Steamboats; Riverboats; Excursion boats; "Belle of Louisville"; "Idlewild"; "Avalon"; Rivers
The "Idlewild" was sold to J. Harold Gorsage in 1947 and the name was changed to "Avalon". She became the most widely traveled excursion boat on the rivers. During her tramping days she made stops at Omaha, Nebraska; New Orleans; Stillwater,...
Railroad employees are posed with the "Reuben Wells." It was originally given the number 35, but was later changed to No. 365, and was specifically built for the JM and I Railroad for use on the incline at Madison, Indiana. It went into service...
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...
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...
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...
The "J.T. Hatfield" is seen here at Madison, just past the Madison-Milton bridge. She was built as the "General Ashburn" but her name was changed in honor of James T. Hatfield when the Hatfield-Campbell Creek Coal Company bought her in 1945. She...
The first courthouse was built in 1811. It was two stories and made of "buckeye logs." It was removed in 1823 and a brick structure built in its place. This old brick courthouse was octagon in form and the entire lower floor was fashioned as a...
In 1823 Jacob Salmon established one of the first breweries west of the Alleghenies. It was situated on, what was then, the eastern outskirts of Madison. We don't know the exact fate of that early brewery, but in 1856 the Greiner Family had...
William J. Johnson, 1953-1918, and his wife Ida were the first Johnsons to live in this home, though it stayed in the Johnson family from about 1890 until 1945. After William J. Johnson died in 1918 it became the home of his brother David and his...
