Old Times on the Upper Mississippi
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Old Times on the
Upper Mississippi
Old Times on the
Upper Mississippi
The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot
from 1854 to 1863
By
George Byron Merrick
Cleveland, Ohio
The Arthur H. Clark Company
1909
Copyright 1908
George Byron Merrick
All rights reserved
Dedicated to the Memory of My Chiefs
William H. Hamilton, Engineer, Charles G. Hargus, Clerk, Thomas
Burns, Pilot, masters in their several professions. From each of them
I learned something that has made life better worth living, the sum
of which makes possible these reminiscences of a "cub" pilot.
Contents
Prelude 13
Chapter I
EARLY IMPRESSIONS 15
Chapter II
INDIANS, DUGOUTS, AND WOLVES 20
Chapter III
ON THE LEVEE AT PRESCOTT 29
Chapter IV
IN THE ENGINE-ROOM 38
Chapter V
THE ENGINEER 46
Chapter VI
THE "MUD" CLERK--COMPARATIVE HONORS 52
Chapter VII
WOODING UP 59
Chapter VIII
THE MATE 64
Chapter IX
THE "OLD MAN" 71
Chapter X
THE PILOTS AND THEIR WORK 78
Chapter XI
KNOWING THE RIVER 92
Chapter XII
THE ART OF STEERING 100
Chapter XIII
AN INITIATION 106
Chapter XIV
EARLY PILOTS 111
Chapter XV
INCIDENTS OF RIVER LIFE 117
Chapter XVI
MISSISSIPPI MENUS 126
Chapter XVII
BARS AND BARKEEPERS 132
Chapter XVIII
GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING 138
Chapter XIX
STEAMBOAT RACING 143
Chapter XX
MUSIC AND ART 152
Chapter XXI
STEAMBOAT BONANZAS 161
Chapter XXII
WILD-CAT MONEY AND TOWN-SITES 174
Chapter XXIII
A PIONEER STEAMBOATMAN 184
Chapter XXIV
A VERSATILE COMMANDER; A WRECK 190
Chapter XXV
A STRAY NOBLEMAN 196
Chapter XXVI
IN WAR TIME 206
Chapter XXVII
AT FORT RIDGELEY 212
Chapter XXVIII
IMPROVING THE RIVER 221
Chapter XXIX
KILLING STEAMBOATS 229
Chapter XXX
LIVING IT OVER AGAIN 240
Appendix
A. LIST OF STEAMBOATS ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI
RIVER, 1823-1863 257
B. OPENING OF NAVIGATION AT ST. PAUL, 1844-1862 295
C. TABLE OF DISTANCES FROM ST. LOUIS 296
D. IMPROVEMENT OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI,
1866-1876 299
E. INDIAN NOMENCLATURE AND LEGENDS 300
Index 305
Illustrations
MOUTH OF THE WISCONSIN RIVER. The ancient highway
between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi.
This scene gives some idea of the multitude of islands
which diversify both the Wisconsin and the Mississippi
Rivers Frontispiece
PRESCOTT LEVEE IN 1876. Showing Steamer "Centennial"
and the little Hastings ferry, "Plough Boy." The double
warehouse, showing five windows in the second story
and four in the third, was the building in which the author
lived when a boy 32
PRESCOTT LEVEE IN 1908. But one business building, one
of the old Merrick warehouses, left intact. Dunbar's
Hall gutted by fire recently. The large steamboat
warehouse next to it destroyed some years ago. All the
shipping business gone to the railroad, which runs just
back of the buildings shown 32
ALMA, WISCONSIN. A typical river town in the fifties 54
ABOVE TREMPEALEAU, WISCONSIN. In the middle foreground,
at the head of the slough, is the site of the winter
camp of Nicolas Perrot, in the winter of 1684-5, as identified
in 1888 by Hon. B. F. Heuston and Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites
of the Wisconsin State Historical Society 68
DANIEL SMITH HARRIS. Steamboat Captain, 1833-1861 82
CAPTAIN THOMAS BURNS. Pilot on the Upper Mississippi
River from 1856 to 1889. Inspector of Steamboats
under President Cleveland and President McKinley 82
CHARLES G. HARGUS. Chief Clerk on the "Royal Arch,"
"Golden State," "Fanny Harris," "Kate Cassell" and
many other fine steamers on the Upper Mississippi 82
GEORGE B. MERRICK. "Cub" Pilot, 1862 82
TYPICAL PORTION OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. Map of the
river between Cassville, Wis., and Guttenberg, Iowa,
showing the characteristic winding of the stream 98
STEAMER "WAR EAGLE," 1852; 296 TONS 120
STEAMER "MILWAUKEE," 1856; 550 TONS 120
WINONA, MINNESOTA. The Levee in 1862 134
THE LEVEE AT ST. PAUL, 1859. Showing the Steamer
"Grey Eagle" (1857; 673 tons), Capt. Daniel Smith
Harris, the fastest and best boat on the Upper River,
together with the "Jeanette Roberts" (1857; 146 tons),
and the "Time and Tide" (1853; 131 tons), two Minnesota
River boats belonging to Captain Jean Robert, an
eccentric Frenchman and successful steamboatman. (Reproduced
from an old negative in possession of Mr. Edward Bromley
of Minneapolis, Minn.) 146
STEAMER "KEY CITY," 1857; 560 TONS 154
STEAMER "NORTHERN LIGHT," 1856; 740 TONS 154
FACSIMILES OF EARLY TICKETS AND BUSINESS CARD 166
MCGREGOR, IOWA. Looking north, up the river 178
ALTON, ILLINOIS. Looking down the river _facing p._ 188
RED WING, MINNESOTA. Showing Barn Bluff in the background,
with a glimpse of the river on the left 198
BAD AXE (NOW GENOA), WISCONSIN. Scene of the last
battle between the United States forces and the Indians
under Chief Black Hawk, August 21, 1832. The steamer
"Warrior," Captain Joseph Throckmorton, with soldiers
and artillery from Fort Crawford, Prairie du
Chien, took an active and important part in this battle 218
REED'S LANDING, MINNESOTA. At the foot of Lake Pepin.
During the ice blockade in the Lake, in the spring of
each year before the advent of railroads to St. Paul;
all freight was unloaded at Reed's Landing, hauled
by team to Wacouta, at the head of the Lake, where it
was reloaded upon another steamboat for transportation
to St. Paul and other ports above the Lake 236
STEAMER "MARY MORTON," 1876; 456 TONS. Lying
at the levee, La Crosse, Wisconsin. (From a negative
made in 1881.) 244
STEAMER "ARKANSAS," 1868; 549 TONS. With tow of
four barges, capable of transporting 18,000 sacks--36,000
bushels of wheat per trip. The usual manner of carrying
wheat in the early days, before the river traffic was
destroyed by railroad competition 244
MAP OF THE MISSISSIPPI BETWEEN ST. LOUIS AND ST.
PAUL _facing p._ 304
Prelude
The majesty and glory of the Great River have departed; its glamour
remains, fresh and undying, in the memories of those who, with mind's
eye, still can see it as it was a half-century ago. Its majesty
was apparent in the mighty flood which then flowed throughout the
season, scarcely diminished by the summer heat; its glory, in the
great commerce which floated upon its bosom, the beginnings of mighty
commonwealths yet to be. Its glamour is that indefinable witchery
with which memory clothes the commonplace of long ago, transfiguring
the labors, cares, responsibilities, and dangers of steamboat life
as it really was, into a Midsummer Night's Dream of care-free,
exhilarating experiences, and glorified achievement.
Of the river itself it may be said, that like the wild tribes which
peopled its banks sixty years ago, civilization has been its undoing.
The primeval forests which spread for hundreds of miles on either
side, then caught and held the melting snows and falling rains
of spring within spongy mosses which carpeted the earth; slowly,
throughout the summer, were distilled the waters from myriad springs,
and these, filling brooks and smaller rivers, feeders of the Great
River, maintained a mighty volume of water the season through. Upon
the disappearance of the forests, the melting snows and early rains
having no holding grounds, are carried quickly to the river, which as
quickly rises to an abnormal stage in the early part of the season,
to be followed by a dearth which later reduces the Mississippi to the
dimensions of a second-rate stream, whereon navigation is impossible
for great steamers, and arduous, disheartening and unprofitable for
boats of any class.
To most men of our day, the life of those who manned the steamers
of that once mighty fleet is legendary, almost mythical. Its story
is unwritten. To the few participants who yet remain, it is but a
memory. The boats themselves have disappeared, leaving no token. The
masters and the mates, the pilots and the clerks, the engineers and
the men of humbler station have likewise gone. Of the thousands who
contributed to give life and direction to the vessels themselves, a
meager score of short biographies is all that history vouchsafes.
The aim of the present volume is to tell something of these men, and
of the boats that they made sentient by their knowledge and power;
to relate something of the incidents of river life as seen by a
boy during eight years of residence by the riverside, or in active
service on the river itself. While it may not literally be claimed,
"All of which I saw," it is with satisfaction, not unmixed with
pride, that the writer can truthfully assert, "A part of which I was."
G. B. M.
The several quotations from "Mark Twain" which herein appear are from
_Life on the Mississippi_ (copyright, 1903), by Samuel L. Clemens,