The newsletter provides information about the Historic Port of Washington Project (HPOW) museum and upcoming events. The new chairman, Rick Zablocki, welcomes volunteers and ideas to support HPOW's mission of sharing the maritime heritage of eastern North Carolina. Brief articles describe the Jamesville and Washington Railroad historical display at the museum, early North Carolina steamboats, and steamboats built in Washington. The flywheel from a former sawmill engine is discussed. A timeline outlines the history of the Port of Washington from the 1700s to 1900s.

1. HISTORIC PORT O 1
www.hpow.org
132 South Market Street
Washington NC 27889
Museum Winter Hours
Open EVERY Saturday
9:30am- 1:30pm
& Special Events TBA
C O N T E N T S
1 WELCOME FROM
HPOW’s CHAIRMAN
1 NEW 2016 LECTURE
SERIES
2 HPOW WASHINGTON
RAILROADS A& TRAIN
DISPLAY
WASHINGTON
STEAMBOATS ON THE
TAR-PAMLICO
2 EARLY NC
STEAMBOATS &
STEAMBOATS BUILT
IN WASHINGTON
2 BECOME A FRIEND
OF HPOW MUSEUM -
3 HISTORY OF THE
HAVENS GARDEN
FLYWHEEL
4 TIMELINE OF PORT
OF WASHINGTON
URL www.hpow.org
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historicportofwashington/
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WORLD WIDE WEB
FROM HPOW 2015
CHAIRMAN
RAY MIDGETTE
The mission of the Historic Port
MESSAGE FROM
HPOW CHAIRMAN…
RICK ZABLOCKI
.
This spring your Historic Port of
Washington Project (HPOW) is
looking forward to continued
growth in exhibits and programs
that celebrate Washington’s
history and our region of North
Carolina.
I am pleased and honored to be
your new Chairman and continue
the work done during the past
two years by Chairman Ray
Midgett and the other tireless
workers on the HPOW
Committee, all of whom will be
continuing with our current and
new projects.
Please consider a membership in
the HPOW Project, and more
importantly, consider sharing
your time, talents, and treasures:
we need more volunteers for our
living history projects, and
budding museum. Our mission is
to share our maritime commerce
heritage with people of all ages
from eastern North Carolina and
beyond. Collectively we have a
wealth of historic knowledge and
artifacts that can significantly
enrich the lives of everyone from
8 to 80. I hope to meet you all
soon at the museum and at our
special events.
We look forward to your
thoughts, ideas, and actions to
support and grow future HPOW
programs. Please don’t be shy!
Volunteers contact@hpow.org.
Thank you,
Rick
HISTORIC PORT OF WASHINGTON PROJECT
FEB/MAR Quarterly Newsletter 2016 Vol. II.
NEW 2016 LECTURE
SERIES by HPOW –
March 17th
TH 6pm
NC Estuarium Auditorium $4
Port of Bath’s 300th and the British
Colonial Customs Service 1716-1790
April 3rd
SU 1-3 pm
NewExhibit!! Washington History
Lifestyles 1900-1915 at HPOW 132 S.
Market St. “The Advent of the 20th
c”
April 30 SA10a-4p
Gene Oakley and Steam Engines Display
at Marine Mart, Stewart Parkway. HPOW
Tee Shirt Sale and signed Mural prints
April 30 SA 11 am
NC Estuarium Auditorium, Donation,
The Pamlico’s Age of Sail and the Age of
Steam
Upcoming 2016 Talks
The History of the Havens Gardens
Flywheel, Oyster Schooners of
Washington & the Pamlico, Sawmills and
Maritime Trade in the Age of Sail on the
Pamlico, more about Steamboats and the
Age of Steam on the Tar-Pamlico

2. HISTORIC PORT O 2
www.hpow.org
HPOW WASHINGTON
RAILROAD&TRAIN
DISPLAYS
Many thanks to Mr. Bob
Burroughs and the Pamlico
Model Railroaders for loaning us
an HO gauge model railroad
layout that was displayed in our
Market Street Museum over the
Christmas holidays. Although
originally targeted toward our
children, we met many adult
“closet” model railroaders who
enjoyed the display, shared their
model railroad interests and
histories, and found out about our
local model railroad group.
Washington fishing boat, Pamlico bridge
in the background.
We hope to follow up the
Christmas display with a
permanent model layout of the
Jamesville and Washington
Railroad that was the first to
serve Washington. Locally
known as the “Jolt and Wiggle”
because of its very uneven rail
bed and frequent derailments,
this little narrow gauge line,
carried timber, farm and finished
products and shingles, and a few
passengers between the Roanoke
and Pamlico Rivers with stops at
Dymond City and Amherst.
We have very little information
on this line, and only one or two
pictures. Its Washington
Terminus was the lovely white
home at the corner of Main and
Washington Streets. Model
railroaders and rail buffs do you
want to help us research and put
the Jolt and Wiggle display
together? contact@hpow.org.
EARLY N. CAROLINA
STEAMBOATS
The Norfolk was the first
steamboat that plied North
Carolina waters as early as 1819,
just twelve years after Robert
Fulton’s steamboat the Clermont,
the first commercially successful
steamer in the United States. The
side-wheeler Norfolk, built in
Norfolk VA steamed between
New Bern and Elizabeth City.
See early NC coastal steamboat
routes city by city on a framed
19th c map at HPOW.
Working in consort with stage
lines she made the passage
between Baltimore, Maryland
and Fayetteville, North Carolina
in five days, one day less than
stage coaches alone. Norfolk was
132’ long, 25’ wide, and 8’ deep,
with a draft of 4’. She burned a
cord of wood an hour. Her two
boilers provided 60 horsepower
to move her 220 gross tons.
Norfolk was elegantly furnished
and carried passengers, horses
and carriages, and freight.
The second steamer in North
Carolina waters was the first built
in our state. The Henrietta, also
a side-wheeler was launched at
Fayetteville, North Carolina in
1818. Although a bit smaller at
152 gross tons, she had a very
long life, serving for 40 years.
Other early steamboats in North
Carolina included the Sea Horse,
Prometheus, and Albemarle in
the late 1820s. Our steamboat
history continues in our coming
newsletters, and Historic Port of
Washington Museum exhibits.
(Excerpted from Steamboats On The Tar
by Captain Henry Clark Bridgers, Jr. and
edited by Ronald E. Kemp).
STEAMBOATS BUILT
IN WASHINGTON
1835 Edmund D.McNair (P)
71 tons
1860 Cotton Plant II (P)
1871 Vesper 331 tons
1874 Pitt
1879 RL Myers
1879 Greenville
1880 Tarboro
1883 Beaufort
1883 Margie
1885 RL Myers II
P(sidewheel;

3. HISTORIC PORT O 3
www.hpow.org
-------------------------------------------
HPOW NEEDS
Y O U - GET
INVOLVED !!
Hosts and Hostesses and organizers
are needed to greet visitors and help
in planning lectures and special
events throughout the year. You can
sign up for either two or four hour
segments or you may join us to
contribute behind the scenes with
gifts of time or a contribution. Help
us promote knowledge about our
maritime heritage by volunteering
and being a Friend of the project. We
are also seeking experienced grant
writers.
HAVENS GARDEN
FLYWHEEL HISTORY
Washington’s Havens Garden
Flywheel was part of a sawmill
Corliss steam engine donated by
the Mason Lumber Company in
the 1970’s. It was manufactured
sometime 1900-1908 by Hardie-
Tynes Co. of Birmingham,
Alabama which is still in
business today. Many of the
Washington riverfront lumber
companies who used steam
engines to power their sawmills
are shown in HPOW’s historic
mural of Washington 1850-1900
(painted 2015 by Doug Alvord).
Washington’s lumber companies
and sawmills provided more than
a century of commerce
processing lumber along its
waterfront. This industry was a
major industry that sustained and
grew Washington from colonial
days through modern times..
Sawmills such as Kugler and Son
Lumber, Pamlico Cooperage,
Havens Mill, Moss Planing Mill,
Fowle Mill, E. M. Short Lumber
Co., Eureka Lumber Co.,
Saunders Lumber Co., and the
Mason Lumber Co. all located
along the waterfront because the
Pamlico river offered the only
way for long-distance transport
of products to market until the
railroads came to Washington
between 1904 and 1909. It is also
noted that most local lumber
mills had closed by the 1940’s.
Mason Lumber Company being
one of the exceptions. According
to Mr. Clarence Beacham, a
former Mason Lumber Company
foreman and millwright, the
flywheel came from a saw mill
steam engine used through the
1960’s the Moss business in
Columbia in Hyde County. The
saw mill was run at 300 rpm but
with the flywheel to saw belt
drives, the saw blade turned at
600 rpm. It was at the saw mill
close to the school right by the
highway. It was moved here to
Washington from about75 miles
over there. The city didn’t want
the whole thing but kept the fly
wheel. It was stored somewhere
until it was installed at the
Havens Garden riverfront park.
For a YouTube video of a similar
Hardy-Tynes Co. sawmill
flywheel in operation go to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=8I1sgWKvIms
1913 Pamlico Ferry
Courtesyof Brown Library.
Our HPOW Goals
 Sharingthe storyof
the Port of
Washingtonandthe
Pamlico as a center
of commerceand
transportation.
 Engagingthe
communitywith
exhibits andliving
historyprojects.
 Promoting
Washingtonasa
destinationfor
heritagetourism.
 Helpingourcity
moveforward
throughits
knowledgeofits
past.

4. HISTORIC PORT O 4
www.hpow.org
PORT OF
WASHINGTON
TIMELINE
The 1700’s:
1769 The 70 ton brig Acorn
is built in Washington
1770’s Washington is one of
few colonial Atlantic ports
not blockaded by the
British, Washington
mercantile fleet supplies ships and
provisions to Continental army and
ports blockaded by the British.
Forks of the Tar is renamed Town of
Washington
1782 General Assembly
incorporates Washington. 30 houses
in 1783.
1785. Port of Bath Customs Service
operations, customs collectors and
naval officers move from town of
Bath upstream to Washington, the
new county seat
1787 a new Federal Courthouse is
built on Market Street, the second
oldest surviving in North Carolina
1776-1790 Port of Bath Customs
Collectors and Port officials move
upstream to Washington,Nathan
Keias Port Collector builds house on
Water Street next door to John Gray
Blount Port of Bath District
Commissioner. They are both buried
with their wives at St. Peter’s
Episcopal Cemetery.
1790 Port Bath Customs and Impost
District renamed Continental Port of
Washington
1791 Revenue Cutter Diligence built
in Washington
The 1800’s
1810 The Young Eagle a 100 ton
schooner built in Washington
1811 Two brigs the George
Washington and the Edwin built in
Washington
1812 War of 1812 Hawk built here
1815-1830 Shipbuilding declines
1830 Shipbuilding rebounds,
Builders included Cap Hezekiah
Farrow and his son Joseph Burton
Shipp, William Tannehill and Hull
Anderson.
1825 John Myer’s shipyard &
marine railway
1838 Corps of Engineers installed
locks and dams, 3.5 feet channel up
to Tarboro. Steamboats appear on
the Tar.
1845 Washington recognized as a
major shipbuilding center in the
Southeast
1847 The first locally operated
steamship the Oregon arrived in
from ship yards in Baltimore
1849 John Meyers and Sons
operated two stern paddlewheel
steamships Amidas and Governor
Morehead towing cargo flats and
delivering mail service. Departs 6am
arriving Greenville 12noon
1850 Washington ranked as No 1
shipbuilding center of NC, 23
shipbuilders in Beaufort Co, large
tonnage ships built: the GR Dixon a
209 ton schooner, Queen of the
South a
305 ton schooner and Pathfinder a
428 ton schooner.
1855-56 A productive period, much
port activity, many runaway slaves
find their way to Washington to
escape by water on Union ships,
Castle Island sawmill
1862 Union forces occupy
Washington, Confederate Navy
ordered 3 gunboats
From Washington shipbuilders
1865 -84 following the Civil War
fire which burned half the town,
only one shipyard Joseph Farrow
remains
1885 shipbuilding rebounds due to
Railroads system making
Washington a regional hub and
Washington harbor dredged 9 ft
channel to Pamlico Sound
1890 Twenty seven known vessels
(7 of them steamers) moored in
Washington
1876-1891 annual revenue for the Port
of Washington increases from $500,000
to $4, 800,000.
1880’s to 1900 Port of Washington
known for shipping and commerce and
boatbuilding. Along the docks were
lumber, grain and cotton mills, freight
and passengerterminals, oyster
canneries and fish houses.
The 1900’s:
1900-1920 Zenith of Port of
Washington maritime commerce. The
Atlantic Coastline railroad had a station
on Gladden Street; flat bottom
steamboats carried goods inland up the
Tar as far as Rocky Mount. By 1918
there were 50 wharves. Many schooners
traded to the Outer Banks north to
Boston and south to the West Indies.
1950 Federal Port closed.
1960 Coast Guard Station Closed