Part 4, Note 18

Click Here to See All Notes to Part 4

Telegraph and Texas Register, November 5, 1845, April 15, 1846, December 7, 1846, December 21, 1846, May 10, 1847, June 14, 1847, July 5, 1847; Galveston Evening News, March 3, 1846; Texas Democrat, March 11, 1846; Victor Bracht, Texas in 1848, Charles Frank Schmidt, trans. (San Antonio: Naylor Printing Company, 1931), p. 10. The Kate Ward was built and owned by two men, identified as Ward and Robertson. They may have been Trowbridge Ward and Joseph W. Robertson, each of whom was named as a commissioner in the law which created the second Colorado Navigation Company (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 2, p. 937). Ward may also have been Thomas William Ward, who was involved in later navigation efforts, or Samuel Ward, who at the time owned a substantial amount of land in Colorado County, or George W. Ward, a cotton merchant in Matagorda who sold the land to Samuel Ward (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book D, p. 217, Book E, p. 321). Probably, though, he was William J. Ward, the captain of the boat.
    The above-cited issue of the Texas Democrat provides this physical description of the Kate Ward: "115 feet keel; deck the same; 24 feet beam; hull divided into 8 compartments, all water tight; 2 engines or 70 horse power. With wood, water &c., she draws 18 inches, and is capable of carrying 800 bales of cotton."