Throwback Thursday by Matson Insurance: Building Boats in Jefferson County

Matson Insurance has partnered with Jefferson County History Center to offer exploreJeffersonpa.com readers a look into Jefferson County’s past. Today, the history of boat-building in Jefferson County is highlighted.

[Pictured above: Boats were built on the Clarion River near Clarington in the 19th century. (JCHS Collection)]

(Article submitted by Carole Briggs, Jefferson County Historical Society.)

BUILDING BOATS IN PORT BARNETT?

The Jefferson County History Centers owns a strange little cart with wheels. Sometimes we exhibit it with an auger and a tinted photograph of a river scene. Why do we group these things together?

Arthur Altman bought the “Caulker’s Cart” from the estate of Dr. Brewer (Doc’s father) in Clarington. Caulker’s carts or caulker’s stools were used by boat builders to roll a man along as he filled the cracks of a boat’s hull with oakum, rope soaked in tar. This technique prevented water from leaking into the boat. The auger, tagged a “ship’s auger” so as not to be confused with a miner’s auger, was used to drill the holes for the hard wooden pegs or “trunnels” that were used to fasten pieces together.

These objects and both the framed tinted photograph and a smaller black and white image used on the label illustrate an important industry of years gone by―boat-building! The tinted photograph measures 15” by 20” and both it and the smaller one of Clarington clearly show a large barge in the water (see photograph). Building boats in Jefferson County? Everyone knows our rivers and streams are too shallow to support boat travel. Surely we must be joking!

But indeed, historian McKnight did describe boat-building in the county. (See page 8.) We know that Joseph Barnett settled his family at the place now called Port Barnett in 1797. We know he built a sawmill, rafted boards to Pittsburgh and traded for supplies, then several years later built a grist mill. The family first lived in a log cabin, then he built a log house that served as an inn. But at what point did that place assume the name “Port Barnett?”

Historian Scott writes that “an extensive advertisement…of the ‘Port Barnett Hotel’ appeared in a newspaper of 1859,” and when the Pomeroy map was printed in 1866, Port Barnet [sic] is shown where Mill Creek empties into Sandy Lick. Putting two and two together, it was quite early in our county’s history that boats for shipping pig iron were built where Barnett’s family had settled. The locals, as well as those portaging the pig iron from Centre County, must have begun referring to the place as Port Barnett.

So now we know and it shouldn’t seem so strange that a place deep in the forests of Pennsylvania, far from the salty air, winging seagulls, and ocean ships of our major seaports, is called Port Barnett.

Copyright@Jefferson County Historical Society, Inc.

Throwback Thursday is brought to you by Matson Insurance in Brookville.

Submitted by the Jefferson County History Center.