IAGenWeb - Scott County

The LeClaire Navigation Company

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    In February, 1882, I drove into LeClaire, Iowa one evening, when there was a meeting of the Pilot's association and took my examination for a pilot's license successfully and any number of the association was authorized to endorse my application.

    In March I met the United States Local Inspectors at Rock Island. Captain G.W. Girdon of Galena, the Hull Inspector gave me another examination which I passed without difficulty and soon after I secured my first issue dated March 15, 1882, signed by George W. Girdon, Inspector of Hulls, and John G. Scott, inspector of boilers.

    This license authorized me to act as 'Master of steam vessels on the Mississippi river, and its tributaries, and as Pilot between the Mississippi and Saint Croix rivers between Montrose, Iowa and Stillwater, Minnesota, except the Rock Island rapids downstream.

    The last issue of my license dated March 26, 1927, permits me to pilot on the Mississippi and Saint Croix rivers between St. Louis, Missouri and the Illinois river from its mouth to Peoria.

    In March, 1881, Captain Sam Van Sant who had a half interest in the little steamer 'Last Chance' sold me a one-sixth interest for five hundred dollars. Captain John McCaffrey of LeClaire owned the other half interest, had charge of her and was to pick up what work he could get and pilot her himself.

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    At the end of the season I drew out four hundred and sixty-five dollars as my share of profit which was more than I had earned by seven and one-half months’ work, and this made me eager to increase my holding.

    Captain McCaffrey had the 'Last Chance' hauled out on the LeClaire Ways for the winter and in February, 1882, Captain Van Sant and I bought McCaffrey's half and divided our interest evenly each owning a half.

    The 'Last Chance' was a small boat. She had a good boiler, but the engine was small- ten inches in diameter by three foot stroke, and the cylinders were in bad shape. The hull was old but had had a good thick bottom put under her only three years before and she needed very little repairs otherwise.

    We secured new cylinders a little larger and used the same upper works. This and some valve grinding made quite an improvement in her movement.

    As soon as I finished my term of school I secured a room at the Gault House in LeClaire and took real pleasure in working on my own boat, cleaning, painting, changing a little here and there to enable me to house, feed and sleep a crew of eighteen men.

    I was fortunate in securing Robert Shannon as chief engineer and George O. Lancaster as a good carpenter and a handy man in many ways in addition to being a good engineer.

    I hired William Long for our cook and he was a handy man with carpenter tools also, so I started him in to remodel the kitchen and fit it up, as in the work the boat had been doing on the rapids her crew lived ashore and' the so called kitchen was nothing more than a small room with a stove in it.

    With very little expense for materials Mr. Long made a very handy little kitchen that just suited him and …

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Picture: Steamer Kit Carson A large, powerful rafter with no unnecessary upper works to catch the wind. She was built at Stillwater, 180, for Captain A. R. Young and the Burlington Lumber Company. Sam Hitchcock was her head pilot for several years. Then she was sold to J. C. Daniels of Keokuk and Gara Denberg became her master and pilot. McDonald Brothers were her las owners in the rafting business. She was sold south and wore out at Memphis.

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... pleased every cook who followed him. He was a great help to me in fitting up the cabin and pilot-house and when we got all done we were really cozy and comfortable.

     Mr. J.W. Van Sant, Captains Sam's father, had retired from the boat yard but lived near it and visited it frequently when the work was rushing in spring.

     I knew Mr. Van Sant to be an excellent carpenter and a man of superior judgment in repair work. So I sought his advice as to what work we should do on the hull of the 'Last Chance.' The instruction and suggestions he gave me on that job and others were of great value to me then and later when I had to superintend the repairs on a fleet of steamboats every winter.

     J.W. Van Sant was a very modest, quiet man but he had a keen streak of humor.

     One day he proposed to ' set up the old spike heads that stuck out considerably on her old sides if I would get a boy to hold the spike set.' I got a husky young chap whose father was a good carpenter in the yard. Mr. Van Sant did not use tobacco nor like it but he seldom indulged in any criticism of another's habits.

     In moving from one berth to another Mr. Van Sant was always there with his maul ready and waiting for the young chap to take a chew and slowly get himself around in position.

     Working just inside I heard Mr.Van Sant ask the boy, "Ben, did you ever see any snails?" The boy expectorated and asked "What's 'at?"

     "Did you ever see any snails?" "Yes, lots of 'em," said Ben.

     "Well. said Mr.Van , "You must have met them, you never overtook any of them."

     One stormy day in March, 1882, when it was too bad ...

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... for anyone to work in the yard, Captain Sam Van Sant and I fired up the stove and organized the LeClaire Navigation Company of LeClaire, Iowa, that is by following the code of Iowa we got up our Articles of Incorporation which we later filed, and with two or three amendments providing for increases in our capital stock this organization carried us all right until the sawmills shut down and the business ended.

     Starting with the 'Last Chance' in 1882 we bought the larger 'J.W. Mills' from W.J. Young and Company of Clinton, Iowa in 1883, the big fine three-boiler towboat 'Ten Broeck' from McCaffrey and Dodds at LeClaire in 1886. Then a year later we bought the 'St. Croix' from Chr. Mueller of Davenport and also made a contract to tow and handle all his logs, take them away from Beef Slough or West Newton as fast as they were rafted out and store and deliver them as wanted at the mill. We were still running his logs when the old mill burned at the foot of Scott street and we ran every log cut by the new and larger mill at Cooks Point until they dismantled it.

     Then in 1888 we bought the 'Evansville' an older boat with new boilers, new pump, etc. She belonged to the Matt Clark Transportation Company, that failed. She was sold at Marshall's sale to John Robson of the Lansing Lumber Company which had a large bill against her for fuel.

     As we had been running all the logs to this Lansing mill for several years we decided to take the "Evansville' at the price Mr. Robson had bid, for if he kept her he would have her run their logs. We put a good crew on her and started her out early in the spring of 1889, used her two seasons when we dismantled her and used her engines, shaft, pump, nigger engine, capstan …

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Picture: Steamer C. W. Cowles This excellent rafter was built at Madison, Ind., 1881, for the Fleming Brothers of McGregor. Later she was owned by the Valley Navigation Company, with Joseph Buisson as master. Then Captain George Winans bought her and when he quit rafting sold her to the Deeres of Moline to tow their houseboat Narkatana. They put a new hull under the same cabin and named her Kalitan. She is in excellent condition today.

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... and many other parts in completing the new 'Volunteer' built at our yard in LeClaire.

     The next year, 1889, we bought the 'Netta Durant' of the Clinton Lumber Company and Captain A.E. Duncan, paying $10,000.00 for her. With her we got a contract for running all the logs cut by the Clinton Lumber Company mill, mostly from Stillwater, but this work did not last long as the mill shut down for good in 1890

     In February, 1890, we bought the 'Iowa' of Gardiner and Batchelder and Welles of Lyons, Iowa, who gave us all their work (running logs) that they could not do with their steamer 'Gardie Eastman.' The 'Iowa' was an old boat but had new boilers and very good engines.

     This same year we bought one-third of the big new rapids boat 'Irene D' from the rapids pilot, D.F. Dorrance, who over-reached his means in building her. McDonald Brothers of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, took one-third and Disney and son and Captain Dana Dorrance of LeClaire the remaining third. I was her manager. I made a contract with D.F. Dorrance to use her in his work on the rapids when low water came and McDonald Brothers and our company could throw most of our trips to her and also find some employment for her during good water stages.

     We built the 'Volunteer' at our LeClaire yard of which R.A. Edwards was manager, Captain Van Sant and I owned one-half the stock. The 'Volunteer' Came out in 1891 and was a real success. She was light draft, she could follow the logs anywhere and was fast going up river and a fine handler.

     She was one hundred and thirty-five feet long, had a twenty-four foot beam and four0foot hold. Her engines …

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... were thirteen and one-half inches in diameter and had a stroke of four and one-half feet. Her new boilers, built by Grupe and Murray of Davenport, 'were thirty-eight inches in diameter and twenty-eight feet long.

     We bought the fine, fast, handsome steamer 'Silver Crescent' of Captain O.P. McMann of Clinton, Iowa, in 1890 for $7000.00. Sold one-third to Van Sant and Musser Company and one-third to Captain Bob Mitchell of Clinton, Iowa, who took charge of her as master and pilot for two years.

     After organizing the LeClaire Navigation Company we closed an arrangement with J.W. Rambo and J.N. Long, both expert rapids pilots, to use the 'Last Chance' as their towboat to help rafts down over the Rock Island rapids during low water.

     Then we made a contract with the Hershey Lumber Company of Muscatine, Iowa, to run ten million feet of logs from Beef Slough to their mill for one dollar and ten cents per thousand feet, This work to begin as soon as Beef Slough began rafting.

     With our boat repaired, painted and fitted she passed a fine annual United States inspection and on orders from Manager Van Sant I got coal and provisions aboard and left LeClaire for Beef Slough on the night of April17, 1882. I had Vetal Burrow, a French-Canadian as my pilot; the engineers. Shannon and Lancaster, previously mentioned, James Shannon, mate, with seven good men on deck. Two men to be watchmen and nigger runners and two firemen, composed the operating crew. Then to complete the roster we had Will Long and his helper in charge of the kitchen and our little cabin. I furnished Will Long with everything he asked for because I knew he would make good use of it, …

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... and there would be no waste. Everything was good and nicely served and while he did not put on too many dishes at any one meal, he gave us a good variety from day to day.

     A good cook with a kind, cheerful disposition is a great help to the captain; as he keeps the crew contented and happy. But such cooks are rare, very rare.

     With the new engines a little larger than the old ones we were pleased with our speed up stream and she was easy on fuel.

     The river was high from LaCrosse up, as Black river and Chippewa were both high. The big boats were taking six brails of logs-in two pieces of three brails each. We took four brails-in two pieces of two brails each- which made a raft one hundred and eighty feet wide and six hundred feet long, which was plenty for a small boat on the high stage of water.

     I had never had much practice on running a raft. My education and experience had been confined to learning the river and to run a boat in it. To keep a big, heavy, long raft in the channel and off the high bars and heads of islands was something I had yet to learn.

     Pilot Burrow was very helpful and on our first trip he did all the most difficult work like Betsy Slough, Raft channel, Bad Axe bend, Crooked Slough and Santa Fe; besides the bridges at Winona, LaCrosse, McGregor, Dubuque, Sabula, Clinton and Davenport.

     You don't run any two of these bridges the same way and you can't run any one any one of them the same in all stages of water. The tow is too heavy for for the towboat to stop. The current will carry it down though the boat may be backing her best, so to get through a bridge without injury you must start right and keep right.

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     We had a few narrow escapes on our first trip, but made Muscatine in good time and with the raft in fine shape; got a clear receipt and enough cash to pay off the crew and all bills and the ''lit out' for Beef Slough again.

     We ran three more of these four-brail rafts. Then we tried five brails- a two brail piece and a three brail piece, making a raft two hundred and twenty-five feet wide, and having good luck with this one, we ran five more like it and our work was highly satisfactory.

     Then the river fell so much the heaviest boats could not follow their rafts down the shore at Sycamore( below LeClaire) and Pilots Long and Rambo called us to do rapids work. I reduced the crew to suit the job and this work gave me fine practice on the rapids, as I always took the boat back up even if night caught me on the way.

     While boarding at the Gault House in the spring with an excellent family named Bard, I became greatly interested in the oldest daughter, Elizabeth, three years younger than myself. She had been teaching the 'Indiana' school while I had been at 'Browns Corners,' two miles north. We did not meet out in the country as all winter activities were strictly neighborhood affairs.

     Miss Bard's winter term closed a week later than mine, and on her return home she found me pretty well established, and I soon made up my mind that I wanted to be one of the family.

     As Mother had taken our family to an inland town where they would have better educational advantages, I certainly enjoyed the homey atmosphere of the Gault House, and my favorite place for tying up the 'Last Chance' between trips while working on the rapids was directly in the rear of the house.

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    The crew used to say that I could put her in there, close up the pilot- house, ring off the engineer and be up with the girls on the back porch before the fireman and watchman got in the slack of the head line.

     The river came up in September and we resumed our long trips and closed the season with a nice profit after paying for all improvements, repairs, and new outfit we had put on her.