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Throughout most of the years considered in this chapter, the area now occupied by huge ore unloading machinery, and crisscrossed by railroad tracks, was more domestic. Along the river were ship chandleries, warehouses, and in later years, lumber piles. There were also numerous small buildings, many of them serving as residences. A few farms, too, were located there. Many of these buildings were swept away by the great flood of September 15, 1878. Several small vessels were constructed at Ashtabula prior to 1825. After this date the Hubbard brothers were the principal promoters of shipbuilding for many years. Henry Hubbard was born at Trenton, Oneida County, New York, on April 19, 1803. Late in 1825 he came to Ashtabula to join his brother Matthew who was Ashtabula's first postmaster. The brothers made the first survey of Ashtabula harbor which resulted in a government appropriation for the building of piers in 1826. In 1830 Henry went into the forwarding and commission business, and thus began to provide financial backing for Ashtabula-built ships. He died in 1892. The first established shipbuilders at Ashtabula were Edmund and Erastus Lockwood, who came by ox-cart with their father, James Lockwood, from Onondaga County, New York, where they had learned the shipbuilding trade. Their first vessel was the schooner Columbus, in 1826. Erastus was probably the better known of the two brothers. They built vessels at Ashtabula, Madison Dock, Fairport, and at Monroe, Michigan. On October 14, 1837, the steamer Washington, the first and only sidewheeler built at Ashtabula, was launched. She was built for a stock company in which Henry Hubbard of Ashtabula, and M. Kingman of Buffalo, played prominent roles. It was estimated to have cost $60,000 to build her, and she was commanded by Nathaniel H. Brown. Originally she was to have been named Osceola, and to have painted on one wheel house a picture of Osceola entering the camp of General Jessup under a flag of truce. The other wheelhouse was to have a painting of the Indian chief in chains, in the tent of General Jessup.16 However, prior to the finishing touches, the name Washington was selected. The Washington had a short and inglorious career. On the return portion of her maiden voyage, she caught fire off Silver Creek, New York, causing the deaths of about thirty persons, and burned to a total loss. From roughly 1845 through 1867, Gershom A. Thayer maintained a shipyard on the east bank of the Ashtabula River where the stream makes its first large bend. Some of Thayer's vessels were the schooners Pilot (1848), America (1853), Sioux (1856), and Jessie (1865). There is a strong 23