Hancock County, kentucky

                              
Where country living, history, and modern industry come together!            

 

Hawesville, Kentucky                   

Mayor Rita Stephens - Mayorrita@hawesville.us - (270)927-8707

Steamboat Festival

  • Dates of Festival for 2011 - October 8th & 9th
  • Contact Rita Stephens if you are interested in helping with the planning or participating in the festival.   (270)929-4112
  • Next planning meeting for the festival is September 25, 2011 at 3 pm, City Hall
  • Go to the following link for more information Steamboat Festival

 

Steamboat History

  • Memory Gardens Cemetery is burial place for thirty-eight passengers of steamboat Reindeer who were killed when a boiler exploded on the Ohio River between Cannelton, Indiana, and Hawesville, March 13, 1854. A gravestone on the northeast edge marks the location where the victims were buried in a mass grave.
  • Pictures of steamboats in the Hancock County Museum donated by Arthur and Dorothy Reese.
  • Their Daughter Peggy Bastin lives in Owensboro and is still active in helping with the museum.
  • In the museum they have the official Hat worn by Arthur Reese who was the steam engineer on the Belle of Louisville which is still in operation today.
  • The Reese family used to live in the house right next to the current Hawesville City Hall         
  • The museum used to be used as the old city hall.  They changed the inside to tiling on the floor and paneling on the walls but when turning it back into a museum they restored it back to the original floor and walls.
  • The Steamboat room is located in what used to be the ticket room in the old train station.
  • The Gertrude & Judelle were steamboats actually built on the banks f Hawesville
  • The Sprague was the largest paddle wheel boat ever to float down the Ohio River
  • H & C Ferry served as transportation between Hawesville and Cannelton up until the mid 1930’s
  • Mail & Merchandise came from steamboats
  • Replicas of many steamboats are located in the museum an were built by Franklin Meserve
  • The museum has been operating for 24 years and if full of the history of Hawesville

  

Kentucky Educational Television

  • Recently filmed a segment on the city of Hawesville
  • Mayor Rita Stephens showed them the historical places in Hawesville such as the courthouse, Hancock County Museum and Vastwood Park.
  • It airs on Kentucky Living, November 12th 2011 at 8pm