Tyrey Family on a Flatboat

This is an image I snatched from the internet, but I wanted to show what it must have been like to travel down the Mississippi River on a flatboat. Two relatives have related the story that Jacob Tyrey and Celecia Kilpatrick Tyrey with their children---Francis M. Tyrey and Caroline Tyrey Valle (and possibly my g-g grandmother Eliza Ellen Tyrey Reiter who is listed as being born in Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin). Here is a web-page which explains the dimensions and logistics of a flatboat a little better.


Although Jacob Tyrey had been born in Germany (abt. 1810), one family genealogist said that he came with his father to the United States. We know Jacob lived in Iowa County, Wisconsin in 1836, but we don't know when he immigrated from Germany (Prussia or Wuerttemburg). Another family genealogist suggested they might have come through Canada which was a common point of entry for those settling in Wisconsin at that time. We know Jacob and his family were still living in Wisconsin in 1841 because the older children were born there and there is a land record. Sometime between 1846 and 1850 the Tyrey Family came down the Mississippi River to settle near Richwoods, Missouri. I have several other posts on the Tyree, Tyrey, Tirey Family---look to the "Labels" on the left to read more about this adventurous family.

Just for the record, I'd be nervous coming down the Mississippi River in a houseboat from Wisconsin to Missouri much less a flatboat with all of my possessions and young children. While there might not have been rapids depicted above, there is one notorious part of the Mississippi River. Click here for a video of the "Chain of Rocks" which is just north of St. Louis---they would have had to go over it or get around it to get to Jefferson County, Mo which is south of St. Louis.