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Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ui.2ADE/601.1.1
Message Board Post:
Sam, All I can tell you about the houseboats is that my great great grandfather, being a
carpenter/architect, either built or had the boats built to move his family of 10 from the
Cincinnati, Ohio area to Oregon in the late 1850s. He had heard there was a building boom
taking place. A navigational error caused them to miss the correct river and they ended up
taking the White River up through the northeast part of Arkansas to Batesville, also in
the midst of a building boom. The family settled there in 1859.
The story that Union soldiers stole the boats and turned them into gun boats came from
the family of one of his sons. They did not say if he attempted to follow or when that
incident took place. All I have is the year 1865 and place of death for him. As far as I
know he had no relatives in the Rising Sun area. He did have 2 children from his first
marriage still living in Ohio.