Old Times On the
Mississippi
By J. D. Barnes
Feb. 21, 1935
Writer’s Experience as a
Riverman
At the period of which I write the old
Northern Packet Co., was at high tide. About all the business
done between the cities of St. Louis and St. Paul was carried
by the Northern Line. Commodore Davidson, however, had a line
of fine steamers known as the White Collar Line plying between
La Crosse and St. Paul, but they did little or no business
compared with the Northern Line.
At that time there was no railroads on either
side of the river. Everything had to be transported by boats.
The raft crew and their kits in those days was an important
item in the packet business. Following are the boats of the
Northern Line at the time and they were first-class in every
particular: The Davenport, Muscatine, Burlington, Keokuk,
Canada Reserve and a little later came the Rock Island,
Dubuque, Clinton, Sucker State and Hawkeye State.
The earnings of some of these boats were
enormous, for instance, the steamer Davenport during the
season of 1865, cleared $60,000 over and above expenses and
the other boats of the line from $45,000 to $50,000 each but
there was a slight falling off in 1866, the immediate cause
being the close of the war. However, notwithstanding the
falling off, the great Northern Line Packet Co., was getting
rich a little too fast and as a natural result had become
avaricious means as the following circumstance will show.
After our raft was delivered at Muscatine we
boarded a Northern Line steamer for Prescott. Among the
passengers was an old lady who wanted to get off at Sabula. It
so happened that the boat arrived there a little after noon.
Dinner had been ready and waiting for a half hour and people
were standing around wondering why the gong did not sound. The
cabin boys with their clean white aprons and nicely combed
hair were each at their posts ready for the gong also, but it
failed to sound until after the boat had made her landing and
the old lady was safe on terra firma. Now the cabin passengers
all saw this and they were not slow in their denounciations
(?) against it and as municated (?) to the passengers below
who were nearly all raftsmen, who as a rule in those days were
a pretty tough lot, yet they had a keen sense of justice and
right and were not entirely lost to honor, so when they heard
that the old reliable Northern Packet Co., had actually beaten
a poor old woman out of a dinner their indignation knew no
bounds and they to a man did straightway go and take a fearful
and solemn oath that they would beat the Northern Line when
ever an opportunity was offered and that incident was as the
hand writing on the wall, for their downfall dates from that
time.
I will now try to describe some of the various
modes and ways resorted to by the boys in order to beat the
company, and I do not know of any better or more honest way
than to give my own experience for that is what I started out
to do and I may as well confess and tell it all.
The first thing in order on boarding a Northern Line Packet
was to become acquainted with the second clerk for he was the
gentleman that always examined the tickets, tho it was not
necessary to be personally acquainted with him, but you must
be able to identify him on sight for he always made a thorough
canvass of the boat each day and it was very important to keep
out of his way. On one occasion when the clerk was
making one of his daily tours of the boat he ran across the
writer fast asleep on a coil of rope overhead that had been
placed there for future use. I had taken the precaution
before I lay down to give my pants a roll or two at the bottom
in order to give me a rooster like appearance. The clerk
however, gave me a punch which awoke me, but at the same
moment one of the boys below called to him to not disturb that
man for he had just come off watch, so he passed on to the
next and I rolled over and finished my nap.
On the following day I met him face to face. My presence
of mind served me for there happened to be a broom near at
hand which I fastened onto and began to sweep the deck until
the clerk had got out of sight and so we schemed, my partner
and I, one way and another, and managed to keep out of the
clerk’s way until finally we walked the stage plank at
Prescott all right. At the latter place we were
transferred to the steamer Bannock City also belonging to the
Northern Line and also running in connection to Stillwater.
She was the first steamboat ever built in Le Claire but as she
was a member of the Northern Line family why of course we had
it in for her and the first thing we did after boarding her
was to stow ourselves for a night’s rest as it was about ten
o’clock in the evening and we would be due at Stillwater in
the morning. Our much needed rest was very much broken
for it was not long before the clerk and Dan Dawley who
was the watchman of the boat flashed a lantern into our faces
and we were compelled to furnish the requiring fare.
Dawley said had he known that we were Le Claire boys he would
not have molested us.
