of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, page 77
AN EARLY RIVER PANORAMA. What did the young steamboat man see in his voyage from Cairo to Galena in 1823? In his later years, in speaking of this trip, he said that where Cairo now stands there was but one log building,--a warehouse for the accommodation of keel boat navigators of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Cape Girardeau, St. Genevieve and Herculaneum were small settlements averaging a dozen families each. St. Louis was built almost entirely of frame structures and had a pOpulation of about 5,000. The levee was a ledge of rocks with scarcely a fit landing place on the whole frontage. Alton, Clarksville and Louisiana were minor settlements. What is now Quincy consisted of one log cabin only, which was built and occupied by John Woods, who afterward became lieutenant governor of the state of Illinois and acting governor. This intrepid pioneer was "batching it," being industriously engaged in clearing a piece of land for farming purposes. The only settler at Hannibal was one John S. Miller, a blacksmith, who removed to Galena in the autumn of 1823. In later years Hannibal was to claim the honor of being the birthplace of Mark Twain, the humorist historian of the lower Mississippi pilot clans. The last farm house between St. Genevieve and Galena was located at Cottonwood Prairie (now Canton), and was occupied by one Captain White, who was prominently identified with the early development of the northwest. There was a government garrison at Keokuk which was then known as Fort Edwards, and another at Fort Armstrong on Rock Island. The settlement at Galena consisted of but a dozen log cabins, a few frame shanties and a smelting furnace. If Mr. Harris was looking only for the signs of an advancing civilization, the above covers about all he saw on his trip. Other things came to his notice, however,--the great river flowing in its pristine glory unvexed to the sea; islands set like emeralds in the tawny flood; the trees and bushes taking on their summer dress of green in the warm May sunshine; prairies spreading away in boundless beauty, limited only by his powers of vision. Later, as his craft stemmed the flood and advanced up the river, he saw the hills beginning to encroach upon the valley of the river, narrowing his view; and later the crags and bastions of the bluffs of the upper river beetling over the very channel itself and lending an added grandeur to the simple beauty of the banks already passed. His unaccustomed eyes saw the wickyups and tepees of the Indians scattered among the islands and on the lowlands, the hunters of the tribes changing the firelock for the spear and net as they sought to reap the water of its harvest of returning fish. It was all new to the young traveler who was later to become the best known steamboat man of the upper river; the commander of a greater number of steamboats than any of his compeers and who was to know the river in all its meanderings, and in all its curves better than any other who ever sailed--Daniel Smith Harris, of Galena, Illinois.
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