MEN PROMINENT IN THE RAFTING INDUSTRY 239 



hired Sam Hitchcock for the 'D. A. McDonald,' agree- 

 ing to pay him one-third the net profit after all expenses 

 were paid out of earnings. 



"I have had a good many good pilots in my time but 

 none ever did better work and I learned much from 

 him about the business that helped me greatly. At the 

 end of the season I paid him $2650.00 as his share. That 

 was good pay then for six months' work, but he earned 

 it. He was an even-tempered, pleasant man to work 

 with. Captain Hitchcock was on the towboat 'Minne- 

 sota' with Captain A. R. Young of Stillwater many 

 years. 



"His last work was with me on the 'Last Chance' in 

 1 882 and got off on account of illness that soon took him 

 off." 



CAPTAIN PAUL KERZ 



Captain Paul Kerz was born October 15, 1837, at 

 Nackenheim, Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. His father 

 was a mill-owner. At the age of seventeen, the son left 

 home for America and arrived at Buffalo in the fall of 

 1854. From the spring of the following year dates his 

 residence in Galena, Illinois. On arriving there he en- 

 gaged in flat-boating with Adam and Stephen Younker, 

 but subsequently engaged in the meat business with 

 Jacob Koehler. After a year at that trade, he returned 

 to boating and in 1862 he with Stephen Younker and 

 Ben Lambertson of Bellevue, Iowa, bought the steamer 

 "Charley Rogers," which they operated between Belle- 

 vue and Galena until 1868, when they sold it and 

 bought the "Sterling." 



In 1870, Captain Kerz began rafting with the "Ster- 

 ling." Two years later he sold the "Sterling" to W. J. 

 Young of Clinton and entered the employ of W. J. 



