn is a steel hull, sternwheel towboat built at Dubuque, Iowa in 1927 nby the dubuque Boat and Boiler Aworks. Her dimensions are :-130.l1x35.1x5.1 feet. She has a stoker fired coal burner and condensing engines, 15's by 30's, with a 6-1/2 foot stroke; 600 horse power. The Ashburn was originally owned and operated by the Inland Waterways Corporation of the Federal Barge Lines. The increasing cash value of good sternwheel towboats was examplified when the Federal Barge Llines sold her to the Hatfield - Campbell Creek Coal Company for $81,369 in 1940. She assumed the job handled by her predecessor, the Henry C. Yeiser, Jr., of bringing Kanawha River coal to Madison and the Fall Cities. She made her first trip into Louisville harbor for her new owners the latter part of March, 1941. The General Ashburn sank at Reed, West Virginia on Demember 25, 1944. However she was raised. She was reconditioned the early part of 1945 and returned to service on the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers in March, 1945. The Ashburn passed Point Pleasant shortly thereafter with 9000 tons of coal for Cincinnati. Captain Charles Young was master with Captain Guy Mace Eaton, pilot; Tom Brown, cheif engineer; Bob Gibson, second engineer. Shortly thereafter, or in 1945, her name was changed to J. T. Hatfield. Her owners are now listed as the Ohio and Kanawha Transportation Company.