To Faith Keahey and All Members of the Jefferson County, Ohio Mailing List, The question was raised as to where the timbers were obtained for the shipbuilding which was conducted at Steubenville, Ohio. I would imagine that the wood was taken from the immediate area and milled locally, since the Ohio lands were originally one vast blanket of forest. The first task the pioneers faced [after they succeeded in reaching their property] was to clear the land of trees so crops could be planted. The EARLY shipbuilding certainly had wood at hand, but I think your question was more directed to the latter days of shipbuilding on the Ohio River. As more settlers came, the primeval forest was cut back, but even then, the reason I think that timber could be procured readily is that the iron furnaces which operated in the Ohio River Valley not far away required a huge quantity of wood, and the iron industry was still flourishing into the 1870's. To get a better grasp of the amount of wood needed, we would need to know how many steamboats were actually being built at Steubenville, Ohio through the years. My search of the Lytle List has turned up thirteen [stet] documented steam vessels built at Steubenville between 1820 and 1854. In addition to these, there may have been some construction of rafts and smaller vessels which were not documented. NOTE: Since my original posting of the steamboat list, I was helped in the project by researcher Sandy Day, who kindly pointed out to me two vessels which I had missed. The corrected list of steamboats will be posted soon, and will supersede the first list. Anyone with additions or corrections to this rudimentary beginning, please join in. Again speaking of wood, a source of income for the landowners near the Ohio River was the selling of cut wood to the steamboat captains, for fueling their vessels. The nineteenth-century entrepreneurial wood-dealers would stack their cordwood at the river bank and hail their water-borne customers. Steamboats consumed a great deal of wood, and had to make stops now and then to take on wood. Randal W. Cooper <rwcooper@kellnet.com> Lorain, Ohio