History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 38

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

THE BOATS OF OTHER DAYS.

Of the early boats stopping at this port Captain W. L. Clark furnishes the names, and the steamers that came up from St. Louis in 1827, for the government and for traffic at the Galena lead mines and with supplies for the few settlers; they were: Red Rover, Captain Otis Reynolds; the Shamrock, Captain James May ; the Indiana and Black Rover, captains' names not recalled. The captains in 1831 and 1832 were: Throckmorton, steamer Warrior; O'Flagerty, Forsyth, VanHouten. Captains from 1833 until 1836: Cole, Smith Harris, Orin Smith, Scribe Harris, Ben Campbell, Cameron, Clime, Ward, John Atchinson, George Atchinson, Mark Atchinson and Hardin Roberts; from 1836 until 1842: Leroy Dodge, Reilley, Littleton, Brock, Morehouse, Pierce, C. Gall, McAllister, William Gabbert, Blakesley, K. Lodwich, John Lodwich and Barger.

Several of the commanders named above continued on the upper river until 1850, and three or four until the early '6os. Mrs. Erie Dodge, of Buffalo, Scott county, kept a record of early years and noted the following list of names of ves- sels that plied the waters of the Mississippi: 1845-War Eagle, St. Croix, For- tuna, Mungo Park, Monona, Mendota, Galena, Falcon, Lynx, Uncle Toby, Time, St. Louis, Oak, Sarah Ann, Cecilia, General Block, Osprey, Potosi, Reveille, Lebanon, LaSalle, Confidence, Amaranth, Brazil, Iron City, Iowa Mermaid, Dial, Nimrod, Otter, U. S. Mail, Herald, Iowa, New Haven, Archer, Jasper, Ohio; 1848-Iowa City, Uncle Toby, Montauk, Bon Accord, Senator, Red Wing, Pearl, Domain, Clermont, Confidence, Falcon, Piazza, Mondoanna, Mary Blain, Ellen, Dubuque, St. Peters, Time and Tide, Alexander Hamilton, Highland Mary, Odd Fellow, Ohio Mail, Otter, DeKalb, Eliza Stewart, Kentucky, North Alabama, Dan Rice ; 1849-Senator, St. Croix, American Eagle, Dr. Franklin, Bon Accord, St. Peters, Time and Tide, Newton, Wagoner, Otter, Archer, Oswego, War Eagle, Dubuque, Clermont No. 2, Montauk, Highland Mary, Financier, Anthony Wayne, Cora, Kentucky, Red Wing, Bay State Planter, Oregon, Wisconsin, Palo Alto, Saranak, Revenue Cutter, Herald, American, Yankee, Mary Blaine, Domain, Allegheny Mail, Tiger, Piazza, Magnet, Danube, Minnesota, Caroline, No Name. John P. Robertson, a Davenport boy of long ago, loved the river and kept this list of boats which landed here from 1850 to 1852: Amaranth, Archer, Asia, An- thony Wayne, Bon Accord, Black Hawk, Brunette, Brazil, Ben Campbell, Ben Franklin, Cora, Caleb Cope, Danube, Di Vernon, Diadem, Enterprise, Express, Excelsior, Fortune, Falcon, Fleetwood, Financier, Galena, General Gaines, Golden Era, G. W. Sparhawk, Glaucus, Highland Mary, Iron City, Iowa, Ione, Irene, J. H. McKee, Jennie Lind, Lamertine, Lynx, Mendota, Minnesota, Monogahela, Mary Blaine, Montauk, Martha No. I, Martha No. 2, Mary O, Northerner, Nau- voo, Osprey, Ohio, Oshkosh, Oneoto, Ocean Wayne, Pembina, Potosi, Prairie Bird, Red Wing, Robert Fulton, Ripple, St. Paul, Shenandoah, St. Croix, Silas Wright, Swamp Fox, Senator, Time and Tide, Tempest, Tobacco Plant, Uncle Toby, War Eagle, Wisconsin, Warrior, Wyoming. All these boats were built for freight and passengers and the most of them were side-wheelers. Trade was immensely profitable. Previous to 1850 there were no boat lines as we have today represented locally by agents. Each captain solicited freight when his boat came to land. Emigration was tremendous and freight rates high. Steamboats

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

costing fifty thousand dollars would pay for themselves in a single season. In the season of 1855 from the arrival of the first boat, March 15th, to the time of the river closing, December 8th, there were 1,113 arrivals and departures of steam- boats at the Davenport landing. Of all these boats about six were lost during the season, four being burned and two sunk.

GREAT RIVER STORIES.

"Old Times on the Upper Mississippi River"-the recollections of a steamboat pilot from 1854 to 1863, was written by Captain George Byron Merrick and pub- lished in 1909. Of his earlier experiences on the Mississippi river he has the fol- lowing, in part, to say :

"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, beginnings of great 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 mid-summer night's dream of care-free, exhilarating experiences and glorified achievements. There were steamers running between St. Louis and Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, from the year 1823 in more or less regularity. The Virginia, Captain Crawford, was the first steamboat to reach Fort Snelling, which occurred May 10, 1823. The crowning achievement of Captain William Fisher, of Galena, was the taking of the City of Quincy from St. Louis to St. Paul, Captain Brock being his partner for the trip. The City of Quincy was a New Orleans packet that had been char- tered to take an excursion the length of the river. The vessel was of 1,600 tons burden, with length of 350 feet beam and was the largest boat ever making the trip above Keokuk rapids. Two or three incidents of Captain Fisher's river life, among the many which he related to me, are of interest as showing the dangers of the Mississippi. The following is one which he believed was an omen prophetic of the war of the rebellion. I give it as told to me :

"I am going to tell you this just as it happened. I don't know whether you will believe me or not. I don't say that I would believe it myself if I had not seen it with my own eyes. If some one else had told it to me I might have set it down as a 'yarn.' If they never have had any experience on the river some men would make yarns to order. It is a mighty sight easier to make them than it is to live them-and safer.

" 'When this thing happened to me I was entirely sober and I was not asleep. If you will take my word for it I have never been anything else but sober. If I had been otherwise I would not be here now telling you this at eighty-two years old (the relator told the story in 1903). Whiskey always gets 'em long before they see the eighty mark. And you know that a man can't run a steamboat while asleep-that is very long. Of course he can for a little while, but when he hits the bank it wakes him up.

" 'This story ought to interest you because I was on your favorite boat when it happened. The Fannie Harris was sold in 1859, in May or June, to go south.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

She came back right away, not going below St. Louis, after all. I took her down to that port. Joseph Jones, of Galena, had bought the bar for the season when she was sold, and lost thirty dollars in money by the disposal of the boat. Captain W. H. Gabbert, who died a few months since, was in command and I was pilot. I left Galena in the evening. It was between changes of the moon and a beautiful star-light night-as fine as I ever saw. By the time we got down to Bellevue the stars had all disappeared and it had become daylight, not twilight, but broad daylight, so light that you could not see the brightest star, and from 11 :30 to 12:30, a full hour, it was as bright as any day when the sun was under a cloud. At mid- night I was right opposite Savanna. Up to this time Captain Gabbert had been asleep in the cabin, although he was on watch. We were carrying neither pas- sengers nor freight for we were just taking the boat down to deliver her to her new owners. The captain woke up or was called and when he saw the broad day- light and that his watch indicated that it was only just midnight, he was surprised and maybe scared, just as everyone else was. He ran out on the roof and called out "Mr. Fisher, land the boat, the world is coming to an end." I told him that if the world were coming to an end that we might as well go in the middle of the river as at the bank, and kept on going. It took just as long to get dark again as it did to get light-about an hour. Then in another half hour the stars had come out, one by one, just as you see them at sunset-the big bright ones first and then the whole field of little ones. I looked for all the stars I knew by sight and as they came back, one by one, I began to feel more confidence in the reality of things. I couldn't tell at all where the light came from-but it grew absolutely broad daylight. That one hour's experience had more to do with turning my hair white than anything that ever occurred to me, for it certainly did seem a strange phenomenon. "Was it worse than going into a battle?" I asked. Yes, a hundred times worse, because it was different. When you go into battle you know just what danger is, and you nerve yourself to meet it. It is just the same as bracing yourself to meet a known danger in your work-wind, lightning or storm-you know what to expect and if you have any nerve you just hold yourself in and let it come. This was different; you didn't know what was coming next, but I guess we all thought just as the captain did, that it was the end of the world. I confess that I was scared, but I had the boat to look out for and until the world did really come to an end I was responsible for her, and so stood by and you know that helps to keep your nerves where they belong. I just hung on to the wheel and kept her in the river, but held one eye on the western sky to see what was coming next. I hope when my time comes I shall not be scared to death, and I don't be- lieve I shall be. It will come in a natural way and there won't be anything to scare a man. It is the unknown and mysterious that shakes him and this midnight marvel was too much for any of us. We had a great many signs before the war and I believe this marvel was one of them, only we didn't know how to read it.'"

Captain Merrick graphically describes a race between the Itasca and the Gray Eagle, which took place in 1856 on the Mississippi from Dunleith to St. Paul. He says : "As a race against time, the run of the Gray Eagle was something really remarkable. A sustained speed of over sixteen miles an hour for a distance of 300 miles up stream is a wonderful record for an inland steamboat, anywhere, upper river or lower river, and the pride which Captain Harris had in

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his boat was fully justified. 'A' few years later she struck the Rock Island bridge and sank in less than five minutes, a total loss. It was pitiful to see the old cap- tain leaving the wreck, a broken-hearted man, weeping over the loss of his darling and returning to his Galena home, never again to command a steamboat. He had, during his eventful life on the upper river built and owned or commanded scores of steamboats and this was the end." Captain D. Smith Harris in 1855 brought out the Gray Eagle which had been built at Cincinnati at a cost of $60,000. He built her with his own money or at least had a controlling interest and in- tended her to be the fastest boat on the river.

RAFTING DAYS.

Captain W. A. Blair gives an interesting description of rafting on the Missis- sippi river in the following article which first appeared in the Chicago Timberman :

"The rafting of logs began about 1845 and reached its height in 1890 when the Chippewa river alone sent out over 600,000,000 feet of logs, besides over 400,000,- 000 feet of sawed lumber for the yards at Burlington, Keokuk, Hannibal, Louis- iana, St. Louis and Chester. The first rafts floated down the Mississippi were very small, were carried along by the current and handled by large oars on the bow and stern. The logs were rafted in strings seventeen feet wide and held together by poles across them, to which each log was fastened by wooden plugs and lock- downs. These strings were fastened together into rafts from five to ten strings wide and about 250 feet long. Delays by wind, sticking on sandbars or breaking on islands were common and while the price per thousand feet was very high, the proceeds of the entire trip were often required to pay off the crew.

"In 1865 W. J. Young, of Clinton, Iowa, one of the most successful pioneers of the lumber business, encouraged Captain Cyrus Bradley to try a small steam- boat hitched to the stern of a raft to push and guide it in the stream. His first efforts were not highly satisfactory but enough so to induce him and others to try pushing rafts with better boats in the same way, which they did with very gratify- ing results.

THE CLINTON "NIGGER"

"By 1870 the business of towing rafts by steamboats had become well estab- lished but considerable trouble attended all their efforts to properly handle and guide the rafts until Chauncey Lamb, of Clinton, Iowa, invented the famous 'Clin- ton nigger,' since then in use on every boat in the rafting business. By its use the boat's position can be easily and quickly changed so as to shove forward or back up in different directions as the change in wind or course of the river may require. The boat's head is made fast to the stern of the raft as near the middle as possible, and the stern is held in position by two gang lines of large ropes made fast on the stern corners of the raft and rove around the drums of the 'Clinton nigger' placed aft of the boat's center and amidships. 'Running the nigger' pulls in one gang line and passes out the other, changing the direction of the boat ac- cordingly. A boat hitched in this way can handle a much heavier tow than if hitched in stiff depending entirely on the rudders for steering and handling. Dur-

----- CLINTON PILTON DAVEI PORT POI K :SLAN5

CAILY PACKET AMERICAN

A STTORT LINE PACKET

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

ing the early part of 1895 the steamer Saturn, 120 feet long, twenty-four feet wide, with engine fifteen inches in diameter, four and a half feet stroke, made a very successful trip to St. Louis with a raft of lumber 1,584 feet long and 272 feet wide, containing over 7,000,000 feet of lumber besides shingles, laths and pickets enough to load a good sized steamer. About the same time the steamer E. Rutledge brought to Rock Island a raft of logs 1,450 long and 285 feet wide, containing over 2,000,000 feet log measure. Either of these rafts would cover ten acres but were brought successfully through some very narrow, crooked places.

"Floating rafts are a thing of the past and many of the famous old floating pilots have long since crossed to the other shore. They were a strong, hardy, self-reliant lot of men, accustomed to exposure, hard work, long watches and the handling of the rough, boisterous men who composed their crew. When wind-bound or tied up near some small town where liquors were to be had, these raftsmen of the olden time were much inclined to paint things a very brilliant color, and where local authorities failed to control them they generally hunted up the pilot to take charge of his men and save the town.

THE FIRST RAFT PILOT.

"Captain S. B. Hanks, now living in Albany, Illinois, (1905) at the age of eighty-nine years, gets the credit for having been the first recognized raft pilot. He saw the business grow from a single trip to a great industry in which ninety steamers were engaged regularly all season long, whose crews numbered, all told, 1,800 men, with a monthly pay roll of over $80,000.

"The average raft steamer is 130 feet long, twenty-six feet wide, four feet hold and has two inch pressure boiler with engine thirteen inches in diameter and six feet stroke. Some of them have very nice cabins with accommodation for the crew of twenty and a few extra. The logs are driven down the small tributaries into the Black, Chippewa, St. Croix and upper Mississippi rivers, and then flooded and driven down loose into the Mississippi river.

"Black river logs are rafted at North LaCrosse at the mouth of the stream. Chippewa logs are driven down into the Mississippi at Reed's Landing, then twelve miles down into West Newton slough, where they are held, sorted, scaled and rafted by the Minnesota Boom Company, which company can turn out, when con- ditions are favorable, 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 feet per day. St. Croix logs are rafted at Stillwater, where the St. Croix river enters St. Croix lake. Upper Mis- sissippi river logs are driven loose from St. Anthony's falls and rafted between Fort Snelling and St. Paul. From these points the steamer tows them to the saw mills at Winona, LaCrosse, Lansing, Guttenberg, Dubuque, Bellevue, Lyons, Ful- ton, Clinton, Moline, Rock Island, Davenport, Muscatine, Burlington, Fort Madi- son, Keokuk, Quincy, Hannibal and St. Louis, while rafted lumber is sometimes taken to Chester, eighty miles below St. Louis.

"The average speed of a tow boat and raft down stream is three and a half miles an hour. Of late years several operators have adopted the plan of making their rafts very long and using a small steamboat fastened crosswise of the bow. By going ahead or backing the bow boat the raft can be pointed around or kept in the

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channel much more quickly than the boat at the stern could do it alone. Another point gained by this plan is that while the ordinary raft is too wide for the bridge draws, and can only be put through one half at a time, lengthened out double length and half width, double tripping the bridge is avoided and much time saved.

"The business has seen its best days. Forest fires and the chopper's ax have destroyed nearly all the good timber accessible. The average size of the logs di- minishes each year. Mill after mill will close when its supply of white pine is ex- hausted. One by one the tow boats that have chased each other down the grand old river will be laid to rest and rot, while their crew, who have waited in vain for the pleasant message to 'get her ready at once' will wander off, sadly trying to catch a land lubber's step and earn a hard living on shore, thinking often of the old familiar whistle he will hear no more."

FERRIES CROSSING THE MISSISSIPPI.

Colonel George Davenport established the first public ferry between Warsaw on the south and Prairie du Chien on the north, a distance of 500 miles. This took place in Davenport in 1825 and full crews were employed, both at the "slough" and the main channel, for the original ferry led across from the island and not below it. The slough ferry touched the Illinois shore near where the freight depot of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific now stands. The island landing on the main channel was just in front of the Davenport mansion, while on the Iowa shore there were two, an arriving and a departing landing. The rapids current was strong and the boats, usually propelled by oar and helm, were natur- ally carried well down stream in crossing. The first landing was at a point where Renwick's mill was subsequently built, and from this point the boat was poled up along the shore to a point at the foot of Mississippi avenue, from which it returned to the island landing. Two oarsmen and a man at the helm composed the crew, and the rates for putting a man and horse across the stream was $1.25, or $2 for a two horse team, and single passengers in a skiff 25 cents. While living at Andalusia Captain Benjamin W. Clark established a ferry at Buffalo before he moved across the river. This was for many years the most noted ferry between Burlington and Dubuque. In 1834 Antoine LeClaire started his ferry below the island, which put the Davenport boats and crews out of business. Le- Claire began with flat boats and his first captain was L. S. Colton. At the expira- tion of two years Mr. LeClaire sold his franchise and boats to John Wilson for $1,000 and quit the business. Captain Wilson was a man of energy and enter- prise and at once began building new boats and conducted the business in a methodical manner. He made commutation rates with the Rock river ferry at the mouth of Green river, whereby one fare paid the way over both ferries. This arrangement was well advertised and greatly increased Captain Wilson's business and brought to this county many people seeking homes who would not otherwise have come here. The Iowa Sun of August 4, 1838, announced that Captain Wilson had a steam ferry upon his docks which he would launch in due time. For some reason, not now known, the boat was not finished until 1842, but when it appeared on the water it was found to be in advance of the times, and was taken off to reappear no more until 1852. It was the first steam ferry on

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the river above St. Louis. There were twelve ferries chartered in 1842. Every town along the river had its ferry. Captain Benjamin W. Clark had one at Buf- falo which existed up to a few years ago. In the spring of 1838 he was licensed to run a ferry at Buffalo. John H. Sullivan and Adrian A. Davenport had one at Rockingham and Marmaduke S. Davenport at Credit island, which have long since gone out of existence. Just below Buffalo Joseph and Matthias Mounts had ferries. Avery Thomas ran a flat boat at Pinneo's landing, now Princeton, and Benjamin Doolittle had a ferry on the Wapsipinicon near its mouth. These men all had flat boats. Gilbert Marshall ran a ferry on the Wapsipinicon at Point Pleasant in 1840, which was subsequently turned over to J. W. Curtley in 1842 and afterward became the property of Judge Grant. A ferry was started at Pleasant Valley by Lucien Well in 1842 and Parkhurst, now LeClaire, had its ferry about the same time. In the county commissioners' court at Rocking- ham in May, 1838, the following schedule for licenses was adopted: Davenport, $20 ; Buffalo, $10; Rockingham, $8; all others at $5 per annum. For Mississippi ferriage the following rates were followed:

Footmen

$.1834

Man and horse .50

One vehicle and driver .75

Two horse vehicle and driver 1.00

Each additional horse or mule.

.183/4

Neat cattle, per head .121/2

Sheep or hogs .05

Freight per hundred .061/4

It was also ordered at this meeting that each keeper give due attendance at all times from sunrise until 8 p. m., but that they shall be allowed double rates on ferriage after sunset.

Among the improvements instituted by Captain Wilson was the ferry alarm. Says a local writer: "In primitive times in order to arouse the ferryman on the opposite shore the Stephensonites (now Rock Islanders) who had been over here in Davenport to attend evening services and overstayed their time, or zealous Davenporters who after dark had occasion to visit Stephenson in a missionary cause, had to raise the 'war-whoop.' In order to discourage relics of barbarism Mr. Wilson introduced the ferry triangle, an ungainly piece of triangular steel which, when vigorously pounded with a club, sent forth from its gallows tree a most wretched clanging noise. But it brought the skiff, though it awakened the whole town. That triangle was immortalized by Davenport's local bard. In an inspired moment he ground out an epic or a lyric or a something in seven stanzas and from seven to seventeen poetic feet. We would reproduce it if we were quite certain our readers were all prepared to die."

After the death of John Wilson the ferry fell into the hands of his son-in-law, Judge John W. Spencer and Thomas J. Robinson, then associate judge, and in 1854 Judge James Grant, of Davenport, was added and the firm name changed from J. W. Spencer & Company to Spencer, Robinson & Company. An extended history of Judge Spencer's life as written by himself is given in another part of this work. Thomas S. Robinson left his native state, Maine, in 1837 and landed in Green county, Illinois, where he taught school several years, and was county

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clerk for some time. In 1847 he went to Rock Island county and there engaged in farming for two years. The following three or four years he engaged in mer- chandising at Port Byron, and from 1853 to 1868 almost without a day's absence he was the captain in command of his prosperous steamer, ever active, pleasant and accommodating and attending to his business in a business-like manner. The first permanent steam ferry boat that plied between Davenport and Rock Island was the "John Wilson." It was followed by the "Davenport" in 1855 and ran in connection with that boat in those busy transfer times of 1855 and 1856 before the completion of the railroad bridge. In 1857 the "Rock Island" came into ser- vice and the "John Wilson" was sold to the Fulton & Lyons' trade. The "Daven- port" became a government transport during the Civil war and eventually met the fate of all things perishable. The "Rock Island" continued in the service several years, when it was supplanted by the "J. W. Spencer," whose successor was the "Augusta." In 1902 the "Augusta" was remodeled and rechristened as the "T. J. Robinson," which name it bore in honor of the man who gave this locality its earliest ferry service and who kept it up to a high standard in the years that followed. The boats now in commission, "The Davenport" and "Rock Island," furnish the finest service between St. Louis and St. Paul. They are provided with the latest approved machinery procurable for such service and the accommo- dations provided for the traveling public are the best possible. Trips are made between the Rock Island and Davenport shores every fifteen minutes, which are kept up constantly during the day and until late in the evening. On April 7, 1888, the original license to operate this ferry was issued by the United States treasury department and April 26, 1888, the charter was issued to the incorporated body -the Rock Island-Davenport Ferry Company-with a capital stock of $60,000. The original incorporators were Thomas J. Robinson, D. Nelson Richardson, Henry Lischer, Joe R. Lane, Edward D. Sweeny and J. Frank Rob- inson. Thomas J. Robinson died in April, 1899, and his stock in the ferry com- pany was inherited by his son and only heir, J. Frank Robinson, and with the stock went the management which the elder Robinson had wisely administered. J. Frank Robinson died in May, 1902, and bequeathed his stock to Captain Mar- cus L. Henderson, a cousin who had been in charge of the ferry as general man- ager since 1896. At the meeting of the stockholders Captain Henderson was unanimously elected president and manager, with H. E. Casteel secretary and treasurer.

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History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 38

Author: Downer, Harry E Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1042

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042