"For $28,850, the Howards built the wooden-hulled packetboat for Captain Granderson Winfrey Hill just two years before he died in 1911 at age 86. Captain Hill's death coincided nearly exactly with the 100th anniversary of the first steamboat, NEW ORLEANS, to operate on the Western Rivers of North America. Capt. Hill, though born in Chesterfield County, Virginia, on June 29, 1824, began steamboating on the river as a young man."
"After Granderson Winfrey Hill's demise in 1911, Captain D. W. Wisherd and Sam Gregory bought the G. W. HILL. They converted it into an excursion boat running on the Upper Mississippi River between Davenport, Iowa, and St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1912, it began excursions at La Crosse, Wisconsin, where it proved immensely popular due to its spacious accommodations and dance floor. The HILL's steam calliope was a special attraction for steamboat fans of all ages."
The G. W. HILL was a sternwheel packet built in 1909 by the Howard Shipyard in Jeffersonville, Indiana, measuring 190 by 36 by 6.5 feet with 25-inch cylinders and a seven-foot piston stroke. Three boilers measured 42 inches by 24 feet. Captain Granderson Winfrey Hill commissioned the wooden-hulled boat for $28,850 two years before his 1911 death at age 86. Hill began steamboating as a young man and helped found the Eagle Packet Company, serving as secretary and treasurer until 1903. After Hill's death, Captain D. W. Wisherd and Sam Gregory bought and converted the vessel into an excursion boat on the Upper Mississippi, where its spacious accommodations, dance floor, and steam calliope made it immensely popular.
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