Riverboats, Resistance, and the Law: Brown vs. Steamboat Cricket No. 2

Catlettsburg Steamboat Landing with wharf boat

In the spring of 1862, Catlettsburg attorney George Newman Brown filed suit against the owners of the sternwheeler Cricket No. 2, accusing its crew of aiding the escape of two enslaved teenagers, Elizabeth and James.

Brown, a son of Richard Brown and Frances Haney, was born on September 22, 1822, on the Brown Plantation in Cabell County, now part of present-day downtown Huntington, West Virginia. After studying at Marshall Academy and Augusta College, Kentucky, and reading law under his brother-in-law James M. Rice at Louisa, he was admitted to the bar in 1844. His political career advanced quickly: elected to the Kentucky legislature in 1849, then Pike County Attorney in 1852, a post he held until relocating to Catlettsburg in 1860.

George Newman Brown

Brown was born into a slaveholding family and continued that practice throughout his early career. In the 1850 Pike County, Kentucky Slave Schedule, he was enumerated with three enslaved people: two men, ages 32 and 35, and a six‑year‑old girl. The 1855 Pike County Tax List recorded him with two enslaved individuals over sixteen—likely the same two men—while the young girl, who would have been eleven, no longer appeared in the records.

The 1859 Pike County Tax List marked a change - it enumerated Brown with two enslaved adults over sixteen and three children under sixteen. In 1860, two additional children appeared, bringing the total to seven—matching the number he reported after his move to Boyd County. Unusually, the 1860 Boyd County Slave Schedule recorded their names and ages: Matilda (38), Annie (20), Elizabeth (16), James (12), Mary (4), Sheldon (2) and Martha (1).

Based on tax lists and slave schedules, it appears that Brown had sold the two males listed in the 1855 tax list and acquired Matilda, as well as Annie, Elizabeth, James and Mary sometime between 1856 and 1858. The two additional children first shown in 1859 were almost certainly Sheldon and Martha.

Sometime in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, Brown move from Pikeville—an isolated mountain community—to Catlettsburg, a bustling river town situated at the confluence of the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers. From the shoreline, one could look across the water into Virginia, a slave state, and Ohio, a free state. It was a place where the legal boundaries of slavery were visible—literally—across the river.

Based on the 1860 Boyd County Census, Brown lived most likely on or near Center Street, a few blocks from the courthouse and within walking distance of the steamboat landing. In early winter of 1861, after the beginning of the Civil War, Catlettsburg became the staging ground for future U.S. President James A. Garfield’s Union forces who was embarking on his Eastern Kentucky Campaign in the Big Sandy Valley. Steamboats arrived daily, loaded with soldiers and supplies which were piled high on the landing, near the wharf boat. One of Garfield’s soldiers remarked that, “the houses are well built and the place has a very thriving appearance. There is considerable shipping done here. I visited two large steamboats this morning and it is surprising what an amount of freight one of these boats is capable of carrying. They are literally stowed from bottom to top with boxes, barrels, and bales of cotton.”

Catlettsburg also served as the launch point for one of Kentucky’s largest successful slave escapes. The group "Piketon 59", also from Pike County, Kentucky, aided by abolitionist officers and Garfield, escaped from Catlettsburg on April 1, 1862, and reached freedom in Ohio aboard a government-contracted steamer, the Piketon, piloted by UGRR conductor Milton Kennedy from Portsmouth, Ohio.

News of their escape traveled quickly through Catlettsburg, and it may have convinced Elizabeth, eighteen, and James, fourteen, that the river offered a real possibility of freedom—prompting their own attempt a month later.

On May 5, 1862, both made their way to the steamboat landing. Anchored at the wharf boat was the stern-wheeler Cricket No. 2, piloted by Captain Samuel B. Hempstead. The boat’s owners were John Kyle and Robert Hamilton, Jr., the latter who also clerked on the boat. It operated as a regular packet on the Cincinnati–Parkersburg–Marietta route, making twice‑weekly stops at Catlettsburg.

The Pomeroy Weekly Telegraph, March 7, 1862

As the crew and officers of the boat were busy unloading passengers and freight, Elizabeth and James managed to evade H. M. Childs, the wharf master, as well as Hiram Preston and O. P. Borders who also worked on the wharf boat. They slipped onto the Cricket No. 2 unnoticed and quickly hid on the lower deck and secreted themselves among the freight and machinery.

Ceredo Crescent, January 7, 1860

Unfortunately, soon after the Cricket No. 2’s departure from Catlettsburg and after going some distance, Elizabeth and James were discovered. The crew of the Cricket No. 2 stated that as, “soon as the officers of said boat found out that their (sic) was Negroes on said boat they rounded to and put them off on the Kentucky shore at or near Ashland Ky.”

Ashland, Kentucky Steamboat and Ferry Landing and Wharf Boat
Boyd County, Kentucky Library

James was immediately arrested and brought before Justice of the Peace Henry W. Norris. He noted that, “that Joseph Rece this day brought before me a Negro Boy and that he hath reasonable grounds to suspect said Boy to be a Runaway slave said slave was arrested in Boyd County Kentucky which is a Border County on the Ohio River and Bordering on the state of Ohio where slavery is not allowed said Boy is of the name Jim he is about thirteen years old dark mulatto slim built the name of the master is George N Brown of Catlettsburg Boyd County Ky ~ the same county in which said slave was taken up and there is due the said apprehender the sum of Fifty dollars for the taking up of said slave Jim.”

Statement by Justice of the Peace Henry W. Norris

Justice of the Peace Henry W. Norris

Joseph Rece was directed to deliver James to the owner George N. Brown upon his paying the sum of Fifty dollars. William O. Hampton stated, “that he went to Ashland as Brown’s agent and was compelled to pay $50 to a man who had brought the negro as a runaway.”

William Oliver Hampton

On May 8^th, 1862, George N. Brown formally filed a Petition in Equity against the Cricket No. 2. Brown stated that, “the officers of the steamboat Cricket took and permitted said slaves to remain on said boat and to remain as passengers from Catlettsburg to Portsmouth, Ohio, without the consent of the plaintiff, and in fact to great trouble in reclaiming said slaves, and says he had to expend the sum of $50 before he could regain the possession of one of the slaves, and also the loss of service, making in all the sum of $60.”

He further noted, “that the claim in this action against the defendant Steam Boat Cricket No. 2 for money due for carriage, slave and sustenance in the illegal acts of the defendant in transporting slaves and said claim is just, and the plaintiff says that the defendant ought to have at least $60.”

It is noteworthy that Brown filed a claim only for James and not for Elizabeth. Had Elizabeth escaped, Brown almost certainly would have held the Cricket No. 2 liable, as he did in James’ case. His silence regarding her strongly indicates that she may have been taken into custody and was slated to be sold. The same fate may have awaited James as well.

A review of the 1863 Boyd County Tax List shows that Brown claimed only five enslaved people, a reduction from the seven recorded in prior years. Missing were one juvenile and one adult older than 16 years. The change in the tax record supports the conclusion that both Elizabeth and James were no longer in Brown’s possession by 1863.

Following his petition, Brown then filed an order of attachment against the Cricket No. 2.

"The Commonwealth of Kentucky To the Sheriff or any Constable of Boyd County: You are commanded to attach and safely keep the Steamboat Cricket No. 2, and so much of her furniture &c to satisfy the plaintiff’s claim in this action for eighty five dollars $85.00 unless the defendant gives bond agreeable to law and make due return of this order on the first day of the next June term of the Boyd Quarterly Court. Witness John D. Ross, Judge of said Court this 8^th day of May 1862."

Judge J. D. Ross ordered Brown to pay a bond

“We render that the Plaintiff George N. Brown shall pay to the Defendants, the owners of the Steamboat Cricket No. 2, the damages not exceeding one hundred and seventy dollars which they or either of them may sustain by reason of the attachment in this action if the order therefore is wrongfully obtained.”

River transport was a major escape route, especially across the Ohio River into free territory. Legislators responded by tightening regulations on steamboats and ferries, criminalizing unauthorized transport, and imposing financial penalties on boat owners.

Boats could not transport enslaved people across the Ohio River without written authorization from the owner.
Any boat carrying enslaved people across the river had to have a note from the master verifying permission. This was designed to prevent escapes into free states.
If a boat carried enslaved people across the Ohio River without the required written authorization, the owner of the vessel faced a $200 penalty, a substantial sum at the time.
But the law went further: a vessel used in such transport could be seized by the sheriff, condemned in court, and sold at public auction, with proceeds distributed according to statute.

On June 28, 1862, Jas. S. Allen served the summons and attachment upon the Cricket No. 2. He later testified during the trial and noted that “he had a conversation with the Capt. who told him that the negroes ~~who were put off by him at Ashland~~ got on the Steamboat Crickett at Catlettsburg in 1862, without his knowledge or consent and secreted themselves until the boat had got some distance below the town and as soon as he discovered them he put them off at the first landing on the Kentucky shore at Ashland Kentucky.”

More than a year later, on November 23, 1863, attorneys Laban T. Moore and James D. Jones filed the Cricket No. 2, answer to Brown’s petition in which they denied, “that she took up any slaves of the plaintiff’s such as described in the petition or any other slaves belonging to the plaintiff nor has the deft sufficient information to form a belief that said Negroes was the property of the plaintiff and further the deft denies that plff was damaged $60 dollars or any other amount by the acts of the defts.”

H. M. Childs, as agent for the Cricket No. 2, who were absent from the state, declared that “he believes that the facts set forth in the above action are true.”

Laban T. Moore

J. D. Jones

On December 1, 1863, Brown filed a demurer to the second paragraph of the Cricket No. 2’s answer which was overruled to which Brown excepted. He then filed a motion to continue the matter which was granted. However, the court ruled “that the Defendant recover of the Plaintiff the cost of this continuance.”

The case appeared on the docket during the May 1864 Circuit Court Term but was continued for Brown.

On March 13, 1865, grounds for a new trial were filed but overruled.

On April 25, 1865, the Cricket No. 2 filed a Bill of Exception against Brown, referring to W. O. Hampton’s and James S. Allen’s previous testimonies, which supported their case.

Judge Richard Apperson, Jr. then handed down his verdict in the case. “This being all the evidence, the Court rendered a final judgement for the Appellee for fifty dollars to G. N. Brown for said sum to which judgement of the court the appellant excepted and still excepts which exceptions are signed sealed and received by him and ordered to be certified and made a part of this record.”

On Aug. 28, 1865, the final court bill, which itemized all fees owed, such as clerk fees, sheriff’s fees, witness fees, filing fees, continuance costs, etc., was issued to the responsible party, which in this case was the Cricket No. 2.

A final note – after the escape attempt by Elizabeth and James in Boyd County on May 5, 1862, the Cricket No. 2 continued her voyage down the Ohio River and arrived in Cincinnati on May 6, 1862. The same day, S. B. Hempstead took command of the Izetta, a side-wheeler “with splendid passenger accommodations” that he had purchased to take the place of the Cricket No. 2.

Pomeroy Weekly Telegraph, December 12, 1862

Robert Hamilton, Jr. now piloted the Cricket No. 2, running the Pittsburg-Wheeling - Kanawha River - Portsmouth - Maysville route.

The Cricket No. 2 was sold to the U.S. Navy on November 18, 1862, and became Civil War tinclad #6/USS Cricket. Elizabeth and James were not the only escaped slaves whose story was connected to the vessel. The USS Cricket participated in the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864. Admiral David Dixon Porter chose the Cricket as his flagship during this campaign, and as the Union navy fought its way back down the Red River after the army was turned back at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, the Cricket and several other gunboats were attacked by around 200 Confederate soldiers and four cannons near the mouth of the Cane River. The Cricket was struck thirty-eight times and lost half its crew. Porter employed escaped slaves as a makeshift gun crew to enable the tinclad to escape capture.