I was introduced to Shawneetown whilst singing with the Tyneside Maritime Chorus under Benny Graham between 2011 and 2013. It is fine song about the joys and tribulations of rafting up and down the Ohio. The joys being the pleasure of floating downstream contrasting with the hard graft involved in poling or rowing upstream.
Shawneetown itself was an important United States government administrative center for the Northwest Territory and was devastated by the Ohio River flood of 1937. The population then moved inland to New Shawneetown.
It is said that a village was established here by the Pekowi Shawnee led by Peter Chartier about 1748. This song may be found in the Tyneside Maritime Chorus songbook

Lyrics