There was a Ferry Boat, which operated on the Ohio River at the north end of Martins Ferry and was based on the Ohio side. This was a passenger Ferry owned and operated by Paul Gray.

The Boat was about 25 feet long and 8 feet wide. It had sharp bow and a square back. It was enclosed and looked like a shanty on a barge. There were benches down each side with the motor located between them and toward the rear. The boat was steered from the front. The landing for passengers boarding on the West Virginia side was a pair of steps from the railroad tracts down to a floating stage where the boat picked up fares. Hanging from a tree limb was a piece of metal, perhaps a tire rim, which passengers would strike, alerting the operator (if he heard it) to a possible fare. The price was 5 cents each way and less if a book of tickets was purchased ahead of time.

During the winter of 1928 the river was in a flood. This Ferry had full load of passengers, mostly Woman who had finished their shift at the can factory.

Some of those passengers were: Mary Martincheck, Bertha Visnic Griffiths, nell Shemenske rees, Mrs Rose, Elsie Vargo, Mary Marcone, Kathryn Tittle, Joe Tankovits and John Brown. The Ferry ran out of gas midway across the river. The boat, out of control and at the mercy of the current, began a race down stream. The Woman, thinking of their impending doom, began to scream that was heard all across the valley. Mary Martincheck, thinking that the dam was up and the boat racing to certain destruction, certainly helped to swell the volume of the chorus. Paul Gray, hoping to stop the headlong pace, drooped an anchor but it did not take hold on the first try. This added to the panic. Finally the anchor caught and stopped the rapid pace down the river, but the rolling water and debris passing on both sides did little to make the passengers clam down.

Joe Shemenske, who happened to be down by the river, hoping to salvage some worthwhile flotsam, saw the situation and jumped into his johnboat and rowed out to make the rescue. Paul Gray asked Joe to take him into the Ohio shore. There, Paul took his spare Ferry and when out to bring the passengers in. When he got to the other boat, the second boat also ran out of gas and it started to race downstream. Again Joe went after it and caught it by sitting on a towrope and rowing like mad. He managed to bring to bring it to the Ohio shore and tied it to the dam wall. Then Joe rowed Paul gray to the Costanzo mine dock where he hired the sternwheeler boat Richland to push the ferryload of passengers to the approach wall of the dam., Lock 12, where the passengers came ashore. They made their way home by going into Warwood and taking a streetcar to the terminal bridge and walking back to Martins Ferry. Joe Shemenske said that his only pay for all of this was a new set of blisters on both hands.. (My thanks to Mary, Bertha, Nell, and Joe, who shared their memories of the happenings)