THOMAS CORNELL
AND THE
CORNELL STEAMBOAT COMPANY
 First Edition 2001
Published by ISBN 1-930098-15-4 Available at the Hudson River A review by Geddy Sveikauskas A review by John Rowan PURPLE MOUNTAIN PRESS is a publishing company committed to producing the best original books of regional interest as well as bringing back into print significant older works. Their catalog contains more than 300 hard-to-find books about New York State. |
Foreward
Early in the twentieth century, the mighty Cornell Steamboat Company was at its peak and dominated Hudson River towing. Within two decades, however, the tides of change--natural and industrial and social--overwhelmed Cornell just when bitter conflict within the family that had built the company caused it to founder. Although its executives and trustees worked gallantly to rescue Cornell, and with considerable success, by 1964, Cornell as an operating company was gone forever.By the end of the century, the Cornell Steamboat Company was only a distant memory to the cities and communities of the Hudson River, although Cornell´s beautiful passenger vessels and hard working tugboats used to be seen every day at the waterfronts. For generations, the company´s boat whistles were heard and recognized from the northern canals to New York harbor, but the names of Thomas Cornell and S. D. Coykendall have been forgotten even in Kingston, New York, the city they helped to build in the mid-Hudson Valley.
What Cornell and Coykendall achieved with such brilliance is virtually unknown to the descendants of hundreds of men and women who worked for them, competed with them, envied them--and surely admired them. Since it is impossible to mention all the Cornell employees by name in these pages, those who are included here must stand for all.
It would be gratifying if this book helps renew interest in the Cornell Steamboat Company, and in the people and boats who made Cornell one of the finest and most enduring business enterprises America has ever known.
Stuart Murray
East Chatham, New York