This 1860 Stephen Foster 'plantation melody' was published in New York by Firth, Pond & Co. The song’s title is derived from the name of a 425 ton side-wheel packet steamer, the “Glendy Burke.” She was owned by the Vicksburg, Mississippi firm of Cobb & Nanlove, and plied the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This paddle wheeler was built by the Howard Shipyards of Jeffersonville, Indiana, launched in 1851, and sank in 1855, near Cairo, Illinois. It has been speculated that Foster wrote this song in 1851, but did not have it published until 1860.
The boat was named for a prominent merchant, banker, legislator, and future Mayor of New Orleans, Glen D. Burke. Stephen Foster was familiar with this wealthy figure as his brother Morrison had business dealings with Burke in the 1840’s. Foster’s song about the steamboat is but one of a multitude of antebellum pieces that deal with America’s fascination with river-borne trade and transportation, and the often larger-than-life characters to be found there.
Foster was no stranger to paddle wheelers. In 1846, he moved from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cincinnati, Ohio, to work as a bookkeeper with his brother Dunning’s steamship company. Riverboats stoked their engines with timber. The song’s second verse states, “They burn the pitch and the pine knot too, for to shove the boat along.” These two conifer products are high in resin, burn at a high temperature, and raise the engine’s steam pressure. This was a common method used by boatmen to increase the ship’s speed and “shove the boat along.”
Interestingly, Stephen Foster never lived in the South and only visited it once. In 1852, he and his wife, Jane took a trip down the Mississippi River on board his brother’s steamboat, “Millinger,” to visit and enjoy the city of New Orleans.