Steamboat Disaster

Historical marker location:

Hawesville, Kentucky

( 123 State Highway 3133, Hawesville, KY)

Hawesville Cemetery is burial place for thirty-eight passengers of steamboat Reindeer who were killed when a boiler exploded on the Ohio River between Cannelton, Indiana and Hawesville, March 13, 1854. A gravestone on the northeast edge marks the location where the victims were buried in a mass grave.

(Reverse) Captain William Davison- Confederate Captain William Davison is buried here. He died March 7, 1865, from a gunshot wound suffered in a firefight with Union Home Guard, February 24, 1865, near Patesville during the Civil War. Davison led a band of rebel guerillas that raided counties from Brandenburg to Owensboro in 1864. The rebels burned the Daviess County Courthouse, January 4, 1865.

Cemeteries Civil War Confederate Army Ohio River Steamboats

The famous horse race, the Kentucky Derby, has been held annually at Churchill Downs in Louisville since 1875.