THE GREEN TREE HOTEL i59 



of Captain Jones L. Worden and several of his crew 

 from the old boat. 



The "Belle of LaCrosse," "Alex. Mitchell," and 

 "Northwestern," that came out in 1870 for the White 

 Collar or Davidson Line, were large, fine boats and the 

 "Northwestern" with larger engines than any of the 

 others, was a very fast boat. 



These five new boats with the "Phil. Sheridan" and 

 "Milwaukee" of Davidson's and the "Minnesota," 

 "Minneapolis," "Dubuque," "Muscatine" and "Daven- 

 port" of the Northern Line gave an excellent daily 

 service between Saint Louis and Saint Paul, and there 

 was no more racing and fighting. 



The compromise and consolidation however gave the 

 Davidsons the control and they kept it. If the boats 

 made any profit they got it. 



The Northern Line put into the consolidation four- 

 teen good side-wheel and five stern-wheel steamers, all 

 in good condition, with forty oak model barges and 

 $60,000.00 balance in the Boatmens Bank in Saint 

 Louis. 



They never got any dividends after the consolidation 

 and were glad to give up their stock to escape the assess- 

 ments that were levied against them later. 



While these twelve fine boats were running in the 

 seventies, they maintained quite a regular schedule - 

 thus when the boat from Saint Louis would come round 

 the bend about 4 P.M. to land at the green tree, the 

 smoke of the other coming from Saint Paul was usually 

 in sight. John Smith of LeClaire and Andrew Cole- 

 man of Davenport were their rapids pilots. With these 

 regular packets to take care of first, they caught many 

 outside trips, as there were numerous freight steamers 

 running without schedule; and some years many large 



