Huntington Herald Advertiser 26 Apr 1906 PILOT ON THE FIRST TOWBOAT ON OHIO RIVER Captain Elijah Barringer was one of the pilots on the first Condor died last week at his home in Middleport , and who will be buried Saturday, was the perhaps the oldest living riverman at the time of his death. Captain Barringer is the father of Asa Barringer a well known coach maker at the C & O shops and a prominent East End Citizen. Captain Barringer had served fifty-four years on the river,part of which he was a pilot on a flatboat before anyone conceived of the idea of towing boats both ways. Flatboats were used in those days to take produce down the river , mostly timber and farm products which were loaded on the boats and taken to other points down river to be sold, many of the boats taken to New Orleans. He and his brother were pilots on the first towboat on the Ohio River The Condor which was built before there was any thought of making a business of towing coal up and down the river. The boat was a side wheeler and a very cumbroms affair indeed which was ran by a single engine attached to a shaft which ran through the center of the boat and a wheel crank in the center which necessatated all the steering being done by the wise manipulation of the rudders. There were several Condors after the first was built and possibly some people might think they remember the first one but later on the others were built up to the Condor No.3 Captain Barringer was born in 1815 and had watched the development of the steamboat business on the Ohio in what might be termed it infancy and has watched the growth of the river traffic in the passenger line from the first effort to its zenith and then until the present day when it is claimed to be waning. The Condor was a good boat for her time, though there weren't a boat of her same construction and machinery on the river at the present time, she would be very slow compared with the heavy powered towboats which now tow twenty- five barges of coal with ease. Could she be seen now on the river her clumsy movements and chug-chug of her ponderous slow revolving engine , would cause wonder and merriment. The passing of these old rivermen marks an epoch in the history of the Ohio River latter day memories of which cannot exceed the early history of the great waterways in cherished recollections