Robert Fulton
The first successful trial run of a steamboat had been made several years earlier in the United States by inventor John Fitch, on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787. Attendees included delegates from the Constitutional Convention, who were observing while taking a break from their summer-long sessions at Independence Hall. The steamboat was propelled by a bank of oars on either side of the boat. The following year Fitch launched a boat powered by a steam engine driving several stern-mounted oars. These oars paddled in a manner similar to the motion of a swimming duck's feet. With this boat he carried up to thirty passengers for hire on numerous round-trip voyages on the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey.
Steamboats of the Coquille River
As the river ran inland, it became so narrow that it was said that passengers could amuse themselves by leaning out the windows and picking flowers. William Russell Panter, a descendant of one of the first pioneer families in the area, was apparently one of the first to enter the inland steamboat business. Wm. R. Panter bought a small steamer, "Maria", and put her in service above Coquille, towing a boat hauling milk from farms to the first creamery on the Coquille River, which was about two miles (3 km) up the river from Coquille. Panter later organized a run to the Timmons cannery in Bandon, towing a scow loaded with salmon caught by fishermen.