MEN PROMINENT IN THE RAFTING INDUSTRY 215 



fine fast mail packet "Key City" and left the company 

 he had been with fourteen years. There had been many 

 changes in the ownership and management of the boats 

 of the old Galena and Minnesota Packet Company and 

 when Mr. Joseph Reynolds or "Diamond Jo" as he 

 was best known, offered Hanks ten dollars per day and 

 steady work throughout the season, he accepted the 

 proposition and went on the "Ida Fulton," a stern- 

 wheel boat that was a good carrier herself and always 

 towed barges during the wheat season. He was master 

 and pilot of the "Ida Fulton" most of the time he 

 worked for "Diamond Jo," and it was hard work, as 

 the river was generally low in the fall when the grain 

 movement was greatest, which meant that the boat her- 

 self and her barges were always loaded to all the water 

 in the river and they were pushed for time. 



After five and one-half years of this service with the 

 Diamond Jo Line, Captain Hanks went with his broth- 

 er-in-law. Captain A. T. Jenks, as pilot on the raft- 

 boat "Bro. Jonathan." He was on her three seasons, 

 from 1874 to 1876, running rafts to different mills and 

 got to be right "at home" in handling rafts with tow- 

 boat as he had formerly done by men with oars on the 

 bow and stern. He liked this work and never went back 

 to the packet boats. 



Early in 1877 Captain Jenks associated himself 

 with E. W. Durant and R. J. Wheeler and put the 

 "Bro. Jonathan" into the new concern styled "Durant 

 Wheeler and Company," which had a long and success- 

 ful career. 



Captain Hanks did not follow the "Bro. Jonathan" 

 into the new company. He engaged early in 1877 ^^''"^^ 

 C. Lamb and Sons of Clinton, Iowa, at $1600.00 per 

 season and went as captain and pilot of the "Hartford." 



