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THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
CAPT. STEPHEN B. HANKS,
IN AN ICE
JAM ON LAKE PEPIN
August 13, 1921
When my eyes got better I went in the
mill and assisted in the sawing until a raft was ready. My
winter crew had been put to work at different jobs and I was
able to get some of them when the raft was ready and in
addition I had during the summer my brothers David and
William and Aaron Winans.
Cannot say what time we started with
the first raft, but it was early and the water was very high
owing to the heavy snow fall during the winter. I had a very
good and successful season and made three trips to St. Louis.
The last raft we ran was a very thin one being only nine
courses deep, on account of low water on the lower rapids in
the fall, and was sold at Quincy. I stayed there until the
lumber was pulled out of the water, measured and paid for.
At Keokuk, after I had started back up
river I met three flat boats that had been built at St. Croix
Falls and loaded with some extra quality clear lumber. These
flats had been taken into Galena and a top loading of lead and
oats had been added. They had been having more or less
trouble all the way down and had a man out ahead looking for
me. I agreed to take them to St. Louis, which I did, in the
meantime stopping at Quincy and adding a large quantity of
hay. The weather was quite bad and several times we had to
anchor. On a couple of occasions the cook, an Ohio river man,
would go ashore and return with what he called bear and we
would have bear meat served up to us. He could only work it a
couple of times before we discovered it was skinned hog. His
explanation was they did it that way on the Ohio
On arrival at St. Louis the owner of
the flats wanted me to go through to New Orleans with him but
I did not think it best to go. I was carrying a large sum of
money with me, the proceeds of sales of the lumber at Quincy,
belonging to Mr. McKusick and I thought it better be gotten
into his hands as soon as possible. I understood the lumber
in the flats was to be used in building a custom house in New
Orleans.
At St. Louis I did not find any boat
leaving for the upper Mississippi so took the Reindeer for
Peoria on the Illinois river. Before we got to Peoria it
turned cold and began snowing and when we left Peoria by stage
for Geneseo it was freezing and the roads were in terrible
condition which made the trip very slow and unpleasant. We
were late in reaching Toulon, our first stopping place, on
account of a break down and losing our way. When we reached
Rock River the ice was running so heavy we had to remain all
night but fortunately it gorged on an island above the ferry
during he night and we got over the next morning. At Geneseo
I took another stage for Fulton but got off at Kingsbury P. O.
the kept by the elder Passimore, and I soon got an opportunity
to ride to Albany.
I now settled down for a winter of rest
and recreation. My mother and her husband John Slocumb, were
then living in Albany and I made my home with them. I had not
seen my mother since we parted in White county some thirteen
or fourteen years before. Meantime she had married a man
named Kniver who was the owner of a large grist mill in White
county. He did not live long after the marriage and she
eventually married John Slocumb and moved to Albany where she
spent the remaining years of her life.
A part of my time was spent in hunting
and one deer, several turkeys, one of which weighed twenty-two
pounds, numerous pheasants, and other small game were the
results. There was a spelling and geography school which I
attended and there were parties and entertainments in town and
in the country. At home there were John Slocumbs children,
Nancy and Charles, and Dave Sharp. My own brothers, David and
Sam, were working at the warehouse and store of Mcbritine (?)
and Hopper.
The spring of 1847 was dry and open and
about the last days of March or the first of April a small
steamboat called the Amulet came along. Her pilot did not
know the river above Galena and they stopped at Albany to get
me to take them over the upper river. I had made some large
purchases of provisions for my own use and for Mr. McKusick,
consisting of several tons of uncured bacon, eggs, beans,
dried apples, and at Bellevue I bought fifty barrels of flour
and several barrels of whiskey all of which were loaded on the
little boat and I could pay the freight bills by piloting. It
was so early that I feared Lake Pepin would not be open and
such proved to be the case. We found ice all over the lake
but it had melted next to the shore and left considerable open
water between the ice and the bank, so we ventured in and
followed up the left and or west bank of the lake, but we had
not counted on the effect of wind upon the ice which when
blowing from one side would crowd the whole field of ice
toward the other shore and even crowd the ice away up on the
bank. When we reached where is now Lake City this happened
and before we were aware of it we were pushed by the ice right
out on the shore high and dry and the ice continued pushing
and crowding under the hull until it had lifted the boat. All
this happened so quickly we hardly realized it and the strain
opened the hull along the kuckle (?) some fifteen feet or
more. We immediately put a bulk head around it and cut some
small bass wood poles near by stripped off the bark and run
them under the hull, being obliged to dig the ice away from
the lower side. Then we took everything movable off the boat
to the shore. While this was going on another boat appeared
below us and when some four or five miles below was caught by
the ice just as we had been except that she was on a rocky
shore and much steeper bank so the ice crowded under her and
raised her up, instead of piling up below her. They were able
to run skids under her from the lower side and as the ice
melted away the skids settled to the ground, and all at once
without help she slid into the water unhurt. When we saw what
had happened to her and saw her coming up I took a skiff and
went down to meet her. She proved to be the Senator, with my
old friend Capt. Smith Harris in command. He promised
to come up and pull us into the water when he could get to us,
if we did not get in by ourselves.
When I left Albany there were twenty or
thirty men whom I had hired, or promised work, but I did not
think best for them to leave with me as it was almost too
early in the season and I found the most of them on the
Senator.
The Senator came to us as soon as the
ice moved out and it took only one pull to put us in the water
and we soon found that our boat was not damaged to any extent
and did not leak seriously. So we loaded up again and went to
St. Paul. When we reached the mouth of Lake St. Croix to go
to Stillwater we found some ice in that lake which with very
high wind, delayed us three or four days and then we went to
Stillwater and unloaded my freight. My men had all arrived
and were set to work picking up logs and rafting.
Note:_Albany without the Slocumbs
would have been like one of Shakespeare’s
most popular plays with Hamlet left
out. They were numerous and if all counted might have
outnumbered the Fuller family of Pepin. They did not,
however, take to the river with the unanimity of that famous
family.
Alfred Slocumb, with whom Capt.
Hanks made his home so long, was followed to Albany by his
four brothers, Stephen, Charles, Samuel, and William, all
being cousins of the Captain’s mother.
William W. became a famous raft
pilot in both floating and steamboat days and was in the
employ of Knapp, Stout, and Company, Mennomonie, Wis. and
Laird Norton & Co., Winona , Minn. for many years. His nephew
William R. a son of Stephen Slocumb was with him for many
years, to distinguish between them the former was known as
“Old Bill” and the latter as “Young Bill.” Later W. R. was a
successful pilot and master on his own hook.
Henry Slocumb, son of Wm. W., ran
with his father for many years and succeeded him at his
death. Both Wm. R. and Henry F. died during 1920, their
deaths being duly recorded in the Post.
The John Slocumb who was the third
husband of the mother of Capt. Hanks was no relation to the
five brothers mentioned but was a brother of one known as
“River” Charley Slocumb and of Nancy Slocumb and they all
added to the census of the Slocumbs in Albany. F. A. B. |
