Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs Here's a nice 'un with Jewel's own "portrait" on the bill instead of a generic vignette from the print shop.

Steamer C.W. Anderson . . . another nice boat vignette . . . archives must be bulging on your computer!

This is a promotional card, on the back is a bird's eye view map of Cairo and the convergence of the Ohio and Mississippi. I'm not sure how Captain Henry W. Leyhe was related to Captain William H. "Buck" Leyhe of Golden Eagle fame, but they may have been brothers. The Ferd Herold was named for the St. Louis brewer who financed the building of the boat in 1890 and a bust of Mr. Herold was placed on the front of the roof of the Texas and later moved into the main cabin. The boat was dismantled in 1919 and the hull used as a barge in New Orleans until it sank in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meader & Co.

old gold Steamer G.W. Sparhawk.

This is the ninth boat to bear the name Natchez and is the one AFTER the boat that lost the race with the R.E. Lee in 1870.

The H.K. Bedford Steamboat and waybill. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs

The Knox was a sternwheeler, but the job printer may not have had anything but sidewheeler vignettes. The bottom one had a big piece torn off of the upper right hand corner so I had to replace the last 2 letters in PACKET and extend blue lines etc.

The Gus Fowler Steamboat and waybill. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs

Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs Miss Bessie ought seven. The ol' Bessie Smith and a 1907 waybill from her for what 'pears to be 4 bundles of hides. By coincidence there was a famous blues singer by the same name but she was just a little girl in Chattanooga when this boat was built and she didn't run off to join a minstrel company until a year after this boat was lost in 1911. I have a couple dozen bills with boat photos to match. These need their own web site but I've never got up enough steam to inaugurate one. Thought you'd enjoy seeing it anyway.

Here's Miss Belle of the Valley, aka Valley Belle. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs

I wonder if the inventor of the hypodermic needle was inspired while riding this boat . . . Steamer Fanny Bullitt.

Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs One of my favorite waybills. The photograph of the boat leaves much to be desired and will have to suffice until a better copy of it turns up. Steamer Arkansas Belle.

Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs "Ch Dog" under freight? Could it have been a "China" (porcelain) "Dog" that they charged a quarter to transport? Steamer Oneida.

Steamer Annie Laurie.

Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs The Courier was a great looking sidewheeler . . . some heavy duty stacks there and unusual rig on top of pilot house. only a 25 cent toll for one bag of something . . . Sud?

Love that name "Quick Step." Terpsichore! With all my superfluosa you could do "spin offs" of your site like the Law and Order producer did with his many series. "An embarrassment of riches." is the operative term here.

Now here's one in a more workable size . . . the photo is a detail from a stereo view. Steamer Ed. J. Gay was quite a splendid boat with a grand pilot house. Them was the days . . .

Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs

This photo shows Tom Greene and a waybill. This photo shows the name on the side and you can see what a l-o-n-g boat she was. Pity she's not still with us and cleared to run overnighters again. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs

Addie E. Faison 1892 Waybill with Murphy steamboat. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs

Just got this pass for the Muskingum & Ohio River Transport. Co 1906 with graphic of the LORENA. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs I combined it with a detail from my real photo post card of the boat taken on the canal at Lowell, Ohio. Also, stateroom key.

Photo of the James Lee courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs Stateroom key is part of the Dave Thomson collection, scanned for this exhibit.

Attached the wonderfully named HARD CASH downloaded from Murphy's online digital collection. She was retired in 1909 and laid up in Bayou Sara Creek, Alabama after operating for most of her career on the Tombigbee and Warrior Rivers in Alabama. The photo was taken at Bayou Sara in 1910. Four years later she was dismantled. The HARD CASH was built way back in 1876 and worked for over 30 years, a very long run for these fragile boats. She looks almost like a caricature of a steamboat, looking exceedingly long and tall, couldn't have operated on rivers with low bridges with such tall stacks. The waybill I just purchased dates from her Memphis and White River Packet days in 1881. I always liked that jaunty name HARD CASH, although my favorite boat name was STACKER LEE. There's a popular old "folk/blues" song sometimes called STACKER LEE but apparently the song predated the boat and was initially pronounced "STAGGER LEE" for the real "killer" who was called "STAG" Lee. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs

A reconciliation sheet. Dave asks: "Nori, do Realtors run into this sort of financial difficulty today?"

This is an envelope carried aboard Belle Lee. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs To see more steamboat envelopes, click here.

Attached are scans and my transcript of a 4 page letter about a pending law suit involving the steamboat Morning Star in 1915. 15 years later the man who wrote this letter W.A. Blair (Walter Blair) wrote A Raft Pilot's Log: A History of the Great Rafting Industry on the Upper Mississippi 1840-1915 Published in 1930 by the Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, Ohio. (Page 1:) Northern Steamboat Co. W.A. BLAIR, General Manager W.H. LAMONT, General Agent Str. Morn Star Sept 9 1915 Hon M.J. Fugnia (?) Atty at Law Fountain City (Wisconsin) Dear Sir We landed at Alma (Wisconsin) in the usual way and at the usual place with a breeze on shore. Plaintiff's little open flat boat (not worth $20.00) lay just below the jog in stone wall. When our boat swung in one of our loose hanging fenders near our starboard wheel caught the gunwall (gunwale) of the flat and broke out a chunk perhaps 2 ft long x 6 in deep When we got around again a week later as were getting out of the landing (Page 2:) this same flat still there and floating swung out and caught our wheel. We pulled it back to shore and made it fast. It was not injured in any way by contact this 2(nd) time as the wheels were stopped when it caught. The flat now lies out on shore two miles below town inside where the injury can be examined. Plaintiff was negligent in leaving a light frail boat in the landing or so to it that a large boat would swing in on it. The Morning Star was then on regular business at her (Page 3:) usual time, and she was handled with skill and care by her pilot on watch and the Captain on the roof making every effort to avoid any injury to the Steamer or other craft. The Steamer swinging in close enough to touch the little flat was due to the current and the light wind on shore which defendant could not control or prevent. These facts can be proven by my testimony supported by the 2 pilots and some others of the crew. The slight injury could have been easily repaired for (Page 4:) 2 or 3 dollars without any loss of time or business. The Plaintiff made no effort to repair or care for his boat - he tried to throw on to us and I absolutely refuse to pay anything in settlement. We will defend to the last. Kindly attend and let me know what is necessary. The Etruria case clearly covers this one. We have had a hard season and end it a loser but we can not stand bleeding. Very Truly yours W A Blair

OCTOBER 31, 1888 WAYBILL FOR TOWING FILLED OUT AT PARKERSBURG, W.V. BELIEVE IT'S THE FIRST 'BILL I'VE OBTAINED FOR A TOWBOAT THUS FAR.

"Hire of Lighter" under sundries probably means they rented a barge for some purpose. Lighter was an archaic word for a flat bottomed barge. I guess this dates from 1870 if that is a zero behind December 187_ this just arrived today . . .

From teenzy vintage booklet about St. Louis/Tennessee River Packet Co. For that rainy day with nothing better to do. Dave

Steamer Moses McLellan - Running LaCrosse/St. Paul at the tail end of the Civil War it may have had it's picture taken although fewer of this early ones were documented that way.

Uncle Charley Elmore was apparently an early "Riverlorian" . . . doesn't say what instruments he played but he also served as narrator to passengers about the "passing scene" viewed from the Mayflower. Charley dreamed up the guide and distributed it, imagine the packet co. foot the bill for printing.

Waybill from the LENI LEOTI, dated a few months before she sank on the Arkansas River. For some reason this waybill was the subject of a brisk bidding war, somehow I ended up with it, probably because I was the only bidder willing to pay an absurdly high price for it. Maybe it's the musical sounding name that attracted the attention, or the boat's association with the discovery of the aftermath of a brutal massacre by Indians near Fort Peck, Montana on the Missouri River in May 1868. (see Fred Way's notes below) WAY 3413 LENI LEOTI Stw p wh b. Freedom, Pa. (hull) and completed at Pitts burgh, 1863. 174 tons. She was bought by Capts. A.S. Shepard and W.A. Moore in latter January 1864, and they loaded her out at Pittsburgh for Louisville. Made trips to Nashville. In 1865 Capt. William Reno, master, with C . H. Bentel, clerk. Ran Wheeling-Parkersburg 1866, and Pittsburgh-Parkersburg in 1867. Departed St. Louis for the upper Missouri in mid-May 1868. In mid-August a letter filtered back to Pittsburgh which read: "Landing at a wood yard 45 miles above Fort Peck, I discovered the dead bodies of the proprietors, seven in number, supposed to have been killed by the Assiniboine Indians in retaliation for the murder of two of their tribe two months ago by wood-choppers in that same vicinity. The bodies of the whites killed were horribly mutilated and in a state of decomposition. I buried them as well as possible under the circumstances. Three of the bodies were outside the cabin, four within. The entire party came up with me this spring on the PENINAH from St. Louis and stopped at that point where they met their sad fate. Nothing was found but a few letters scattered around in the cabin, which I have delivered to W.I. Cullen, Supt. of Indian Affairs." (signed) Capt. Haney. Capt. John D. Adams bought the boat at Little Rock, Ark. , on Jan. 18, 1869. She had been making trips to New Orleans from there. She was lost by snagging on the Arkansas at McNeal's Landing, downbound for New Orleans with 200 tons of government freight, May 10, 1869, owned by the Memphis & Arkansas River Packet Co. 22 years later there was a second boat built by that name: 3414 LENI LEOTI Stw p wh b. Brownsville, Pa. , at Axton yard, 1891. Dismantled Catlettsburg, Ky. 1907, and her engines went in the towboat ENQUIRER.

A while back got this excursion ticket or broadside for the Maggie Reaney which operated up around La Crosse for a while as I understand it. The Murphy kindly provided the photo which isn't in great shape but neither is the ticket either and at least you can read the name board across the front railing of the hurricane roof. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs

A waybill from the SUNSHINE dated Sept 24, 1900. The SUNSHINE operated from 1892 to 1904. Photo Courtesy of Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Steamboat Collection Photographs Return to the Dave Thomson Museum Wing Index