154 A RAFT PILOT'S LOG 



over night to run the rapids in the morning early before 

 the wind came up. Of the lovely "Grey Eagle" in her 

 bright spring suit like a bride in white with Captain 

 Smith Harris so pleased and proud of her, on the roof 

 as she backed out on that early spring morning in 1861, 

 going swiftly to her death on the old Rock Island 

 bridge. 



And then of the "Favorite" that brought the Sioux 

 captives to Camp McClellan after the massacre of New 

 Ulm, Minnesota, in 1863. Captain Abe Hutchinson 

 had two hundred and seventy-eight braves, sixteen 

 squaws and two children to guard, feed and protect 

 from the fury of the whites when he landed close to the 

 tree for a rapids pilot. 



Or of the fast "Gem City," three hundred feet long, 

 that came out new in the spring of 1881 and made seven 

 round trips between Saint Louis and Saint Paul in the 

 first seven weeks; was full of people every trip and 

 cleared her cost in her six months' run. Campbell Hunt 

 and Hiram Beedle, Jr., were her pilots and steered her 

 by hand as steam steering gear had not been introduced 

 on the Mississippi then, but she did have a search light, 

 the first on the upper river. 



And then perhaps it would tell me about the great 

 Streckfus and Jo. Long steamboat fight in 1896, when 

 there were four fast boats in the Davenport and Clinton 

 trade, each making a round trip a day, and carrying 

 passengers for twenty-five cents one way or both. 



The "Jo. Long," owned by Captain J. N. Long, the 

 rapids pilot, and the "Winona," owned by Captain 

 John Streckfus, left Davenport together every morning 

 and left Clinton at 3 P.M. on the return trip to Daven- 

 port. 



The "Douglas Boardman," chartered by Captain 



