The Steamboat “Madison” on the Suwannee
The deep throated whistle of the paddle wheelers created the most vivid of the legends which surround the Suwannee River. For 75 years the steamboat was a way of life to the citizens of the Suwannee River country.
The steamboat was “king” of the river, exciting the wonder and admiration of all who came to the landing places or heard the haunting sound of their whistles as they made the colorful journeys along the river.
From a musty record of the Army is revealed the first recorded trip of a steamboat on the river and this may have been the first time that the proud steamers cut through the waters of the Suwannee.
During the Seminole Indian War, 1835-42, an Army fort at Suwannee Springs was crowded with soldiers and the families of settlers. Conditions were bad as extreme high water in the river had cut off the fort from supplies of any kind.
Water levels started dropping in the winter of 1836-37 when a steamer from the Army base at Cedar Key ventured up the river bringing much needed supplies to the fort. It is possible that this boat had made other trips on the river before this, but there is no record of it.
The Steamer Madison has perhaps created the greatest legend of the river boats. She was a familiar sight on the river in the decade before the Civil War, as her captain, James M. Tucker, a fearless and adventuresome captain, sailed the river operating the boat as a floating country store.
The Madison carried a line of general merchandise which was traded to the settlers for money, venison, hams, cow hides, deer skins, tallow, beeswax, honey, chickens, eggs, hogs and beef. There was no warehouse on the river so the boat would tie up at a landing and stay as long as the people wanted to trade and then move on to the next landing. She even brought the mail up to Columbus (Ellaville) twice monthly. Her whistle could be heard for ten miles.
When the Confederate War began, Capt. Tucker raised a company of Confederate soldiers and took them aboard the boat. The company slipped out one night and captured a federal gunboat. Shortly thereafter Capt. Tucker and his company received orders to go to Virginia, where they were referred to as Company H, 8th Florida Infantry.
It was about September, 1863…when the Madison was abandoned by Capt. Tucker and he was going to sink her in Old Troy Springs, intending to raise her when the Civil War was over. A number of citizens living near Troy wanted the boat to bring a load of corn up from Old Town and Capt. Tucker turned her over to them, telling them to use her as long as they wished and then sink her for him in Old Troy Springs. After securing the corn the citizens ran the Madison into the spring, pulled out the plugs, and watched her go down till she rested on the bottom.
During the war her boilers were removed and used in the manufacture of salt. Her smokestacks were cut up and used by neighboring farmers as funnels for their sugar furnaces. The remaining lumber was taken by whomever wanted it for whatever they needed it for.
She was 120 feet long, 22 feet wide and four feet deep. What is left of the Madison is still resting on the rocks under the crystal waters of Old Troy Springs.
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Susan Coleman Fennell is a part of the Suwannee County Historical Commission & Museum located at 208 Ohio Avenue North in Live Oak. She may be reached at suwanneehistorical@gmail.com.