WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Old Times on the Upper Mississippi / The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 cover

Old Times on the Upper Mississippi / The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863

Chapter 40: Index
By George Byron Merrick
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

BiographiesHistory - AmericanTravel Writing

About This Book

A first-person memoir presents vivid recollections of life on the Upper Mississippi, describing day-to-day steamboat operations, navigation techniques, and the distinct roles aboard vessels; it portrays river towns and levee commerce, social life including gambling, music, and food, accounts of races and financial booms, encounters with Native communities, wartime service, and efforts to improve the river; appended material lists vessels, distances, and place-names that contextualize the practical and social history conveyed.

Appendix B
Opening of Navigation at St. Paul, 1844-1862

Year First Boat Date River Closed Length
of Season
(No. of Days)		 No. of
Boats		 Total
No. of
Arrivals
1844  Otter April 6 November 23  231   6    41
1845 Otter April 6 November 23 234   7    48
1846 Lynx March 31  December 5 245   9    24
1847 Cora April 7 November 29  236   7    47
1848 Senator April 7 December 4 241   6    63
1849  Highland Mary April 9 December 7 242   8    85
1850 Highland Mary April 19 December 4 229   9  104
1851 Nominee April 4 November 8 218 10  119
1852 Nominee April 16 November 18 216   6  171
1853 West Newton April 11 November 30 233 17  235
1854 Nominee April 8 November 27 223 23  310
1855 War Eagle April 17 November 20 217 68  536
1856 Lady Franklin April 18 November 10 212 79  759
1857 Galena May 1 November 14 198 99  965
1858 Grey Eagle March 25 November 15 236 62 1090
1859 Key City March 19 November 27 222 54  802
1860 Milwaukee March 28 November 23 240 45  776
1861 Ocean Wave March 8 November 26 203 32  977
1862 Keokuk March 18 November 15 212 18  846

Appendix C
Table of Distances from St. Louis

LANDING   ESTIMATED,  
1858		 DISTANCE
  BETWEEN PORTS  		 GOVERNMENT SURVEY,
1880
Alton, Ill.  25 —  23
Grafton, Ill.  — 16  39
Cap au Gris, Mo.  65 27  66
Hamburg, Ill.  — 22  88
Clarkesville, Mo. 102 14 102
Louisiana, Mo. 114 10 112
Hannibal, Mo. 144 29 141
Quincy, Ill. 164 20 161
La Grange, Mo. 176 10 171
Canton, Mo. 184  7 178
Alexandria, Mo. 204 19 197
Warsaw, Ill. 204 — 197
Keokuk, Iowa 208  5 202
Montrose, Iowa 220 12 214
Nauvoo, Ill. 223  3 217
Fort Madison, Iowa 232  8 225
Pontoosuc, Ill. 238  7 232
Dallas, Ill. 240  2 234
Oquawaka, Ill. 270 13 261
Keithsburg, Ill. 282 12 273
New Boston, Ill. 289  6 279
Port Louisa, Iowa 294  9 288
Muscatine, Iowa 317 14 302
Buffalo, Iowa  — 19 321
Rock Island, Ill. 347 10 331
Davenport, Iowa 348  1 332
Hampton, Ill.  — 10 342
Le Claire, Iowa 365  6 348
Port Byron, Ill. 365  — 348
Princeton, Iowa 371  6 354
Cordova, Ill. 372  1 355
Camanche, Iowa 381  9 364
Albany, Ill. 384  2 366
Clinton, Iowa 390  5 371
Fulton, Ill. 392  2 373
Lyons, Iowa 393  1 374
Sabula, Ill. 412 17 391
Savanna, Ill. 415  2 393
Bellevue, Iowa 438 21 414
Galena, Ill. 450 12 426
Dubuque, Iowa 470 12 438
Dunleith, Ill. 471  1 439
Wells' Landing, Iowa 485 13 452
Cassville, Wis. 500 16 468
Guttenberg, Iowa 510 10 478
Glen Haven, Wis.  —  1 479
Clayton, Iowa 522  7 486
Wisconsin River, Wis.  —  7 493
McGregor, Iowa 533  4 497
Prairie du Chien, Wis. 536  3 500
Lynxville, Wis. 553 17 517
Lansing, Iowa 566 12 529
De Soto, Wis. 577  5 534
Victory, Wis. 582  7 541
Bad Axe, Wis. 589  8 549
Warner's Landing, Wis.  —  5 554
Brownsville, Minn. 591  8 562
La Crosse, Wis. 617 10 572
Dresbach, Minn. 627  8 580
Trempealeau, Wis. 632 11 591
Winona, Minn. 645 13 604
Fountain City, Wis. 655  7 611
Mount Vernon, Minn. 666  9 620
Minneiska, Minn. 669  3 623
Buffalo City, Wis. 676  —  —
Alma, Wis. 684 10 633
Wabasha, Minn. 693  9 642
Reed's Landing, Minn. 696  3 645
North Pepin, Wis. 701  4 649
Lake City, Minn. 708  6 655
Florence, Minn. 713  —  —
Frontenac, Minn. 719  —  —
Maiden Rock, Wis.  — 10 665
Wacouta, Minn. 723  —  —
Stockholm, Wis.  —  3 668
Red Wing, Minn. 726  8 676
Trenton, Wis.  —  4 680
Diamond Bluff, Wis. 741  6 686
Prescott, Wis. 756 13 699
Point Douglass, Minn. 757  1 700
Hastings, Minn. 759  2 702
Nininger, Minn. 764  5 707
Pine Bend, Minn. 775  —  —
Newport, Minn. 782 13 720
St. Paul, Minn. 791  9 729
St. Anthony Falls, Minn. 805 12 741

Appendix D
Improvement of the Upper Mississippi, 1866-1876

The following table gives in detail the different divisions into which the river was divided for convenience in letting contracts, and prosecuting the work of improvement, the number of miles covered in each division, and the amount expended in each in the ten years from 1866 to 1876:

DIVISION   MILES   AMT. EXPENDED
St. Anthony Falls to St. Paul 11 $    59,098.70
St. Paul to Prescott 32  638,498.56
Prescott to Head Lake Pepin 29  111,409.17
Harbor at Lake City —   16,091.62
Foot Lake Pepin to Alma 12  341,439.26
Alma to Winona 29  365,394.25
Winona to La Crosse 31  236,239.39
La Crosse to McGregor 72  308,311.07
McGregor to Dubuque 59  137,236.65
Dubuque to Clinton 67  131,905.29
Clinton to Rock Island 40  228,298.99
Rock Island to Keithsburg 58   70,071.85
Keithsburg to Des Moines Rapids 60  515,971.20
Keokuk to Quincy 40  355,263.71
Quincy to Clarksville 60  552,051.47
Clarksville to Cap au Gris 43  389,959.31
Cap au Gris to Illinois River 27  137,116.97
Illinois River to Mouth of Missouri River 25   70,688.77
Miscellaneous, maintenance of Snag-Boats,
Dredges, wages, provisions, etc.		  549,760.92
—— ————
695 $5,200,707.25

Appendix E
Indian Nomenclature and Legends

The name Mississippi is an amelioration of the harsher syllables of the Indian tongue from which it sprang. Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell, late of Winona, Minnesota, a personal friend and old army comrade, is my authority for the names and spelling given below, as gleaned by him during many years' residence among the Chippewa of Wisconsin and the Sioux (or Dakota) of Minnesota. Dr. Bunnell spoke both languages fluently, and in addition made a scholarly study of Indian tongues for literary purposes. His evidence is conclusive, that so far as the northern tribes were concerned the Mississippi was in the Chippewa language, from which the name is derived: Mee-zee (great), see'-bee (river)—Great River. The Dakota called it Wat-pah-tah'-ka (big river). The Sauk, Foxes, and Potawatomi, related tribes, all called it: Mee-chaw-see'-poo (big river). The Winnebago called it: Ne-scas-hut'-ta-ra (the bluff-walled river). Thus six out of seven tribes peopling its banks united in terming it the "Great River".

Dr. Bunnell disposes of the romantic fiction that the Indians called it the "Great Father of Waters", by saying that in Chippewa this would be: Miche-nu-say'-be-gong—a term that he never heard used in speaking of the stream; and old Wah-pa-sha, chief of the Dakota living at Winona, assured the Doctor that he had never heard an Indian use it. The Chippewa did, however, have a superlative form of the name: Miche-gah'-see-bee (great, endless river), descriptive of its (to them) illimitable length.

Dr. Bunnell suggests the derivation of the name Michigan, as applied to the lake and state. The Chippewa term for any great body of water, like Lakes Michigan, Superior, or Huron, is: Miche-gah'-be-gong (great, boundless waters). It was very easy for the white men who first heard this general term as applied to the lake, to accept it as a proper name, and to translate the Indian term into Michigan, as we have it to-day.

It is a source of gratification that the names applied to the Great River by the Jesuit fathers who first plied their birch-bark canoes upon its surface, did not stick. They were wonderful men, those old missionaries, devoted and self-sacrificing beyond belief; but when it came to naming the new-found lands and rivers, there was a monotony of religious nomenclature. Rivière St. Louis and Rivière de la Conception are neither of them particularly descriptive of the Great River. In this connection it must be said, however, that there was something providential in the zeal of the good missionaries in christening as they did, the ports at either end of the upper river run. The mention of St. Louis and St. Paul lent the only devotional tinge to steamboat conversation in the fifties. Without this there would have been nothing religious about that eight hundred miles of Western water. Even as it was, skepticism crept in with its doubts and questionings. We all know who St. Paul was, and his manner of life; but it is difficult to recall just what particular lines of holiness were followed by Louis XIV to entitle him to canonization.

Trempealeau Mountain, as it is called, situated two miles above Trempealeau Landing, Wisconsin, is another marvel of nature that attracted the attention of the Indians. It is an island of limestone, capped with sandstone, rising four hundred feet above the level of the river. Between the island and the mainland is a slough several hundred feet wide, which heads some five or six miles above. The Winnebago gave it a descriptive name: Hay-me-ah'-shan (Soaking Mountain). In Dakota it was Min-nay-chon'-ka-hah (pronounced Minneshon'ka), meaning Bluff in the Water. This was translated by the early French voyageurs into: Trempe à l'eau—the Mountain that bathes its feet in the water. There is no other island of rock in the Mississippi above the upper rapids; none rising more than a few feet above the water.

It is but natural that the Indians who for centuries have peopled the banks of the Mississippi, should have many legends attaching to prominent or unusual features of the river scenery. Where the Indians may have failed, imaginative palefaces have abundantly supplied such deficiencies.

There is one legend, however, that seems to have had its foundation in fact—that of the tragedy at Maiden Rock, or Lover's Leap, the bold headland jutting out into Lake Pepin on the Wisconsin side, some six or eight miles below the head of the lake. Dr. Bunnell devoted much study to this legend, and his conclusion is that it is an historic fact. Divested of the multiplicity of words and metaphor with which the Indian story-teller, the historian of his tribe, clothes his narrative, the incident was this:

In the days of Wah-pa-sha the first, chief of the Dakota band of that name, there was, in the village of Keoxa, near the site of the present Minnesota city of Winona, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, a maiden whose name was Winona (Wi-no-na: first-born daughter). She had formed an attachment for a young hunter of the tribe, which was fully reciprocated by the young man. They had met often, and agreed to a union, on which all their hopes of happiness centered. But on applying to her family, the young suitor was curtly dismissed with the information that the girl had been promised to a warrior of distinction who had sued for her hand. Winona, however, persisted in her preference for the hunter; whereupon the father took measures to drive him out of the village, and the family began to use harsh measures to coerce the maiden into a union with the warrior whom they had chosen for her husband. She was finally assured that she was, with or without her consent, to be the bride of the man of their choice.

About this time a party was formed to go to Lake Pepin to lay in a store of blue clay, which they used as a pigment. Winona, with her family, was of the party. Arriving at their destination the question of her marriage with the warrior again came up, and she was told that she would be given to him that very day. Upon hearing this final and irrevocable decree the girl withdrew, and while the family were preparing for the wedding festival she sought the top of the bluff now known as Maiden Rock. From this eminence she called down to her family and friends, telling them that she preferred death to a union with one she did not love, and began singing her death song. Many of the swiftest runners of the tribe, with the warrior to whom she had been sold, immediately ran for the summit of the cliff in order to restrain her; but before they reached her she jumped headlong from the height, and was dashed to pieces on the jagged rocks a hundred and fifty feet below.

This story was in 1817 related to Major Long, of the United States Army, by a member of Wahpasha's tribe, Wa-ze-co-to, who claimed to have been an eyewitness of the tragedy. Wazecoto was an old man at the time, and his evident feeling as he related the tale went far toward convincing Major Long that the narrator was reciting the tale of an actual occurrence.

Maiden Rock itself is a bluff about four hundred feet in height. One hundred and fifty feet of it is a sheer precipice; the other two hundred and fifty is a steep bluff covered with loose rocks, and grown up to straggling scrub oaks. Some versions of the legend state that Winona in her grief leaped from the bluff into the waters of the lake and was drowned. On my only visit to the top of the Leap, in company with Mr. Wilson, the mate, we found it somewhat difficult to throw a stone into the water from the top of the bluff. If Winona made it in one jump she must have been pretty lithe, even for an Indian.

I hope that I may not be dubbed an iconoclast, in calling attention to the fact that Indian stories similar to this have been localized all over our country. Lovers' Leaps can be counted by the score, being a part of the stock in trade of most summer resorts. Another difficulty with the tale is, that the action of the young pair does not comport with the known marriage customs of Indians.

304

305

Map of the Mississippi between St. Louis and St. Paul.

306

Index

307

Index