The Betsy Ann was built in 1899 at Dubuque, Iowa. The dimensions of her steel hull were:- 165 x 39 x 5.5 feet. Tonnage, gross and net, 295 tons. She was originally built for and ran in Natchez-Bayou Sara trade on the lower Mississippi River. About 8:30 A.M. on April 5, 1907, while enroute from Bayou Sara to Natchez, she was struck by a heavy wind near Fordoche Landing, which carried away her chimneys, stage and derricks, damaging her cabin and steam pipe. The boat was landed at the bank when the captain saw the storm approaching. Alex McDowell, rouster, was blown overboard and drowned. Frank Weir, another rouster, had his foot injured. In May 1921, while the Kate Adams was on the Patton-Tully docks for repairs, the Betsy Ann ran from Memphis to Rosedale in her place. A little later, in the early 1920's, she was purchased by Captain Fred Way, Jr. of Pittsburgh and ran between that place and Cincinnati on the Ohio River. In her later days as a packet she had but one swinging stage and carried a gold anchor between her smoke stacks. Captain Way describes the escapades of the Betsy Ann in his Log of the Betsy Ann. On December 26, 1925, the crew of the Betsy Ann comprised: Captain W. L. Guthrie, master; Captains W. I. Weldon and Charles Ellsworth, pilots; Ralph Oursler, second clerk; Charles Arthur, mate; Alex Magee and Walter Lane, engineers; Fredrick Way, Jr., purser and manager. She had a propensity to race with the Greene Line steamers of Cinncinnati, some of which she won. Later she was sold back down to the lower Mississippi River. Still later she appeared as a towboat, greatly to changed, around Paducah and St. Louis, much to the chagrin of Captain Way. Her last owner was the John I. Hay Company, Incorporated of Chicago, Illinois. She was finally dismantled in 1940 and her hull now serves as a barge at Wood River, Illinois, for the Standard Oil Company near their refinery.
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