The Oconee

The Oconee was a 97-foot side wheeler rebuilt from the tugboat, the Stella Marion. Captain C.C, Taylor remodeled and renamed the tugboat for service on the Saint John to Wickham route. During the winter of 1913, she was hauled up on the shore near Glenwood opposite Catons Island where there was a shipyard owned and operated by Harvey Whelpley, who normally made small schooners and wood boats. The tug was cut in two about midships and the bow section moved ahead about 25 feet. The intervening space was filled in, including widening her beam. She had a capacity of 221 tons.

She left Wickham each morning at 5:45 am, and left Saint John at 3:00 pm to arrive at Wickham at 8:30 pm. In her early years, the Saint John Valley railroad was under construction. Many laborers worked a few days on its construction and then returned to the city to be replaced by others. Sometimes they were rather rough and hard to handle, but captain and crew were tolerant because they were paying passengers. During mid-summer, when people went to the country on vacation, a near capacity passenger list was often reached on the Saturday and Monday trips. As years passed, however, the railway and the motor car made the Wickham route very unprofitable and the Oconee was withdrawn from that run in 1923.

This steamboat was representative of the later period of navigation on the St. John. Her side wheels were fit with feathering floats, and it was the last of the side wheelers on the river.

She burned in South Bay four years after the end of her service in 1927.