WHAT BECAME OF THE RAFT-BOATS
171
One wonders what became of the seventy-odd rafters so busily, and
many of them profitably, engaged in 1893. The decline was rapid. The end was
in sight. Logging on Black river gave out first; then the Saint Croix
and West Newton quit. Only four entirely new rafters were built after 1893. A
few old ones were rebuilt. The 'Glenmont' had a new and wider
hull built at the Eagle Point yard. The "Glenmont' cabin, engines and boiler
were placed on it and came out as the 'North star.'
Captain George Winans who had bought the 'Dan Thayer,' rebuilt her at
Lyons, I think, putting the 'Thayer's' engine, boilers, shaft, etc., on a
wider hull with a very nice cabin and she came out as the 'John H. Douglas,'
later changed to 'Saturn,' The 'City of Winona' was rebuilt at
Kahlkes yard in Rock Island, given a new and wider hull and called the
'Winona.'
The 'Netta Durant' was rebuilt at our yard in LeClaire, given a larger
hull and very small cabin and came out as the 'Lydia Van Sant'.' The 'Park
Bluff' was rebuilt, given a larger hull and named the 'Harriet.'
The 'West Rambo' was rebuilt at the Wabasha yard in Rock Island and
came out the 'Virginia' and later went to Florida.
The 'Lily Turner' was rebuilt at Kahlkes yard in Rock Island and came out
with a wider hull with little or no cabin and named 'Mascot.'
172
After 1893, many of the pilots used bow-boats. The 'Saturn' had the
'Pathfinder.' The 'North Star' used the 'Harriet.' The 'J.W. Van Sant'
had the 'Lydia Van Sant.' The 'Rutledge' had the 'H.C. Brockman,' and the
'Denkmann' had the 'R.D. Kendall.' The 'Staples' used the 'Lafe Lamb'
or the 'Georgie S.', and the 'B. Hershey' used the 'Everett.' The 'Kit Carson'
or the 'Lumberman' used the 'Gipsey.'
Using a bow-boat they could run longer rafts and make better time. The
bow-boat helped through the bridges and over the rapids in shorter time,
and in the lakes she would get back on the stern and help push.
Taking larger rafts require fewer large boats and they decreased in
number steadily and after 'West Newton' quit rafting out logs in 1904
those few remaining were soon sold or otherwise disposed of as others had
been during the proceeding ten years.
The 'Charlotte Boeckeler' was sold to a Cairo concern and was engaged in
general towing on the lower Mississippi with her name changed to 'J.H.
Freind' and later sold to the Barrett Line and her name changed to 'Mamie
Barrett.
The 'Helene Shulenburg' was last used in excursion work by Captain John
McCaffrey and his sons, sank at Credit Island and was dismantled at Rock
island.
The 'Robert Dodds' was sold to an Ohio river party and ended her career
towing 'show boats.' These transactions cleaned up the Shulenburg
and Boeckeler fleet.
J.C. Daniels of Keokuk sold the 'Lumberman' to Captain Bradley of
Cairo and she worked around Cairo several years as the "Fritz.' He sold the
'Kit Carson' late in the day to the LaCrosse Mississippi River Towing Company
and she was finally sold to a …
173
Picture: Steamer J. W. Van Sant II
Towing a “double-decker” raft of logs. Built in 1890 and burned in 1907. Shown here in the foreground being hitched in behind and pushing the big raft down river. The Lydia Van Sant is made fast across the bow of the raft and by pushing ahead or back, as directed by the pilot on the “J.W.” the bowboat moves the bow to the right or left giving the raft a different direction or “point”. |
175
... Memphis party for towing logs in barges to mills on Wolf river. I saw her
there in 1915, condemned and later dismantled.
The 'Moline' was sold to a Kansas City company for excursion work; later
went south and was capsized by striking a heavy wire cable with one end
fast on shore and the other end to a government fleet out in the river.
The 'F.C.A. Denkmann' was sold and her name changed to 'Wabash.'
She towed corn in barges from the Wabash river to Henderson, Kentucky;
was given a new hull and sold to Miller Company at Helena, Arkansas. I saw
her last March looking well as ever. She was an excellent towboat.
The 'E. Rutledge' after various ownerships and occupations was rebuilt into
the 'Orinoco' by Doctor Charles Mayo of Rochester, Minnesota, under the
supervision of Captain J.J. Richtmann, who commanded and piloted her until
she was sold to an Ohio river party. She is now owned by the Richland
Coal Company and advertised "for sale ' by A.O. Kirshner of Cincinnati as
the steamer 'Ben Franklin."
The 'F. Weyerhauser,' built at Rock Island in 1893, is still alive and
looking well. After serving as 'light house tender' on the Upper Mississippi
and Illinois rivers since rafting days, she has been superceded by the new
steel tender 'Wakerobin' and was sold last November (1927) to Captain John F.
Klein of Cairo, Illimois, to repair and sell again.
The 'J.K. Graves' Last of the Weyerhauser and Denkmann fleet, had a good
steel hull but was narrow and top-heavy. She was sold to Cairo party,
and capsized in the deep water there and was a total loss.
The 'J.S. Keator' was laid up in Cat Tail Slough
176
... after the Keator mill
burned and was later sold to Captain L.E. Patton of Memphis.
The 'Pilot' was sold to a party in Evansville, Ind.
The 'Jo Long was sold to Captain D. Morgan, taken south, capsized and lost
in Lake Providence.
The 'Irene D.' was sold to Thomas Adams of Quincy, who made over into the
excursion steamer 'Flying Eagle.' She was wrecked and lost by
striking a pier of the Hannibal bridge in high water. Though she had a large
crowd on herself and barge, there was no loss of life. She hung on the bridge
long enough for all to climb onto it and get ashore.
I now come to the LeClaire Navigation Company that Governor Van Sant
and I had formed in 1882 and in which we always had equal holdings. It had
been a great pleasure to work with such a partner and manager, and to build
up our fleet and increase our operations to where we ran all the logs sawed
at several mills including Mueller Lumber Company at Davenport, David Joyce
at Fulton and Lyons, Lansing Lumber Company, Lansing, Iowa, Clinton lumber
Company of Clinton, and for W.J. Young and Company of
Clinton, all above what were handled by their own two boats. Then we handled
many rafts for logmen who had no mills and wanted their logs stored where
they could be got out for market on a low stage of water.
It was not pleasant to plan and execute the disposal of our property but we did this as we had done everything else in perfect agreement.
We sold the 'Ten Broeck' back to Captain John McCaffrey and his sons
who used her towing ties in the Tennessee river. She caught fire one night
while laid up at Cairo and burned.
We sold the 'Iowa' to Captain William McKinley …
177
... who used her on the
Illinois river towing grain barges and other general work.
We sold the 'Netta Durant' to the Van Sant and Musser Company who rebuilt
her for a bow-boat and named her the 'Lydia Van Sant.' She was later sold to
the Taber Lumber Company of Keokuk.
After the 'Volunteer' laid up idle during the summer of 1898, I sold her
to our Carnival City Packet Company for $7000.00, put her on our ways
at LeClaire that fall and during the winter extended her cabin aft so she had
sixteen nice staterooms and gave her a swinging stage and outfitted her
for a short line packet and she made a good one. The next spring (1899) when
ready to start, she was totally destroyed by the great fire in Kahlkes yard
at Rock Island.
The 'Saturn' (the first), owned by Captain George Winans, and the 'Mascot'
and our fine excursion barge 'Comfort' were destroyed in this fire which
originated on the 'Saturn.' Her engineer crew had arrived on her the
afternoon before. It was cold. After supper, leaving a big fire in
stove, they turned in and later they turned out-too late to do any good.
The 'West Rambo' rebuilt into the 'Virginia,' was one of a number of
light-draft, stern-wheel boats bought by an agent of H.M. Flagler and
taken to Florida where they did excellent service in building the extension
of Flaglers East Coast railway to Key West.
I traded the 'J.W. Mills' to Parmalee Brothers of Canton, Missouri, in
the spring of 1894 for the 'City of Quincy,' paying $5000.00 difference.
Parmalee Brothers dismantled the 'Mills' that summer and used her engines,
shaft and much other stuff in the 'Ottumwa Belle' which they
built at Canton and later traded to S. and J. Atlee for the 'J.C. Atlee.' …
178
The 'Girdie Eastman' was sold to Fetter and Crosby, Contractors, and used
by them many years in United States improvement work. Captain Fetter rebuilt
her at Kahlkes yard at Rock Island and after his death Mrs.
Fetter sold her to the McWilliams Dredging company of Chicago and she is
still (1927) in commission on the Ohio.
The 'Reindeer' was sold to the Illinois Fish Company, a new and very sharp
hull put under her, and her named changed to 'Illinois.' She is now owned by
the New Calhoun Packet Company of Saint Louis, Missouri.
'Lady Grace' was sold by C. Lamb and Sons to Captain William Davis and
later by him to J.G. White and Company, doing some work at the mouth of the
Mississippi.
'Artemus Lamb' was sold to Joy Lumber Company of Saint Louis and
later by them to C.& E.I. railroad to handle barges at Joppa on the Ohio
river. She was later rebuilt and named 'Condor.'
The 'Chancey Lamb' was sold south to tow ties and was wrecked on a dam
below Nashville on the Cumberland.
'D. Boardman' was dismantled and her engines and some other parts used
in the 'Columbia,' built at Lyons, Iowa, by M.J. Godfrey and Son for Mr.
C.H. Young of Clinton.
'W.J. Young, Jr.,' the 'Queen of the Rafting Fleet,' in fine condition
and thorough repair, came into the Carnival City Packet Company by direct
purchase from W.J. Young himself, in February, 1895. This was my fast
business transaction with Mr. Young from whom we bought the 'J.W. Mills' in
1883. I had been running logs for him up to the time I quit rafting and …
179
... knew him well and admired him greatly. He was a handsome, strong man, but he
overworked and seldom took any relaxation and his first illness took him off
when we thought of him in his prime.
I had her beautiful cabin extended aft and made some other changes
including a little 'texas' for her crew and put her in the Davenport and
Burlington trade. She became very popular and successful/t the end of her
eighth season we sold her to the Kentucky and Indiana Bridge and Terminal
Company at Louisville, Kentucky. They repaired and changed her to an
excursion boat - named her 'Hiawatha'- and lost her by fire two years later.
The 'Sam Atlee' was sold to as a Mr. Robert Cothell of New Orleans,
who changed her name to 'Control.'
The 'Musser' was hauled out on the Wabasha ways, her cabin, machinery and
boilers blocked up and the hull removed and a new and larger hull nearly
completed when I bought and completed what became the packet 'Keokuk' that
ran between Burlington, Keokuk and Quincy from 1908
to 1923 inclusive, when new paved roads and a surplus of trucks and busses
compelled us to give up what had been a profitable trade for over 60 years.
The 'J.W. Van Sant','Cyclone,' and 'Isaac Staples' were all burned in
the great fire in the Wabasha yard in December, 1907. They were up on the
ways, their hulls dry and they made a very hot fire.
The second 'Saturn' was sold and went south, first to Missouri and then to the Lower Mississippi.
The "Henrietta' was sold to a party in Paducah, Kentucky, and towed
tie out of Tennessee river.
The 'R.J. Wheeler' went south and was towing staves and lumber out of Blackriver, Louisiana. She …
180
... caught fire while under way and burned on her trip with a tow.
The 'Daisy' was sold to a man from the south and taken to either New
Orleans or Mobile.
The 'Clyde' has had a long and interesting career. She was the first iron
raft-boat built at Dubuque by the Iowa Iron Works for Ingram and Kennedy in
1870. Hugh Douglas became part owner and master in 1872.
She was a side-wheeler, about ninety-six feet long and had good power. She
was a strong pusher and quite fast running loose, but very hard to steer. She
ran lumber from the Chippewa to Hannibal and Saint Louis for many years.
In 1888 Turner and Hollinshead bought the 'Clyde' from the Empire
Lumber Company and changed her to a stern-wheeler, gave her new engines and
cabin. While she was narrow and did capsize once, she was very fast, handled
a tow well and made money. When rafting ceased, she was chartered by United
States engineers and used on improvement work. She was then sold by F.J.
Fugina of Winona to the Arrow Transportation Company of Paducah, Kentucky,
and is still (1928) at the age of fifty-eight years, towing pig iron from
Sheffield, Alabama to Paducah.
The 'Ravenna' was raised after sinking near Maquoketa Slough; was repaired
and when rafting ceased at Stillwater, she was sold to Captain H.C. Wilcox
and Sons who ran her several years between LaCrosse and Wabasha in packet
service with her name changed to 'LaCrosse.'
'Menominie' was dismantled and her machinery used in the 'Juniata.'
whose larger engines were put in the 'Ftontenac.'
181
The 'J.G. Chapman' and 'Luella' laid up at Wabasha out of commission,
were destroyed by fire.
The ''B Hershey' was always in service and when very old, was working on
the East Saint Louis levee job, and sank to rise no more.
The 'C.W. Cowles' was rebuilt at Kahlkes yard in Rock Island; given an
entire new and wider hull and fitted up by the Deere family of Moline , named
'Kalitan',' to tow their house boat 'Markatana.' The 'Kalitan' took the
'Markatana' to New Orleans in November, 1927, they returned to Moline, May,
1928.
The 'Bro. Jonathan' was dismantled and her engines used in the 'Vernie
Mac.' When rafting ceased the 'Vernie Mac' was sold to tow Ohio river
show boats. She is now doing jobs towing around saint Louis, carrying the
name 'Jefferson.' She now has the engine of the old 'Silver Wave.'
The 'City of Winona' was bought by the Acme Packet Company and ran in the
Davenport and Clinton daily packet trade until the Davenport and
Clinton electric road put her out of business. She was then taken to Paducah
and came back in the spring of 1905 as the excursion steamer
'W.W.' in the same management as the first 'J.S.', owned by Captain
John Streckfus.
About 1915, she was sold; went south and later came back to the Ohio and
sank while on the way downstream with a tow of barges.
'Juniata' whose name was changed to 'Red Wing,' ran as a packet
Wabasha and Saint Paul, Captain N.H. Newcomb of Pepin, Wisconsin, owner and
master. He sold her and her excursion barge to a party on the Upper Ohio
about the close of our season, 1923.
182
The 'Bella Mac' had delivered a raft at Saint Louis. She lay there over
night and left for home, LaCrosse, Wisconsin, the next morning at four
o'clock. She was leaking and soon began to roll and sank opposite Salt Point
Light at the upper end of Saint Louis, a total loss.
The 'Mountain Belle' was bought by E.C. Anthony of Hastings, Minnesota,
renamed the 'Purchase,' and towing a passenger barge, ran to Saint Louis
during the World's Fair in that city. Then William McCraney of Winona bought
her and had her and a barge in the excursion business at
Saint Paul until about 1915, when she was hauled out on the Wabasha ways
and dismantled.
The 'Louisville' and the 'Helen Mar' were laid up at a North LaCrosse
and finally dismantled.
The 'B.E. Linehan' and 'Inverness' were sold to Paducah, Kentucky,
by parties and towed tie out of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.
The 'Jessie B.' and 'Quickstep' were sold south and used rafting and
towing logs in barges on the Lower river and its tributaries.
The 'Lizzie Gardner' burned while laid up and out of commission in the
Davenport winter harbor,
The 'Pauline' was converted into a short trade packet and operated out of
Burlington to Nauvoo and Keithsburg by Captain Thomas Peel in 1891 and 1892.
S.K. Tracey and his brother, George S., prominent lawyers in Burling-
ton, were largely interested in this enterprise. Finding the 'Pauline' too
small, They bought the 'Matt F, Allen,' a much larger boat, and sold the
'Pauline' to parties in Hastings who later dismantled her and used her nice
machinery on a new boat.
The 'Thistle' operated one or part of two seasons in …
183
Picture: Watching the Morning Star Going To Saint Paul, 1912 | 
Picture: The Old Way – Steering by Hand |
185
... packet trade between LaCrosse and Saint Paul when rafting played out, but she was expensive
on fuel and was too heavy draft for that part of the river. She
was sold south and rendered good service towing logs and lumber in barges in
the Cairo and Memphis district under another name.
The 'Abner Gile' built in LeCLaire in 1872, was used dropping logs from
Saint Paul to Prescott after rafting ceased at other points; she was almost
forty years old when she gave out like the 'one horse shay' and her remaining
good parts used in some other boat.
In the late sixties and early seventies when the use of a steamboat in
shoving and handling rafts had been successfully demonstrated, every pilot
wanted one and nearly every little boat on the Upper Mississippi and its
tributaries was tried out and many of them continued in this new occupation
as long as they lasted.
Many of them were small side-wheelers about seventy-five feet long
with one boiler and one small, slide-valve engine geared to the stiff shaft
running across decks to which both wheels were attached. They could back or
work ahead both wheels together and had good steering power when working
ahead but no rudder power while backing; consequently they were very
deficient in 'flanking' compared with a stern-wheeler. They were slow and
noisy going back up-river.
In Perrot, 'Big Jo,' tried the 'Moonstone' but abandoned her because it
took her eighteen days to return from Saint Louis to Stillwater when they had
taken the raft down in fifteen days.
She and several others like the 'Alice Wild,' 'Alvira,' 'Union,' 'Active,'
'Wm. Hyde Clarke,' 'Lone City,' 'Johnny Schmoker,' 'Monitor,' and 'Iowa City'
were of this class, just a little better than a stern …
186
... crew with oars. They soon wore out or were abandoned for larger and better boats, preferably
stern -wheelers.
A few side-wheelers, somewhat larger, gave better satisfaction. The 'L.W.
Barden,' called by the crew 'L.W. Workhouse,' under Captain Joseph Buisson's
command, did a lot of good work running Daniel Shaw lumber from Reads.
The 'Viola' and Julia Hadley,' the 'Buckeye,' the 'Annie Girdon,' the
'Minnie Wells,' 'Champion,' the L.W. Crane,' the 'Iowa,' the 'Minnie Will,'
and the 'Pearl,' also in this class, wore themselves out in the work
but none of them were rebuilt, for by that time the many advantages of the
stern-wheeler had been conclusively demonstrated. The 'Clyde' was the
last of the only three side-wheeler built for rafters; the other two were
the 'Minnie Will' and 'Julia Hadley.'
Stern-wheeler packets converted or diverted to the work were
'Natrona,' ‘Wm. White,' 'Mountain Belle'; the 'Hartford,' 'Evansville' and
'James Fisk, Jr.' from the Ohio; the 'Mollie Mohler' and 'Hudson' from the
Minnesota river; the Saint Croix' from the river of the same name and the
'Maggie Reaney' and 'Jenny Hays' from Lake Saint Croix. These boats were much
better than the best of the side-wheelers but they were not the equals of
boats built especially for rafting.
The 'Eclipse' and 'Vivian,' after finishing their rafting careers, were
sold to Ohio river parties to tow show boats.
When I decided to quit rafting and engage in short trade packet business,
I retained my stock in the LeClaire Navigation Company, but I bought 'Silver
Crescent' from the Van Sant and Musser Company, our LeClaire Company and
Captain Bob …
187
... Mitchell for $ 7000.00. She lay all winter at Clinton, Iowa. I got Mr. Black, who had built her cabin
when new, to extend it aft and make some other changes. We cleaned, painted
her up and moved her down to LeClaire on March 9, 1892.
A storm set in from the west that raised such swells, we had to tie up at
Camanche.
The storm developed into the worst blizzard of the winter and temperatures
fell to six degrees by ten o'clock that evening.
New ice in large fields was running the next morning but the west winds
held it off the Iowa shore. The sun came out about eleven A.M. We got ready
and keeping close to the Iowa side and clear of the ice, were approaching
LeClaire, when at Mrs. Young's the ice crowded us close in-
shore and she slid lengthwise over the rock that sank the 'Mollie Mohler'
twenty years before. But the 'Crescent' was tough and strong and light
enough that we escaped over without injury.
When one-fourth of a mile from our yard, the large blow-off valve to
the mud-drum bursted, having frozen up under way. She had just enough headway
to reach the shore where a man caught our head line and took turns around a
post, and kept us from going on over the rapids in our helpless condition.
The next morning she caught fire while the watchman was at breakfast,
but a passer-by saw the blaze in time to put it out.
The second morning a large, heavy field of ice swung and caught her,
parted one head line and pulled out the post the other one was fast to,
but it held long enough to crowd her on shore and the other lines held her.
When I got to her I heard water running in her hull. Quickly
investigating, I found the ice had broken in …
188
... one plank at the water line. An
old comfort and an inch board took care of this till we could list her over
and fix it right.
By this time I felt sure I had bought a lucky boat and I never had any
reason to change my mind on this point.
I finished up a small rafting contract that spring with the 'Silver
Crescent' and then put her into the Carnival City Packing Company which I had
organized that spring and on June 17,1892, we began service Davenport and
Burlington, Iowa and took in $15.70 on our first round trip
of two days.
A month later we had the highest water ever known at Davenport. For awhile
the only place we could put our stage on ground was just below the
north end of the Government bridge.
The 'Silver Crescent' was ten years old when the Carnival City Packet
Company bought her. We had seventeen years hard service out of her, many of
them quite profitable, all of them successful, and got through without a
serious mishap and her cabin, engines, and many other parts were good as new
when we used them in building the 'Blackhawk' in 1908.
The 'Frontenac' was the last large rafter built. Samuel Peters of Wabasha
built the hull which was one hundred and forty feet long, thirty feet wide
and three and one-half feet deep, in 1895. The hull was taken to Winona where
the engines and boilers of the 'Juniata' were transferred to her. The cabin
was also built at Winona and the new boat came out in
1896 owned by Laird, Norton and Company of Winona and in charge of Henry
Slocumb.
When through rafting she towed the big excursion barge 'Mississippi' until
she hit the lower Winona bridge an sank close to shore just below it. When …
189
... raised she was sold to Captain D,W, Wisherd and burned while
laid up in Quincy bay.
The 'Silver Wave,' 'LeClaire Belle,' 'Jas. Fisk, Jr.,' 'Wild Boy, and
'Evansville' when their hulls were worn out by long and successful service,
were dismantled at LeClaire; and some of their engines used in new boats.
The 'Tiber' was also dismantled at LeClaire and he boilers used in the
'Irene D.'
The 'Stillwater' was dismantled at Rock Island and her machinery used
in the 'E.Rutledge.'
The 'C.J. Caffrey' and 'Prescott' were also dismantled at Rock Island.
The 'Jas. Means,' after a few seasons of profit in rafting, in her old age
was dismantled and her engines used in the 'Golden Gate.'
The 'Dan Hine' was dismantled at LaCrosse.
The 'G.H. Wilson' was dismantled Dakota Bay.
The 'B.F. Weaver' was dismantled at LaCrosse.
The "Silas Wright' was sunk on the upper Rapids, her engines recovered and
used in the 'R.D. Kendall.'
The 'Penn Wright' burned at Stillwater.
The first 'Chancey Lamb,' after long and useful service, was dismantled
at Clinton.
The new 'Chancey Lamb,' which appears in the list of 1893, was a larger
and more powerful boat, having engine twelve inches in diameter by
eight-foot stroke, like the 'Irene D.' They were the only two boats used
in rafting that had eight - foot stroke engines. There were only two that had
seven - foot stroke engines; the ’Charlotte Boeckeler' and the 'F.W.
Weyerhauser.'
The 'Ida Fulton' was dismantled at Dubuque and her engines went in the new Glenmont.'
HISTORY