Peter Laffer

  General Notes:

"Peter Laffer was the captain of a steamboat which blew up at Marietta, Ohio, yr. 1816. He died at the time and buried at that place."

From Lloyd's Steamboat Disasters, pages 55-57:
"This deplorable accident took place on the 9th day of June, 1816. The Washington was the largest and finest boat which had hitherto floated on any western stream. Her commander, Captain Shreve, was skilled and experienced in all the duties of his calling; her machinery was presumed to be in the best possible order, and no human foresight could have anticipated the fatal event. The boat left Marietta, Ohio on Monday, June 7 and on the afternoon of the following day came safely to anchor off Point Harmar, where she remained until Wednesday morning .The fires were now kindled, and other preparation made for continuing the voyage down the Ohio; but a difficulty occurred in getting the boat into a proper position to start the machinery. While laboring to effect this object - the boat having, in the mean time, been carried by the force of the current near the Virginia shore - it became necessary to throw out a kedge anchor at the stern. Soon after, all hands were summoned to haul in the kedge, and while they were collected on the quarter for that purpose, by a singular and most unfortunate chance, the end of the cylinder nearest the stern was blown off, and a column of scalding water was thrown among the crowd, inflicting the most frightful injuries on nearly all of the boat's crew, and killing a number on the spot.
The cause of the explosion was a disarrangement of the safety-valve, which had become immovable in consequence of the accidental slipping of the weight to the extremity of the lever, The following is a list of the killed and wounded by this calamitous explosion :
KILLED:— Peter Laufer (Laffer), B. Harvey, Anna C. Jones, Thomas Brown, James Nulta, — Jones, passengers ; Samuel Wait, carpenter, Jacob — , colored cook.
WOUNDED :— Captain Shreve, commander, Mr. Clark, engineer, James Blair, George White, Enoch H, McFeeley, Joseph Walsh, John C. Williams, (mortally,) passengers.
Mr. Williams of Kentucky, the unhappy gentleman last mentioned in the preceding list, while lying in the cabin of the Washington, in his last moment, offered one of the cabin-boys all his money if he would knock him on the bead to put a speedy end to his misery. The boy who received this offer, and who relates the incident, is now Captain Hiram Burch, of Marietta, Ohio.
Joseph — , one of the hands, was missing ; he is supposed to have been blown overboard, and carried down by the current. Several of the wounded died a short time afterwards in consequence of their injuries. At a meeting of the citizens of Marietta, a committee was appointed to provide for the sufferers, and to make arrangements for the burial of the dead.
This first steamboat accident in the West produced a great excitement among the inhabitants of that region, and occasioned for some time a strong prejudice against steamboat travel, the people being oblivious of the fact, that when the water conveyance was confined to barges and keel-boats, there was more real danger and more actual loss of life than may be classed among the incidents of steamboat navigation.


"The first steam boat constructed in Wheeling was the "George Washington" built in 1815-1816, on the bank of Wheeling Creek, where Mr. Hubard's lumber yard is conducted. Capt. Shrieve was her proprietor and George White, a Scotchman built her. She was a compact little craft, with two paddle wheels; one on each side of the rudder. Her launch on the 12th of May 1816, was made quite an occasion of rejoicing - thousands gathering to witness her glide out of the creek into the river, where she skimmed around like a duck, and was the theme of admiration. On that evening a ball was held on board, and the next evening she arrived at Marietta, exciting no little surprise on her arrival. But little was her fate of the next morning anticipated, when a terrific explosion took place upon her, as best described to the report thereafter given from the "Pittsburgh Mercury", of June 22nd 1816 and copied by that paper from a Marietta publication that reported the disaster in the past." The article is then reprinted . Captain Shrieve was Henry M. Shrieve a famous river boat captain for whom Shreveport, LA is named.

Peter married Sarah Jane Palmer on 6 Dec 1810 in Belmont County 149. (Sarah Jane Palmer was born before 1790 and died after 1817 in Covington, Kentucky?.)