MySource:Scotishmariner/Waterways Journal Capt E W B Nowland Died at Memphis

Other: April 30, 1927

Capt E W B Nowland Died at Memphis: Capt Edward W. B. Nowland, dean of packet steamboatmen, of the Memphis district, died at Memphis, Tenn., Wednesday night, April 20, after an illness of a month, at the ripe old age of 85 years. Captain Nowland spent his entire life navigating the Arkansas river, as pilot, master and owner of the bet boats ever to be operated on that stream. Captain Nowland's father was a Colonel in the United States Army and his childhood and boyhood days were spent at Fort Smith, at the Army post which was, before the Civil war, considered the frontier of civilization. Under the tutelage of his older brother, Capt. William B. Nowland, he "learned the river" on such boats as the Lady Walton, Arkansas and Tahlequah, and the other famous ante bellum boats. He left his boat on the lower Arkansas river and rode horseback back to Little Rock to enlist in the Confedeate army. At Heckatoo Plantatioin, the residence of Col. Thomas Smith (grandfather of the Managing Editor of the Waterways journal), Captain Nowland was furnished with a mount and a gun as part of his army equipment. While in Little Rock he saw the smoke of his burning packet Arkansas and of his brother's packet Tahlequah, which were destroyed at Fouche bar, just below Little Rock to prevent their capture. After the Civil war ended, Captain Nowland returned to Memphis, was given a boat on credit and that was the beginning of the best line of packet boats ever on Arkansas river. Among the boats owned or operated by Captain Nowland were; Fort Gibson, Fort Smith, Little Rock, Cherokee, J. S. Dunham, W. A. Caldwell, Dardenelle, Maumelle, Guidon, Legal Tender, Ella, Katie Hooper, Hattie Nowland, Ida Darragh, Governor Garland, Belle of Texas, Marlin Speed, R. L. Cobb, Plow Boy, Eugene, Lucille Nowland, J. N. Harbin, S. S. Brown and E. W. Cole. Captain Nowland retired from active service on the river twelve years agao, after the Arkansas River Packet Compnay, of which he was principal owner, sold their boats S. S. Brown, Lucille Nowland, and J. N. Harbin and went out of business. Captain Nowland was the father of Mrs. Hattie Buckley, William H. and Edward W. B. Nowland Jr. of Los Angeles, Cal.; Mrs. Edward Carter, of Santa Monica, Cal.; Mrs. M. N. McDowell of New York, and Eugene Nowland of Paris, France. Accompanied by Capt. Ed Nowland, Jr., the remains were taken to Fort Smith, Arkansas, April 21, interment being in that city Saturday, April 23. On April 25 The Waterways Journal received a message from Capt. Ed. Nowland, Jr., mailed Sunday at Kansas City, stating he was en route back to Los Angles, where his wife, Mrs. Adeline Nowland, has been ill this spring with influenza. Capt. Ed. Jr., however, was at the bedside of his father in Memphis when the end came. The deceased spent last summer and fall in St. Louis in hopes of arranging a conference with General T. Q. Ashburn that would result in a trial by the Fedearl Barge line of his patent bow rudder. Taken ill in St. Louis last november, he went to Lake Charles, La., to join Capt. Ed. Jr., but refused to accompany him to Los Angeles, stating it was "too far from my beloved river." He returned to Memphis, where it was his custom to walk out each day and sit in the sunshine in the park north of the postoffice gazing for hours at the river and dreaming not only of by-gone days but of the river's marvelous future in which he was ever a firm and forward-looking believer. One of the bright spots in Captain Nowland's declining years was when the Kate Adams left Memphis in the spring of 1925 to be rebuilt at Paducah. At the invitation of his friend, the lat Capt. Jeff Hicks, Captain Nowland made the trip to Paducah and lived on board while she was rebuilt by the Ayer and Lord ways. he then remained aboard as she left for Cincinnati and made the first round trip in the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh trade. Captain Nowland possessed a marvellous memory of the old days on the river and his mentality remained clear to the end. It was a constant delight to talk with him and his popularity with the river fraternity was ever on the increase. Known from Pittsburgh and St. Louis to New Orleans by thousands of rivermen, his memroy will always be revered in pleasant association. A "gentleman of the old school" his manners were courteous and polished; he was a vivid link with the past; and, like the still lamented Capt. Edwin F. Maddy, he was knwon everywhere as the "gentleman captain." During his stay last year in St. Louis, Captain Nowland was a daily visitor to the Waterways Journal office, where his visits were always a source of pleasure and inspiration to the Editors who, in his passing over, have lost one of their closest friends and well-wishers.

From Capt. E. W. B Nowland, Jr. On train en route to California April 25 - To the Managing Editors ????? Mr. Wright mourn with me in the loss of my dear old Father. I had hoped that he would go to California with me in March but he wanted to go to Memphis and come out later. I had been out there about two weeks when I received word he was quite ill. I came as quickly as possiible to Memphis and was with him to the end - had my arms around him when he breathed his last. I had a horrible trip of delays in getting his remains through the flood district to Fort Smith, the spot in which he spent his happy boyhood days. The funeral was beautiful (if there is any such things). His active pallbearers were sons of old friends who have departed this life, and the honorary bearers were men near his age who were friends in days gone by, among them John Smith, who is a brother of Capt. Eugene Smith. I regret not having written you sooner and letting you know of his illness but my hands were full and my heart overflowing. I did not leave his side for a moment. Sincerely, Edward Nowland