Account Book of the Ferryboat W. V. B. Heermance

Item — Container: Manuscript Shelves

Identifier: MV 1690

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Item is a ledger of accounts related to the operation of the W. V. B. Heermance Steam Ferryboat at Coxsackie as well as miscellaneous accounts of the firm of Hamilton and Smith engaged in the freight and shipping business at Coxsackie.

Some accounts are abstract tallies of expenses listed under "Reed and Powell" and "Hamilton and Smith" while others give individual names and itemized expenses accrued by those individuals for various services rendered. Some of these include the towning of canal boats, and may not be directly related to the operations of the ferry.

Dates

1868 - 1871

Biographical / Historical

The "W. V. B. Heermance" was the first steam powered ferry to operated between Coxsackie and Newton Hook in the nineteenth century. The vessel was named for William Van Bergen Heermance, a founding father of the village of Coxsackie, and operated from 1868 to 1878 before being replaced by the ferry "Coxsackie."

Hamilton and Smith, ostensibly the owners and operators of the W. V. B. Heermance, was a freight and transportation venture owned and operated by David Miller Hamilton and brother-in-law Jonah Smith. This firm was one of several engaged in shipping at Coxsackie during that period, but this account book would seem to indicate Hamilton and Smith held the lucrative ferry franchise for this area.