Pioneer
Days On The Mississippi
By S. W. Mc Master
The first steamboat that landed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, was the
Virginia, Captain Crawford, in 1823. She was one hundred and eighteen feet
long and twenty-two feet wide. At that early day the conveying of supplies
to the forts on the upper Mississippi was about all the traffic there was.
During the few years immediately following the arrival of the Virginia
there was but one boat a year. The Neville came in 1824; the Putnam in
1825; the Lawrence in 1826; the Fulton in 1827; the Eclipse in 1828, and
the Black Rover in 1829. The Red Rover, Captain Thochmorton, made her
first appearance in the Galena trade in 1830. The master of this boat
built and commanded the Warrior in 1832 and participated in the Black Hawk
war at the battle of Bad Ax. He always carried on his boat two four-pounders.
His passenger cabin was a keelboat towed along-side. He was a genial man
and a great favorite with all the officers at the forts. Captain
Thochmorton also built and commanded a number of other boats during his
long career as a steamboat officer. The last craft he commanded was a
government boat, the Barnard, some time during the seventies.
The steamers Josephine, Captain J. Clark ; and the Missouri Fulton,
Captain Culver, were in the St. Louis and Galena trade in 1828 and 1829.
In 1836 the Missouri Fulton, Captain Orrin Smith; and the Frontier,
Captain Smith Harris, came up. The latter craft was built for the Rock
River trade. The Palmyra, Captain Cole, also arrived bearing a pleasure
party of some thirty ladies and gentlemen, and there was the St. Peter,
Captain Thochmorton, with a party of St. Louis ladies, and the Rolla,
bringing a delegation of the Sioux Indians on their way back from
Washington, where they had made a treaty by which the valley of the St.
Croix was opened to the whites.
From 1836 there were steamers passing up and down the river almost daily,
taking sup-plies for the various small towns below Galena and Dubuque. The
boats that were in the trade between Galena and Fort Snelling in 1837 were
the Palmyra, Dubuque, Gipsy, Pavillion, Emerald, Wyoming, Olive Branch,
Ariel, Heroine, Rolla, Burlington, Galena and Irene. The boats during that
season were the Dubuque, Rolla, Emerald and Heroine. The steamer Brazil in
1841 was sunk on the Rock Island rapids.
Between the latter date and 1847, a large number of boats were engaged in
the trade between St. Louis and Galena. Among them were the Ione, Captain
LeRoy Dodge; St. Croix, Captain Hiram Bersie; War Eagle Captain Smith
Harris; Falcon, Captain L. Morehouse; Rock River, Count A. Harasky;
Monona, Captain E. H. Glevin; and Iowa, Captain D. B. Morehouse. In 1847
the Argo, Captain William Lodewick, started as a regular packet between
Galena and Fort Snelling. Captain Ludewick was an uncle of Mrs. Bailey and
Mrs. Boyle, of Rock Island. In 1848 he was in command of the Dr. Franklin
with Captain Russell Blakely, my old-time friend, as clerk. The Franklin
was the first boat belonging to the Galena and Minnesota Packet Company.
Most of the stockholders in this company were Galenans. This steamer, the
Franklin, was the nucleus from which grew the fleet of the Galena and St.
Paul Packet Company, the first organized steam-boat company on the upper
Mississippi, which in after years became one of the most powerful.
companies on the great river, bringing out from year to year as the trade
increased, many new and finely built boats.
In 1854, when the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad reached the river here
a big excursion was run, bringing some 1,200 eastern men, including many
prominent statesmen and newspaper men, and the Minnesota Packet Company
met them at the Rock Island wharf with the steamers Golden Era, Captain
Hiram Bercie; G. W. Sparhawk, Captain L. Morehouse; War Eagle, Captain
Harris, and the Galena, Captain D. B. Morehouse. On .these magnificent
packets about 1,000 of the excursionists took a free ride to St. Paul.
During the trip the stage of water was good and at times the boats would
be lashed together in pairs so that the passengers could pass from one to
the other. Taken all together this affair was most far-reaching in its
effect in bringing to the notice of prominent eastern men the vast
possibilities of the north. This magnificent excursion has never been
equalled in size and results in the history of the river. A vast tide of
emigration soon afterward began setting westward.
The Galena and Minnesota Packet Company was at the summit of its career
from 1856 to 1860. It had a fine and large fleet of boats running at that
time. Two daily lines of packets were run from Galena, a daily from St.
Louis to St. Paul, a daily to Rock Island and a daily between the upper
and lower rapids.
In 1857 Captain Davidson organized another line of steamers to run on the
upper river. This line ultimately was to swallow up and destroy in the end
all others except the Diamond Jo Company, which still exists. This was
known as the White Collar line. During this year the St. Louis and St.
Paul steamboat men decided to inaugurate a daily service by running in
rotation with the Canada, Captain James Ward; W. L. Ewing, Captain M.
Green; Denmark, Captain Dick Gray; Metropolitan, Captain T. B. Rhodes;
Pembona, Captain Thomas H. Griffith; Northerner, Captain P. Alford, and
Lucy May, Captain J. B. Rhodes. Along in the early sixties these different
boats were united under the ownership of a stock company, and the Henry
Clay, Captain Charles Stephenson, was taken in. There were then more boats
on the Mississippi River plying to and from St. Paul than ever before or
since, some ninety-five in all. I might give the names but that would
require too much space.
From 1856 to 1860 there was a very large amount of excursion travel coming
from New Orleans and St. Louis to the cool shady retreats found around the
lakes near St. Paul, many of the excursionists staying two or three
months. Often the .boats would have their upper guards piled full of
trunks. At night after eleven o'clock the cabin floors would be filled
with cots. From eight to ten the colored cabin boys would get out their
violins and dancing would be indulged in. With good boats, attentive and
obliging officers and good table fare the time passed pleasantly. No
hurry, no care, beautiful scenery all the way, particularly along the
banks of the upper river. How many happy hours I have passed in this way
on the many trips I have taken since I first came west.
The Keokuk and McClure line which plied between St. Louis and Keokuk,
united with the Northern line. After Davidson had wrecked the lines on the
upper river and after the death of John McClure this line was left to be
sold. Davidson bought it, thus acquiring control of the old reliable
Northern" line and of all the steamboat interests on the river. The
holders of a majority of the stock in the Northern line applied for a
receiver to manage the business. Davidson was compelled to fight for his
property. This took so long that the cost of the litigation left him with
little of value. The business was ruined, his health was broken, the
commerce of the North line was destroyed and the remnants of what had been
a grand industry in building up the commerce of the northwest was no more.
From 1846 to 1863 I was actively engaged in business in Galena. Later I
bought wheat, flour and corn along the river in large amounts and shipped
to St. Louis. . In connection with my business I necessarily traveled
often on the river between St. Louis and St. Paul, and became well
acquainted with many of the prominent captains and clerks and other
officers of the boats. I was a stockholder in the Northern line, also a
director and stock-holder in the Galena and Minnesota Packet Company.
Among the river men I knew I desire to especially mention Captain Russell
Blakeley, of Galena and St. Paul, and say that I am indebted to him for
much of the information presented, which has been gleaned from a pamphlet
he read before the Minnesota Historical society in 1.898. He was a
prominent citizen of St. Paul for many years. Two years ago he died. The
title of the pamphlet he wrote is "The History of the Discovery of the
Mississippi River and the Advent of Commerce in Minnesota."
Before closing this sketch of steam boating on the upper river in the
olden times I would mention a few of the men I knew best. . Among them
were Captain Orrin Smith of the Brazil and Nomonee, Captain S. D. Harris
of the War Eagle and Gray Eagle, Captain Hiram Bersie of the St. Croix,
Golden Era and Northern Light, Captain W. H. Gabbart of the Sucker State,
Captain James Ward of the Metropolitan, and Captains Thomas Buford, T. B.
Rhodes and John W. Rhodes. Among the clerks was Daniel V. Dawley, who
filled this position for over fifty years (I knew him first in 1838 as
clerk on an Ohio River boat, the W. W. Wells, and afterward in that
position on the Sucker State) ; George R. Melville, Robert Melville and
George C. Brish.
But few of these old-time friends are left. I know of only Captains
Bennett of Moline, Captain Thomas Buford of Rock Island, Captain W. H.
Gabbart of Davenport, and Captain John Rhodes of Savanna.
When I look back over the sixty-nine years I have passed on the upper
Mississippi and think of the marvelous changes that have taken place in
the great northwestern country, I feel that, if years were reckoned by the
changes that have occurred during this time, I might well be two centuries
of age.
Early Settlements of Rock Island County
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908