Ubiquitous Captain U.B. Scott
 
Captain Uriah Bonser Scott was born near Sciotoville, Ohio, in the year 1827. At the age of ten, he apprenticed with an ironworker, and eventually became a master of the trade. In 1850, Uri and his older brother Perry opened a "mechanic shop" and axe manufactory in the brand new town of Ironton, Ohio; serving the metalworking needs of the townsfolk, iron smelters and passing steamboats on the Ohio River. Scott Axes quickly became famous among the choppers at the Furnaces. In 1851, the 24 year old Uri married eighteen year old Clarinda Lionbarger, who's father Peter had owned part of the land on which Ironton was built.
 

Ironton Register Jan. 27, 1853 - Scott, Brother & Co. are doing a driving business at Axe Manufacturing, on Third street - Their shop is now altogether too small, such has been the increase in their business, and they are contemplating the erection of a more extensive building the coming spring. Their success is richly deserved, as they are very industrious and very superior mechanics. We recently heard a chopper from Ohio Furnace say that he had used their axes for three years, and had never known one to FAIL; and the popularity of their axes may be known from the fact that their orders are constantly in advance of their ability to supply.

Between 1850-54 Uri Scott also became a part-time steamboat engineer, and learned the rudiments of steamboat navigation and management. In 1854 he "went steamboating" professionally as captain of the Lily, a small Catlettsburg to Hanging Rock packet that ran several trips each day almost like an inter-city bus service. He may have rebuilt the Lily from an abandoned wreck. Between 1855 and 1873 he was the designer, engineer, captain and master of a dozen steamboats from 90-180 feet in length, including the Victor's #1 - #4, and the famous sidewheelers Chesapeake and Fashion. During the Civil War he served as a civilian contractor, transporting troops and supplies on his boats.
 
Portland Oregonian, Nov. 11, 1906 - ...When the Civil War came he had already built and sold several packets for the trade and was owner of one and master of another when the Government impressed them for military service. During the Rebellion he ran his boats in the Ohio, Mississippi and Cumberland rivers, transporting troops and supplies for the Federal armies. He was in the midst of war's alarums for four years, and his service though in a civil capacity, was at times more hazardous than if he had been a soldier.
After losing his money in bank failures and business reverses that presaged the Cooke Panic, in 1873 Capt. Scott and his family moved to Oregon, where numerous Lawrence countians had been moving to since before the Civil War. Since the Lot Whitcom in 1850. steamboats on the Columbia and Willamette rivers had been built more like deep-draft oceangoing vessels than the "thin-water" riverboats used on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Capt. Scott found that the two companies which had virtual monopolies on steamboating on the Columbia and Willamette weren't interested in his years of experience or his "crazy" ideas about shallow-draft river boats. Rejected by the big companies, Capt. Scott decided to go into business on his own, as he had done back east.

In 1874 he borrowed $3000 from some former Lawrence county friends now operating the Oswego Iron Furnace, bought the machinery from an old dredge, and began to build the sternwheeler Ohio, 140 ft. long x 25 ft wide X 3 ft. depth of hold. The old codgers on the wharf laughed at the strange looking craft being built, and declared it wouldn't float. When the Ohio floated, they said she'd never go upstream against the current. When she went upstream and came back loaded with cargo, they quit laughing and wanted to buy a piece of the action! Empty, the Ohio sat 9 inches deep in the water, and loaded with 100 tons of freight she drew only 18". Such a shallow draft boat could go up the Willamette as far as Corvallis (125 miles) or Eugene (185 miles) months before the deeper draft "Company" boats could get above Newburg (50 miles). Between October and December of 1874, Capt. Scott cleared $10-$12,000 hauling wheat and other produce from the Willamette Valley to Portland, averaging 170 tons per trip, three trips per week.
 

Portland Oregonian - Nov. 27, 1874 - Captain U. B. Scott's boat, the Ohio, is now lying at the foot of Alder street undergoing a few temporary repairs...On account of being extremely light draught the boat is able to make regular trips during the lowest stage of water. She has ascended the river as high as Corvallis without the least difficulty, and brought down about twice a week large quantities of wheat and flour. One hundred and seventy tons of freight are brought down on an average each trip, which during a low stage of water. may be regarded as something remarkable. As yet the Ohio has not ascended further than Corvallis, but when the river rises a little more she will make the attempt to reach Eugene City.
With the money he made that first year, Capt. Scott then built the sternwheeler City of Salem, in 1875. At the time, the City of Salem was prettiest and most lavishly furnished boat on the Willamette if not the entire Pacific Northwest. Like the Ohio, she too was a shallow-draft boat; Capt. Scott once took her up the Santiam river (a tributary of the Willamette) twelve miles the to the town of Jefferson -- a stretch of river so shallow that rowboats often run aground! The City of Salem was also a popular summer excursion boat for picnics and group outings around Portland.

Within a year or two, other boatbuilders began copying Capt. Scott's "radical" ideas of boat design, and he turned his interests to other areas beside the Willamette. The companies that had refused to hire him now tried to buy him out and remove him as a competitor. But he refused to be bought, and continued his private 'war' against the monopolies for over thirty years.

In 1881 Capt. Scott designed and built the Fleetwood, a fast propeller driven passenger steamer that made him a small fortune (and cost "the Companies" that same fortune) on the Columbia river. The Flyer first ran from Portland to the Cascades, then on the Portland to Astoria route, and finally was sent to saltwater service on Puget Sound. In 1889 the Fleetwood raced from Olympia to Seattle, Washington setting a speed record while carrying firemen and a pumper to help put out the city's massive fire.

It was in 1887 that telephone service first came to Portland. However, two years earlier, Capt. Scott had launched the sternwheeler Telephone, and it was on Jul. 3, 1887 that she became the "fastest sternwheeler in the world", by making the 100 mile run from Portland to Astoria in 4 hrs. 32 minutes and 45 seconds. A phenomenal speed of nearly 25 miles per hour. In November of that year, the Telephone caught fire just as she was coming into Astoria. Ina dramatic attempt to save the passengers, Capt. Scott rammed the boat ashore at full speed. The passengers were saved, but the boat and cargo burned to the waterline in just a few minutes. The hulk was towed back to Portland, re-built, and went on to serve the passenger and freight needs of the Columbia and the Sound for many more years.

In 1891, Scott merged his Columbia Transportation Company with John Leary's Seattle Steam Navigation & Transportation Co.. Capt. Scott became president of the Columbia River and Puget Sound Navigation Company. Leary had built the sternwheeler Bailey Gatzert for the Puget Sound trades, but the new company brought her to the Columbia River, and sent their brand new propeller, the Flyer, to the Sound. The arrangement gave them the competitive edge against the competition. The Bailey became so well-known and popular with Portlanders that a song was even written in her honor. For nearly 22 years the Flyer made four trips a day between Seattle and Tacoma, so regularly that people often set their watches by her arrival times. During that time the Flyer traveled nearly 1.5 million miles and carried almost 4 million passengers, a record that has never been beaten by any other river or sound steamer in the world.

Capt. Scott and the Columbia River and Puget Sound Navigation Company also designed and built the Telegraph, City of Everett, and other boats on the Sound and the Columbia. Captain Scott died in 1913 at the age of 86. In his nearly 70 year career he truly was ubiquitous - ironworker, inventor, steamboat designer, engineer, captain, and businessman, anyone of which would have been career enough for most men. His work made significant contributions to the history and development of steamboating on the Ohio, Columbia and Willamette rivers, and Puget Sound. In modern times, two US Postage stamps have honored his boat designs. The "History of Mail Delivery" series shows his sidewheel mail packet Chesapeake, and the "River Boat" series pictures the sternwheeler Bailey Gatzert.