River Rover Chronicles

There Was Life On The Rivers Before Cell Phones
Today’s life in southwest Georgia is so very different from that led by the original pioneers. Today’s residents are polite, easy going and always ready to help friends and neighbors when the need arises.
However, the early pioneer was not able to display these mannerisms. Life was very hard and neighbors were unpredictable and sometimes violent. This was due mostly to the fact that one side of the Flint and one side of the Chattahoochee were occupied by farmers. The banks on the other side were populated by hostile Indians and thieves. While most men wanted to live in peace, they had to contend with a lawless element. Living under these conditions, manners were the least of everyone’s worries.
One famous lawless area in the late 1700s and early 1800s was a wild looking village referred to as Sodom which was across the Chattahoochee River on the Alabama side, just south of Columbus, Georgia. Consisting of scattered shacks on the edge of the forest, it was populated by notorious outlaws, murders and thieves along with renegade Indians from all over. It was a rare day when no one was murdered or beaten there. People whose homes were in the surrounding woods were terrified and were afraid not to allow these outlaws to use their village as a hiding place.
However, these bad guys did not stay in what they considered their territory. At night, they would cross the river and rob and murder in established towns along the banks of the Chattahoochee. The peace loving citizens were not only attacked in the streets and woods, but in their own homes as well. They tried to get protection from the local law enforcement. They tried to get justice for what was being done. However, because the outlaws lived across the river in what was considered Indian territory, they could not be arrested. Living under these conditions, people felt insecure. Therefore, everyone carried a gun for personal protection and that of their families.
With life this hard, it is not surprising that the citizens of towns were as tough as those who lived in outlying areas and in the notorious villages across the rivers. People longed for an end to the violence and wanted order to be restored. They wanted a peaceful and tranquil life. However, in these most remote settlements, for this to happen, it was going to take a while.
Now this old, wild town is called Phenix City, Alabama. It became a great place to live but not without going through many growing pains.
The area of the Apalachicola River was another very wild frontier and also the scene of brutal murders. One notorious happening occurred in April of 1830. Two men were cutting wood to sell to the steamboats that were on their way down river. This was the business of a man named Samuel Price. Needing help, he hired a man called Field. On Friday, April 25, the men decided that this would be a day off for them and they settled down to drink whiskey and gamble at cards.
As the day progressed, the men began to feel the effects of the whiskey. A quarrel began about who owned a particular canoe. It apparently was lost in the card game. The loser felt that he was cheated.
Price, who was the actual owner, was determined to destroy the canoe rather than let Field have it. So, taking up an axe, he began to hack apart the boat.
Seeing this, Field reportedly went into their shack and grabbed up a double barreled shotgun. He fired a load of buckshot into Price’s chest, killing him. As was the custom, he buried him on the side of the river.
A couple of days later, Field arrived in Apalachicola and surrendered himself to the authorities. He was put in jail, but after that no one knows what happened to him.
Owners and captains of steamboats did not always see eye to eye. One had the priority of making money and the other had the priority of getting the steamboat safely to its destination. Sometimes this caused a fatal difference of opinion. One such fight over goals took place on board the steamboat, Reindeer.
In early November, 1836, at the Depot Creek tributary just down from Columbus, Georgia, a violent exchange took place between one of the steamboat owners, Mr. Victory, and the captain of the boat, Mr. Shaw. There was a meeting scheduled for this day. Both men had clashed before and knew that there would be a confrontation. Therefore, both men had come to the meeting armed.
They approached their problem with no spirit of give and take. As heated words were exchanged, Mr. Victory wanted Mr. Shaw to give up his position as captain on the Reindeer.
The men drew their guns. Shaw was shot twice and Victory once. No one expected either to live. However, after several days, both men began to recover. It is not known what happened to them after this.
This hard way of life spread to the steamboat, Uchee. It was in late September, 1838, and the Uchee was heavily loaded with freight. She was headed up to Columbus when she struck a snag and sank about 20 miles from her destination.
Captain Charles Klink wanted to save as much of his cargo as he could. He also wanted to lighten the boat in the hopes that it then would float up and off of the snag. To accomplish this, he ordered his deckhands to work twice as hard as they were used to.
Most of the men began unloading the boat but one refused. He grabbed a large log, cut for feeding the fire in the boiler, and went for the captain. The captain feared a mutiny and thus feared for his life. He drew his pistol and fired on the worker, killing him.
Once in Columbus, Captain Klink reported to the military government. He was completely cleared of charges. Captain Klink did not charge the other workers with mutiny.
The rivers were a hard place way back when. Who knows how many people found their final resting place to be along the river banks.