of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 83-84
MISSISSIPPI STEAMBOATS "PERFECT PALACES." In a reminiscent article published in the Journal June 12, 1874, appeared the following: "The old steamer Milwaukee passed down the river for St. Louis, where she will be dismantled and converted into something else. She is the last of a noble race of steamers that once constituted a perfect flotilla of palaces on the upper Mississippi. We learn from an article in the Davenport Gazette that she, with the Gray Eagle, Itasca, Northern Light and Key City, was built in Cincinnati in 1855 for the Galena, Dubuque & Minnesota Packet Company. The whole five were magnificent packets built for speed and passengers rather than for freight and all on the same model. These packets did an immense business in both freight and passengers in 1855-6-7. They scarcely made a trip without being so crowded with passengers that the cabin floors were covered with cots, but with the crash of 1857, emigration ceased passing into Minnesota in such overwhelming numbers. Davidson started a line from La Crosse, the Galena, Dubuque & Minnesota Company was transformed into the Northwestern Packet Company and the palmy days of the steamers were ended. The Gray Eagle went to pieces against_the Rock Island bridge in 1861. The Itasca burned at Paducah, Kentucky, the Northern Light sank above La Crosse in high water and was cut to pieces by the ice, and the Key City was taken to pieces at Paducah, leaving the Milwaukee "the last of the Mohicans."
Back to Historical Index Page