LIVING IT OVER AGAIN 240

Appendix

A. LIST OF STEAMBOATS ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI
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 highway
between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi.
This scene gives some idea of the multitude of islands
which diversify both the Wisconsin and the Mississippi
Rivers Frontispiece

PRESCOTT LEVEE IN 1876. Showing Steamer “Centennial”
and the little Hastings ferry, “Plough Boy.” The double
warehouse, showing five windows in the second story
and four in the third, was the building in which the author
lived when a boy 32

PRESCOTT LEVEE IN 1908. But one business building, one
of the old Merrick warehouses, left intact. Dunbar’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 foreground,
at the head of the slough, is the site of the winter
camp of Nicolas Perrot, in the winter of 1684-5, as identified
in 1888 by Hon. B. F. Heuston and Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites
of the Wisconsin State Historical Society 68

DANIEL SMITH HARRIS. Steamboat Captain, 1833-1861 82

CAPTAIN THOMAS BURNS. Pilot on the Upper Mississippi
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 UPPER MISSISSIPPI. Map of the
river between Cassville, Wis., and Guttenberg, Iowa,
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 Minnesota
River boats belonging to Captain Jean Robert, an
eccentric Frenchman and successful steamboatman. (Reproduced
from an old negative in possession of Mr. Edward 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 background,
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 steamer
“Warrior,” Captain Joseph Throckmorton, with soldiers
and artillery from Fort Crawford, Prairie du
Chien, took an active and important part in this battle 218

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 1881.) 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. 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 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. 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, New York.