Frank Padget
The story of a hero batteaumen whose story has survived the test of time. Learn the legend of Frank Padget below.
Alfred Stith Lee was a businessman in Richmond, Virginia during the mid-1800s. He owned and operated A.S. Lee & Co. This company owned several boats that plied the James River. One such boat was named the Clinton. It was a Canal freight boat. It was operated by a tow rope pulled by 2 mules along a tow path on shore, while the passengers enjoyed a smooth ride through the canal owned and operated by the James River and Kanawha Canal Company.
On 21 January 1854, the Clinton’s captain was Mr. Wood. They were headed upstream on the James River near Glasgow, bound for Buchanan. Those aboard the Clinton included several white hands and 34 black hands destined for the Central Railroad to labor for Messrs. Coleman, Morris, & Co., 4-5 young gentlemen, Capt. Wood and 5 crewmen. There had been a winter storm which caused a freshet or flood on the North/Maury River as it entered the James. Captain Wood decided to proceed and the mules pulling the Clinton crossed the wooden covered bridge with a slit in the side for the tow rope. The rope broke and the Clinton was swept into the main channel of the James River by the torrent flowing from the North/Maury River. The river was too deep for poles to be of any use. Captain Wood had the tiller and guided the Clinton as straight as possible through the Balcony Falls/Mountain Dam.
At this point, panic ensued. One of the young gentlemen, Sydnor Royall from Lynchburg, was reported to have jumped into the torrent and with the tow rope in his teeth, and started swimming ashore. He made it safely after being forced to let go of the rope. E.F. Flagg (E. Hugg?), and 2 boat hands also made it safely to shore. Mr. Reuben Paine from Fredericksburg and 2 black men drowned. Captain Wood and 4-5 others jumped off when the Clinton reached White Rock Falls. Somehow the Clinton made it safely downstream and hung lightly at the head of Tobacco Hills Falls. Out of roughly 50 originally on the Clinton, about 37 persons were still aboard.
Frank Padget, an old headman batteauman and enslaved African American belonging either to a man named Padget or Peter A. Salling, took the lead as the head of the batteau rescue party. Sam and Bob, also enslaved men, along with William G. Mathews and William McColgan, both employees of the James River and Kanawha Company comprised the rescue crew. The batteau made an arduous trip and rescued all but one lone soul who had jumped off the Clinton as it passed by the Velvet rock. The harsh weather had taken its toll on Frank Padget, but he persevered and made a second, fatal trip to rescue the last strandedsoul. This second rescue mission included Bob, Sam, William G. Mathews, William McColgan, and two new people, Thomas Oney, and an unknown black man. Just as the rescuee, perhaps named Edmund, jumped into the batteau, it crashed and broke against the rocks. Five made it onto the rock. Bob made it safely to shore by holding onto the stern batteau sweep. Frank Padget and the rescuee/Edmund drowned.
The next day, Sam Evans, an old mountain ferryman, and six volunteers rescued the 5 half-frozen men who had spent the night on the flat rock near the Velvet Rock. Three of this crew were black men belonging to Peter A. Salling. The Clinton apparently also survived the ordeal, because it was reported that Robert Payne of Lexington repaired her.
A complete account of these events can be found in The Upper James Atlas. These traumatic experiences happened to real people with everyday lives. VC&NS Archivist Diane Easley is trying to find out more about what life was like for them before and after Saturday, 21 January 1854. (Archivist@vacanals.org) Also, even though Frank Padget was enslaved, and viewed as property rather than as a person at the time, he exhibited the best part of humanity in sacrificing his life for his fellow human beings.