A bit skimpy on the details, weren't you?
Actually I was going to post some biographical details of the owner of the White steamer, who was quite a colourful character, but I thought it might be a bit boring, and I had been tedious enough already. So I decided not to.
But having seen that comment, I have just changed my mind!
There are some interesting snippets available online, but sadly it seems that many are inaccurate, when you come to cross-reference them with other sources. But here's a brief summary of things that can't be easily disproved.
Ellsworth Eugene Eisenbarth was born on October 22, 1864 in Ironton, OH, son of the wonderfully named Christopher Columbus Eisenbarth, and the grandson of Casper Eisenbarth, who had emigrated from Germany in 1830. Ellsworth left home to attend a Theological College in Waynesburg, PA, but became disillusioned with religion and opened a stationery and print shop in New Martinsburg, WV in 1884. The following year he was publishing the "Weekly Paragraph" in New Matamoras, OH, and on February 28, 1886 he married Julia Ann Henderson at Sistersville, WV.
By 1888 he was calling himself Dr. E. E. Eisenbarth, and was running a travelling sideshow, selling quack medicines, allegedly of native American origin. Then he bought a riverboat and fitted it out to be a floating entertainment venue called the Eisenbarth Combined Wild West and Opera Show (picture below).
By 1900 Ellsworth and Julia were running the Eisenbarth-Henderson Floating Theatre, Temple of Amusement. On September 5, 1902 their showboat was struck by another vessel and sank. A new boat was built, and business carried on as the Modern Temple of Amusement (picture below). Later Ellsworth gave up waterborne entertainment, and bought a theatre in Marietta, OH, which he renamed the Hippodrome.
On July 17, 1823 he died at Marietta, and was buried in New Martinsville, WV in the same place as his first wife Julia.
Among other biographical details it is mentioned that he had a calliope fitted into a steamer car and drove around Marietta in it. It is not stated whether he did this to drum up business for his show, or merely to annoy people.
(Calliopes make a lot of noise, and steam-driven ones in particular are difficult to tune accurately, as the pitch of the whistles changes slightly with temperature.)
As a footnote, Dennalla, the girl playing the calliope, lived to be 90 years old, and died in 1984. She would have seen some changes in the world by then!
Photos below: Eisenbarth's first showboat, the Modern Temple of Amusement and a poster for it, and Ellsworth and his second wife Jennie in 1920.
And if you have been bored by this, then it's all Otto's fault!