of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 86-87
RAFTING OF LUMBER. Remarkable details regarding the rafting of lumber on the Mississippi in the early days have been gleaned from the files of the Journal, as follows: From 1865 to 1870 lumber rafts were taken as far south as Memphis and Vicksburg. Not more than two rafts a year go south of St. Louis and then only as far as St. Mary and Chester. The longest distance ever run by a raft on the Mississippi was from La Crosse, Wisconsin, to New Orleans. The trip was made in 1870. The float was made up of ten strings of about 1,000,000 feet. It was owned by the Grunner Brothers Lumber Company and was valued at $30,000. * * * The largest raft yet towed (1870) by the steamer Van Sant contained 2,000,000 feet of lumber, 500,000 lath, and 250,000 pickets. It was sixteen strings wide and three and a half acres in area. * * * A monster raft containing 2,000,000 feet of lumber and loaded with 500,000 shingles, 700,000 lath and 100,000 pickets, passed down in tow of the rafter J. W. Van Sant. This was in May, 1872. * * * May 19, 1873, a lumber raft of 1,700,000 feet arrived yesterday, propelled by the steamer James Means. It came from Reed's Landing, about 355 miles in four and a half days. It belonged to the Union Lumbering Company and was mostly sold to dealers in this city. In 1874, the same rafter arrived with a big lumber raft for the Union Lumbering Company. It contained 1,600,000 feet of lumber and was loaded down with lath, shingles, etc. * * * On May 22, 1875, a raft containing 2,300,000 feet of lumber, with the usual top loading, was tied near Chambers' mill and attracted much attention from its immense size, its area being three and a half acres. It belonged to the Union Lumbering Company and came from Chippewa Falls. * * * In its issue of August 9, 1877, the Journal says: "One of the largest log rafts that ever floated down passed here on its way to St. Louis from the Jennie Bull Falls on the Chippewa. It belonged to T. B. Scott, who likes to run logs by the acre. The raft is twenty-eight strings long and nine strings wide and carried on it 1,200,000 shingles. This raft had a crew of forty men. * * *" In the issue of June 5, 1879, appeared this item: "That Big Raft--There was quite a crowd along the levee last evening to see the Ben Hershey land the largest raft ever brought down the river. The raft by actual measurement was 310 feet wide and 535 feet long, containing twenty strings. The Ben Hershey is undoubtedly the best rafter on the river and is claimed to have been the first steamboat of any kind to be equipped with electric searchlights. It was constructed at Rock Island for the Muscatine Lumber Manufacturing Company, which afterward became known as the Hershey Lumbering Company. She was 130 feet from stern to stern, 28 feet beam, and had a clearance of four feet. Her cost was $14,000."
A terrible disaster occurred on the Mississippi a short distance below Muscatine in 1837, when the old Dubuque had a horrible explosion. Twenty-two people were killed and many more seriously injured. The bodies of the dead and injured were brought to this city, the dead being buried where the large Third Ward school building now stands. When the contractors made excavations for the school building, many of the bones and skulls were unearthed. These bones were reinterred in another place. The Dubuque was one of the earliest boats on the Mississippi. At that time there were three boats running between St. Louis and Galena, Illinois. The other two were The Warrior and Live Branch.
THE WHITE COLLAR LINE. One of the early steamboat lines on the Mississippi was the White Collar Line, which had a number of well equipped boats and was a very strong company. Some of its vessels were constructed on handsome lines, among them being the City of St. Paul, the Belle of La Crosse, Phil Sheridan, Lucy Bertram, Northwestern, Centennial, Milwaukee, Itasca, Key City, Tom Jasper, Keokuk, War Eagle, S. S. Merrill and Alex Mitchell--all side-wheel steamers. The Centennial was the largest boat on the upper river and the Lucy Bertram, built on the Ohio river, was one of the finest and best equipped steamers on the Mississippi, costing about $175,000.
THE DIAMOND JO LINE. This well known packet line was started by three Reynolds brothers, one of whom, Joe Reynolds, lived at Galena. It was started a short time subsequent to that of the White Collar Line. In those early days it was customary to mark the grain sacks with some distinguishing emblem trade-mark. The Reynolds brothers chose the diamond mark. From this the name of Diamond Jo originated, and afterward when the packet line was organized, the name was given to it. The Diamond Jo line was started with the idea of towing grain down from the northern cities to Fulton, where it was stored in an immense elevator, which was destroyed some years ago. The John C. Gault was the pioneer boat of the Diamond Jo Line--a powerful double screw propeller. Sister vessels were the Ida Fulton, Arkansas, Tidal Wave, Diamond Jo, Josie, Josephine, Mary Morton, Sidney, Pittsburg, Libbie Conger, St. Paul and Quincy. The Pittsburg almost lost her life in a St. Louis cyclone and the remnant of her hulk was remodeled and named the Dubuque.
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