SOME OF THE MEN PROMINENT IN THE RAFTING INDUSTRY, 1840-1915

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CAPTAIN S. B. HANKS

    Stephen B. Hanks was born near Hodgensville, Kentucky, October 9, 1821. His father's only sister, Nancy, later married Thomas Lincoln and became the mother of Abraham Lincoln.

    After the death of his father and when Stephen was twelve years old, the family moved up to White County, Illinois, and the mother marrying again, young Stephen and a sister, Mary, went to live with a brother of Mrs. Hanks, named Alfred Slocumb, who moved to Knox County, Illinois, in 1830 and from there to Albany, Illinois, in 1836.

    He made his home with Alfred Slocumb, doing hard work with little pay, and having laudable ambition backed by a large, strong frame, good health and willingness to work, he left Albany in 1841 for the far northern pineries, where he worked four years cutting and getting out logs and driving them to the sawmill at Saint Croix falls, and helping raft and run the lumber to Saint Louis with Sandy McPhail as pilot. In this way he became a pilot himself. Late in 1843 he helped run two rafts of lumber that only got to Albany when winter set in. Part was sold there and the rest stored in Cat Tail Slough.

    In January he went back to Saint Croix falls, mostly by following the ice covered Mississippi and Saint Croix rivers with a sled and a pair of mules.

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     In June of this year, 1844, he made his first trip as pilot of a log raft that floated all the way down from Stillwater, at the head of Lake Saint Croix to Saint Louis, a good, long seven hundred miles.

    In 1845 he helped cut the logs and get them to the first mill in Stillwater owned by John McKusick. He helped raft the timber from these logs and ran the raft to Saint Louis where it was sold.

    He was one of the first to run logs and lumber by contract; so much a string or per thousand feet, finding the crew and paying all expenses.

    He continued this work running mostly by contract for ten years when he quit rafting for a time and began piloting steamboats in the Galena and Minnesota Packet Company between Galena and Saint Paul, first on the 'Dr. Franklin II,' with Captain D.S. Harris.

    On his first arrival in Saint Paul the only house there was a double log cabin used as a trading post by Louis Robert. He was a delegate from Stillwater that aided in locating the old Capitol building. The same committees also located the old penitentiary in Stillwater.

    Captain Hanks served as pilot on nearly every boat in the Galena and Minnesota Packet Company's line. He was on the 'Galena' when she had a hard race from Lake Pepin to Saint Paul and not only won the race but free wharfage in Saint Paul for that year.

    He was on the 'Galena' when she burned at Red Wing landing July 1, 1858. He was pilot on the 'Alhambra' and reached Albany a few hours after the tornado had wrecked Comanche, Iowa, and Albany, Illinois, June 4, 1860. Many were killed in the two towns but Captain Hanks found his family and relatives uninjured.

    In the summer of 1860 Captain Hanks got off the

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Captain S.B. Hanks Lived to be 98.

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fine fast mail packet 'Key City' and left the company he had been with fourteen years. There had been many changes in the ownership and management of the boats of the old Galena and Minnesota Packet Company and when Mr. Joseph Reynolds or 'Diamond Jo' as he was best known, offered Hanks ten dollars per day and steady work throughout the season, he accepted the proposition and went on the 'Ida Fulton,' a stern-wheel boat that was a good carrier herself and always towed barges during the wheat season. He was master and pilot of the 'Ida Fulton' most of the time he worked for 'Diamond Jo,' and it was hard work, as the river was generally low in the fall when the grain movement was greatest, which meant that the boat herself and her barges were always loaded to all the water in the river and they were pushed for time.

     Early in 1877 Captain Jenks associated himself with E.W. Durant and R.J. Wheeler and put the 'Bro. Jonathan' into the new concern styled 'Durant Wheeler and Company,' which had a long and successful career.

     Captain Hanks did not follow the 'Bro. Jonathan' into the new company. He engaged early in 1877 with C. Lamb and Sons of Clinton, Iowa, at $1600.00 per season and went as a captain and pilot of the 'Hartford.'

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He continued in their service fifteen tears during which time he worked on all their fine boats, but mostly on the 'Artemus Lamb.'

     Not only did the Captain hold his job but he held the confidence and respect of his employers and the crews of the different boats in the Lamb fleet, and he was held in high esteem by all who knew him.

     He was a large, well built, strong man, full of energy and enterprise, but mild and gentle in his disposition.

     Turned out as he was at the age of twelve to make his own way in a rough new country and as he grew older working in the woods in winter and on the river in summer, he acquired no bad habits. In a day when drinking and gambling were common; much of the time working and dealing with men who used liquor, tobacco, and cards, he never cared for either. He did not play the saint or preacher, but he didn't care for those things, that was the end of it. Captain Hanks was generous and kind to all, especially his family and relatives. He retained his mental faculties and pleasant manner until his death in 1917.

CAPTAIN J. M. TURNER

     Captain J.M. Turner still living (1928) and in good health mentally and physically, began his river life as a cabin boy on the Galena and Minnesota Pasket Company's side-wheel steamer 'City Bell' with Captain Lodwick in 1853 when he was sixteen old. She was running regularly between Galena and Saint Paul. He remained on her in 1854 and 1855, and by that time knew the river on that run.

     In 1850 he was cub pilot on the 'Bill Henderson,' then a mail-boat running between Galena and Rock Island on alternate days with the steamer 'Jas. Means,' �

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Captain J.M. Turner of Lansing, Iowa

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until July, when he went back on the 'City Bell' and made eight trips on her when she struck a snag and sank, a total loss, in Coon Slough.

     Soon after he fell in with a Mr. LaFrance who brought lumber down the Chippewa, knew how to handle a floating raft but he needed some one to show him the channel down the Mississippi. He hired young Turner, then twenty years old, agreeing to pay him three dollars per day to show him the way. They made five trips in 1857 and he paid Turner three hundred and seventy-five dollars in November. Jerry sensibly went back to his home town, Dubuque, and attended school four months.

     There was a very late opening in the spring of 1858.

     Jerry was at Reads Landing expecting to work again for Mr. LaFrance but he did not appear.

     Thirty-two steamboats were lying at Reads awaiting the break up of the ice in Lake Pepin. There were twenty-five saloons running in the village and they had lively business while they had the crews of all these boats and their passengers for patrons.

     As LaFrance failed to show up, young Turner made one or more trips, pulling an oar to get an idea of the river from Keokuk to Saint Louis. Then he piloted floating rafts for O.H. Ingram if Eau Claire, mostly to Saint Louis.

     Paid off there at the end of the season he changed his paper money for gold, getting $1250.00 in coin.

     He now took an observation trip south on a fine packet; stopped long enough at Memphis to attend a slave auction which made him a strong abolitionist and turned him back home. His first experience in using a steamboat was for a man named L.H. Ramsey of LaCrosse who had a 

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small, single-engine geared, side-wheel boat called 'Johnny Schmoker.' Well pleased with the experiment he later bought a little boat called the 'W.H. Clark' and used her to run lumber for Porter and Moon, later known as the Northwestern lumber Company.

    In 1869 this company bought the 'Silas Wright.' Captain Turner then sold the 'W.H. Clark' and went on the 'Silas Wright' as master and pilot for eight seasons on salary. This was from 1869 to 1876 inclusive.

    In 1877 and 1878he ran Dells Lumber Company's raft to Hannibal on contract.

    In 1881 and 1882 he was on the 'Golden Gate' running Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company and Standard Lumber Company and others with the 'Clyde' and 'Pauline' from 1883 to 1893-when they dissolved partnership. They sold the 'Clyde.' Captain Turner took the 'Pauline' and ran the Empire lumber for four seasons, from 1890 to 1893. He then sold the 'Pauline' quit considerably ahead of a hard game. After resting up he started a button factory in Lansing that is still running after a successful career, with Captain Turner's grandson now in charge.

    Captain Turner was a close manager and a careful, skillful, cautious pilot. He made good average time and delivered his rafts in excellent condition when and where they were wanted. I never passed him broken up or aground or in any other trouble.

    He went on the river alone-had no relatives on the boats to help him. The pilots were members of the Association and would give him no help or encourage-

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 ment to get his pilot's license; but he got it without their help, proved his merit by his work and quit the river with a competency, which he did not lose when he went ashore but increased it by successful enterprise since.

CAPTAIN GEORGE WINANS
    The subject of this sketch began rafting in 1856, the year I was born, and the next year, only eighteen years old, he piloted a lumber raft from Reads Landing to Knapp Stout and Company at Dubuque. He ran his last raft of logs from Saint Paul to Prescott in 1916, his entire service covering a stretch of sixty years. During this time he had owned the steamers 'Admiral,' �C.W. Cowley,' 'Dan Thayer,' 'Frank,' 'Julia,' 'Mars,' 'Neptune,' 'John H. Douglas,' 'May Libby,' 'St. Croix,' 'Pathfinder,' 'Sam Atlee,' 'Satelite I,' 'Satelite ll,' 'Saturn,' 'Saturn ll,' 'Silas Wright,' and 'Zalus Davis,' and served as master and pilot on many others including the 'Union,' 'Alvira,' 'Buckeye,' 'Chippewa Falls,' 'J.W. Van Sant I,' 'Pearl,' 'G.H. Wilson,' Lone Star,' 'Mountain Belle,' 'City of Winona,' 'A.J. Whitney,' 'Jas. Means,' and Wyman X.'

    Captain Winans was the first pilot to try to run a raft with a steamboat. In September, 1863, he chartered a little side-wheel geared boat of only twenty-nine tons; hitched her into the stern of a lumber raft at Reads Landing and started for Hannibal.

    He prudently had secured a good bow crew to work the forward end and he also had men to form a full stern crew if the steamboat failed to handle her end.

    Owing to the lack of a rig or machine to change or control the position of the boat behind the raft they soon got in trouble and before going ten miles, he let

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the boat go back to Read; his crew shipped up the stern oars and they proceeded in the usual way to their destination, Hannibal, Missouri.

     But Captain Winan's idea was correct; it only needed working out. The next year Cyrus Bradley took the same boat, the 'Union,' and successfully used her behind a raft of logs to Clinton, Iowa, for W.J. Young and Company. W.J. Young authorized Bradley to charter the 'Union' and was well pleased with the result and soon bought larger, better boats to use on his own work.

     Captain Bradley soon after built the 'Minnie will,' a side-wheel geared boat-used her and later built the stern-wheeler 'Mark Bradley.'

     In the meantime Captain Winans secured the 'Union' and used her successfully in 1867 and 1868; the little side-wheel 'Lone Star' and the larger 'Buckeye' in 1869. In 1870, when the first real raft-boat built for the business came out, he chartered her for twenty-five dollars per day and made a lot of money with her in 1870 and 1871. This boat was the first 'J.W. Van Sant,' built by J.W. Van Sant and Son at their yard in LeClaire, Iowa.

     Captain Winans quit the river before I began, probably about 1874, with considerable money for that day. He built a $40,000.00 hotel in Chippewa Falls and lost it by fire, with no insurance.

     He then went to California and spent some time on its rivers. He came back to the Mississippi about 1880 and got into the game bigger than ever and stayed in to the last; he did a lot of work and cut prices on lumber contracts; ran some very large rafts and took too many chances; this resulted in many bad and expensive losses.

     When his skill as a pilot and his energy and his honorable

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methods in business he deserved more profit than he got out of it. We cannot help feeling that more caution mixed in with his operations would have secured better results. Captain Winans made his home for many years at the Merchant hot in Saint Paul until his death, January 22, 1926.

CAPTAIN E. J. LANCASTER

    John Lancaster, as he was known on the river, was born and raised at LeClaire, Iowa.

     His father, Thomas Lancaster, was a very competent millwright and ship carpenter.

     John enlisted when only eighteen years old, saw a very active service in the Civil War, was captured and confined a long time in Andersonville prison. He only weighed ninety-five pounds when he was released, but picked up rapidly after he came home, and soon went on the river and learned it while pulling an oar on a floating raft.

     Towing by steamboats was then coming in vogue and Johnny Lancaster was quick in catching on to the new way and was successful from the start. He always had employment on good boats like the 'J.C. Chapman I,' 'Mountain Belle,' 'Stillwater,' and 'Eclipse.' He was not only a skillful, safe, pilot, but a careful, intelligent master who took care of his boat and had excellent control of his crew.

     His last rafting was on the steamer 'Eclipse' that was owned by Lind-

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 say and Phelps and the Cable Lumber Company of Davenport. He ran all the logs for these two sawmill companies from 1885 until they shut down in 1904.

    This expression from Mr. Fred Wyman of the Lindsay and Phelps Company certainly is a strong testimonial of their appreciation of Captain Lancaster's work:

Office of Lindsay and Phelps Company
(Fred Wyman, George F. Lindsay, C.M. Cochrane, Edwin B. Lindsay)
501 Citizens Bank Building, Davenport, Iowa, March 13, 1928

    Captain E.J. Lancaster was master and pilot of the steamer 'Eclipse,' owned by Lindsay and Phelps Company and the Cable Lumber company.

    This association continued until the Cable mill was destroyed by fire, when the Lindsay and Phelps Company purchased the interest of the Cable Company.

    During all of these years Captain Lancaster had the confidence of his employers to such an extent, that he was given entire charge of the steamboats, the 'Eclipse' and the bow-boat 'Everett,' also care and laying up of surplus logs in storage harbor.

    He was a man so conscientious, and of such sterling integrity that the confidence reposed was not misplaced. He was a skillful pilot with unusual ability in managing his work.

    It was a sad day when the 'Eclipse' was sold, and the relations were severed after so many years of such close friendship. - - Fred Wyman

    When the rafting business played out, Captain Lancaster made changes and improvements in the steamer 'Eclipse' and operated her three or four seasons in packet service; first between Clinton and Davenport and later between Prairie Du Chien and Dubuque. The packet business not proving satisfactory, he sold the 'Eclipse' to an Ohio river party and took charge of the fine little bow-boat 'Marquette,' towing gravel from Meridosia to Moline.

    Captain Lancaster died on May 9, 1914. His son, Harry, succeeded him and has been master and pilot of the 'Marquette' ever since.

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Captain E. J. Lancaster LeClarie, Iowa Long on Stillwater and Eclipse

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Captain E.W. Durant Stillwater, Minn. President of Durant, Wheeler and Company

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COLONEL E. W. DURANT

     Edward Durant was prominently connected with the rafting business almost from the beginning.

     He was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, April 8,1829. The family moved first to Cincinnati and then to Sterling, Illinois, and in 1843 to Albany, Illinois.

     When about eighteen, Captain Stephen Hanks took young Durant with him as cook and clerk on floating rafts. He soon dropped the cooking part and gave serious attention to learning the river, made rapid progress and very soon began piloting rafts himself.

     About 1867 he formed a partnership with another young pilot called Jack Hanford and they took contracts to run logs and lumber with Stillwater, Minnesota, as their home port. Always progressive they early began using boats to shove and handle their rafts. In 1869, they had the side-wheelers 'Julia Hadley' and 'Viola.' Durant also took up the selling of logs and lumber and no one could beat him at this.

     Jack Hanford was killed by getting caught in the geared machinery of the 'Julia Hadley.'

     Then R.J. Wheeler joined the firm with the fine towboat 'Louisville' and they bought the 'Robert Semple,' another Ohio river towboat. Then in 1877, Captain A.T. Jenks entered with the 'Bro. Jonathan' and the style of the firm was changed to Durant Wheeler and Company.

     The firm had a successful career and extended its business until 1880 it had a boat yard where it built several fine raft-boats, including the 'R.J. Wheeler,' 'Netta Durant,' 'Daisy,' 'Pauline,' and 'Dispatch.'

     It also had a big interest in South Stillwater Lumber Company, the Lumbermans National Bank and owned the fine new opera House. Captain Durant had excellent ideas about building

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boats and had excellent taste in finishing them so they all looked like June brides.

     He gave a lot of time to public affairs, showing a great interest in his home city and his state; was active in politics and got the title of Colonel in recognition of his party service.

     He was an influential member of the Masonic and K. of P. Lodges and also the Old Settlers Association of the saint Croix Valley. They had one boat built on the Ohio river, called first 'A.T. Jenks,' later the 'Ed Durant, Jr.' She had the same power but was not as good a boat in any way as those they built in their own yard.

     He was a genial, jolly, courteous gentleman of the old school. I knew him best when he was up in the eighties, ripe and mellow with age, full of fun and interested in everything.

     He left us December 9, 1918, after a long and pleasant voyage.

CAPTAIN JOSEPH BUISSON

    Joseph Buisson was born in Wabasha, Minnesota, February 17, 1846. His father, a French trader from Canada, was one of the founders of the town beautifully located on Wabasha prairie and named after a noted Sioux chief whose people made their home at the mouth of the Zumbrota river.

     Joseph took more to school and books than his brothers who were fonder of outdoor sports and hunting, and as he grew up developed a great fondness for reading, especially works on history and biography, and was a well informed man.

     He belonged to several fraternal organizations including Masonry in which he was a close student and

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Captain Joseph Buisson Wabasha, Minn. President of Valley Navigation Company

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his life exemplified its teachings. His family were Episcopalians and while not a member he was an attendant of church, and for many years he was the faithful Peoples Warden of Grace Memorial Chapel in Wabasha.

     His life work on the river began when he was fifteen years old. When nineteen he began piloting himself and as he soon demonstrated his skill and ability in handling rafts and men, he was constantly employed and by the best companies as long as the business lasted. We recall the excellent work he did on the side-wheeler 'Clyde,' then on the side-wheeler 'J.W. Barden,' running lumber for the Daniel Shaw Company, then on the new stern-wheeler 'Gardie Eastman,' several seasons running logs for Gardiner Batcheler and wells of Lyons, Iowa; then on the fine large 'C.W. Cowles,' owned by Fleming Brothers of McGregor and later bought and operated by the Valley Navigation Company of which Captain Joe was president, and as master and pilot of the 'Cowles' he ran logs to the Hershey mill and Muscatine and several others until the finish.

     When rafting played out he operated the 'C.W. Cowles' as a regular packet between LaCrosse and Dubuque, but realizing little profit in this, he sold her and went piloting the big packets of the Streckfus Line in the Saint Louis and Saint Paul trade and remained on them for and while after they were converted into exclusion steamers. He gave up this work to take the position of Deputy United States Marshal at Saint Paul, and while filling it most acceptably the final summons came to him October 29, 1918, and he was laid to rest in the town of his birth.

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CAPTAIN CYPRIAN BUISSON

    There were four of the Buisson boys. Antoine, the second, only made a few trips on floating rafts, and then went in the Dakotas and took up farming. The other three, Henry, Joseph and Cyprian, stuck to the rafting game as long as it lasted, except that Henry enlisted in the Fifth Minnesota Infantry and served during the Civil War.

     Their grandfather was Lieutenant Duncan Graham who commanded the small detachment of British troops that with their Indian allies, defeated the United States force under Colonel Zachary Taylor at the battle of Credit Island near Davenport on September 5, 1814.

     Lieutenant Graham married an Indian wife, probably of the sac tribe, and their daughter was born on or near Credit Island. Lieutenant Graham's duties took him to Minnesota for many years and this daughter married Joseph Buisson, a French Canadian trader, who was an early settler in Wabasha.

     Whether Mrs. Buisson, the mother of these four sons and three daughters, was a Sac or a Sioux, is in doubt, but one thing is sure: she had children of whom any mother could be justly proud. They all stood high in their old home town.

     Cyprian, the third son of Joseph Buisson, was born in Wabasha, Minnesota, September 25, 1849.

     His youth was spent mostly in learning and playing the games of the young Sioux who were his chosen companions. He was fond of hunting and trapping and became very skillful in using a gun or a canoe and always had both with him on the 'B. Hershey.'

     Joseph, his next older brother, took more interest in school, but hard as he tried, he could not keep young Cyp at his studies when condition were favorable for

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Captain Cyprian Buisson Saint Paul, Minn. Twenty years on the steamer B. Hershey

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hunting or trapping. He told me Joe gave him many a licking for running away from school.

     But if Cyp did not learn much in school he leaned a lot outside. Perfectly at home in the woods, he knew more about animals, birds, fishes, flowers and plants than anyone I ever had the good fortune to know.

     When only sixteen he began his work on rafts, pulling an oar for David Craft on a lumber raft to Saint Louis. He quickly learned the river and began piloting himself. His first practice running a raft was when he and Jack Walker chartered the little 'Novelty' in the late sixties.

     Then he and his brother Joe went on the 'Clyde' for three seasons.

     In the spring of 1877 he came out as master and pilot of the fine, large, powerful raft-boat 'B. Hershey,' built at Kahlkes yard at Rock Island for the Hershey Lumber Company of Muscatine, Iowa.

     For twelve successive seasons he ran their logs from Beef Slough, West Newton and Stillwater, making a record that nobody could beat.

     Then the Valley Navigation Company was formed by Captain Cyprian, Joe and a few others. This company bought the 'B. Hershey' of the Hershey Lumber Company, the 'C.W. Cowley' of Fleming Brothers and the 'Lafayette Lamb' of C. Lamb and Sons and Cyp remained on the 'Hershey' for eight years more running logs for Hershey Lumber Company on contract, making twenty years of service on the one boat, clean, skillful, satisfactory service, all of it.

     Then he wanted a change and going to Dakota he tried farming six years, but the lure of the river brought him back and he put in a few seasons rafting, working government boats, had charge of the steamer 'Helen �

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Blair' in the Davenport and Burlington trade, and wound up his steamboating on the big side-wheeler 'Morning Star' in the Davenport, Saint Paul and Stillwater trade, until the end of the season 1917, when ill health developed into serious and painful sickness terminating November 24, 1920.

     He was first married August 18, 1876 to Elizabeth Stone of Wabasha, who died November 17, 1906.

     In 1913 he married Lillian Enber of Saint Paul who gave him constant and loving care through his long illness and survives.

     There were no children by either marriage, but they adopted, raised and educated three children who needed homes and parents and were fortunate in having such care and guidance.

     Captain Cyp was a handsome man, very modest and gentle in speech and action but not afraid of anything or any person. A better pilot or more pleasant companion one could not find. He was the highest type of gentleman, whose memory we will always prize.

SAMUEL HITCHCOCK

    In old floating days Sam Hitchcock stood high as an easy, skillful pilot.

     He had rare knowledge of the draft of water at different stages and with his quiet manner and low voice he had excellent control of his crew.

     When towing rafts came in vogue, Sam soon got the hang of that, and always had choice positions,

     Ex-governor Van Sant writes me this about him: "Sam Hitchcock took to steamboat rafting very quickly and was a good handler as well as a good upstream pilot.

     "In 1874, when I began running rafts on contract, I

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hired Sam Hitchcock for the 'D.A. McDonald,' agreeing to pay him one-third the net profit after all expenses were paid out of earnings.

     I have had a good many good pilots in my time but none ever did better work and I learned much from him about the business that helped me greatly. At the end of the season I paid him $2650.00 as his share. That was good pay then for six months' work, but he earned it. He was an even-tempered, pleasant man to work with. Captain Hitchcock was on the towboat 'Minnesota' with Captain A.R. Young of Stillwater many years.

     "His last work was with me on the 'Last Chance' in 1882 and got off on account of illness that soon took him off."

CAPTAIN PAUL KERZ

    Captain Paul Kerz was born October 15, 1837, at Nackenheim, Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. His father was a mill-owner. At the age of seventeen, the son left home for America and arrived at Buffalo in the fall of 1854. From the spring of the following year dates his residence in Galena, Illinois. On arriving there he engaged in flat-boating with Adam and Stephen Younkers, but subsequently engaged in the mat business with Jacob Koehler. After a year at that trade, he returned to boating and in 1862 he with Stephen Younker and Ben Lambertson of Bellevue, Iowa, bought the steamer 'Charley Rogers,' which they operated between Bellevue and Galena until 1868, when they sold it and bought the 'Sterling.'

    In 1870, Captain Kerz began rafting with the 'Sterling.' Two years later he sold the 'Sterling' to W.J. Young of Clinton and entered the employ of W.J.

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Young as commander of the 'Sterling' and afterwards of the 'J.W. Mills.' Later he superintended the building of the 'Douglas Boardman,' at the boat yards at Eagle Point and became its first commander. Afterward he superintended the building of the 'W.J. Young, Jr.' and became its commander in1882 and was its commander at the time of his death, although he claimed that he was going to retire from the steamboat business that fall. He had been made commodore of the entire Young fleet and had absolute charge of the steamboat business of the W.J. Young and Company, and his recommendations governed all of the appointments of the officers of the fleet. He died quite suddenly at Galena, December 19, 1893, while walking home from town.

     Captain Kerz left surviving him his widow, Barbara Kerz, who later died, September 18, 1925; a daughter, Barbara Heid, still living; and a son, Adam. The latter followed in the footsteps of his father as a river pilot, and was with him to the time of his death. He later went with Captain Winans on the 'John H. Douglass' and 'Saturn' and after spending several years on the Yukon on the 'Julia B.', owned and operated by the Yukon Transportation and Trading Company, composed principally of Galena residents, he entered the employ of the United States Government on its fleet of river boats and was employed on the 'Coal Bluff' when he took sick at Hannibal, Missouri, and after being brought home at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, died in 1908.

     He was further survived by a son, Philip Kerz, still living at Dixon, Illinois, and employed by the International Harvester Company, and by his youngest son, Paul Kerz, an attorney, with offices at 11 South LaSalle

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Captain Paul Kurz Galena, Ill. On steamers J.W. Mills and W.J. Young, Jr.

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Street, Chicago, formerly City Attorney of Galena. Illinois, and also County Judge of Jo Davies County, Illinois.

    If there ever was a man who really loved his work it was Captain Paul Kerz. I never knew any one else who worked so many hours and slept so few, and no one ever heard him complain of want of sleep or over-work.

    He was thoroughly loyal to his employers, to his family and his church, and he had the complete confidence of all who knew him.

    Captain Kerz demonstrated the truth of the old saying, "He succeeds best who is most wedded to his task."

CAPTAIN JOHN McCAFFREY

    No story of the rafting business can be told without including John McCaffrey's part in it.

     At an early age he went on the river with his brother-in-law, George Tromleu, who was considerably older than himself and already a floating pilot with established reputation who was running log and lumber on contract.

     Young Jack, as he was called, acted as clerk and pulled an oar in bad places. He learned the river in a short time and soon got into the game on his own account.

     I don't know how he learned to handle a steamboat but he was running the 'Clyde,' towing lumber in 1870.

     In 1871, he bought one-half interest in the steamer 'James Means' of Van Sant and Son and he made a very handsome profit with her and the 'LeClaire Belle' in the next five years. He then sold out and quit the river for four years. He had received an injury by a fall on a raft which gave him a lot of trouble, but by

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surgery, good treatment and rest he got well enough to do some more profitable work on the river and he owned a big interest in several raft-boats including the 'Last Chance,' 'Pilot,' 'Ten Broeck,' 'Jo Long,' 'Robert Dodds,' 'Helen Shulenberg' and 'Charlotte Boeckeler.'

     About 1895, Captain McCaffrey bought the Diamond Jo Line steamer 'Mary Morton' more to encourage his sons and give them a chance than to carry out any ambition of his own.

     He also bought a coal mine over on Rock Island river and the little steamer 'Duke' and barges to bring coal out through the Hennepin canal to Davenport.

     Captain McCaffrey had two fine properties at Tenth and Brady street in Davenport. He lived in one and converted the other into an apartment building, which was always in demand.

     He was located pleasantly and taking life easy. He was a popular member of the Piute Club and had a bunch of cronies, lawyers and doctors, whose society he enjoyed. we thought he was anchored here to stay when all at once he sold out, bought a lot of good rich land cheap on account of the boll weevil scare, lying on the west side of the Mississippi across from Vicksburg, and started late in life to improve and develop this land into good cotton plantations.

     The captain would have made a great success of this venture, but his health gave out and his busy life came to a sudden ending at the Kellogg Sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan. I tried to get a photo of the captain taken with the full beard and mustache, as I knew him first, but could not find one.

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CAPTAIN ROBERT DODDS

    I started to write something about this man who held high place in the esteem of his employers, his crew and his fellow pilots, when it came to me that a man who had been closely associated with Captain Dodds for many years had written an article published in the saint Louis 'Waterways Journal' about him soon after his death.

    Mr. Harris has kindly furnished me a copy of that letter, describing Captain Dodds correctly. It is much better than I could have done it.
Chicago, July 27, 1903

   Gentlemen: In your issue of July 25, a five-lined notice tell the world of the death of Captain Dodds, a retired steamboat officer, who was found dead at his home on Thursday, July 23rd, and that his death was due to heart failure, hence sudden.

     The meager notice conveys but an inadequate idea of the peculiar position that the late Captain Dodds, held in the army of steamboat men, for what Edwin Booth was to the stage, Charles Dickens to literature, Darwin to science or Beecher to theology, Robert Dodds was to the pilot's profession, holding a distinct and peculiar position.

     It would be somewhat difficult doubtless, to define his true status or to explain why he held such an honored place in the realm of steamboat officers.

     Captain Robert Dodds, or Bob Dodds, as he was familiarly known, com- menced his river life as a floating raftsman, and becoming a pilot before he had reached his majority. A man of pleasing presence, handsome in appearance, tasty in dress, without being lavish, courteous in manner, proficient in conversation, and lastly, giving to money no apparent value, and being a large money earner at a very early stage, he developed eccentricities of character, if we may use the expression , that established him as a prince of good fellows.

     Captain Dodds floated rafts for Schulenburg and Boeckeler for a number of years, and with the advent of the steam boat for the purpose of towing rafts, he took charge of the Pittsburg towboat, 'Grey Eagle.' After operating this boat for one or two seasons, she turned over at the foot of Stag Island upon the first trip in the spring, Cap-

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tain Dodds being at the wheel. This was followed by the purchase of the steamboat 'M/Whitmore,' and was followed in turn by the building of the steamers 'Helen Schulenburg,' 'Charlotte Boeckeler,' and 'Robert Dodds,' over which fleet the captain as commodore.

     About the year 1888 or 1889, the Schulenburag and Boeckeler Company disposed of their steamboat interests to Captain John McCaffrey, and for one season, Captain Dodds commanded one of the steamers, which, however, ended his active service upon the river.

     It was my privilege to have been associated with the deceased officer from 1874 to 1886 inclusive, during which time, I necessarily learned to know him intimately, although I could add nothing more in the way of eulogy than has already been said in the earlier part of this communication.

     Captain Dodds was a magnificent executive officer, one of those few men in the world who could maintain a degree of equality with those under his command, and yet retain to the fullest extent their admiration and esteem. As a commanding officer, he was a strict disciplinarian, exercising authority, however, with such a warmth of sunshine that men obeyed for the love of obedience rather than from fear of the consequences.

     Every walk of life is marked by particular exemplifications of the attributes necessary to reach success, and in the pilot's profession there was, during the active career of Captain Dodds, no man who possessed more fully and completely, the high quality required to reach the ends aimed at.

        Yours very truly,
        James Henry Harris

CAPTAIN J. M. HAWTHORNE

    J.M. Hawthorne was born at Erie, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1839.When he was eleven years old the family moved to Illinois and later to LeClaire, Iowa, in 1856.

     Joseph began working on the river when he was eighteen years old as a cabin boy on the steamer 'War Eagle' of the galena and Minnesota Packet Company.

     He soon left this job to pull an oar on a floating raft with the noted pilot J.T.R. Lindley, better known as 

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Captain J. M. Hawthorne LeClaire, Iowa Age 88. November, 1927, Still piloting

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'Kentuck,' and under his direction young Hawthorne soon learned the river from Stillwater and Saint Paul to Saint Louis.

    In 1860 he followed the Gold Rush to Pikes Peak but failing to strike a pay streak, he came back in 1861 and began piloting rafts himself. He was a keen observer, watching the river closely and learned the drafts of water at different stages and became what was called an 'easy floater.' He was easy on the crew and was a favorite pilot because he gave the men no un- necessary pulling.

    Going back up the river with his crew on the regular packets, he rode much of the time in the pilot houses, became well acquainted with the pilots and learned how to steer and handle a steamboat and secured a first class pilots license in 1872. He has had many reissues, the last in May, 1927.

    He bought the side-wheeler 'Viola' of Durant and Hanford soon after getting his license and he continued running rafts with towboats either for himself or others as long as business lasted. Since rafting days he has had various employments mostly on government boats in improvement work.

    He has lived in LeClaire since 1856 except the one year in Colorado and he holds a certificate from the Grand Lodge of Iowa given to Masons in good standing who have paid dues for fifty years.

    Captain Hawthorne has never used glasses to read nor has he ever had a razor on his face.

    He was eighty-eight last November, but is still active and healthy. His eyes still have the old merry twinkle and he enjoys a joke or a good story as well as if he was sitting on a bunch of shingles on the corner of a floating raft.

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CAPTAIN SAM R. VAN SANT

    The subject of this sketch is at the age of eighty-three still enjoying good health and stands a fair chance of out living all who were engaged with him in the rafting business and securing the proud distinction of being the last survivor of the Grand Army of the Republic of which he is a past Commander.

     The Captain was thirty-three when at twenty-one I entered his employment as clerk and watchman on the 'LeClaire Belle' in March,1878.

     He took great interest in my work and gave me every encouragement to learn the river.

     In the spring of 1881 he gave me the chance to invest in a one-sixth interest in the 'Last Chance' which led a year later to the organization of the LeClaire Navigation Company, of which he was manager and I was captain and pilot on its best raft boats.

     We were always glad to have with us for a day, or a trip. He was full of fun, life and ambition; always encouraging us to do our best. Good work and good behavior never failed to secure recognition and approval and he was very kind and charitable to those who failed or went wrong-even when it resulted in considerable loss to him.

     His acquaintance and sociability were not confined to the officer 'up stairs'. He soon knew everyone on board and was always popular with those on the lower deck.

     But while friendly and sociable his manner always commanded respect. He was very active then and as strong as a young lion and 'woe be' to any foolish person who underestimated his ability to take care of himself in a scrap.

     In March, 1881, he moved from LeClaire to reside

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Captain Sam R. Van Sant

President Van Sant and Musser Transportation Company and LeClaire Navigation Company

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in Davenport. He came down to the landing while I was sending out the last load of his household goods that we brought down on the 'Silver Wave.' I had two green men who persisted in going up to get a drink when they felt like it, and were beginning to show the effects of three or four such absences in spite of my warning.

     When Captain Sam came back in the deck room he asked, "What's the matter here, boys?" Not giving me time to explain they told him what they were doing and what they were going to do. He grabbed those men, slammed them together, threw them down, slapped their faces and then made them stand up and listen while he told them a few things that I am sure they remember.

     As related elsewhere in this volume, the firm, Van Sant and Son of LeClaire, Iowa, were pioneers in building real rafts.

     The success of the 'J.W. Van Sant' from their yard in 1870 stimulated and encouraged others to build similar boats. Some of these were built at LeClaire. The LeClaire yard soon had plenty of repair work during winter and early spring, but the decline in the packet business and the absorption of the old Northern line the Davidsons diverted a large summer repair business to Davidsons yard at LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

     Captain Van Sant always took a great interest in politics, but never aspired to official position until he removed to Winona in 1884.

     He was elected to the state legislature and on his third term was chosen Speaker of the House. While holding this position the appropriations were made for the new Capitol and during his two terms as governor the present, splendid building was completed and dedi-

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 cated, completely finished and furnished with several thousand dollars left of the appropriation.

    When the captain closed out and sold his raft-boats at the end of the game he had made more profit than any one else who had been in the business of rafting only by timely and judicious investments in Minnesota farms, he greatly increased his competency and can take life easy and enjoy his mounting years. In his case I cannot use the term 'declining years' for he is not declining-he is just maturing.

    During our fifty years of association, through storm or sunshine, high water or low, good luck or bad, in buying boats or selling them, I always liked to have him with me. I always admired his intelligence and good judgment, and thoroughly enjoyed his fine, loving companionship. Though separated now, it is a great satisfaction to know I still have his confidence and his friendship.

    The governor, as we have learned to call him, and his estimable wife have made their home for fifteen years in the Leamington hotel in Minneapolis, but they always spend the winter months in or near Tampa, Florida.