Jackson County, Missouri - Chapter 13: Steamboat Days, 1920

Chapter 13: Steamboat Days

During the period from 1856 to 1860, 56 steamers or more were plying between St. Louis and Kansas City, some of them going as far up as Fort Benton. A few of these were only freighters, but some 50 odd were veritable floating palaces and generally came up the river swarming with passengers and loaded to the guards with merchandise. Sometimes a boat would be all day discharging its freight, and what piles would be deposited along the rubble-paved levee. Hundreds of barrels, piles of boxes, hogsheads, crates, household goods, stoneware, coal, charcoal, bacon and grain. Barrels of molasses from the refineries in St. Louis; hogsheads of sugar from the mills in New Orleans; crates of queensware from Liverpool, England ; boxes of drygoods from New York, Bal¬ timore and St. Louis; of glass and window glass from the factories at Wheeling and Pittsburgh ; packages of chinaware from Limoges and Dresden ; barrels of whisky from the distilleries in Kentucky and Ten¬ nessee ; casks of wine and brandy from France, Spain and Germany ; bags of coal from Pennsylvania and the canal banks of Kentucky; tons of stoneware from Arrow Rock, Missouri, and Liverpool, Ohio; house¬ hold goods from everywhere; grain and bacon picked up here and there; rice from South Carolina in tierces, and articles of miscellany that would make one's head swim if an attempt were made to enumerate them.

As near as I can recall the following boats were in service in 1858 : Meteor, Esmerelda, Martha Jewell, Hiawatha, Rob-Roy, Iriquois, Peer¬ less, Twilight, Belle of the West, Emma, D. A. January, Sioux City, Joe Kinney, Sam Gatey - government, Isabella, War Eagle, Kate Howard, Joe Howard, Hollander, Bonita, latan. Polar Star, E. A. Ogden, Ben W. Lewis, Cataract, Jas. H. Lucas, A. B. Chambers, John Warner, Alonzo Child, Reindeer, Hannibal, Antelope, Rowena, Hesperian, Platte Valley, Black Hawk, Florilda, Southerner, Omaha, New Lucy, Kate Kinney, Sil¬ ver Heels, Minnehaha, Morning Star, Southwester, Star of the West, J. H. Oglesby, St. Paul, St. Mary, Mineola, North Star, Northener, Keokuk, Natchez, Miami, Kaw Valley, Arabia and T. H. McGill.

The fastest of these was the James H. Lucas, which held the record for the quickest time from St. Louis to St. Joseph. In the early fifties the Polar Star, with a bow like a knife, and paddle wheels low set in the water, engines quick in stroke and powerful, a load well bestowed so that the stern sat low, and the bow raised like a bird just starting in flight, had made a phenomenal run from St. Louis to St. Joseph. So delighted were her St. Louis owners that they had old Jim Bridger, the famous scout, trapper, guide and explorer, to secure for them the finest pair of elk horns to be found in the upper Missouri valley. Bridger delivered the horns and there was a great blow out when these were presented to the proud captain of the Polar Star. Tacked on to the horns was a sterling silver tablet, upon which was engraved the record of the Star's run, and following that, this couplet:

About this time the James H. Lucas came into commission and its captain, having in one or two runs arrived at the conclusion that his boat had some speed, made up his mind to try and win those horns. Abiding his time until the stage of water was just right he carefully adjusted his up steam cargo - for upon a proper loading a boat largely depended its ease of motion - he stored his lower decks with much rich pine, several barrels of rosin, a few tons of fat pork, and started forth. The swift strokes of the buckets churned the river into foam while the shapely bow cut and turned the water like a plowshare. The Lucas made the same stops the Star had made and remained as long at each landing.

Steamboating On The Missouri In The Fifties

When she pulled in at Kansas City she had gained a little on the Star's time, but not enough for safety, so the stokers chucked in more rosin and pork and the black smoke curling in a dense cloud from her lofty funnels told of the lively work going on down below. As the boat left Atchison the captain took his stand in front of the pilot house and hold¬ ing his chronometer in his hand kept the time while he closely watched the river on ahead. Soon the siren signalled St. Joseph, and the captain turned to receive the congratulations of his officers and passengers. He had beaten the Star's time, as I remember, by about three hours and 16 minutes. The master of the Star was game, and as soon as his success¬ ful rival returned to St. Louis the horns were transferred to the hurri¬ cane deck of the Lucas, which held them as long as it ploughed the muddy waters of the "old Mizzo."

The John Warner was famed as having the largest and sweetest toned bell on the river. The A. B. Chambers was owned principally in Kansas City, and was a prime favorite. Scarcely a trip was made from here to St. Joseph that it did not carry a party of Kansas City's youth and beauty, and Hickman's string band. The cabin furnished splendid space for dancing, Hickman's artists spun out sweet strains of music, and from dusky eve 'till dewy morn the revelry would be kept up. Many a heart was lost and won, many a vow soft whispered as the proud old steamer breasted the current and won its way up stream, or plowed its way down stream.

One day the Peerless came up wearing a caliope, and the strange¬ ness of it attracted a great crowd, but after one experience, Kansas City preferred its steam music by wireless and ever after took it over the long distance, for if music be the concord of sweet sounds, a steamboat caliope no more generated it than a buzz saw.

Yes, those were good days for steamboats and steamboats were good for those days, and the writer is one who believes that steamboats can be made good for these days.

"Gentlemen, the railroads of this country in a few years time can¬ not begin to carry the freight that commerce will demand to be carried. We need the rivers, as well as you, to help move the great products of this country, for surely there'll soon be more than enough for all."

Every year, it is said, 30 per cent, of what is produced in the United States, goes to waste because of the lack of facilities to transfer it from those who produce to those who would like to consume.