John Norwood McCarty (1916-2012) was born to a farming family outside of Lively in Lancaster County, Virginia. His boyhood interplay with steamboats involved raising produce that he and his family then delivered to the bustling steamboat wharf to board the vessels for sale. McCarty provided vivid accounts of a rural steamboat wharf community, from a cooperative grower’s packinghouse to the local Speakeasy.

A local newspaper reporter, Haynes is owner of historic Hudgins House adjacent to the Crickett Hill Steamboat Wharf on the Piankitank River near the Gwynn’s Island bridge. She discusses the handwritten boarding house ledger dating from 1916 and overnight guests who came from far and wide.

Larry Chowning (Age 54 at the time) with Michael Kline and Dianne Jordan in Larry's Mother's living room in Urbanna.  Sprung from generations of family in Urbanna, Chowning displays a flair for uncovering intriguing details of the Chesapeake region through first person accounts. He is prolific author and knows every detail of making a living on the water over the past century.

Captain Arthur C. “Bill” Johnson (1927-2016) piloted international ships through the Chesapeake waters. He easily named the lighthouses he passed regularly along the Potomac River. Johnson spoke with great respect for the pilots of the passenger steamers with whom he exchanged light and whistle signals passing in narrow stretches of water. He outlined the terminology of steamships and spoke with high regard for the statuesque passenger boats around which local economies were based.

The first part of Mrs. Olivia Mariam Williams Haynie's (1917-2006) interview is spent in bitter recollection of the atrocities committed by the Yankees during the Civil War, tales of great incivility passed down from her grandparents who witnessed affairs firsthand. From here Miriam Haynie takes listeners from her Reedville home to and through the Baltimore. Steamboats occasioned close relations between the Northern Neck and this cosmopolitan city.

Charles J. "Chuck" Harney (1922-2004). At the time of the interview he had been retired to Lancaster County fifteen years. He said he had videotaped over 150 interviews with local people on boats, in homes and shops, in fields and marshes throughout the region.

At 100 years old Mrs. Morgan, with the help of her son, legislator Harvey Morgan, recalled her honeymoon voyage aboard a side-wheeler in the 1920s. The Morgan family has operated a pharmacy in Gloucester Court House for generations. 

Charles R. Winstead, Age 88 (1915-2008). Captain Winstead spent most of his working life aboard a menhaden (type of fish) fishing boat. A powerful and articulate seaman, Winstead elucidates the inner workings of a steam-powered fishing vessel, including singing an example of the chanteys he led as a crew member to draw in the nets. Winstead, the first African-American in the region to acquire a pilot and captain’s license, rode passenger steamboats on several occasions during his younger days.

Interview with Robert Stewart Edwards

Clarence Benjamin "Buck" Rowe (1921-2005). Interviewed by Carrie & Michael Kline with Dianne Jordan for the Steamboat Era Museum; 11/3/03. At the time of the interview Mr. Rowe was keeping a store at Bena in the Guinea community of lower Gloucester County. The store was established by his father in 1920, at the height of the steamboat era. His vivid memories brought to life details of nearby wharves where he went twice weekly as a young boy with a wagon and team to pick up deliveries for the store.