Henry Miller Shreve

Henry Miller Shreve
Captain Henry Miller Shreve
BornOctober 21, 1785
Mount Pleasant, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedMarch 6, 1851 (aged 65)
St. Louis, Missouri,[1] U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationHome schooled
OccupationEngineer
Spouses
  • Mary Blair
  • Lydia Rogers
ChildrenHarriet Louise (b. 1811)
Rebecca Ann (b. 1813)
Hampden Zane (b. 1815)
Mary
Parent(s)Israel Shreve
Mary Cokely
Engineering career
ProjectsCleared the Great Raft
Significant designSteamboat Washington
Steamboat Heliopolis

Henry Miller Shreve (October 21, 1785 – March 6, 1851) was an American inventor and steamboat captain who removed obstructions to navigation of the Mississippi, Ohio and Red rivers. Shreveport, Louisiana, was named in his honor.[2]

Shreve was also instrumental in breaking the Fulton-Livingston monopoly on steamboat traffic on the lower Mississippi. He was the first riverboat captain to travel the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and back, as well as the first to bring a keelboat from the Ohio River up the Mississippi to the Fever River in Illinois.[3] Shreve also made significant improvements to the steamboat and the steam engine, such as separate boilers to power side paddlewheels independently, horizontal cylinders, and multiple decks to allow for passengers and entertainment.[2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference shreve_pbs_org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b "Inductees," National Rivers Hall of Fame, The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, retrieved August 21, 2023
  3. ^ Lloyd Hawthorne, "Captain Henry Miller Shreve: Master of the Red," North Louisiana History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Fall 1970), pp. 1-6