DULEY, Joseph I.

DULEY, SHETTLER, WHISTLER

Posted By: Visitor (email)
Date: 1/20/2003 at 12:13:29

From the 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa - Pages 243-244 (any spelling errors are as on the original copies)  
CAPTAIN JOSEPH I. DULEY  
Since 1883 this gentleman has been one of the most trusted employes of the firm of C. Lamb & Sons, well-known lumbermen o Clinton, and for over nine years has had the charge of all their boats as superintendent of the fleet.
He was born in Maple Park, Illinois, December 15, 1860, and is a son of John and Mary (Shettler) Duley, the former born in France of Irish parentage, the latter in Canada of French Canadian ancestry. The father, who was a ship carpenter by trade, was killed in a shipyard at San Francisco, California, together with six others, by a ship in course of repairs slipping off the blocking. He was at that time about thirty-one years of age. Our subject's mother is still living and makes her home in Albany, Illinois. The two other children of the family were John and Charles, now residents of California.  
J. I. Duley received his education in the schools of Albany, Illinois, which he attended during the winter months, while he worked on a farm through the summer season. In 1876, at the age of 16 years, he began his life on the Mississippi as raftsman, and at the end of three years he had so thoroughly learned the river that he was given a pilot's license. During the early part of his career he ran from Rock Island to St. Paul and Stillwater, and he spent two years in running to St. Louis, so that he knows seven hundred and twenty-nine miles of river, it being as familiar to him as the old cow paths on the farm where he spent his boyhood. After receiving his license he served in the capacity of pilot with Gardner, Bachelor & Wells, of Lyons; the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Weyerhauser & Dinkman of Rock Island, Illinois; and the Staples Lumber Company, of Stillwater, Minnesota.  
In 1883 Mr. Duley entered the employ of C. Lamb & Sons, and served as pilot, master or captain for nine years, having charge of all the different boats of their fleet. He was them promoted to his present position, the of superintendent of the fleet. This company operates from Stillwater to St. Paul and Clinton, and also up the Chippewa river to the foot of Lake Pipin. They have three large boats, Chancy Lamb, the Vivian and The Wanderer, and two smaller ones, known as the Artemas Gates, and the Berniece, besides three gasoline launches and one pleasure boat, all of which are under the supervision of Mr. Duley, who devotes the winter to painting and repairing them, using about two tons of paint in the winter of 1900-1901. There are also five barges which are used in connection with the fleet. All are in constant use during the navigation season, and any one of these boats can make a round trip to Stillwater in eight days. They handle no manufactured lumber, but are used in towing immense rafts of logs to the mills in Clinton. An ordinary raft consists of about forty-five hundred loge, or about one million feet of lumber. The system in vogue since the organization of the company is to encircle the logs in a boom, it requiring about eight hundred dollars' worth of Manila rope to handle one raft, and the boats are all of the stern wheel design for rafting. Mr. Duley makes his headquarters in Clinton, but his work takes him all along the river, as the company has winter harbors where large quantities of logs are stored. Under his supervision are about seventy-three men, who are connected to the boating and the logging, and the average cost of labor is sixty dollars per month per man. 
Since April, 1886, Mr. Duley has made his home in Clinton. He married Miss Bertha Whistler, of Albany, Illinois, December 24, 1881, and they have two children, Berniece and Vivian. Politically he is an ardent Republican and socially is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Emulation Lodge, De Molay Commandery, and Hil Kahir Temple. He is an enterprising and energetic man, and his keen discrimination and sound judgment is shown in his capable management of the business intrusted to his care. He has a beautiful home at 1021 North Second Street.