ORA LEE

ORA LEE: Stern Wheel Packet wood hull Way’s Packet Directory page 357. Built by Howard Shipyard, Jeffersonville Ind. 1891, 140 x 32.4 x 4. Owned by the Lee Line , Memphis, and ran short trades. In July 1900 hauled on the Mound City (Ark) marine ways, and was sold soon thereafter to White River, her name was changed to ORLANDO, which then ran the Memphis and White River weekly, April 1901. Struck a snag two miles above Peach Orchard Bluff on the White River July 5, 1901 en route from Memphis to Newport Ark and was lost.

5 Responses to ORA LEE

  1. Mickey Donohue says:

    My mother was named Ora Lee Robinette in 1900 or 1901 by her father Epson G. Robinett, “after a steamboat”. Epson Robinette hauled timbers down the Mississippi. and evidently was impressed with The Ora Lee.

  2. Fredette Smith Eagle says:

    My father told me that his father, James Buchanan Smith was either a captain or pilot on the Ora Lee, the Fred Herold, the Chancey Lee . If anybody can give me any further information, I’d love to hear from them.

    Fredette Eagle

    • leelinesteamers says:

      Thank you for the information on the Lee Line boats James Buchanan Smith served as pilot or captain.
      I will further study Capt. William Tippitt’s History of the Lee Line to see if I overlooked his work
      for the Lee Line.

      Jim

  3. Fredette Smith Eagle says:

    The boat is named the Ferd Herold, as it is painted on the pilot house in the photograph that I have.
    Fredette Eagle

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