He joined his brother John in the spring of 1850 to head west to Muscatine, IA. At Pittsburgh they boarded the steamer "Belle of the West" to go to Cincinnati. When near Florence Island in the Ohio River, the steamer caught fire and was burned to the water's edge, both brothers being so badly burned that they died shortly after they were rescued.

1 Mar 1850: AWFUL STEAMBOAT DISASTER--DESTRUCTION OF THE BELLE OF THE WEST: "Our city was thrown into gloom on yesterday afternoon, by the arrival of the heart-rendering intelligence that the steamer "Belle of the West," on her way to St. Louis, from this port, was burned to the water's edge, on Monday night about 12 o'clock, two miles below Warsaw, Ky., and in all probability from fifty to one hundred persons had perished in the flames. The Belle had on board one hundred registered cabin passengers, not including a number of children attached to families, whose names were not registered, and on deck there were about one hundred emigrants and others, whose names had not been taken down. The boat was fully freighted, and had on the luggage and moveables of numbers of emigrants, and some forty or fifty persons on their way to California. The fire was discovered in the hold by the smoke issuing from aft the hatchway, and is supposed to have been occasioned by carelessness in leaving a candle burning. Prompt efforts were made to suppress the flames without giving the alarm, but the fire gained so fast that the officers and crew were compelled to yield to it. The engineer called to the pilot, through the trumpet, to run the boat ashore, which was immediately done and the alarm given. The greater portion of the passengers being asleep in their rooms, the officers of the boat rushed into the cabin, into which fire and smoke had already commenced pouring, and those who could not be awakened by the alarm were dragged from their beds. The doors were burst open; numbers who were insensible from fright were carried out by the crew, and, in fact, as we have it from an eye witness, all connected with the boat periled their lives to save those on board. The boat was totally enveloped in flames, fore and aft, in less than four minutes, and amidst the crackling roar of consuming fire, the shrieks of the helpless, the doomed to certain death, were distinctly heard--the voices of men, women, and children; mothers, fathers, and offspring--mingling in the roar of death and horror. The steamers Hermann and Useter brought up a number of the survivors, and a portion of the freight that was saved. The houses in Florence were filled with the sufferers, and every attention to their comfort was bestowed by the citizens. The register of the boat was saved, but the contents of the iron safe, including the money, etc., were destroyed. The Belle of the West was commanded by Capt. James. Mr. Salsbury, of Hanging Rock, who was on board--a deck passenger--says he knows of two families, one consisting of four and the other of seven persons, who perished; they were from Pennsylvania. Numbers leaped over board and were drowned, while others were awakened too late to escape the horrid death which surrounded them. The scene, as described by Mr. Thomas Rutherford, of this city, who, in company with Thomas Lawsen, had retired to his berth but a short time before the alarm was given, was awful and heart-rending. The officers of the boat repairing to the cabin, upon the first alarm aroused the passengers by knocking at each state-room door. In a moment all was confusion and disorder beyond description. Shriek upon shriek broke upon the midnight air. Mothers in their night dresses, with babes pressed for safety to their breasts, rushed to and fro in frantic agony in search of other loved ones of their flock, whom they sought to save. Every part of the boat was filled with the dense and suffocating smoke which had been so long pent up in the hold, where the destroying element was preying on the vitals of the illstarred steamer. The lurid flames shot up through the thick smoke in tortuous windings like fiery serpents enveloping their victims, amid whose agonizing cries the demoniac crackled and laughed in mad mockery and direful derision. Many in the insane fright of the moment leapt into the water from the hurricane deck, their egress being cut off below, preferring to stem the current of water to the current of flame; others jumped overboard from the guards and the afterpart of the boat; some saved themselves by swimming ashore, while others only escaped the fire to perish in the water. The bow of the boat only struck the shore, the stern swung round, the boat struck, and the only chance was in reaching the shore by the bow. So great was the rush of deck and cabin passengers that many were prevented from saving themselves through that channel. Many were jostled and trampled upon, and so rapid was the progress of the fire that, notwithstanding the communication with the shore, it is estimated that not less than from fifty to one hundred passengers perished by fire and water. he Louisville Journal says: "We have heard some thrilling incidents attending the great calamity. Of a family of a man named Amon Waggoner, of Virginia, consisting of himself, his wife, and eight children, three children were lost, a daughter of 17, another of 13, and a little son of 4. They were on their way to Iowa and lost all they had. About 50 German Moravians from near Lancaster, Pa., were on board, and many of these lost children and other relatives." A young lady, in her endeavor to escape, had gained the hurricane deck, and was observed clinging on to the casing of one of the chimes, but unable to retain her clasp, she sank down amid the flames, and was seen no more. [Cincinnati Daily Dispatch]