Yellowstone and Cayuga Sternwheelers
Grains from the Sandbar
The last Sandbar column covered the history of the small sternwheeler Cayuga as one of the capitals of the newly founded Republic of Texas in the spring of 1836.
There was another sternwheeler named the Yellowstone that was also on the Brazos River at the same time which was pulled into service for the Republic of Texas retreating army of General Sam Houston.
From the previous Sandbar’s Cayuga story, we learned this stern-wheeler was on the Brazos River in the fall of 1834. By that time the Yellowstone was already well known as the first steamboat to navigate the upper Missouri River when it arrived at Brazoria to enter the Brazos River cotton trade early in 1836.
The Yellowstone was built in 1831 at Louisville, Kentucky to be the first steamboat to navigate the upper Missouri River for the fur trade as it was designed to combat the river’s shallow water and snags.
By 1835, the Yellowstone was known to operate on the lower Mississippi between New Orleans and the Yazoo River. It soon was in dry dock for extensive repairs and outfitting for the Texas Brazos River cotton trade. The boat arrived at Brazoria from New Orleans in November 1835 to begin running cotton between San Felipe and Washington-on-the-Brazos.
In late March of 1836, the Yellowstone was above San Felipe loading cotton at Groce’s Landing when General Houston’s retreating army from Santa Anna’s advances arrived on the Brazos River’s west bank in heavy rain.
Houston pledged land in exchange for an agreement with Captain John Ross and the Yellowstone’s 16-member crew to ferry the army across the flooded Brazos River. It took seven trips to transport the army across to Groce’s Plantation where the army rested several days. Captain Ross is known to later bill the Republic of Texas for $4,900 to cover the Yellowstone’s time and service.
The Yellowstone protected by cotton bales escaped a barrage of Mexican General Joaquin Ramirez y Sesma’s division cannon and musket fire as it passed the burned San Felipe ruins downriver on April 15. Meantime Houston’s army proceeded eastward taking the southeast trail to the Battle of San Jacinto along Buffalo Bayou to meet General Santa Anna’s army that had advanced south farther, burning Harrisburg en route to his infamous loss to the Texans on April
21.
Meantime, the Cayuga had rescued the also retreating newly formed Republic of Texas cabinet members and Harrisburg residents from Santa Anna’s advance.
It would be the Yellowstone now commandeered by David Burnet, ad interim Republic of Texas president, to house the cabinet on April 26, to then go up Buffalo Bayou to the San Jacinto battleground site for treaty negotiations with Santa Anna. It returned to Galveston May 9.
The last known Yellowstone record is in the spring of 1837. Before its disappearance it is known to have transported the body of Stephen F. Austin, who died of pneumonia on Dec. 27, 1836, and mourners from Columbia downriver to his sister’s Peach Point Plantation for burial. The boat is also known to have moved the government, the press and staff of the newspaper Telegraph and Texas Register to Houston in the spring of 1837.
(Written by Betty Dunn, Two Rivers Heritage Foundation. Visit www.tworiversheritagefoundation.org for more information or to become a member)