Steamboat Launched. The new steamboat built for Messrs Ward & Co. of Matagorda and intended for the navigation of the Colorado above the raft, was launched on the 21st ULT. She has been christened the Kate Ward. She is 110 feet keel, 24 feet beam, and is calculated to carry 600 bales of cotton in three feet of water; her present draft is only 5 inches.
In June of this same year, 1844, the La Grange Intelligencer announced that local businessman Samuel Ward planned to build a steamboat that would ply the Colorado. Of course, even back then, few things would happen as expected, and the vessel did not actually slip down the ways into the river until Saturday, June 21, of the following year. Ward named the boat after his sister, Kate and when loaded with 600 bales of cotton, she would draw much less water than her original draft of 5 inches.
On March 8, 1846, the boat made it from La Grange to Austin. Practically, the whole town turned out to see the steamboat tied up at the foot of Congress Avenue. Three days later, the boat went even farther upstream, carrying a delegation of business leaders, lawmakers, and U.S.
