USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 38
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"'The Policy-Resulting in the expedition of the Yellowstone.'
"'South America-May an early day witness the navigation of the Amazon and La Plata by steam power, under the auspices of an independent power.'
"'International Improvement-The New York Canal, an unperishable monument of the patriotism and genius of its projector.'
"'The Missouri Territory-Desirous to be numbered with states on constitutional principles, but determined never to submit to congressional usurpation.'
"'James Monroe-President of the United States.'
"""The Purchase of the Floridas-A hard bargain.'
"For the last regular toast was given, with no word of comment, 'The American Fair.' "Capt. Nelson spoke briefly: 'I will ever bear in grateful remembrance the liberality and hospitality of the citizens of Franklin.' J. C. Mitchell, one of the boat's passengers, praised Gen. T. A. Smith as 'the Cincinnatus of the West.' Another passenger. Maj. Thompson Douglas, complimented the citizens of Franklin as 'characterized by hospitality and generosity.' Lilburn W. Boggs, afterward governor of Missouri, 'proposed the health of Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson. John W. Scudder of Franklin toasted 'Our Guests-The passengers who ascended the Missouri in the Independence; they have the honor to be the first to witness the successful experiment of steam navigation on our noble river.'
"The two editors of the first western newspaper were talkers as well as writers. Ben- jamin Holliday's sentiment was: 'The 28th of May, 1819-Franklin will long remember it and the Independence and her commander will be, immortalized in history.' Nathaniel Patton mixed politics and agriculture thus : 'The Missouri Territory-Its future prosperity and greatness can not be checked by the caprice of a few men in Congress while it possesses a soil of inexhaustible fertility, abundant resources and a body of intelligent, enterprising, independent freemen.'
"Augustus Storrs spoke of the late Capt. Lawrence with praise. It was Capt. Lawrence who uttered the words, 'Don't give up the ship,' in the memorable naval battle between the Constitution and the Guerriere. For him Lawrence county, Missouri, is named. J. R. Howard praised the genius of Robert Fulton. L. W. Jordan's sentiment was significant : 'The towns on the Missouri river-May they flourish in commerce and, like those on the Ohio and Mississippi, witness the daily arrival or departure of some steamboat ascending or descending the majestic stream.' Toasts by Dr. J. J. Lowry and Maj. Richard Gentry to the president and vice-president of the day closed the brilliant celebration."
Steamboating in Pioneer Days.
When Missouri entered the Union there was not a steamboat owned in the state although this improvement in transportation was in use on the Ohio and Lower Mississippi. Above St. Louis the navigation was by barges. A decade after the Pike crept up to the St. Louis bank and half paddled, half floated away Missourians looked with conservatism upon steamboating. Along the Ohio nearly one hundred steamboats had been built and put in operation before this state became to the trade anything more than landing places. Steamboats came. tin- loaded, loaded and left. In 1825 the Missouri Republican commented on the surprising fact that the two boats, the Brown and the Magnet, were lying up at this port for repairs : "We believe this is the first instance of a steamboat remain- ing here through the season of low water." The primitive conditions of pioneer
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steamboating were described by Captain Joseph Brown in a paper read before the Missouri, Historical Society. Captain Brown wrote of what he had seen and known as boy and man : 1 /
"They had but one engine, and no 'doctor' or donkey engine. The boats themselves, and particularly those for the upper rivers, were small, sometimes made like a flatboat, with broad bow and stern, and a stern wheel. There was nothing above the boiler deck but the pilothouse and the chimneys, or rather one chimney, for they had cylinder boilers; that is, there were no flues in the boilers. Having but one engine, the shaft ran clean across the boat, and when at a landing the engine had to run the pump to supply the boilers with water, the wheels had to be uncoupled to let the engine work. As I said before, the doctor engine had not been invented, and I do not doubt that many explosions occurred for the lack of it.
"The cabin was a very primitive affair. It was on the lower deck, back of the shaft, in the after part of the boat. There were no staterooms then, but, like a canal boat, there were curtains in front of the berths. It was quite common to see a bowsprit sticking out in front of the boat, such as are used on ships, but, being useless, they were soon dispensed with. Stages had not been invented then. Two or three planks were used, and, if need be, tied together. Whistles were unknown, but bells were rung, and the captains were very proud of a big bell. For a number of years there was no signal for passing or meeting boats, and the result was many collisions.
"There were no regular packets then. A boat started from Pittsburg was just as likely to go to St. Paul as anywhere, or up any of the other rivers, and they had no regular hours or even days of starting. I have known boats to have steam up for a week, telling people and shippers the boat was going in an hour, and even have their planks taken in, all but one, and then launch their planks out again. All this was done to decoy people on board. The clanging of bells, the hurrah of agents and the pulling and hauling of cabmen and runners were most confusing, more particularly to unsophisticated emigrants. There was no fixed price for anything; it was all a matter of bargain, and very often great deception was practiced. The engines being small and very imperfect in those days, the boats were very slow. I have known some of the boats in the case of a sudden rise in the river and consequent strong current, to be unable to stem it at the old waterworks point, which was at the foot of Carr street. They would have to go over to the other side of the river and fight it out there, sometimes for hours, in sight of the city.
"The Eagle was one of the first boats to run between St. Louis and Alton. She had one engine, was a side-wheeler, about 18 feet beam and 75 feet long. She carried about 50 tons, and it took her about seven hours to go to Alton. She was commanded by that veteran steamboat man, Captain Lamothe.
"In 1849, when the gold fever was at its height, there were fifty-eight fine steamers plying regularly on the Missouri river; on the Upper Mississippi, about seventy-five; on the Illinois, twenty-eight fine steamers; to New Orleans, about one hundred; on the Ohio, about one hundred and fifty; on the Tennessee, about fifteen. Owing to the rush of emigration at that time, boats could not be built fast enough. It was said of a certain boat-yard at Freedom, Pennsylvania, that they kept a lot of the straight bodies of boats put up. When a man wanted a boat, they took him down to the yard and asked him how long he wanted her; then just put two ends onto a body and he had a boat. But a really fast and fine boat cost about $100,000 to $150,000 and took about eight months to build. The average life of a boat was about five years. - After that they were either torn up to build a more modern boat, or had sunk or blown up. Need I tell you that in one bend in the river there lie the wrecks of one hundred and three steamboats, between St. Louis and Cairo?"
When Edmund Flagg came from Boston to be the editor of a St. Louis paper about 1838 he was much entertained with the firing of a salute: "As we drew nigh to Alton the fireman of our steamer deemed proper, in testimonial of the dignity of our arrival, to let off a certain rusty old swivel which chanced to be on board; and to have witnessed the marvelous fashion in which this
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marvelous manœuver was executed by our worthies would have pardoned a smile on the visage of Heraclitus himself. One lanky-limbed genius held a huge dipper of gunpowder; another, seizing upon the extremity of a hawser and severing a generous fragment, made use thereof for wadding; a third rammed home the charge with that fearful weapon wherewith he poked the furnaces; while a fourth, honest wight, all preparations being complete, ad- vanced with a shovel of glowing coals, which, poured upon the touchhole, the old piece was briefly delivered of its charge, and the woods and shore and welkin rang with the roar."
The Perils of River Navigation.
The steamboat era made a record for casualty and mortality which was ap- palling. St. Louis newspaper files show that during the eighteen years preced ing 1852 twenty-seven steamboats exploded their boilers, and that in the twenty- seven explosions there were killed 1,002 persons. In the eighteen years subse- quent to 1852 fifty-four boats met with disaster. The number of fatalities was 3,100. The first serious explosion occurred as early as 1816. "The Washing- ton" blew up, destroying nine lives. The climax in the series of disasters was reached when the Sultana exploded her boilers in 1864, killing 1,647 people, most of them returning soldiers. The explosions which cost fifty lives or more were those of the Ellen McGregor in 1836; the Blackhawk in 1837; the Orinoco in 1838; the General Brown in 1838; the H. W. Johnston in 1846; the Edward Bates in 1847; Louisiana in 1849; Princess in 1859; Ben Sherrod in 1861 ; Penn- sylvania in 1862; Anglo-Norman in 1850; Glencoe in 1852; W. R. Arthur in . 1871.
On the second of July, 1842, the Steamer Edna left St. Louis bound up the Missouri river carrying about one hundred passengers. Most of the people were German immigrants who were on their way to new homes along the Mis- souri. The boat stopped for a night near the mouth of the river, the intention being to start out at daylight. Many of the immigrants were deck passengers and lay down to sleep near the boilers. At daybreak the assistant engineer started the engine. Almost before the wheel had turned the boiler collapsed and the hot water was thrown over the deck passengers. The steamboats Iatan and Annawan were within sight. They came at once to the assistance of the Edna. The boat was towed back to St. Louis. The injured were transferred to the Sisters' hospital. The dead numbered fifty-five. On the 4th of July was presented one of the saddest scenes in the history of the state. A public funeral was held at the courthouse, attended by thousands of citizens.
The Edna is at the head of the list of Missouri disasters in the number of lives lost. Next comes probably the Timour. The boilers of this boat exploded a short distance below Jefferson City in August, 1854. The force was terrific. It carried the boat's safe to the top of the bluff two hundred feet high over- looking the river. Between thirty and forty people were killed. For more than fifty years the decaying hull of the Timour could be seen on the shore during low water.
The Bedford struck a snag and went down just above the mouth of the Missouri river. This was in April, 1840, at night time. A storm was prevail-
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ing ; the night was intensely dark. Under other conditions there probably would have been smaller loss of life. Fifteen people were drowned. The river channel has shifted since 1840 and the mouth of the Missouri is several miles lower down. The Bedford hull is said to be buried under the land of Missouri Point where wheat is now harvested. There were reports at the time of heavy losses in gold and silver. The boat's safe was said to contain at least $25,000 belong- ing to passengers, besides the cash carried for the boat management. Accord- ing to one report a single passenger had $6,000 in gold in his trunk. Estimates of the gold and silver on the Bedford ran as high as $100,000.
The Saluda exploded her boilers at Lexington in April, 1852. Twenty-seven persons were killed. The Big Hatchey blew up at' Hermann in July, 1845, with a number of fatalities. A wreck for every seven miles of the Missouri from Fort Benton to the mouth-300 in all-was the record of disasters some years ago.
Lost Treasure.
Search for sunken cargoes in the Missouri river has been made with opti- mism like to that for the hidden hoards in the Ozarks. It has been attended with about the same results. The disappointments have been many. Since the Independence showed that steam navigation on the Missouri river was practical there have been over three hundred steamboats wrecked in the Missouri. Some of them carried down cargoes the values of which were known. With other hulks were buried in the silt gold dust, silver bullion and Mexican dollars. In- formation as to the amounts of such treasure lost was not as a rule definite.
Between 1880 and 1890 many miners who were drawn to Montana and had struck it rich came back by way of Missouri river boats. They brought with them gold dust and silver bars. The steamboats bringing such passengers occa- sionally struck snags and went down so quickly that the precious metals were lost.
In August, 1865, the Twilight sunk just before sunrise twenty miles below Kansas City. She had left the channel in the fog and had struck a submerged sycamore tree. The bank was not far away. The boat went down leaving the pilot house and texas above the water. Passengers escaped in their night clothes and were cared for by the farmers. The Twilight was heavily loaded and was bound for the head of navigation on the Missouri. One item of the cargo was three hundred barrels of whiskey. There were many barrels of oils, many tons of white lead, pig iron, stoves and stamp mills and engines for the mines. Gov- ernment arms and a variety of valuable consignments were included in the cargo. Portions of the boat were in sight for some years during low water. Several attempts were made to recover portions of the cargo. Farmers lifted out two. barrels of whiskey. At a later date the river shifted and the Twilight was buried completely in a sand bank. The flood of 1881 added to the silt. The wreck was buried under thirty-nine feet of sand and soil and by the change of the channel was half a mile from shore at low water. About twenty-five years ago, in the belief that the whiskey barrels were still whole and that the contents had improved from age, a company was formed in Kansas City to make a search for the Twilight and to recover if possible, what was still valuable of the cargo.
POSSIBILITIES OF RIVER TRANSPORTATION Forty-six trainloads of coal in one tow of barges
POSSIBILITIES OF RIVER TRANSPORTATION Eight trainloads of lumber brought to St. Louis on one barge
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The officers of the company obtained such information as they could from the settlers along that part of the river. They used long steel rods probing the sand to locate the wreck. After some days' work of this kind one of the rods struck metal which proved to be the engine used to feed the boilers. With more prob- ing the exact location of the hulk was found. The Twilight was thirty-two feet wide, one hundred and eighty-five feet long. With machinery from Kansas City an air-tight caisson was built just over the hatches. It was sunk through the thirty-nine feet of sand in the same manner that excavation is made for bridge piers. The hull of the boat was reached. Several bottles of "Old London Gin, 1860" were taken out and carried to Kansas City and opened for tasting by experts at one of the clubs. One of the barrels of whiskey was tapped and the whiskey was pronounced to be better than the gin. News of the discovery spread. In many of the saloons in Kansas City "Twilight" whiskey was offered to customers although none of the genuine had been placed on sale. There was great excitement for several days over the results reported by the wreckers. A crowd of farmers gathered at the scene of operations. In a few days, how- ever, the expectations failed and the work was given up.
There was special fascination in the search for sunken cargoes of whiskey. The Leodora went down after burning near Elk Point, South Dakota, carrying one hundred barrels of liquor. The search in that case disclosed only rusted metal and the rotting mass of one hundred forty-eight tons of miscellaneous freight. Some thousands of dollars were spent near Parkville, Missouri, by a company which hoped to recover one hundred fifty barrels of whiskey in the hull of the Arabia, a steamboat that sunk in 1856. All that the searchers found which had resisted the decay of nearly a half century was a shipment of old wool hats.
One of the boats which was said at the time to have carried a large amount of gold dust from the Montana mines was the Butte, which went down in July. 1883, near Fort Peck. The Butte's cargo was valued at $110,000. The Ber- trand sunk in 1865, near Portage La Force. It was bound upstream and had as part of the cargo iron flasks containing more than $25,000 worth of quick- silver, consigned to mining camps in Montana. The Boreas burned in 1846 near Hermann and carried down a large amount of silver bullion and Mexican dollars. It was suspected that the boat was fired by thieves who had planned to steal the money and bullion in the excitement. The fire spread so rapidly that the men were forced to jump overboard without getting the treasure.
The channel of the Missouri river has changed so that in places it is now five miles distant from where it was sixty to seventy-five years ago. A Chariton farmer digging a well found a Bible. On the cover was printed "Naomi." That was the name of the steamboat wrecked in that locality in 1840. The place where the well was dug is five miles from the Missouri river of to-day.
Days of the Pilot's Glory.
Successful pilots of-Missouri river boats were looked upon with great respect. Navigation of the clear water, regular channel rivers was considered tame by con- parison. £ It was said that the La Barges, Elisha Fine and navigators of their cla'ss knew where the existing sandbars were and where the next sandbars would
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form and could locate snags unerringly. A feat of the pilot known as Uncle Davy was to come down stream headed direct for a sandbar, slack up, 'poke the prow into the bar, swing around and back down stream by the only prac- ticable channel left. Captain Hunter Ben Jenkins told this :
"I remember when the steamer Dacotah came down the Missouri river to St. Louis with 16,756 sacks of wheat on four and one-half feet of water, mind you, and never set a spar on the whole trip. That's what we pilots used to do in the day when we were paid as high as $1.500 to $2,000 a month. You can get pretty near anything you want in this country if you want to pay, including good pilots-yes, sir! Why I remember the day when young fellows not only didn't want any pay to learn the river, but would actually put up a couple of thousand dollars to the man who would teach them. They did the work and the pilot drew the pay. Those were great days. We didn't know what electric lights were in those days. We carried a torch basket of rosin, one on the starboard and one on the larboard side. Who were some of the boys? Well, there's a long string of mighty fine names. It's hard to say where to stop. There were the La Barges, Masseys, Teabeaus, Kaisers, Henry and Ed McPherson, Yores, Dillons, Lafayette and Robert Burton, Ed Baldwin, 'Bud' Spahr, George and Henry Keith, the Homan brothers, Thomas Hale, James Mckinney, Mike and Joe Oldman, Tony and Lew Burbach and Captain Shaw and a lot more. I reckon the most popular man in his day was Captain Jewett. He operated on the Missouri river. He died of cholera in Glasgow, Missouri, in 1849. We had some mighty fine boats, too. There were the Morning Star, Ben W. Lewis, Cornelia, Minnehaha and Clara Emma and Martha Jewett."
The Missouri Belle and the Buttermilk.
This is the story of steamboat days which Lloyd G. Harris told a committee of Congress when he was in Washington with a Missouri delegation :
"The captain and officers of the Missouri Belle were very fond of the buttermilk which a farmer who lived along the river bank supplied to them. The boat, in passing this point, would always make a landing, and blow her whistle in order to notify the farmer that she was there, waiting for buttermilk. The farmer would send down a negro man with a bucket of buttermilk, and, having taken it aboard, the boat would proceed on her way. On one occasion when she tried to edge up at this point, she struck a sand-bar and sunk. The captain blew a signal of distress, fastening the lever so that she would blow as long as there was steam, while the hungry waters were gradually rising and swallowing her. The water had crept up to the boiler, and as it rushed in there was an expiring gush of steam into the signal pipe which caused a most peculiar, lugubrious, and nerve- shattering sound. Just at that moment Pompey, who was responding to the signal, reached the water's edge with his pail. When he heard that sound he exclaimed: 'Great Gawd ! Da's de Belle a-sinkin' and callin' fo' buttermilk wid her last breff !'"
Up Grand River for Hickory Nuts.
"The Grand river country" was a famous section of Missouri between 1840 and 1860. The legislature declared the river navigable to the northern boundary of the state. As early as 1842 a small sternwheel steamboat made two trips to the East and West Fork in the western part of Livingston county. It carried up goods from St. Louis and Brunswick and brought down produce. The Bed- ford struck a snag and went to pieces. The Lake of the Woods, the Bonita, and some other steamboats made occasional trips up the river. As late as 1865 a steamboat landed at Chillicothe. For many years one of the chief exports of the Grand river country was hickory nuts. For fifty years the forests of shell-bark trees yielded a crop measured by hundreds of bushels. These Grand river hickory
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nuts are large and fine flavored. In early days they brought at least twenty- five cents a bushel, which was considered a very good price before the war. Per- haps nowhere else in Missouri has this crop formed such an important industry.
A Tradition of Osage Navigation.
One day in early summer, Matthew Arbuckle rode into Papinsville. His horse was panting and flecked with foam. Matt told the group which gathered how while plowing on his claim about a mile from the Osage he had heard a terrible noise. He said it was something like the scream of a "painter" only ten times as long and loud. He had ridden in to tell the folks that some wild animal different from anything hitherto known in the Ozarks was in the woods down the river. Uncle John Whitley, who had "fit with Jackson" at New Or- leans and who was the acknowledged leader in the community was sent for. He listened to Arbuckle and said the only thing to do was to get the hounds together, take the guns and go after the varmint, which, he reckoned, must have wandered down from the Rocky Range, as they called the Rocky Mountains in those days. Uncle Jimmy Breckinridge seconded Captain Whitley. and the settlers got ready. As the posse was about to start for the trail, a faint repeti- tion of what Arbuckle had reported was heard. It was sure enough a new and terrifying sound. Uncle John at once remembered that his pretty daughter, Mattie, had gone on her pony to the river that morning.
"Ride, men !" he shouted, "Ride! Mat went down to the river and I expect she's dead by this time."
There was mounting in hot haste, but before the start was fairly underway here came Mattie with her hair flying. She had heard the monster. Uncle John bade her get to the house and tell all of the women folks to keep within doors. Among those who followed the hounds that memorable day were the Morrises, the Roarks, the Snyders, the Burches and other pioneers of that region. Every now and then the unearthly noises, a combination of scream and howl, could be heard sometimes near and again far down the river. The hounds sniffed and yelped but found no trail The cliffs of the Osage echoed and re-echoed the sounds. Darkness and a storm came on together. Captain John Whitley led his party to Rock House, a cave forming a room twenty feet high, thirty feet wide and forty feet deep. Rock House was where the Whitleys had passed their first winter in the Ozarks. The floor was covered with dry white sand, a very comfortable camping place. Just before nightfall, the dogs had started a buck and the hunters had dropped it. Supper was made of the fresh venison. There was no disturbance in the night but at daybreak that nerve-racking sound brought every man to his feet and set the hounds howling. The noise seemed to show that the monster was coming up the river and was near. Uncle John posted his men for the encounter, every one behind a big tree. Four were told off with orders to have their knives ready and to wade in if the lead failed to stop the beast. Near Rock House was one of the sharpest of the scores of curves and bends of the Osage. Around the point and into view of the amazed settlers came slowly the Flora Jones, the first steamboat to ascend the upper Osage. As was the case in those days the size of the whistle and the scream of the exhaust was out of all proportion to the dimensions of the boat. Old river
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