The Ruthven was a very well-known boat in its day and was perhaps the most successful boat to run on the Trinity River. She was a side-wheeler built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1860. She measured 144 tons. She came to Texas new or nearly so, for she was in regular operation between Liberty and Galveston before the war, under Capt. Thomas Peacock. After the Federals blockaded Galveston in the summer of 1860, trade on the inland waterways was very greatly reduced. Ruthven, like many other steamboats in the area, was chartered by the Texas Marine Department and served during the war years as a transport, moving troops and supplies between isolate outposts along the Galveston Bay and nearby coastal areas.

Most of the boats so used did not return to service at the end of it, as they had been worked too hard and gone too long without proper maintenance. Ruthven was an exception to this, however, and returned to trade on the Trinity. In May 1866 she brought 148 bales of cotton into Galveston. She was commanded at this time by Wash Rose. In the 1866-67 cotton season, she made three big trips to Galveston with 725, 755 and 775 bales respectively, under what were described as very adverse weather conditions. (This is about 35% of the entire Trinity cotton trade for that season.) In 1868, she ventured as high upriver as Parkers Bluff (543 miles upriver) and returned to Galveston with 290 bales.

Most accounts show A. S. Ruthven out of service in 1869, bit there is a reference which states that sometime in 1872 or after she was tied up at Parkers Bluff and dismantled, where her machinery was distributed to nearby mills and gins, and her cabin torn away and used in a fine residence. It’s possible that her documents were surrendered in 1869, effectively taking her out of service, but she was not broken up until some time after. Most of the above is from W. T. Block’s Cotton Bales, Keelboats and Sternwheelers: A History of the Sabine River and Trinity River Cotton Trades, 1837-1900, by W. T. Block (Woodville, Texas: Dogwood Press, 1995). This information was provided from one of our members, Andy Hall.