Morgantown Dominion Post
26 March 2007
Associated Press
CHARLESTON — Carbon-arc searchlights that illuminated the night waters for steam-powered towboats in the early 20th century can be found here, along with the pilot chairs once occupied by legendary rivermen of a bygone era.
Megaphones used to communicate with deckhands, and telegraph controls and voice tubes that allowed riverboat captains to relay instructions to the engine room are also on display, as are hundreds of on-the-job photos of deckhands, pilots, mechanics and maintenance workers.
The legacy of four generations of West Virginians who worked on the Kanawha and Ohio rivers is being preserved in a museum at the Port Amherst headquarters of Amherst Industries and its river transportation and construction arm, Madison Coal and Supply.
Founded in 1893 by Charles T. and George W. Jones, Amherst has employed thousands over the years as towboat crewmen, coal miners, rail car fabricators, drydock technicians, heavy equipment operators and riverborne construction workers.
Madison Coal and Supply, founded in 1915, has grown to include a fleet of 33 towboats, operating the length of the Kanawha River and the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Paducah, Ky.
The museum is the brainchild of Charles T. and Nelson Jones, the father-son team who serve as chairman and president of Madison Coal and Supply. The Joneses see the museum as a way to honor the contributions of past and current employees. Located in a wing of the company's training center, the museum also gives new employees a sense of vocational heritage.
Converting the vision into reality were Robyn Strickland, one of the few women licensed to pilot towboats on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, and Colleen Jarrell, a paralegal whose husband, Jim, is Madison Coal and Supply's marine traffic manager.
Strickland and Jarrell coordinated the popular "Navigating Through History" educational program at St. Albans for several years, and produced displays and programs on Kanawha River history in behalf of the company at numerous other events.
"We used the space that was formerly occupied by Jones Business Machines," Strickland said. "Once we started pulling stuff out of drawers and back rooms, we knew we'd have enough material to start a museum."
A flatboat oar from the 1850s was found in a warehouse. Sets of wooden check-pin moulds and piston polishers also turned up, along with the original three-dimensional blueprints for several company towboats.