This scene is the Ohio River during the terrible winter of 1917-1918. You can see the "Princess" locked in the ice. That winter was exceptionally cold and the river and its tributaries froze "stem to stern". It caused much destruction along the...
Sources vary as to who designed the hotel, though it is generally credited to Francis Costigan. The hotel encompassed 100 years of history in Madison. Another hotel, Fitzhugh's Hotel, which had been built in the 1830s was removed from the site...
Here you can see some of the devastation the ice caused during the harsh winter of 1917-1918. The ferryboat "Trimble" is caught and nearly buried in the thick ice. She did survive but was badly damaged. On February 20, 1918 the newspaper reported,...
There were at least four depots in Madison during the life of the railroad. Not much is known of the first two. The Madison Courier on November 28, 1981 stated, "The first depot downtown was an old shed just around the bend in the track." It was at...
The newly built "Reuben Wells" sits at the Jeffersonville yards where she was built for the J M & I Railroad under the supervision and to the specifications of Master Mechanic, Reuben Wells, for whom she was named. Her boiler was tilted forward to...
The locomotive "M.G. Bright" is shown here on the Madison incline. In the lower right hand corner you can see a boy. He is standing at the stone mile marker.
This is a photograph of Madison's Main Street in 1852. Main Street was then called Main Cross and the first intersection of streets is Mulberry Street. Some of the businesses pictured are the A. (Aaron) Marks clothing store on the northwest corner;...
In the early 1900s Marks and Benson, a men's clothier, began an advertising campaign that they would continue for over 25 years. Some of the rules and offers changed over the years, but basically when any boy, accompanied by a parent, purchased a...
Railroads; John Brough; State parks & reserves; "Brough's Folly"
Here is a close-up of one of the abutments for a trestle for the project that was to by-pass the Madison incline. There are several sites within Clifty Falls State Park where traces of the old, abandoned project can be seen. For more information on...
The "G.W. McBride" was built in 1916 at Elizabeth, Pennsylvania as the "Conqueror". The "Conqueror" was upset in a storm and sank. She was raised, rebuilt, and named the "G.W. McBride" by Captain Birch McBride. She was sold to the Ohio River...