PREFACE.

The author of this book has written the stories as they would recur to his memory, and no effort has been made at classification.  They are not fictitious; many of the persons named once lived and gave testimony that the stories are founded on facts.

If there is any character flaw from which George Devol suffers, it is the characterization used within his descriptive uses of adjectives to describe black people. It is so not a part of the vast majority of the human population in 2018, but regrettably was so much a part of the daily language in the mid-eighteen hundreds. I wanted so much to change the words to be more appropriate for today, but that would be to change the course of history before the great Civil War. It isn’t enough for us to know the prejudicial influences which continue to this day but knowing and feeling them is the only way in which society will truly change. I believe we are making progress on many fronts, could it happen quicker…yes... but only time can heal the fester which divides the races.

                                               ********

Devol belongs to the celebrated Devol family of Marietta.  His Grandfather, Jonathan Devol, was an officer in the Revolutionary War, and was well known to the pioneer history of Ohio.  He was one of the passengers on the _Mayflower_, which he constructed for the use of the first company of emigrants to Ohio.  He erected a

house on the Campus Matrious in 1788, and was joined by his wife and six children in December of that year.  

He was one of the committee to explore the country in search of suitable places for

Mills and farming settlements.  In 1791 he repaired to Belpre with his family.  He succeeded in clearing a patch of land, and built

a log cabin not far below the house of Captain William Dorce.

The news of the Big Bottom massacre reached him while attending court at Marietta, and he hurried home.  Mrs. Devol, hearing that the

Indians were on the war-path, ordered the children to lie down with their clothes on, ready for the danger signal.

He became famous by building the floating mill.  In 1792 he built a twelve-oared barge of twenty-five tons burden for Captain Putnam.

The author's father was Barker Devol, who died at Carrollton, Ky., on the 8th day of March, 1871, at the age of 85.  He was a ship-builder, and worked with his father at Marietta.  He left a widow and six children, who are all living at this writing in 1871, except one, the youngest being George H. Devol, the subject of the book and this adaptation into a screenplay and or a movie.

Kipling Keats de Magi

aka https://www.welbythomascoxjrauthor.com 

Dedicated to the life and memory of my beloved, Thomas Welby Cox II, who followed his heritage as soldier and officer of the law who gave his life in the line of duty. (1970-2007)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

There are few authors who are wholly original as far as their plots are concerned; indeed Shakespeare seems to have invented almost nothing, while Chaucer borrowed from both the living and the dead. And to come down to a somewhat different plane, the present writer is even more derivative, since for these books he has in generally kept doggedly to recorded actions, nourishing his fancy with log-books, dispatches, letters, memoirs and contemporary reports. But general appropriation, is, not quite the same thing as outright plagiary, and in passing it must be confessed that several passages and descriptions have been taken straight from the text of authors listed herein, whose words did not seem capable of improvement. Therefore to George H. Devol, The Guggenheim Project, Google sources and the Encyclopedia Britannica to these wonderful writers and others whose words I remembered but whose names are lost in the infamy of age, I say thank you for the inspiration, when needed and clarifications. This screenplay has been adapted from the original novel by George H. Devol  in 1853 by special permission under The Guggenheim Project and all profits from the sale of the screenplay and/or movie rights have been donated by the author to  the Children's Art Foundation, a nonprofit charity for the enhancement and education of children through the act of painting. 

Chapter I

He Ran From Home to Sail

Narrator

(To a small group of children)

An old man I remember down on the Miller Pike, playing Ole Maid with the children, drinking cider he had spiked.

The old man, a farmer, had walked his last row, now he entertained the children with cards and stories he’d sew.

Those afternoons flew joyfully on that porch covered by shade, we’d stack the deck on the old man…delighted he was the Ole Maid.

He never let on he knew that maid’s edge was frayed…and we pretended not to hear when he asked why she had strayed.

Then he rocked, and sipped, and shuffled the deck, hiding the frayed Ole Maid…and we drank cool-aid, so happy he had stayed.

You know there is a saying, “Ships at a distance have every man’s dream on board!” This is the story of a lad I knew…about your age.

This boy first saw the light of day in a small town just outside Atlanta, called Marietta, where the mouth of the Muskingum River in the state of Georgia, on the 31st day of August, 1829.

Sir, what is a ‘mouth’ on a river?

Good question, A river’s mouth is the part of a river where the river flows into another river, a lake, or into the sea.

So, listen to me you little rascals, I am pleased that you are listening enough to ask a question but don’t just blurt it out…raise your hand, and I will point to you. Got It!

Yes Sir!

He was the youngest of six children, and was the pet of the family. His father was a ship’s carpenter, and worked at boat-building in the beginning of the present century.

(Hand) What is present century?

A century is a period of 100 years and this century started on January 1, 1800 and will end on December 31, 1899.

The youngster had good opportunities to get an early education, as Georgia was a leader at providing public education at the time. But this lad had very little liking for books and such…and he had no liking for school at toll.

The boy was never where his folks thought he ought to be, playing hooky with other kids, running about the river bank, playing kick ball, playing “shinny on your side,”

(Hand) What is shinny on your side?

 It’s a game of street hockey, there are no rules, no goals nor goalie’s…just a rough game for kids to play in the street. It was so rough that it usually ended in a fight which all the kids enjoyed more’n school.

I called him the Scrapper, because he was always in the midst of the fight and always went home with scratches on his face.

When he was ten years old, he’d carry stones in his pockets, and even tackle the teachers if they made any attempt to use the stick on him.

Scrapper’s father was away from home most of the time, and his mother couldn’t manage him with all the other children and work she had to finish.

In those days, everybody knew each other in the neighborhood, so his mother would call in someone to help her punish the boy. There was no question this kid deserved what he got.

When the family had company, Scrapper thought it entertaining to use his bow and arrows to shoot the cups off the table, and then run off down the street.

I expect this kid was the worst brat in the neighborhood. All the church members were known to say, “That boy will be hung by the time he lives to be twenty.”

But, ole Scrapper fooled them, he is still kickin even though he had some very close calls with destiny, as you will hear.

(Hand) What is destiny?

Ok, Destiny means there is a creator at work and our future has already been planned out for us. As an example, in this use, it means Scrapper will die one day as all of us will.

To continue the story…one day he was at the river and saw a steamer, lying at the wharf-boat by the name of Wacousta. Scrapper struck up a conversation with the First Steward who told him he could ship out as a ‘cabin-boy’, at $4 per month. Scrapper thought this to be his calling and so when the boat left the wharf he was on board without giving any notice to his family.

Scrapper’s first duty was to scour the cutlery; knives, forks spoons. Give him credit, he did a first rate job and stayed at it for the first time in his life. Because he was doing such a good job, at something no one else wanted to do, he gained the respect of the First Steward. And at the end of the day, he gathered his small mattress, placed it on the floor of the Steward’s cabin and slept peacefully since he was so tired.

About four in the morning, the Second Steward came into the room and gave the lad a kick in the back, the kid screamed because it hurt. The man called out, “Get up, and put your mattress away.” Scrapper did as he was told and when he had finished putting his bed away he went to the Steward and said, “Look here! Don’t kick me that way again.” The Steward towered over the kid and he hauled off and slapped Scrapper so that his ears rang. But Scrapper, true to form was into the man like a Bandy Rooster. Though the boy got in a lick, he chose the wrong man and the Steward hit him hard in the nose but Scrapper rallied coming up from the floor with a piece of stone coal which he slammed into the Steward’s head. The Steward slumped to his knees.

By this time the ship’s passengers were all getting up to see what the matter was. The Pilot and First Steward soon got between them and stopped the fight. Scrapper told his side of the story and the First Steward took his side. He told the officers that the boy was the best cabin boy he had ever had; so the Second Steward was discharged at Cincinnati.

Scrapper stayed on for several months and with time he became a good steamboat man…he knew it all for he had been there. But then he moved on to the next boat which was named ‘Walnut Hills,’ at $7 per month. You could hear her ‘scape’ for at least twenty miles.

(Hand) What is scape?

‘Scape’ is what they call it when a boat blows its whistle.

Scrapper would get up early in the morning and make some “five cent pieces,” by blacking the boots of the officers. But he quit the Walnut Hills after three months and shipped out with Captain Patterson on the Cicero which was bound for Nashville, Tennessee. On the first trip up the Cumberland River in Kentucky, the ship was full of passengers. Scrapper had another fight with the Pantry man. The Captain ordered Scrapper ashore and he was paid what he had earned which amounted to a dollar and fifty cents. The boy gathered his things (two blue shirts) and what he was wearing which he shoved into a brown bag with a safety pin.

The Captain put him ashore at a point where the bank of the river was about a hundred feet high. It was so high a goat couldn’t climb it.

Well they commenced to pull in the plank when the Steward called out to the Captain, “we can’t get along without that boy! Please let him go so far as Nashville?” The captain ordered Scrapper back on board and the lad remained on that steamer for another year without any more fights. But during which time, Scrapper took up card playing, learning to play the game, “Seven-Up, and to “steal cards,” so that he could cheat the boys and Scrapper was happy with himself and felt fixed for life.

After that he quit the steamer and signed-on with Captain Mason on the ‘Tiago.’ It happened that a boy named Bill Campbell who would become the captain of the ‘Robert E. Lee,’ was a cabin boy on the steamer, and later became a captain for the Vicksburg Packet Line.

About that time the Mexican War broke out. Our boat, the Tiago was lying at Pittsburg. The government broke a new boat called the ‘Corvette’ which had just been built at Louisville. A cousin of Scrappers was engaged to pilot her on the Rio Grande. His name was Press, a good pilot on the Ohio from Cincinnati to Pittsburg but he had never seen the Rio Grande except on a navigational map.

Scrapper decided to go to war in Mexico, so he was shipped via the Corvette for the war. During this trip he worked as a barkeeper and a Jack McCourney, of Wheeling, West Virginia was the owner of the boat.

There was a man aboard on the way down to the Rio Grande who took a kind liking to Scrapper. The man was well posted on card playing and taught the boy to “stock the deck!” He learned how to give a man a big hand, so Scrapper felt for the second time in his young life that he was financially ‘fixed’.

When the Corvette got to New Orleans, they took her over to Algiers and took off her guards and part of her cabin and she started out across the Gulf of Mexico. This experience caused the boy a little fright when the swells would go clear over the ship in one of the storms. But they finally landed safely at Bagdad and commenced to load her down with supplies for the war.

Well Scrapper got tired of hanging out and cheating all the soldiers out of their money and since there was no one else to rob he took a vessel back to New Orleans. When he landed there he was pretty well fixed, having $ 2,700 dollars and he wasn’t seventeen yet. S, here he was in a big city, knew no one; so he found a boarding house, and left all his cash, except for a few bucks which he might need with an old gentleman who looked like his father. He thought he had to be honest since he looked like his father, and he proved himself to be.

But for some unknown reasons after being gone for nearly seven years, he got up the courage and decided that he would go home. As usual he selected a steamer piloted Captain Montgomery, and Windy Martin, the First Mate and Scrapper shipped as the Second Mate at a rate of $ 20.00 a month which was a far cry from the $4.00 dollars he had earned as a cabin boy.

The steamer was full of people, and the card tables were going every night as soon as the supper tables were cleared. Scrapper waited until after they had been out from New Orleans for two nights before he sat in on a game.  On an afternoon as they passed through Texas, he beat a fellow out of $ 170.00; and as there was a ‘no squeal,’ in those days from the losers, the boy was ok even though there was a ship rule that the crew could not play cards with passengers. They got to Louisville, where the boat laid up and paid off the crew.