Sign 4:  John S Hopkins & Joe Fowler Steamboats – circa 1900

By the 1850s Newburgh was one of the largest riverports between Cincinnati and New Orleans, with warehouses lining both sides of Water Street. Steamboats such as these were crucial for transport of local products such as tobacco, grain, and pork.  

The John S Hopkins (on the right) was built in 1880, and later in her career was converted to an excursion boat cruising between Henderson and Evansville and boasting of a 3000 square foot dance floor and 3700 electric lights.  She was lost in a fire in 1917.

The Joe Fowler was built in Jeffersonville, IN, in 1888 as a mail boat.  After 7 years she switched to hauling general cargo and in 1917 was converted to an excursion boat and changed her name.