Steamboat Lioness, Rapides Parish, Louisiana

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Josiah Stoddard Johnston
SOME PROMINENT RAPIDES NAMES OF LONG AGO
by DR. G. M. G. STAFFORD
Source: Melrose Collection #66; NSU Archives; Natchitoches, LA.
Louisiana State Courier January 1985
Compiled by: Annette Carpenter Womack, editor
Typed by: Gaytha Carver Thompson

A copy of the Alexandria Gazette, published here on May 26, 1833, has the
following item relative to this disaster:
"We are favored by Captain Cockrel with the following list of persons who were
lost by the unfortunate explosion of the steamboat Lioness on the 19th
instant:

"Cabin Passengers   Hon. Josiah S. Johnson, Bazil Q. Rigg, Esq., of
Alexandria; H. Hertz, of Nacogdoches; M. Clifford of New Orleans; Charles
Boyce of the parish of Rapides.

"Boat Crew   John Coley, mate, Louisville, Ky.; John Clark, Steward, from
England; James Fulsom, deck hand, Alexandria; a mulatto boy, second cook;
Mary, a mulatto woman, chamber maid; two deck passengers, names unknown;
William L. Gant, and a negro boy named William, the property of J. F. Cortis.

"We are happy to learn that a majority of the wounded have recovered, and that
the remainder are doing well.  We understand that the Hon. Edward D. White was
much better on Monday last."

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Bazil {sic} Q. Rigg was a prominent lawyer in Alexandria and at a meeting of
the bar on May 23, 1833, the following resolution was passed:
"Be it resolved, that we sincerely lament the untimely death of our worthy
friend and associate member of the bar, Basil {sic} Q. Rigg, Esq.  As a
gentlemen of unsullied honor, and sincere and ardent in his attachments, all
who knew him, will bear testimony.  As a professional gentlemen and friend his
loss is sincerely deplored by the members of the bar and the community at
large."