PUBLIC LIBRARY OF CINCINNATI AND HA:M:ILTON COUNTY I ,W£AWO 8'''8as *-S8aAav euz •• Capt. Frederick Way, Jr. Capt. William Dugan, Jr. Old Times on the Upper Mississippi MOUTH OF THE WISCONSIN RIVER. The ancient highway between the Great Lakes and the Miss­ issippi. This scene gives some idea of the multitude of islands which diversify both the Wisconsin and the Mississippi Rivers. Old Times on the Upper Mississippi The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 By George Byron Merrick jlft * Cleveland, Ohio The Arthur H. Clark Company 1909 Copyright I90a George Byron Merrick All rights reserved Dedicated to the Memory of My Chiefs William H. Hamilton, Engineer, Charles G. H argus, Clerk, Thomas B urns, 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 • I I I Chapter xv INCIDENTS OF RIVER LIFE • I 17 10 THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI 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 C1hapter XXIII A PIONEER STEAMBOATMAN 184 Chapter XXIV A VERSATILE COMMANDER; A WRECK • 190 Chapter XXV A STRAY NOBLEMAN • 196 Chapter XXVI IN WAR TIME • 196 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 MISSISSIP- PI 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 high­ way between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. This scene gives some idea of the multitude of islands which diversify both the Wisconsin and the Missis- sippi Rivers • Frontispiece PRESCOTT LEVEE IN 1876. Showing Steamer "Centennial" and the little Hastings ferry, "Plough Boy." The dou­ ble warehouse, showing five windows in the second story and four in the third, was the building in which the au- thor lived when a boy 32 PRESCOTT LEVEE IN 1908. But one business building, one of the old Merrick warehouses, left intact. Dun­ bar'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 fore­ ground, at the head of the slough, is the site of the winter camp of Nicolas Perrot, in the winter of 1684-5, as iden­ tified in 1888 by Hon. B. F. Heuston and Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites of the Wisconsin State Historical So- ciety 68 DANIEL SMITH HARRIS. Steamboat Captain, 1833-1861 82 CAPTAIN THOMAS BURNS. Pilot on the Upper Missis­ sippi 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 U PPE~ MISSISSIPPI. Map of the river between Cassville, Wis., and Guttenberg, Iowa, 12 THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI 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 Min­ nesota River boats belonging to Captain Jean Robert, an eccentric Frenchman and successful steamboatman. (Re­ produced from an old negative in possession of Mr. Ed- ward 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 back- ground, 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 steam­ er "Warrior," Captain Joseph Throckmorton, with sol­ diers and artillery from Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, took an active and important part in this battle 2 I 8 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 188I.) 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. I ts glamour is that indefinable witchery with which memory clothes the com­ monplace of long ago, transfiguring the labors, cares, responsi­ bilities, 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. 14 THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI 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, permission for the use of which is kindly granted for the present purpose by the publishers, Messrs. Harper & Brothers, N ew York. Chapter I Early Impressions Descent from an ancestry whose members built and sailed ships from Salem, Newburyport, and Nantucket two hundred years ago, and even down to the early days of the nineteenth century, ought to give an hereditary bias toward a sailor's life, on waters either salt or fresh.