Pleasant Rafting with the Good 

 "Ten Broeck" 



The year 1882 was a busy and important one for me. 

 Besides getting my license and beginning work on my 

 own boat and helping organize the LeClaire Naviga- 

 tion Company as told in the preceding chapter, I was 

 entered, passed, and raised to the degree of a Master 

 Mason in Snow Lodge number forty-four in LeClaire, 

 Iowa. After making permanent residence in Daven- 

 port, Iowa, I changed my membership to Trinity Lodge 

 number two hundred and eight. I have been away 

 from home too much to be an active member but after 

 forty-five years' experience I hold masonic teaching 

 and practice in high esteem and consider it a great in- 

 fluence for good in any community. 



Miss Elizabeth Bard and I were married in her 

 home on the evening of December 7, 1882. At the same 

 time her sister Adele was married to John H. Laycock. 



It was very cold and the heavy ice running made 

 crossing the river difficult and dangerous. Captain and 

 Mrs. Van Sant went up with me in a carriage in the 

 afternoon and drove back with my plucky bride and 

 me after midnight with the temperature twenty-six de- 

 grees below. The road, frozen hard, had smooth tracks 

 and we were not long on the way to our cozy, furnished 

 apartment, with a good hard-coal fire in the base- 

 burner. 



In February, 1883, we bought the towboat "J. W. 

 Mills" of W. J. Young and Company for $7000.00. 



