Jefferson Texas Marker
The tale of Homer Kellogg and the side wheeler steamboat Mittie Stephens needs to be mentioned here. It's not clear exactly who that Homer Kellogg was, but since the boat burned in Northwest Louisiana and was one of the worst maritime disasters in history, it affected the Kelloggs of Louisiana, even if he wasn't directly related to them.
The Mittie Stephens was built in Madison, Indiana, in 1863, and served as a Union naval transport and packet ship during the Civil War. She took part in a failed campaign against Shreveport as part of Admiral David Porter's fleet. In 1864, she was sold to private owners and ran on the Missouri River, and then in the New Orleans-Bayou Sara trade. In 1866, the Mittie Stephens began serving on the New Orleans-Red River route. At that time, Jefferson, Texas was the head of navigation via Caddo Lake due to the great log raft that obstructed vessel traffic on the Red River. The traffic was very heavy-226 steamboats called at Jefferson in 1872.
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Jefferson Texas Marker
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The Mittie Stephens left New Orleans for Jefferson, Texas on February 5, 1869, with 107 passengers and crew members, and assorted cargo, including 274 bales of hay. A breeze blew a spark to the hay from torch baskets that lighted the bows of the boat, and the fire which resulted could not be contained. The bow and forward part of the boat were engulfed in flames, and, because it was a side wheeler, the only way off the boat was off the stern. The boat had headed for shore (about 300 feet away), but run aground in three feet of water, but the stern was still in deep water.
The captain of the ship, Homer Kellogg, kept the side wheels running in an attempt to force the boat to shore. That decision was disastrous-the action of the wheels pulled people struggling in the water into the wheels and killed sixty-one people. The ship burned to the water line. An inquiry found Kellogg, who survived the disaster, responsible for the deaths due to his actions.
