As far back as 1830 folks were talking about the Trinity and what might be done with it. The first navigation of the mighty old river goes back well over 100 years, to a voyage by the vessel "Scioto Belle." I have found documentation of two different dates, one in 1836, the year Texas won its independence from Mexico and one in 1844.
The citizens of Dallas, TX, desirous to be a port city, began to get serious about navigating the Trinity in the 1860s and put together a pot of money, amounting to $500 saying it would be given to the first person to successfully navigate the Trinity between Galveston and Dallas. Word of the challenge reached Captain James H. McGarvey, or Cap’n Jim, as he was known, a fearless steam-boatin’ man.
Cap’n Jim cared nothing for the prize money, but he loved a good adventure! He successfully navigated the Trinity from Galveston to Dallas in his steamboat, Job Boat No. 1 (later dubbed The Lost Heir), with a full load of merchandise. The trip was hard and many times they had to push, pull, break up log jams, cut down trees, etc, to navigate the waters of the Trinity.
Job Boat No. 1, left Galveston in September of 1867, and arrived in Dallas May of 1868, the trip taking 8 months. In an unnamed newspaper account in our files, the writer, Arthur F. Sanders writes, “The town of Dallas, as Cap’n Jim found it in 1868, was little more than a spot where the driver of freight teams could stop to wet their whistles and water their horses while passing along the trail. The town was young and awkward but lusty, and the citizens were whooping and boasting of the port they were going to have just as soon as a few dams were built and a few cricks in the river straightened out. They didn’t think it would take much money to bring the Gulf of Mexico to their front door.”
By the time Cap’n Jim arrived in Dallas there was no prize money left, so the officials offered him a parcel of land, much of which was at the foot of Commerce Street in downtown Dallas. Cap’n Jim said, “Pish and Tush, I’m no farmer, I’m a steamboatin’ man,” so he traded the land for a mess of groceries and a bolt of cloth. Cap’n Jim, not possessed by the gift of prophecy, figured the land would cost him a lot of money in taxes and such.
Cap’n Jim met with tragedy when he was about halfway home on his return trip to Galveston. The crew had gone ashore to attend a shindig given in their honor at night. A sudden rise swept down the river and the stern wheeler caught the full force of the swirling water, yawned, broke her lines, and overturned.
