36 A RAFT PILOT'S LOG 



rebuilt and refitted it at the mouth of the Wisconsin 

 river, and delivered it in Saint Louis in 1839. The early 

 saw mills in Galena and Dubuque were supplied with 

 logs prior to this long trip to Saint Louis. 



By 1857, three thousand men were engaged in lum- 

 bering on the Wisconsin, and the value of the log crop 

 was estimated at $4,000,000.00. As all the lumber had 

 to be floated out of the Wisconsin and down the Missis- 

 sippi, rafting grew into a great business, and was 

 handled quite systematically, by a hardy, rough, but 

 industrious and reliable lot of men, working under such 

 floating-raft pilots as Dave Philomalee, Bill Skinner, 

 Bill Simmons, Wild Penny Joe Blow, and Sandy Mc- 

 Phail. 



Some went through direct to Saint Louis, others ped- 

 dled by string or crib to dealers in the towns along the 

 way, and the trips would often end at Davenport, Mus- 

 catine, or Quincy. Then the crew would take passage 

 on a steamboat going north to start another trip down. 

 They had no work to do going up river, and usually 

 made it one long carousal, so that by the time they 

 reached the mouth of the "Wisconse" or Black river 

 they were broke and glad to go to work again. 



Some of the pilots worked by the month, others by 

 the season or trip, the "company" paying all expenses 

 and taking all the chances; but a few had their own kits 

 and ran the rafts under contract - so much per thousand 

 feet, or so much a string. 



From 1870 to 1875, I had considerable acquaintance 

 with these raftsmen, on account of my father's lumber 

 yard at Princeton, Iowa, which received all its supply 

 from floating rafts, mainly from the Wisconsin. 



Daniel Stanchfield cut the first logs on the Upper 

 Mississippi, above Saint Anthony's Falls, in 1848. 



