In the span of two years the old dam at Little Hocking claimed two major sternwheelers and 18 lives.

As the Kanawha pulled away from Marietta on Jan. 5, 1916, Jennie Hoyt stood on her Virginia Street porch and watched it leaving the wharf carrying her son Fred, who was a clerk on the boat, and 63 other crew and passengers. The boat was about midway through its run from Pittsburgh to Charleston.

She shaded her eyes from the sun as she watched the boat make its way past Harmar and down the choppy and windswept Ohio River. She had an uneasy feeling as she watched the boat hug the West Virginia shore to avoid the large waves in the middle of the long straight stretch of river. She continued to watch as it made its turn near Moores Junction. Her son would return home early the next day after going through one of the roughest nights of his life.

By 7 p.m., the Kanawha had finished its stop at Little Hocking and was blown off course by the strong wind. It slammed into the steel tower of the lock of dam 19 and quickly began taking on water.

“The Kanawha sunk in three minutes after it struck. I ordered every person to the upper decks and when the boat turned turtle, every person but myself was off in lifeboats or life preservers and I didn’t see anyone drowned or in the river. I stayed with the boat until every person was off and rescued,” captain Brady Berry told The Times.

He may not have seen them drown, but 16 people lost their lives in the accident. Only two of the three lifeboats were able to be launched. Even though the boat was sinking, it was still moving down the river. The hull of the boat flipped over after striking a sandbar with people still clinging to it. Capt. Berry and Jimmy Manley, a cabin boy from Pittsburgh floated several miles downriver on the upside-down hull before being rescued, as did many others who were able to stay alive by repeatedly climbing onto the overturned hull as it tumbled down the river.

Fred Hoyt would help many of the people by getting floating objects to them to help keep them from drowning. Hoyt would later return to Marietta by train after spending much of the night in the cold Ohio River.

A lack of light was one of the reasons for the accident. It also made rescue difficult. A.C. Crawford, a carpenter in Little Hocking, heard the screams of the passengers and set out in a small boat to help. He got eight people to shore in one trip and five in another.

It would take at least an hour to get everyone out of the water. By the time rescue efforts were done, the wet and cold passengers were spread out along four miles of riverbanks.

The search for victims of the disaster would continue for months. The swift currents that night meant that many were carried miles downriver. A newspaper reported the recovery of a body near Belleville in July, six months after the wreck, that was believed to be one of the passengers of the boat. There were still six people missing at that time.

The dam at Little Hocking was not done causing havoc along the Ohio River. The sternwheeler Tell City took over the route of the Kanawha. A little more than a year later The Tell City would meet a similar fate at the same spot. The voyage of the Tell City will be detailed in two weeks.

Part of the apron of the Little Hocking dam can still be seen on the Ohio side. On the West Virginia side there is a small ramp available near the now unused lock houses.

Art Smith is online manager of The Times, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com