1837 — Oct 31, Monmouth collision, Creeks drown, MS Riv., Prophet Isl. Bend, LA –230-400
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard January 18, 2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–230-400 Blanchard: Even though most of the sources we note put the death toll at 300-400, which is a large range, we are not comfortable dismissing the Natchez Weekly Courier of Oct 17, 1837, covering news posted from New Orleans, that the loss of life was 230. It does not appear that any source “knew” how many died. There is a large discrepancy in noting how many Creeks were aboard. At least one source notes that the government was petitioned afterwards to pay for 40 slaves belonging to Creek natives, who were lost. It would not have been possible to count bodies as some would have been carried downstream, perhaps far downstream, and some may have been caught by tree debris underwater, and thus never surfaced. Thus, not being able to discern from the sources below which is the most accurate, we choose to show the entire range of reporting – 230-400.
– 400 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 194.
— 400 Gould. Fifty Years on the Mississippi. 1889, p. 459.
— 400 Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters. 1856, p. 127.
–300-400 Bragg. Historic Names…Places on the Lower Miss. River. “Profit Island,” 1977, 205.
–235-400 Hartley and Woods 2006, p. 305, fn. 78[1]
–312-400 Meares, Cecil. “Wild West.” Genealogy page, October 1998.
— 313 Howland. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the [U.S.]. 1846, p. 97.
–311 out of 611 Creek natives. (Notes 611 were onboard and 300 rescued.)
— >2 crew “The barkeepers and a fireman were…lost…”
— 311 Public Ledger, Philadelphia. “Horrible Accident, the Result of…Avarice.” 11-11-1837, p. 2.
— 311 Wikipedia. “Steamboat Monmouth disaster.” 12-25-2023 edit. Accessed 1-18-2024.[2]
— 310 Foreman, Indian Removal.
— 300 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 182.
— 300 Morrison, John Harrison. History of American Steam Navigation. 1908, p. 220.
— 300 Mullins. “Three Forks History: Three hundred died in collision.” Muskogee Phoenix, 9-10-2022.
— 300 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 679.
— 300 Preble 1883, p. 153.
— 234 Simonds. The American Date Book. 1902, p. 97.
— 230 Natchez Weekly Courier, MS. “From the New Orleans Com. Bulletin.” 10-17-1837, 4.
Narrative Information
Bragg: “Profit Island. Mile 249.5 AHP… The large island that is known today as Profit Island was formed from two small ones, Islands No. 123 and No. 124….When the United States was transporting Indian tribes out of the boundaries of the new southern frontier in 1837, a gruesome tragedy occurred at Profit Island. The steamer Monmouth, a relatively small river boat, had been chartered to take about 700 Creek Indians up to the Arkansas River, where they would be sent to the Oklahoma territory for resettlement. Northbound at the island with a heavy load of passengers, the Monmouth collided with a sailing vessel called the Trenton, which was being towed downstream by the steamer Warren.
“The collision caused the Monmouth to break apart, and hundreds of frightened Indians were precipitated into the water. Contemporary accounts of the accident were vague and very brief, but it was estimated that ‘300 to 400’ of the Indians were drowned.’ The toll may have been higher; no one really seemed to know or care.” (Bragg. Historic Names…Places on the Lower Miss. River. “Profit Island,” 1977, 205.)
Howland. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States. 1846: “The steamboat Monmouth left New Orleans for Arkansas River, with upwards of six hundred Indians on board, a portion of the emigrant Creek tribe, who were removing west under direction of the United States’ government. In travelling up the Mississippi, through Prophet Island Bend, the steamer encountered the ship Trenton, towed by the steamer Warren, descending the river. It was rather dark, being near 8 o’clock in the evening, and, through the mis-management of the officers, a collision took place between the two vessels. The cabin of the Monmouth, shortly after, parted from the hull, drifting some distance down the stream, when it broke into two parts, and emptied all within it into the river. There were six hundred and eleven Indians on board, but three hundred of whom were rescued. The bar-keepers and a fireman were the only persons attached to the Monmouth who lost their lives.
“The disaster was chiefly owing to the neglect of the officers of the Monmouth. She was running in a part of the stream, where, by the usages of the river, and the rules of the Mississippi navigation, she had no right to go, and where, of course, the descending vessel did not expect to meet her. Here is another evidence of the gross carelessness of a class of men to whose charge we often commit our lives and property.
“This unfortunate event is one in which every citizen of our country must feel a melancholy interest. Bowing before the superiority of their conquerors, these men from their homes by the policy of our government. On their way to the spot selected by the white man for their residence, reluctantly leaving the graves of their fathers, and the homes of their childhood, in obedience to the requisitions of a race before whom they seem doomed to become extinct, an accident, horrible and unanticipated, brought death upon three hundred at once. Had they died, as the savage would die, upon the battle-field, in defence of his rights, and in the wars of his tribe, death had possessed little or no horror for them. But, if the full confidence of safety purchased by the concession and the compromise of all their savage chivalry, confined in a vessel strange to their habits, and dying by a death strange and ignoble to their natures, the victims of a catastrophe they could neither foresee nor resist, their last moments of life, (for thought has the activity of lightning in extremity,) must have been embittered by conflicting emotions, horrible, indeed: regret at their submission; indignation at what seemed to them willful treachery, and impotent threatenings of revenge upon the pale-faces, may have maddened their dying hour.” (Howland. “Loss of the Steamer Monmouth on the Mississippi River on her passage from New Orleans for Arkansa River, October 31, 1837, by which Melancholy Catastrophe upwards of Three Hundred Emigrating Indians were drowned.” Pp. 97-98 in: Howland. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States. Worcester, 1846.)
Indian Pioneer History, June 24, 1937, Vol. 13, pp. 453-458: “Thomas Barnett, Age 55, Tuckabatchee, Town(tulwa), Wetumka, Oklahoma. Billie Byrd, Field Worker. Indian-Pioneer History, S-149, June 24, 1937 (vol. 13, pages 453-458)
Muskogee-Creek Removal
“The Barnett name was Barnard before taking on the present way of pronunciation. Dave Barnett and Timbochee Barnett witnessed the mishap of the shipload of Muskogee-Creek Indians that were being brought to the new country from their old homes in Alabama and this is what Dave Barnett has told:
” When we boarded the ship, it was at night time and it was raining, cloudy and dark. There were dangerous waves of water. The people aboard the ship did not want the ship to start on the journey at night but to wait until the next day. The men in command of the ship disregarded all suggestions and said, “the ship is going tonight.”
The ship was the kind that had an upper and lower deck. There were great stacks of boxes which contained whiskey in bottles. The officers in charge of the ship became intoxicated and even induced some of the Indians to drink. This created an uproar and turmoil.
Timbochee Barnett, who was my father, and I begged the officers to stop the ship until morning as the men in charge of the steering of the ship could not control the ship and keep it on it’s course but was causing it to go around and around.
We saw a night ship coming down the stream. We could distinguish these ships as they had lights. Many of those on board our ship tried to tell the officers to give the command to stay to one side so that the night ship could pass on by. It was then that it seemed that the ship was just turned loose because it was taking a zig-zag course in the water until it rammed right into the center of the night boat.
Then there was the screaming of the children, men, women, mothers and fathers when the ship began to sink. Everyone on the lower deck that could was urged to go up on the upper deck until some of the smaller boats could come to the rescue. The smaller boats were called by signal and they came soon enough but the lower deck had been hit so hard it was broken in two and was rapidly sinking and a great many of the Indians were drowned.
Some of the rescued Indians were taken to the shore on boats, some were successfull in swimming to shore and some were drowned. The next day the survivors went along the shore of the Mississippi river and tried to identify the dead bodies that had been washed ashore. The dead was gathered and buried and some were lost forever in the waters.
Timbochee, my father, at the time of the accident had a bag of money which he had brought with him from the old country. He reported that he had dropped it into the water. He afterwards gave this report to the officials on the following day of the accident. The officials recovered the bag which contained a great amount of gold and paper money. He kept the gold but he turned the paper money over to the officials who promised to dry them for him and return to him. This they did.”
“Dave Barnett was buried in old Tuckabatchee town (tulwa) seven miles east of the present Hanna, Oklahoma.”
Lloyd’s: “With strict propriety of language, we might call the awful catastrophe about to be particularized, a massacre, a wholesale assassination, or anything else but an accident. In some instances, and this is one of them, a reckless disregard of human life, when it leads to a fatal result, can claim no distinction, on any correct principle of law or justice, from willful and premeditated murder.
“The steamer Monmouth left New Orleans, October 23d, 1837, for Arkansas river, having been chartered by the U. S. government to convey about seven hundred Indians, a portion of the emigrant Creek tribe, to the region which had been selected for their future abode. On the night of the 30th, the Monmouth, on her upward trip, had reached that point of the Mississippi called Prophet Island Bend, where she encountered the ship Tremont, which the steamer Warren was then towing down the river. Owing partly to the dense obscurity of the night, but much more to the mismanagement of the officers of the Monmouth, a collision took place between that vessel and the Tremont, and such was the violence of the concussion, that the Monmouth immediately sunk. The unhappy red men, with their wives and children, were precipitated into the water; and such was the confusion which prevailed at the time, such was the number of the drowning people, who probably clung to each other in their struggles for life, that, notwithstanding the Indians, men, women and children, are generally expert swimmers, more than half of the unfortunate Creeks perished. The captains and crews of the steamers Warren and Yazoo, by dint of great exertion, succeeded in saving about three hundred of the poor Indians, the remaining four hundred had become accusing spirits before the tribunal of a just God, where they, whose criminal negligence was the cause of this calamity, will certainly be held accountable.
“The cabin of the Monmouth parted from the hull, and drifted some distance down the stream, when it broke in two parts, and emptied its living contents into the river. The stem of the ship came in contact with the side of the steamer, therefore the former received but little damage, while the latter was broken up, to that degree that the hull, as previously stated, almost instantly went to the bottom. The ship merely lost her cut-water.
“The mishap, as we have hinted before, may be ascribed to the mismanagement of the officers of the Monmouth. This boat was running in a part of the river where, by the usages of the river and the rules adopted for the better regulation of steam navigation on the Mississippi, she had no right to go, and where, of course, the descending vessels did not expect to meet with any boat coming in an opposite direction. The only persons attached to the Monmouth who lost their lives, were the bar-keeper and a fireman.
“It is not without some feeling of indignation, that we mention the circumstance that the drowning of four hundred Indians, the largest number of human beings ever sacrificed in a steamboat disaster, attracted but little attention, (comparatively speaking,) in any part of the country. Even the journalists and news-collectors of that region, on the waters of which this horrible affair took place, appear to have regarded the event as of too little importance to deserve any particular detail; and accordingly the best accounts we have of the matter merely state the outlines of the story, with scarcely a word of commiseration for the sufferers, or a single expression of rebuke for the heartless villains who wantonly exposed the lives of so many artless and confiding people to imminent peril, or almost certain destruction.” (Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disaster… 1856, pp. 126-127.)
Meares: “A man stood on the bridge of the steamboat Monmouth and peered through the misty October [31st] night in 1837. His journey had begun at New Orleans a few hours before, and when he looked back now he could see the lights of Baton Rouge…The heavily loaded boat, filled with 700 Creek Indians, was making its way northward up the lower Mississippi en route to the Red River and beyond….
“A shrill sound suddenly pierced the darkness…Frantically, he rushed forward toward the wheelhouse to ask why the pilot had rung the bell. “Don’t you see it?” the pilot yelled. The man scarcely had time to look before another boat struck Monmouth. The violent collision broke the bows of Monmouth, and the waters of the Mississippi poured in. Split in two, Monmouth went down, taking more than 300 Creeks with it the worst pre-Civil War disaster on the Mississippi River….
“In the 1830s, some 18,000 Creeks were moved from Georgia and Alabama to new Western lands. A group of 1,600 Creeks marched in the summer of 1837 to Mobile Point, Ala., and later to Pass Christian, Ala. A yellow fever epidemic killed more than 100 of those Indians while they waited at the two posts. When the time came in the fall to move the survivors to the territory in the West, the U.S. Army contracted three steamboats: John Newton, Yazoo, and Monmouth. The Creeks were put aboard to start their journey up the Mississippi on the night of October 27,1837…Monmouth was a small steamer weighing 135 tons. Her human cargo, it was said, was crammed onto the boat without regard to comfort or safety. About 700 Creeks managed to get aboard.
“The three boats made fairly good time on a cold, rainy night. They steamed north of present day Baton Rouge, La., without any trouble. The prevailing practice of boats going upriver was to stay in the slack water close to the banks and, at the bends, to cross to the far banks where the water moved slowest. Boats moving downriver were expected to follow the river channel out toward the middle, where the current moved fastest. But whether or not Monmouth was where it should have been or exactly what happened to cause the collision will probably never be known. It is known that the accident occurred at Prophet Island Bend (today called Profit Island Bend) and that Monmouth was struck by the sailboat Trenton, which was being towed by the steamboat Warren. The violent impact threw hundreds of unsuspecting Creeks into the deep river.
“Those Indians not immediately swept away struggled desperately for something solid to grasp. The men aboard Warren tried to help, as did the men of Yazoo, which had circled around and rushed to the rescue. Those two steamers picked up whatever survivors they could reach. The cabin of Monmouth had broken off and floated downstream with the crew and about 200 Indians aboard. Alter floating some distance, the cabin also broke in two parts, spilling them into the river. Some of those men were picked up.
“Exactly how many Indians drowned is uncertain. Some reports said 240, others about 360, while yet another report put the drowned at more than 400. The most commonly quoted estimate, 311 Indians drowned, comes from the book Indian Removal, by Grant Foreman. There were also two non-Indians lost the Monmouth barkeeper and a fireman.
The man in the wide-brimmed hat who had been standing on the bridge just before the collision was the owner of Monmouth and the principal eyewitness quoted in the newspaper accounts of the accident. As one might expect, this Mr. Eastman defended his steamboat, saying that it was vigorously denied the rumors that Monmouth was old, rotten and unseaworthy and was in a part of the river where she should not have been. Eastman later said that the accident was caused by the darkness and rain combined with the neglect of Warren‘s officers, who apparently did not put lights on their tow.” (Meares 1998)
Mullins, Jonita. “Three Forks History: Three hundred died in collision.”:
“…The group making the trek in the fall of 1837 traveled southward to the Gulf Coast to a fort located at Mobile Point, Alabama. While waiting for the Army to arrange for their travel by steamboat, several died of a yellow fever outbreak.
“Then, around 1,500 were crowded aboard three boats – the John Newton, the Yazoo, and the Monmouth. These boats traveled across the bay to the mouth of the Mississippi River and then headed northward.
“On a night in late October, the Monmouth passed the city of Baton Rouge. By custom, northbound boats were to hug the shoreline, while southbound boats stayed in the center of the river. But for some reason, the Monmouth, with its 700 Creek passengers, came dangerously close to another steamboat called the Warren.
“Tragedy might have been averted except that the Warren was towing a sailboat named the Trenton. This vessel struck the Monmouth near the bow and ripped that boat in two, spilling hundreds of passengers into the cold waters of the Mississippi.
“The crews of the Warren and the Yazoo rushed to provide aid to those thrown into the river. Many rescues were made, but even so around 300 of the Muscogee passengers died in this river collision. It would be recorded later as the worst river disaster before the Civil War.”
Natchez Weekly Courier, MS. “From the New Orleans Com. Bulletin.” 10-17-1837, 4:
“….There were on board the Monmouth 693 Indians, out of which number 230 were killed or drowned. Many of the survivors were badly injured. Several physicians, actuated by the best feelings of humanity, came from Bayou Sara, and administered to the poor unfortunate Indians.”
Public Ledger, Philly. “Horrible Accident, the Result of Hellish Avarice.” 11-11-1837, p. 2:
“It becomes out daily duty to record some melancholy instance of the waste of human life, caused by the criminal carelessness, or still more criminal cupidity, of the owners or managers of steamboats. They may now be properly called instruments of death. We have long considered them as unsafe for the transportation of human beings; have long considered that when a man set foot in a steamboat, he had reserved but one chance for life in a thousand for death. But now we regard almost every steamboat as a charnel-house, and should almost believe every man who ventured on board of one, weary of the world….
“We are led to these remarks by a melancholy event which lately occurred on the Mississippi, and which, if the perpetrators be not prosecuted, convicted and hanged for it, will stamp the government of Louisiana, or the Federal Government, which ever has jurisdiction over the case, with everlasting dishonour.
“The steamboat Monmouth was chartered for the transportation of a party of emigrating Creek Indians, from New Orleans to the territory assigned to them. On its passage up the river, it came in collision with the steamboat Warren [Warren’s tow – the sailing vessel Trenton], and was lost, and Three Hundred And Eleven of The Indians Perished!!
“The New Orleans True American of the 3d inst. from which we obtain this melancholy news, says it is impossible to say which boat was in fault, though the amount of testimony is against the Monmouth. But which ever were in fault, the collision might have been avoided, for two steamboats can easily pass on the Mississippi, without running each other down. It must therefore have originated in the grossest, the most wanton carelessness, and has resulted in the murder of more than three hundred human beings!!
“What adds to the enormity of the act, is the fact that the Indians were crowded on board of this boat, with the most shameful disregard to their comfort and safety. The True American says that six hundred were crammed into this single boat, and that the crowded condition of its decks and cabins was offensive to every sense and feeling, and kept the poor creatures in a state unfit for human beings. But what is worse, if possible, the American says that the contractors procured old, rotten unseaworthy boats, and thus exposed the poor Indians to almost certain destruction.
“If this be true, we cannot imagine greater miscreants upon the face of the earth, than these contractors. To procure rotten boats, and overload them with human beings, thus subjected to the worst of suffering, and all to increase the profits of a job, is worthy of ‘Christian dogs,’ as the more humane Turks very properly call us, but what we should hardly expect of the Arabs of the Desert.
“But the Federal government probably deserves severe censure, for not binding the contractors so strong, as to preclude all opportunity for fraud or oppression, It ought to have known that whatever white men undertook to contract with it for the transportation of these Indians, would improve every opportunity to cheat and oppress them; and it should have taken all possible precautions against such villainy. But since the catastrophe has happened, we hope it will do every thing possible to bring these miscreants to justice. The criminal jurisdiction of the case doubtless belongs to the State of Louisiana, and we hope to see it consult its own honor, by having the contractors, captains, and all concerned in this wholesale murder, indicted.
“The Warren had in tow the ship Tremont, and one account says that the Monmouth ran into the ship. However this be, the Monmouth sunk immediately; the cabin parted from the hull, drifted down the river, and broke in pieces, and all its inmates were precipitated into the water. Of 611 Indians, only 300 were saved, and by the exertions of the crews of the Yazoo and Warren. The Tremont sustained no other injury than the loss of her cut water. The only whites lost in the Monmouth were its barkeeper and one fireman.”
Sources
Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.
Bragg, Marion. Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River. Vicksburg, MS: Mississippi River Commission, 1977. Accessed at: http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/history/MRnames/MissRiverNames.htm > Also at:
http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/Portals/52/docs/MRC/MRnames%28Intro-end_final2%29.pdf
Foreman, Grant. The Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1934. Accessed 4-22-2015 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=-Dp4qxWDOMUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Gould, E. W. Fifty Years on the Mississippi; or, Gould’s History of River Navigation. St. Louis: Nixon-Jones Printing Co., 1889, 750 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed 2008 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=udyywXOVBvsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Hartley, William G. and Fred E. Woods. Explosion of the Steamboat Saluda. Salt Lake City: Millennial Press, 2002.
Howland. Steamboat Disasters and Railroad Accidents in the United States. Worcester: Warren Lazell, 1846. Accessed 1-18-2024 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t17m13t8p&seq=10
Indian Pioneer History, June 24, 1937, Vol. 13, pp. 453-458, “Thomas Barnett.” Accessed 1-18-2024 at: https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~texlance/genealogy/iph/thomasbarnett.htm
Lloyd, James T. Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disasters on the Western Waters. Cincinnati, Ohio: James T. Lloyd & Co., 1856. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JlYqAAAAYAAJ
Meares, Cecil. “Wild West.” October 1998. Accessed at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~texlance/emigrants/monmouth.htm
Morrison, John Harrison. History of American Steam Navigation. New York: W. F. Sametz & Co., Inc., 1908, 653 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Q5tDAAAAIAAJ&printsec=toc&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Mullins, Jonita. “Three Forks History: Three hundred died in collision.” Muskogee Phoenix, 9-10-2022. Accessed 1-18-2024 at: https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/lifestyles/three-forks-history-three-hundred-died-in-collision/article_4227e0e4-9c01-5a13-a940-dcc0622829c8.amp.html
Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.
Natchez Weekly Courier, MS. “From the New Orleans Com. Bulletin.” 10-17-1837, 4. Accessed 1-18-2024 at: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-natchez-weekly-courier-from-the-new/127223390/
Preble, Geo. Henry (Rear-Admiral (USN). A Chronological History of the Origin and Development of Steam Navigation 1543-1882. Philadelphia: L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1883. At: http://www.archive.org/stream/chronologicalhis00prebrich/chronologicalhis00prebrich_djvu.txt
Public Ledger, Philadelphia. “Horrible Accident, the Result of Hellish Avarice.” 11-11-1837, p. 2. Accessed 1-18-2024 at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/40277410/?fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjQwMjc3NDEwLCJpYXQiOjE3MDU2MjYyNjgsImV4cCI6MTcwNTcxMjY2OH0.9TDdRnq6aofWXrYqbNGOpF5ydTUUscHNwUBc-IGi_rw
Simonds, W. E. (Editor). The American Date Book. Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Google digital preview accessed 9-8-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC
Wikipedia. “Steamboat Monmouth disaster.” 12-25-2023 edit. Accessed 1-18-2024. Accessed 1-18-2024 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Monmouth_disaster
[1] “…the Monmouth lost 235 to 400 Creek Indians in a collision with the Warren…”
[2] Cites: S. A. Howland. Steamboat disasters and railroad accidents in the United States. Worcester: W. Lazell, 1846, pp. 97-98.