Lexington inventor created the first steamboat engine, tested on Elkhorn Creek

Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.

While Robert Fulton is credited for the invention of the steamboat, Lexington resident Edward West received his patent for the steamboat engine a year before Fulton did.

Born in Virginia, West moved to Kentucky in 1785. A blacksmith and businessman, West was also an inventor and is credited as being the first watchmaker in Lexington.

In 1793, West created a model of his steam engine concept. That same year, he successfully tested a model of the concept on the Town Branch of Elkhorn Creek, making him the first person in the U.S. to demonstrate a steam engine.

In 1802, the U.S. Patent office issued a patent for his design.

The next year, however, John Fitch and Robert Fulton received a patent for their larger vessel. In 1806, Fitch and Hudson successfully sailed their steamboat, The Clermont, up the Hudson River.

Due to funding issues, it would be another 9 years before West’s steamboat design would launch from the mouth of the Hickman Creek in Jessamine County and sail down the Kentucky River to New Orleans.

In 1816, the Kentucky Gazette published an editorial about his invention: “A steamboat owned by a company of gentlemen of this town [Lexington] was to sail for New Orleans yesterday, from near the mouth of Hickman creek. We are informed that she is worked on a plan invented by Mr. West, of this place, nearly twenty years ago, and in a manner distinct from any other steamboat now in use.”

“On trial against the current of the Kentucky, when that river was very high, she more than answered the sanguine expectations of her owners, and left no doubt on their minds that she could stem the current of the Mississippi with rapidity and ease,” the editorial said.

The steamboat wasn’t the only thing West invented. According to a 1799 Kentucky Gazette article, West, a silversmith, claimed to have found a cure for “rheumatic pains and cramps” by using metallic rings. West published testimonials from Lexington residents swearing his rings had cured them of their rheumatism.

He also invented a gun lock and a machine that cut nails.

West died in November 1827, and is buried in the Lexington Cemetery.

Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.