Three Largest Rafting Firms - 1891

MCDONALDS BROS, LA CLAIRE, VAN SANT, MUSSER

Posted By: cheryl moonen (email)
Date: 5/22/2017 at 21:38:18

The Clinton Age, Clinton, Iowa, January 20, 1891

The three largest rafting firms now on the river are McDonalds Bros., of LaCrosse. Van Sant & Musser, of Muscatine, and the Le Claire Navigation Company, of Davenport. These three firms have upwards of fifty rafts boats, and those who know point to the time when they will control the rafting business on the upper Mississippi, and make sport of the idea that the time can never come when the pilots will force them to sell or retire from business. It is predicted that within a year the above firms will own two-thirds of the raft boats, which issues them a monopoly of the business as long as it lasts.