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From: "Satima Flavell Neist" <>
Subject: Re: Article you wrote about Captain George Flavel
Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 08:36:49 +0800
References: <000501c6b8e7$61d54200$6c01a8c0@D676FP91>


Hi Julie and all,

Here's the article. It's actually about two Georges, both of whom sailed
theColarado River.


The first tale was in an article by Bob Rusk in the Stateside mag National
Motorist. A photocopy - no date given - was sent to me by an Australian
Flavel. (Yes, there are lots of them: originating in Northamptonshire, they
came to South Australia in the 1830s.)



GEORGE FLAVEL was the first person to become a millionaire in the town of
Astoria, Oregon. This part of the country, on the Columbia River, was
opened for settlement by early hunters and trappers: Astoria, named after a
fur trader, John Jacob Astor, was the first permanent American settlement
west of the Rockies.



The river was essential to the development of Astoria's earliest industries,
fishing and logging. Its treacherous waters demanded a high degree of skill
from navigators: since Captain Robert Grey discovered the Columbia River in
1792, more than a hundred ships have been lost near the river's mouth. It
became known as "The Graveyard of the Pacific"



Our George was one of the doughty souls who braved the perils of the
Columbia, to gain fame for his skill as a bar pilot. He became wealthy
enough to build himself, in 1885, a fine mansion in Queen Anne style,
distinguished by a three-storey octagonal tower. This lovely old house has
been restored and is open to the public. It serves as the Clatsop County
Historical Society's Museum.



The port of Astoria remains busy as an import/export hub, with commercial
fishing and logging still comprising part of the town's economy. Does the
spirit of Captain George Flavel watch over his old haunts, I wonder?



The second story was submitted by Gaylord Staveley, a River Historian from
the USA.

You can contact Gaylord at



GEORGE F. FLAVELL was one of the early explorer/adventurers to go by boat
down the Green and Colorado rivers. (As perspective, the first was Major
John Wesley Powell in 1869)

One account has George Flavell born in Philadelphia about 1863. Another has
him born about 1864 in the farming village of Jefferson New Jersey and
living in Philadelphia for several years. He was one of six
children --three girls and three boys. One of the boys was named Roland
Flavell.


George's parents names were Jeremiah and Anna Victoria. He ran away from
home when in his teens, and adopted as his territory the lower Colorado
River (basically the portion where the river forms the border between
Arizona and California). In that area he went by the name of George Clark,
or Clark The Trapper.

George boated and sailed around the lower Colorado-Gulf area in the early
1890s, hunting, fishing and exploring. Then he and another man built a boat
and on 27 April 1896 launched it near the headwaters of the Green River in
Wyoming. Between that date and 9 Jan 1897 they ran the entire system: down
the Green to its confluence with the Colorado, then down the Colorado
through the Grand Canyon to Yuma, Arizona. On 14 May 1898 in Los Angeles,
when he was 34, he married Lulu Blanche Shaffer, aged 33. Nothing more is
known about his married life. George died in Hermosillo, Mexico about
1901reportedly of typhoid fever and was buried near there.

The log of his trip was discovered about fifty years later in the possession
of a Mildred Flavell Michaelis who is identified in one book as "George's
niece" and more specifically in another as the daughter of George's brother
Roland. Roland died in 1932.



I believe descendants of this family would be found in New Jersey, as
George's brother Roland spent a few years out west with George, then Roland
returned to New Jersey and raised a family, and George went on the long trip
down the Green-Colorado.



Cheers,

Satima





----- Original Message -----
From: "Julie Shellberg" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2006 7:32 AM
Subject: [FLAVEL(L)] Article you wrote about Captain George Flavel


> Hi Satima,
>
>
>
> I was wondering if you had a copy of the article you wrote about Capt
> George Flavel from Astoria Oregon that you wrote a long time ago.
>
>
>
> My hub and I just came back from Astoria a couple weeks ago and have
> been intrigued with them ever since.
>
>
>
> If you still have it can I read it?
>
>
>
> Thanks a ton
>
>
>
> Julie shellberg
>
>


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