The Packet Boat

In the days before the railroad system in Pennsylvania provided transportation for cargo and passengers, the state’s canal system was an important mode of travel. The packets often had contracts to carry mail.

Before he became a doctor in Columbia County, Dr. I. W. Willits, as a boy of ten, had a part in that important task. His father had the contract to handle the packet boat mail between Catawissa and Espy. To the doctor was delegated the duty of meeting the packet boat at Catawissa, taking from it a small pouch of mail, which he slung over his horse as he would a pair of saddle bags, and then off the horse loped for the Catawissa post office. There the pouch was opened, the letters for Catawissa were removed, and those for points up the river were placed therein, and then for the Bloomsburg post office, the doctor of today started. The same process was repeated in Bloomsburg and then on to Espy he went. He was supposed to get his work finished in the three offices and cover the six miles in time that permitted him to put the mail pouch on the packet boat at Espy. [1]

Some packet boats were built in the Susquehanna Valley. In Danville, Montour County. There was a boatyard on the site of what later became the Structural Tubing Works. In the 1840s, two of the boats built there were the "Eagle" and the “New York.” They traveled between Northumberland and Wilkes-Barre. Some found their accommodations less comfortable than others, as noted in this ad in the Columbia Democrat newspaper of Bloomsburg, dated August 6, 1845.

“To the Public: Having been shamefully abused by Captain Wilson of the packet boat Eagle, I hereby caution all travelers to beware of taking passage with him, if they wish to be well treated, but rather lay by one day & travel with Captain Ammerman of packet boat New York, as he is a gentleman” B.S. Brockway July 15^th, 1845

Included in the crew on the packet boats was a cook, and usually a kitchen helper. “Port Trevorton furnished at least two good cooks, the late Mrs. Absalom Moyer and Mrs. Angalina Houseworth. These two women were cooks on the packet line that the Kapps, of Northumberland, operated between Williamsport and the Junction. That junction was at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers at Duncannon. The tavern at the lower terminus was Amity Hall. The packet would leave Williamsport in the early evening and reach the Junction, 87 miles south, about noon the next day. The thru fare was $2, including bunk and breakfast on board. Lunch was always procured at Amity Hall, and that lunch was dinner. Amity Hall is located where the William Penn Highway and the Susquehanna Trail meet. [2]

During his first visit to America in 1842, Charles Dickens wrote of his impressions in Notes on American Travel. It included a trip by packet boat in Pennsylvania. The canal boat on which Dickens traveled westward toward the mountains was crowded with passengers bound for Pittsburgh. The morning after departure from Harrisburg they reached the Allegheny Portage Railroad. From his side of the railroad, the canal flowed back to Harrisburg. On the other side of the Portage, a canal connected with Pittsburgh. The Allegheny Portage Railroad connected the two canals, shifting passengers and freight from one to the other. When Charles Dickens arrived at its base it had been in operation for just eight years, during which time it had become a tourist destination of its own. As for his experience on a packet boat, Dickens wrote, “There was much I heartily enjoyed, and look back with great pleasure. Even the running up, bare-necked at 5 o'clock in the morning from the cabin, scooping up the icy water, plunging one's hand into it, and drawing it out, all fresh and glowing with the cold, was a good thing. The fast brisk walk upon the towing path, when every vein and artery seemed to tingle with health; the exquisite beauty of the opening day, when light came gleaming off from everything; the lazy motion of the boat, when one lay idly on deck". [3]

The following description of a packet boat was given in a booklet issued by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1912: “The ‘Red Rover’ was the original from which evolved the packet of 1836. This latter was a boat seventy-two feet long, eleven feet wide, and eight feet high. Its interior was divided into four sections, a mule stable, kitchen, gentlemen’s cabin, and ladies’ cabin. Swinging sleeping berths were fastened along the sides of the cabins and were separated from one another by curtains. Skylights with twenty windows on each side of the boat protected by green Venetian shutters permitted the light to enter the interior. The boat would accommodate about one hundred and fifty passengers. It was painted white, with stripes of red and black above the water line. The crew of the boat consisted of the captain, two drivers, two deckhands, one cook and one scullion (kitchen helper). It was drawn by three mules. Three mules were always in the stable. Mules were changed every eight miles.”

As was mentioned at the beginning of the article, the canals, along with the packet boats, faded into the past with the arrival of faster, and less expensive trains to haul both freight and passengers.