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The Death of Mike Fink. Other Roabned By MICHAEL ALLEN SECOND OF TWO PARTS Mike Fink, the "King of the MississippiKeelboatmen," so cap- tured the imaginationsof his countrymen that he becamea folk hero of the same stature as Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Scoresof storieswere written about him in 19th century news- papers,journals, almanacsand novels. Fink's abilities asa marksmanare almostalways a featureof the stories. In one tale he shoots off an Indian's scalp-lock,only to becomethe object of his hatred and revenge.In anotherhe shoots off a "darky'sheel" at a hundred yards,"so he kin wear a decent boot!" The most famousof Fink's shooting feats,however, is his practice (supposedlytrue) of shootinga whiskeycup off a friend's head and then having one shot off his own. In this way the two boatmen showtheir friendship and trust for one anotheras well as their skill with the rifle. In EmersonBennett's novel about Fink, the boatmanfoils the schemesof the dreaded Ohio River pirates at Cave-In-Rock.In a more humorous tale, Fink is describedas traveling to a court appearancein Louisville by poling his keelboat (mounted on a wagon)up Third Streetto the foot of the courthouse!In "Deacon Smith's Bull," Fink outsmartsa vicious bull by hangingonto his tail. The situationbecomes outrageously funny as: "He drug me over every briar and stump in the field, until I war sweatin' and bleedin' like a fat bear with a pack 0' hounds at his heels.And my name ain't Mike Fink if the old critter's tail and I didn't blowout sometimes at a dead level with the varmint's back!" The Boatman's Challenge But the classic Mike Fink stories are not even this compli- cated.Drinking and fighting were his specialty,and in manytales Fink's main accomplishmentseems to havebeen getting himself The deathof Mike Fink. roaring drunk, issuinga braggadociousand audaciouschallenge, and then starting a brawl. Fink bragged that he could "out run, sectionof land in SciotoCounty, to which he retired and spentthe out-hop, out-jump, throw down, drag out, and lick any man in rest of his life as a farmer. the country." In its perfect form, the boatman'schallenge went like this: Other RoabneD "Whoo-oop! Bowyour neck and spread,for the kingdom of sor- If Mike Fink and ClaudiusCadot represent extreme opposites, row's a-coming! Hold me down to earth for I feel my powers a- there were tens of thousandsof 18th-and 19th-centuryboatmen working!. ..I'm the man with a petrified heart and bilerironbowels! whose lives and personalities fit somewherein between those The massacreof isolated communitiesis the pastime of my idle two extremes.Hundreds of French-speakingCanadian frontiers- moments,the destructionof nationalitiesthe seriousbusiness of men mannedthe earlykeels and flats,and so too did black slaves my life!... Whoo-oop! Bow your neck and spread, for the Pet and freemen. John G. Stuart,a Kentuckian who made a flatboat Child of Calamity'sa-coming!" trip to New Orleans in 1806,was simply a young man looking to While the Mike Fink stories arefun to read,they do not tell us seesome of the world and havea few adventures.Joseph Hough, much aboutthe real boatmen.To provethis we need onlyread the a merchant from Miami, Ohio, was an entrepreneur who per- short account of Claudius Cadot, an early 19th century Scioto sonallynavigated dozens of his own flatboatsloaded with produce County, Ohio,keelboatman. After servingin the U.S. Anny in the to the south.Like other flatboatmerchants of the 1800s-William War of 1812,Cadot went to work for 50 cents per dayas a deck- Johnson,Thomas Teas, William Devol, CaptainStone and Miles hand for the renownedMike Fink himself.While ClaudiusCadot Stacy-he was a "builder, owner, captain,and for the most part admits that Fink was "one of the mostwild and reckless,rowdy- of the way downthe rivers, alsothe pilot" of his ownboats. ing men of his class,"he explainsthat he (Cadot)was the exact William P. Dole, a WabashRiver merchantand flatboatman, opposite. He worked hard and savedhis money and was often waselected to the Indiana statelegislature and eventuallybecame entrusted by Fink with the careof the keelboatand the keyto the American commissionerof Indian Affairs. Henry Baxter was a boat's strongbox.He never went to town on a drinking spreeand well-educated Pennsylvanianwho navigateda huge log raft to he did not fight and carouse.After working four yearsas a keel- Kentucky in 1844. Ceylon Lincoln and Simon Shermanwere boatman, Cadot had savedenough moneyto buy a quarter of a -SEE HALF PAGE 13 Half todayknows the great variety of men who important part of the job. The western chosework on the river-Louisiana Cajuns, boatmen were well aware of those like (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14) Mississippi "good or boys," long-haired William Cooper Howells who "watched Wisconsin teenagers who took lumber rafts teenagedeckhands, friendly home-cookin' them from the bank of the river with long- down the Upper Mississippi River to St. women cooks from Missouri, and even a ing envy." The boatmen's lives were not Louis, and George Froman was a Canadi- few "city slickers"from New York City and easyones, but they alone knew the feeling an lad who left home at 17 to become a Boston! describedby a Marietta, Ohio, flatboatcap- raftsman, flatboatman and steamboat deck- But variety is not the only trait that tain in 1852: hand on the Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois today's boatmen share with their flatboat "I recall no experienceof my subsequent rivers from 1849-1851. And although the and keelboatancestors. Like the old boat- life that furnished suchenjoyment of phys- Civil War and the coming of the railroads men, today's rivermen are proud of their ical and mental pleasureas filled my cup in severely reduced the economic importance work and proud to be boatmen.They know the openinghours of a 2,200-miletrip from of flatboating, thousands of flatboats with they are special. They know that look of Marietta to New Orleans." their richly varied crewmen continued to envy in the landsman'seye as he watches make the southbound trip well into the their towboatlock through No. 27 at Alton, Michael Allen, professor of history and 1890s. Ill., on a Sunday afternoon, headed for American studies at the University of Fittingly, Civil War America and the Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez and New Washington-Tacoma, is the authorof West- decline of flatboating were presided over by Orleans.The westernboatmen of the 18th em Rivermen 1763-1861;Ohio and Mis- a president who was himself a former boat- and 19th centuries may not have been sissippi Boatmen and the Myth of the man. Yes, like many of the young men in invincibleheroes and "alligatorhorses," but Alligator Horse,published by theLouisiana Indiana and Illinois during his youth, Abra- manyof their countrymencertainly thought StateUnivernty Press.He workedfor three ham Lincoln had worked as a flatboatman they were. And for those who worked so years as a towboat deckhandand cook on and had in 1828 and 1831 made trips to hard for solittle pay,the pride and prestige the Upper and Lower Mississippi,Illinois, New Orleans as a pilot and steersman on that came with being a boatman was an St. Croix, Ouachita and Arkansasrivers. boats that he himself had helped to build. Like those American boatmen before and after him, Lincoln knew how it felt to head south down the Belle Riviere and the mighty Mississippi. Variety TELEPHONE :24 -Hr. In the final analysis, then, it is difficult to (504) 866-1814 r"""OO) :Service 1 generalize about that vast number of men ~ who manned the flatboats and keelboats of 1100 Research Blvd. BREIT MARINE SURVEYING, INC. St. Louis, Mo. early America. Nor is that a particularly 314.868.8620 surprising conclusion. Any SIU boatman Inspections, Appraisals, Cargo , 1311 Leonidas St. New Orleans, La. 70111 www.ckpower.com.
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