John Fitch (inventor)
The first successful trial run of his steamboat "Perseverance" was made on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence of delegates from the Constitutional Convention. It was propelled by a bank of oars on either side of the boat. During the next few years, Fitch and Voigt worked to develop better designs, and in June 1790 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 30 paying passengers on numerous round-trip voyages between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey during the summer of 1790. Estimates of miles traveled that summer range from 1,300 to 3,000, and Fitch claimed that the boat often went for 500 miles without mechanical problems. Estimated speeds were of a minimum 6 miles per hour under unfavorable conditions, to a maximum of 7 or 8 miles per hour.
Fitch was granted a U.S. patent on August 26, 1791, after a battle with James Rumsey, who had also invented a steam-powered boat. The newly created federal Patent Commission did not award the broad monopoly patent that Fitch had asked for, but rather a patent of the modern kind, for the new design of Fitch's steamboat. It also awarded steam-engine-related patents dated that same day to Rumsey, Nathan Read, and John Stevens. The loss of a monopoly due to these same-day patent awards led many of Fitch's investors to leave his company. While his boats were mechanically successful, Fitch no longer had the financial resources to carry on.
George Tromley Sr. House
Tromley sailed the Mississippi River before the advent of the steamboat. He began his career on the river floating log rafts, which were common before the Civil War, and he built the first raft boat on the river at Le Claire. Eventually he sailed the river as a captain. Tromley and Thomas Doughty, a local engineer, took the small steamer the "Le Claire" upriver where they conducted an experiment to use a steamboat to push a log raft. The "Le Claire" was not powerful enough to control the raft, but the experiment led to a major development in being able to transport logs from the northern forests to the mills further south. Samuel Van Sant of Le Claire was able to use its results to build a boat that was large enough and had enough power to tow a log raft in 1870. George Tromley Sr. married Katherine McCaffrey and they raised three children. The house of their eldest son, George Tromley Jr., is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.