Chapter Nine: Historical Notes
Transportation in Eastern Kentucky, 1897
Steamboat Ferries on the Ohio River
When McQuary crossed the Ohio River at Catlettsburg in Lawrence County, Ohio, in 1897, he would have encountered a bustling river port at the confluence of the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers. Multiple ferries operated between Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia, including the South Point-Catlettsburg Ferry. The peak of passenger travel on steamboats occurred during the Victorian period from 1870 to 1900, placing McQuary's journey at the tail end of the steamboat era's golden age.
The Golden Age of River Travel
More than 100 steamboats worked out of Catlettsburg over the years, carrying passengers and freight before railroad transportation became readily available. These packet boats were painted white from hulls to pilot houses, and traveled with bands of music, carrying people up and down the river. The sight and sound of steamboat whistles was familiar to every river town resident.
The Anderson, the ferry McQuary boards in this chapter, represents this era of river transportation—a time when the Ohio River served as the primary highway for commerce, travel, and connection between the eastern states and the expanding western territories.
Steamboat travel in 1897 remained a significant mode of transportation, though the railroad was beginning to supplant it. For someone like McQuary, traveling with a horse, the ferry crossing was essential—there were no bridges spanning the Ohio River in this region at that time. The ferry crossing from Ironton, Ohio to Ashland, Kentucky would have taken nearly two hours, as described in the chapter, giving passengers time to take breakfast on the upper deck while horses and wagons remained on the lower deck.
The Road South to Pikeville
Prior to 1905, there were few roads and no railroad in Pike County, so travel into the region was most readily done by river. Pikeville was the last town that steamships could reach traveling upstream on the Big Sandy. This made the approximately 64-mile journey from Catlettsburg to Pikeville particularly challenging overland.
Early Eastern Kentucky Roads
Early roads in eastern Kentucky were mere walking paths, no wider than three feet, following the ridgelines. By the 1890s, some roads had been improved to accommodate wagons, but the mountainous terrain remained formidable. The Old State Road (Route 460) connected the region, though heavy rains could turn it into a morass, as Union troops discovered during the Civil War.
The route from Catlettsburg to Pikeville that McQuary would have followed traced the Big Sandy River, passing through Louisa (at the fork of the Levisa and Tug Forks) and then continuing south to Pikeville. This journey of approximately 64 miles could take three to four days on horseback, depending on weather and road conditions.
Pikeville served as a center of commerce and industry in Pike County, with logging being a large enterprise. Huge stands of Yellow Poplar were floated downstream while shipments of tools, goods, and equipment were brought back to Pikeville by steamship. This made Pikeville an ideal location for someone like McQuary to perform—it was a town with money, commerce, and a population eager for entertainment and spectacle.
The Telegraph Network
The Western Union office in Ashland, where McQuary sends his telegraph to Reverend Glenn in Mountain Grove, Missouri, was part of an extensive network that by 1897 connected most towns and cities across America. Telegraph communication allowed McQuary and Glenn to coordinate their activities across hundreds of miles—McQuary would ride ahead, send details about his next performance location, and Glenn would follow behind collecting the money.
The cost of sending a telegraph in 1897 varied by distance and length of message, but was generally affordable for short messages. McQuary's coded message to Glenn—containing details about his route, the local newspaper, and planned performance dates—demonstrates how the two men used this technology to maintain their con game across multiple states.
The "Yes, Virginia" Letter
The letter about Santa Claus that McQuary reads in the Ashland telegraph office is a real piece of American cultural history. "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" was written by Francis Pharcellus Church and published in The Sun (a New York newspaper) on September 21, 1897—just two months before McQuary's visit to Ashland in this chapter.
The Original Letter
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to The Sun asking whether Santa Claus really existed, as her friends had told her he did not. Church's response became one of the most reprinted editorials in newspaper history, appearing annually in The Sun until the paper ceased publication in 1950.
The timing of this chapter—November 1897—means that Church's editorial would have been recent news, reprinted in newspapers across the country as Christmas approached. McQuary's cynical response to the letter reflects his own character: a man who makes his living through deception, reading about the importance of maintaining childhood belief in the magical and unseen.
McQuary's imagined response—"Yes, Virginia, there is a Purple Knight"—represents the dark mirror of Church's message. While Church wrote about maintaining innocence and wonder, McQuary contemplates corrupting it. This juxtaposition reveals the moral complexity of McQuary's character: he recognizes the beauty of innocence even as he exploits human credulity for profit.
Ashland, Kentucky in 1897
Ashland, Kentucky, in 1897 was a growing industrial city at the junction of the Ohio River and the Big Sandy River. Founded in 1854, by the 1890s it had become an important transportation hub with riverboat traffic, railroad connections, and a developing industrial base.
A River City at the Crossroads
Ashland's location made it a natural stopping point for travelers heading south into the mountains of eastern Kentucky or west along the Ohio River. The city had hotels, telegraph offices, restaurants, and all the amenities a traveler might need—making it an ideal place for McQuary to gather information about his next performance location.
The "grizzled fellows" sitting outside the telegraph office, whittling and spitting tobacco, were a common sight in every small town and city of this era. These informal gatherings served as community information centers, where news, gossip, and local knowledge were freely shared with strangers and residents alike.