Now
Buried Under Flood Waters of the Big Dam…Story of
its Construction told
by a Participant in the Work.
Capt. F. A. Whitney
Centerville , Iowa
Saturday Evening Post
Burlington, Iowa
Chapter I
February 2, 1924
In the spring of 1871, I left Burlington , Iowa ,
for Keokuk where the
canal was being constructed around the Des Moines
rapids which lies
between Keokuk and Montrose. Dull and Williams had
the contract to work
out an appropriation of $350,000. Mr. James J. Dull
was from Pittsburg,
Pa., and Mr. George Williams from Keokuk, Iowa;
Andrew J. Whitney,
Superintendent, James Freu, Master mechanic ,
Michael Cahill,
Superintendent of Excavation, John Braheny,
Assistant.
The work was laid off in sections or pits, Rock
excavation pits, at
Price’s Creek and Ballinger extending to Nashville .
The dirt pits were
at Price’s Creek and Rickey’s Point-the outside
embankment then under
construction was nine miles long. A four-foot gauge
railroad tract was
built on the whole length of the embankment, also
each pit had its
track and switches. There were four locomotives on
the job, named as
track switches. There were four locomotives on the
job, named as
follows: General Wilson, J. Edgar Thompson, James
Dull and the George
Williams. The first three locomotives were built in
Pittsburgh , Pa. ,
and the fourth one was built on the canal at the
Sandusky shops. There
were about 300 flat or rock cars and 200 dump cars
in use. All the rock
was excavated with hand drill and blasted with black
powder, the steam
or air drill had not come into use at that time. The
dirt was first
plowed, using horses hitched to the plow sometimes
taking eight or ten
horses. After plowing the dirt, it was loaded into
dump cars by men
with shovels-two men to a car. The steam shovel had
not come into use
at that time.
At Sandusky there was a shop for the locomotives-a
machine shop
blacksmith and car shops, at which all the cars were
built and
repaired. There were 200 men used in the dirt pits
and 350 to 400 men
in the quarries and 75 mechanics and railroad men in
the rail- road
department. At each rock pit there was a portable
steam engine to do
the pumping and keep the water out so the men could
work.
There were three locks built on this canal, one at
Keokuk and one at
Price’s Creek and one at Nashville, now called
Galland. These locks
were constructed of cut stone, which was quarried
out across the river
at Sonora, Ill. by Patterson and Timberman and
loaded onto barges and
towed by the steamer Cricket, whose captain was
Charles Gillespie, to
the stone yards at Nashville and Price’s Creek,
where they were cut and
were handled by derrick when being put in place on
the lock bottom.
There was a steam hoisting engine that took care of
two derricks, one
on each side of the lock. As this work was carried
on by government
appropriations, sometimes there was delay in getting
money to carry on
the work. Therefore, it took a number of years to
complete the work.
Chapter II
February 9, 1924
The construction of the canal carried on by
appropriations made by the
government under the river and harbor Bill, and the
work let on
contract to the lowest bidder. Dull and Williams
were the successful
bidders, except once when Kittle and Middleton got a
large contract and
had to furnish all new track and equipment with two
locomotives. They
constructed a three-foot gauge, a narrow track.
During the time when Dull and Williams had the
works, there were very
few accidents causing the loss of life. Only one
instance I remember of
and that was a man by the name of Wm. Dugan who was
thrown into the
canal and drowned when a car turned over when they
were dumping a train
of dirt. The head foreman or walking boss, Michael
Cahill, lost a leg
when a number of cars running down a grade struck a
car he was pushing
and crushed his knee. He recovered, and with
crutches he continued to
work until the job was finished.
There were three accidents that happened on the
railroad. J. Edgar
Thompson dropped a crown sheet when pulling
thirty-five dump cars of
dirt up the grade from the dirt pit. No one was
seriously hurt, of
which only a few minor burns suffered by the
engineer and fireman.
Wallace Hovey was the engineer, and Henry Leiscaring
the fireman.
The next one was when an engineer by the name of
Holbrook for Dull, was
backing up with a train of forty rock cars, jumped
the track and backed
down the embankment to the edge of the river. No one
was hurt, and
afterwards a track was laid down to the engine and
with two locomotives
one pulling up the track and he other one pulling
down the track,
coupled up to block and tackle five stone block the
dull was pulled up
and taken to the Sandusky shops for repairs.
The last and biggest wreck when the George Williams,
Edward Johnson,
engineer, and F. A. Whitney, fireman, jumped the
track, turned over,
and landed wheels up in the air on the river edge.
The tank went out
into the water and only one corner of it could be
seen. Like the other
accidents, no one was hurt, as the engineer jumped
from the engine when
she left the track. The fireman went with the engine
into the river
being about swim to shore unhurt. This accident was
caused by the track
giving away on one side. The track had been raised
about five hundred
feet. The train was moving about six miles per hour,
but the blocking
was not strong enough and giving away, caused the
wreck. This engine
was turned back on its wheels and a track built
under it and like the
Dull, pulled out and taken to Sandusky shops for
repairs.
Where the accident happened, just below Rickey’s
station, there was a
gang of section men working. When fireman Whitney
reached the shore,
one of the men, an Irishman, by the name of Ward,
came up to him and
said “Sure a man born to be hung never drowned.”
Some consolation for a
poor wet firman.
When Kittle and Middleton got the contract, Dull and
Williams had taken
a contract on the Mussel shoals canal on the
Tennessee , and they moved
all their locomotives, cars, derricks, pumping
engines, tracks and
other equipment to Florence , Alabama , ready to
begin work on the
Mussel Shoals.
Chapter III
February 16, 1924
The construction of the old Des Moines rapids canal
was carried on by
contract until the excavation, embankment, and lock
were completed.
After the main gates and sluice gates were in place,
the locks were
ready for the installation of machinery. The gates
were opened and
closed by hydraulic or water pressure and the
pumping engines for this
service were built by McEleroy and Arsmitage in
their shops at Keokuk ,
Iowa . These engines, one of reach of the three
locks, were of new
design, nicely finished and highly polished. The
engineers who operated
his engines took great pride in keeping them nice
and clean and there
was quite a rivalry among them as to who would keep
his engine, boiler,
and engine house the neatest and best. At the time I
knew them best,
Mr. Thomas Hartley was engineer at the lower lock,
Jack Russe at the
middle lock, and Tom Harrington at the guard lock.
The first two have
gone to their long rest and Mr. Harrington is still
living and employed
by the government as engineer on the great locks at
Keokuk, at the
water power dam.
In a few years after the canal was in operation it
was found there were
places where the depth of water was getting low,
caused by sand and mud
being washed into the canal from the Price’s Creek
above the middle
lock, Lemoile Creek at Sandusky and a creek at
Ballingers just below
the guard lock. This mud was removed by dredge
boats, loaded into dump
boats and towed out into the river. The work was
done sometimes by the
government and sometimes by contract. At first the
government used the
old steamboat Hiram Price, named the No. 4. Then
Capt A. J. Whitney had
a contract and used the dredges Lowell and Hercules,
and steamboats A.
J. Whitney, Edith and Penguin.
Then the government again took up the job of keeping
the canal clean,
using a big Osgood dredge and the steamer Vixen: the
dredging of the
canal was a heavy expense, and some of this was
taken care of by
building a set of sluice gates in the outside
embankment at Sandusky
and during heavy rains and floods of the Lemoile
Creek, the sluice
gates were raised and this let a great deal of sand
and mud flow out
through sluices into the river.
During the life of the canal, a great many packets,
tow boats, and raft
bots passed through, from both north and south, all
passing safely and
with little delay. I don’t recall any accident ever
happening to a
steamboat as the rules governing the canal were so
well made by Major
M. Meigs, who had charge of the canal. If obeyed
there could nothing
happen. A call of four blasts of a steamboat whistle
called for a lock,
which was promptly made ready, and a signal given to
enter.
Like the great dam at Keokuk, the canal was
something every one wanted
to see, and take a ride thru the locks and canal.
There were many
excursion boats and large packets made the trip and
while the boat was
looking through, many of the passengers would get
off on the lock wall,
visit the engine room and watch how those great
gates could be opened
and closed. The canal made a good winter harbor for
boats and quite a
fleet of boats and barges laid there winters at
Keokuk. The canal was
constructed for the purpose of getting steamboats
over the rapids and
surely was a great help and well patronized. But
this wasn’t all this
great canal was used for and in the next issue will
tell of the rafting
days.
Chapter IV
February 23, 1924
At the head of the canal at Nashville and up the
river as far as
Montrose there were several chains of rock which had
to be removed
before the canal could be used. The smaller patches
were drilled,
blasted and dredged out. At Montrose there was a
long, wide, flat ledge
of rock in the channel almost a mile long. This was
removed by the
government form a large coffer dam which was built
around the whole
chain from deep water to deep water. The rock was
all drilled with hand
drillers, three men to a drill, one man sitting on a
keg holding he
drill and two other men striking he drill with a
three pound hammer.
There was a railroad track laid down through the pit
and up on the dump
and two locomotives and fifty oars leased form Dull
& Williams to
do the work. Captain Anderson had charge, and there
were about three
hundred men employed, requiring about four months to
complete the work.
During that time Montrose was about the liveliest
town on the river.
All of these improvements being completed, the canal
was opened up in
grand style, with bands playing and flags flying on
steamboats as they
were gong through the canal.
Rafting days
During the ten years, from 1880 to 1890, the rafting
business was at
its peak. There were twenty-four raft boats towing
rafts to down-river
points below the rapids. When the stage of water was
four feet, they
could tow over the rapids one half a raft or about
eight string wide at
a trip. The rafts always had to be divided into two
pieces to enable
them to pass through the draw of the Keokuk Bridge .
In the year of 1889, Captains R. S. Owen and Sam
Speake of Montrose
bought the steamer Prescott to help get the rafts
over the rapids. This
was done by the Prescott going up the river and
meeting the rafts. The
big boat was moved over and the Prescott took the
other half. The raft
was then split in two pieces, the big boat going on
ahead and the
Prescott following with the other half. This enabled
them to get a
whole raft over at the some time, which was a saving
for the lumber
companies.
The rafting business growing more and more and the
rafts getting deeper
and longer, in 1884 Captains R. S. Owens, Sam
Speake, Thomas Peel and
F. A. Whitney built the steamer Park Bluff, a much
longer and more
powerful boat than the Prescott . This boat was
built by the Kahlke
Bros. at Rock Island . The engines and boilers were
built at the Mc
Elroy & Amnitage machine shop at Keokuk , Iowa .
This was a very
light draft and successful boat and was used in
helping rafts over the
rapids. When the water got so low that a raft could
not be run on the
outside, the Park Bluff was used as a tow boat and
helped steer the
rafts down through the crooked channel from Montrose
to the guard lock
at Nashville . This was done by the raft being cut
into two pieces, the
large boat attached to the stern of the raft and the
Park Bluff
attached across the bow. Capt. Owen or Speake would
pilot the raft from
the big boat and by signals, whistle to the tow
boat. One blast of the
whistle meant pull to the right, and the same signal
also meant to
stop. Two blasts signaled a pull to the left. This
manner of handling
rafts proved to be very good and were thus handled
that way for ten
years. The pilots had become so skilled and perfect
in handling these
large rafts over the rapids and into the canal that
there was never a
loss of life or serious accident.
When the water was at a low stage, both gates at the
guard lock stood
open. This was quite convenient as all boats could
pass thru without
stopping.
Chapter V
On all the rock piles between Nashville and
Montrose, also at the guard
lock there were lights placed in position and these
lights burned from
sunset to sunrise, as a signal to pilots where there
was danger to
navigation. Elihu Cooper and Wm. Kock of Montrose ,
Iowa , were tenders
of these lights for many years, and were well known
and well liked by
all the pilots on the river.
The steamboats could safely go to the canal and
through it day or
night. But all log or lumber rafts cold be handled
only in daylight to
avoid danger of breaking up or loosening logs or
lumber. The way to
avoid danger of breaking up or loosening logs or
lumber. The way of
towing a raft through the canal was done by first
landing the whole
raft of sixteen strings wide at Montrose. The large
boat was moved over
onto the outside piece of eight string wide, and the
steamer Prescott
was fastened across the bow of this eight string
piece. The raft was
then divided and started on its way by the skillful
handling over the
rapids by pilots Sam Speake and R. S. Owen. When
they reached the guard
lock, the Prescott was removed from across the bow
and was turned
lengthways so as to pull the raft through the guard
lock as both gates
were wide open. In this position, one boat pushing
and the other one
pulling the raft was towed abut seven miles to the
middle lock at
Price’s Creek. Here the raft was first landed. The
Prescott was then
locked through to the lower level to be ready to
pull out the pieces of
the raft as they were locked through. The next
operation was to cut the
raft up into sections about seventy feet wide and
there hundred feet
long, as these pieces were sometimes towed and at
other times pulled
into the lock by men using a steam capstan and
lines. It took about one
half a day to lock an eight string piece through
both the middle and
lower lock. As these several pieces were locked
thru, they were towed
along the shore below the lock and made up ready to
be towed on to the
lower lock where the same manner had to be gone
through as at the
middle lock. After the raft was through the bridge
at Keokuk it was
landed below the elevator there, to stay until the
other half could be
brought through. This way of rafting below Keokuk,
at points such as
Quincy, Hannibal, etc., was a slow process and quite
expensive, but it
was the only way to keep the great lumber interests
moving in those
stirring times of the eighties.
During the rafting days through the old canal, Major
M. Meigs of Keokuk
was in charge. John Carpenter and James Cody were
lock masters at the
Keokuk lock, Nick McKenzie lock master at the middle
lock and Capt. Joe
Farris was lock master at the guard lock. These men
stood very high in
the esteem of the owners, masters and pilots of the
rafts, and men who
used the canal. It was due to their kindness,
service and generosity,
and the able assistance they gave that enabled the
lumbermen to get the
millions of feet of lumber that was brought down the
Mississippi to its
destination. Those years and days of rafting are
like the old saying,
“Those days are gone forever.”
As the great dam at Keokuk was completed and ready
to turn on its
mighty electrical power, and when the wickets were
closed, the great
river above the dam began to rise and became deeper
and deeper until in
a few days the locks, sluices, embankment and walls
wee all submerged
and out of sight, ever to remain conquered subject
to that great power
electricity.
Chapter VI
Final Installment
When the grand old canal was hid underneath the
waters of Lake Cooper ,
now called Lake Keokuk I believe, the whole country
was changed and one
traveling along its shore can hardly realize the
great changes that
were made.
The swift flowing river between Montrose and Keokuk
where the water
tumbled and eddied along over the several chains of
rocks, is now a
great wide deep lake, and when during a storm its
white-capped waves
roll high. At Sandusky station where the railroad
bridge was located,
also the depot and the old Page Dodge Store and many
garden plots that
were there are all covered with water and the great
C. B. & Q. R.
R. had to pull up its bed and retreat farther back
from the water. The
depot is now located in the yard of the Carter
place. At Price’s Creek
or the middle lock, great changes have been
constructed a great lock
equal to the Panama book on that great canal, and a
dry dock that can
take in the largest river boats for repairs or new
ones to be built.
There is a new, and well equipped office and machine
shop, forge shop
and carpenter shop, adjacent to the dry dock. On the
outside or river
side of the great lock lies the power house of the
large and wonderful
dam.
Although the old canal has gone and the rafting days
are over, by the
great lock at Keokuk all excursion boats, tow boats
or packets can be
locked through with safety and dispatched. Major
Meigs still has charge
and his able assistants, Wm. Huele and Tom
Harrington manipulate those
great gates, which enable the boats to go on their
way. With the great
improvements the government has made on the
Mississippi Valley Water
Way , the Mississippi river, it should be taken
advantage of by packets
plying between St. Louis and St. Paul .
This story of the old Des Moines Rapids Canal is
written as I saw some
of those old days and as its memories come back tome
once more. I hope
the readers of these several articles were pleased
and interested and I
hope someone may write his story as he remembers
those old canal days.
Transcribed by Georgeann McClure
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