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On the 20th day of
March, 1843, I started with F. G. Snapp from
Greenbush, Illinois. He had a fat cattle that he
wanted to market at New Orleans. On that day we drove
the cattle six miles to Moses T. Hand's.
Here we put up for the night and here a hard blizzard and
snow storm struck us, but we braved through and made our
drive all the same.
We arrived at t.
Louis, March 30, and left there on Friday, April 7; arrived
at New Orleans, April 13, with 51 head of cattle. We
sold the cattle for $1,605.00.
We left Orleans for
home, Apr. 18, 1843. Snapp engaged passage on a
new steamer, "The Harry of the West." She was a fine
boat and was to make her first trip from New Orleans to St.
Louis. The captain swore he would make the quickest
trip ever made on that river or blow the boat up. "The
Alex Scott" had made the trip in four days and six hours.
We went aboard "The
Harry of the West," and when I saw the cords of pitch-pine
and piles of bacon for fuel, I refused to take passage.
I told Snapp the captain would be as good as his
word, and if the machinery was able to stand the pressure he
might get to St. Louis; but if not, we should be in great
danger of a wreck.
This boat started
on a full head of steam, full of passengers and a good
cargo. Just above Vicksburg and near Memphis, she blew
out her boilers and killed two passengers and had to be
towed to St. Louis.
We took passage on
the "Charlotte," a fine steamer, and was ten days on the
trip to St. Louis with a drunken
pilot. The first evening
he ran the boat on a raft of logs in a fog. The pilot
gave the bell to go ahead instead of back, and he ran her on
the raft good. The next morning we loosed from the
raft.
One night afterwards he ran into a cornfield - said they
wanted wood. After we passed Cairo we scraped the rocks on
what is known as the "Devil's Chain," where many steamboats
have been wrecked. Our boat rocked heavily, but we
came out safely.
The morning we
reached St. Louis, the pilot ran our boat under some
projecting tree branches and broke down both smokestacks.
The captain paid him off and hired another.
Snapp and I
parted at St. Louis. The boat ran up to Peoria and La Salle.
Snapp stopped at Copperas creek landing. He
said the boat was a fine runner.
I went out to Troy,
Madison county, Illinois, and got a horse for father on the
farm he sold; from there to Green county, where we had left
Snapp 's horse as we went down.
When I came to
Beardstown the river was from Beardstown to Frederick.
They crossed me over and let me out in water up to the
horses' knees, and some times up to their breast; then took
me on a "flat" to the next wading, and so on until I reached
the bluff.
I arrived at Mr.
Standard's on the night of May 13. That night
there came up a heavy storm of wind, thunder, lightning and
rain. This was at Pennington's Point, thirty miles from
Greenbush.
The storm having
passed over, I told Standard I would make F. G. Snapp
's by 12 o'clock noon. When I arrived they had just
sat down at the table for dinner.
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