by William Benson, Captain of the Tred Avon Ferry 1938-1974

With additional commentary by  Cathy Schmidt

In the Oxford Vignettes I often write about Sara Benson’s journals, but Captain Benson kept journals too. Most are recordings of the weather throughout the day. Such as notations of temperature, barometer readings, the direction and strength of the wind and how the cloud cover looked.

Monday, August 10, 1964 Sara’s Birthday.

6:39 a.m. tide made high

8:28 a.m. cloudy and cool was down to 60° this morning

9:00 a.m. barometer 30, wind southeast, fresh.

3:15 p.m. wind has breezed up strong from the south – almost 20 mph.

Partly cloudy with weak sun through the clouds. Barometer 29.95 and warming up. Temperature now about 78° to 80°. Tide will make pretty high again I suspect.

7:50 PM Wind is moderating out some. Cloudy and cool 70°, barometer 29.9

Sometimes in Bill’s journals he would take a little time to write something other than the weather, especially once he had retired. In his last journal before he died he wrote a history of the Oxford Bellevue ferry.

The Oxford-Bellevue Ferry has been crossing the Tred Avon River since 1683. Dickson Preston, local history writer searched the records and found that the Ferry was started in 1693 by a Richard Royston. Royston operated the ferry for two years.

Issac Sassarson, Arny Jenson and Will Aldern took over for a while in the 1690’s and for a short time in the 1690’s it stopped. However, in 1699 by demand of the people, it was started again by a Thomas Bennett whose family members kept it operating for the next 40 years. Judith Bennett may have been the first woman operator, she was the wife of Thomas Bennett but also had two other husbands. One of which was John Valliant who operated the ferry from 1713 to 1722. She seemed to have operated the ferry between husbands. In these early days the ferry boat was a scow that was propelled by the big sweep of an oar off the stern by either one or two men or women. Another term for this is “sculling.” Some scows may have used sails too. The ferry scow was also called a “horse boat.”

Judith Bennett’s son William Bennett ran the ferry around 1725 -1726. A Catherine Bennett took over the ferry in 1732, and was the first to be paid the ferry subsidy in cash instead of tobacco. The subsidy was the equivalent of 6000 pounds of tobacco.

Anthony LeCompte took over the ferry in 1740 and seemed to have operated it at least seven years. Miss Elizabeth Skinner operated it from 1750 to 1760. At one time she was thought to have been the founder of the service but as we later learned it was Richard Royston. After Miss Skinner there may be a record of the operators and there may be a time when the ferry may not have operated between 1790 and 1836, but there has been continuous operation since 1836.

In 1886 a steam tug “W.M.H Fisher” was put in service by Captain Gohiggan or Goehring (spelling uncertain). Charlie Collison came from Caroline County to be engineer on the steam tub around 1900 with Captain Larry Skinner who lived in Plaindealing Creek. Captain Skinner used to take the long trip to Plaindealing to his place every night. Charlie Collison lived at Royal Oak and walked from the Skinner place to Royal Oak every night and morning.

After the steam tug, a gasoline powered tug was obtained around 1912, her name was “The Vivian.” The Captain’s names were: Captain Wayman, Captain Bartlett, Captain Tom Sparklin, and Captain Will Dawson. There was also a tug named Crosby (I don’t recall who captained that). Souppy Seward operated the ferry for Will Dawson in the late 1920’s. Dawson also may have used a little tug at times called “The Venture.” Captain William Valliant had her and used her some. She was stripped of her engines (believed to be a Palmer engine) and he had her anchored off his home so the kids could swim out and jump off of it.  She was eventually towed behind either the oyster house or fertilizer plant at Bellevue and placed on the shore where she went to pieces there.

Captain Buck Richardson built the gasoline powered Ferry Tred Avon in 1931, not 1932 as some say. The Tred Avon was the first self powered ferry boat built by Captain Galt Sparklin at the head of Town Creek for Captain Buck Richardson in 1931. She was first put in service between Oxford and Bellevue in January of 1932. A new wharf and ferry slip had been built in 1929 where it is now, before that it had been over on Town Point where the Tred Avon Yacht Club wharf is now.

In 1974, Captain Benson retired and the ferry service was taken over by Captain Gil Clark. He brought with him a six car ferry, “The Southside.” The Ferry Southside was operated by Captain Clark and his daughter and son-in-law Valerie and David. In July of 1980, a new 10 car steel ferry boat was put into service. The “Talbot” is still in service today. The Bittners would eventually retire and Judy and Tom Bixler would take the helm.

Today, the ferry is under the new ownership of Jim Andrews and remains in operation. There is something ritualistic and comforting about watching the ferry cross the Tred Avon. I have seen people walking along the strand stop and turn and just look at the ferry for a few minutes I have witnessed people watching from the wharf or sitting on the Bellevue beach watching the ferry land and then leave and then land again. I hope this operation that feels more like a tradition continues for many years to come. Take a ride, you’ll be glad you did.

Cathy Schmidt has written for Attraction Magazine for over a decade. A regular contributor to local NPR Radio station’s “Shore Stories,” with Val Calavari, her first novel was released in September 2025, titled, “Anchors.” Her website is:cathywrites2025.com