Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-03-05
A WESTERN PIONEER
Career OF the Oldest Living Settler
in the Northwest.
Pleasant Interview with Captain
ID. Smith Harris, the Man Who
Built the First Steamboat ON the
Upper Mississippi.

Captain D. b. Smith Harris, of this city,
says Galena Qlis.) correspondent Of the
Chicago Herald, is probably the oldest
surviving settler in the Northwest, having
been a resident of the Galena lead mines
for a period of sixty -four years continu-
ously. He is also the pioneer steamboat
captain of the Upper Mississippi, and was
the first per son to navigate the Wisconsin
river, Lake st. Croix and the Minnesota
river with a steamboat Captain Harris
life has been an eventful one, inasmuch as
he has seen the great Northwest grow up
from its primeval state, almost its only in
habitant the red man, into state of civiliZ-
alton wonderful to contemplate, when
the comparatively short period of time in
which it has been accomplished is taken
into consideration. The correspondent
had pleasant interview with the old cap
tain at his beautiful house in this city,
and CLEANED from him many inter-
esting facts relating to the pioneer days
on the Upper Mississippi. He was born in
COPYRIGHT, Delaw are County, n. Y, July
"a, 1903, and is therefore close to his
eightieth year, notwithstanding which his
step is as firm, his body as erect, his
strength as great, and his intellect as
clear and unimpaired as it was at thirty.
He left Cincinnati, where the family dwelt
at the time, in company with his father,
the late James Harris, April 20, 1923, on
board the keeiboat Colonel Burnford, load
ed with about eighty tons of stores, min.
ing utensils, etc, for the lead mines of La
Fevre, now Galena, and after most
hazardous and laborious passage, the en-
tire distance being made in the Burnford,
they touched at this port on the Goth of
June of the same year. The keel-boat of
pioneer times was built like the barge of
the present day, with a deck and gang.
way on each side, fore and aft. The
steering apparatus consisted of a long
blade-like oar at the stern, similar to raft
rudders now used on the rivers. There
were various modes of propeling them,
the most common being rowing, policing.
cordeling, bushwhacking, towing and sail
ing. "Cordeling," resorted to in the deep,
swift currents, consisted of the towing of
rope or line in small skiff to tree, to
the body of which it was attached, those
on board carrying the keel-boat end over
their shoulders from forward to aft, the
first man letting go his hold on reaching
the stern and dropping in iehind, each
II.
in this way, it may well be imagined. was
both laborious and slow. ''Bushwhack.
ing" was resorted to whenever running
close to banks lined with willows, the lat
ter being grasped and the boat pulled for
ward in much the same manner as cordeI-
ing.
In describing his trip up the Mississippi
a. ter leaving the mouth of the Ohio, Cap
tai n Harris stated that at the place where
Cal 70 now stands there was but one build
ing, q sort of store-house for the benefit of
keel. boat navigators. At Alton and Clarks-
Vile we're small settlements, and at Han
n lbal here was but one log cabin and a
small blacksmith shop kept by John S.
Miller, 'ho emigrated to Galena the same
year (1S2. y, and left the place without
settler at what is now Quincy there was
but one log cabin, built and occupied by
Woods, who afterward became Lieuten-
ant-Governor' and Acting Governor of the
State of Hin OILS. This intrepid pioneer
was "batching it," alone by himself, and
was engaged in clearing up a small place
for farming purposes. AT Warsaw, orig
inallv Fort Edwards, there was not a
single family of SETTLERS, and the same is
true of what is now Rock Island, then Fort
At both these places the Gov
eminent had garris IONS of soldiers, who
the Harris vOvagers Hospital
bly, on their way up the river. The lat
ter, in return for the cordial welcome ex-
tended them present ed the officers with
quantity of choice Old whisky, and, as the
the Captain states, ''ali hands got very
mellow" before hey parted. The last
farm house between st. Louis and Galena
was at Cotton Wood Prairie, the present
site of Canton. 1t was occupied by one
CAPTAIN White, whn was prominently
identified with the rly history of that
portion of the Northwe st. The settlement
of Galena when the HAIRLESS reache d
here in June, 1923, cons listed of about a
dozen log cabins and one smelling
furnace.
To Captain Harris an his brother, r
Scribe Harris, belongs the credit, no doubt,
of building the first steam boat on the Mis-
sissippi north of the Ohio. This vessel
was the $50 Daviess," which was built
at Galena in the winter ,G 1S33-4, and
was run many years by the owners in the
upper river trade. Captain! Harris is of
the opinion that the second vessel built
on the river was the steamboat Soak"
which was launched at st. Louis the same
wear as the $40 Daviess," though some
what later in the sea son. The
first steamboat to ascend the Upper
Mississippi was the Virginia" from
Pitt sburgh. The vessel landed here in
the fore part of June, 1923, and after dis
charging large quantity of freight and
proceeded up the river to
Fort Smelling with load of supplies for
the Government garrison. Steam boat
increased gradually from that
time on, superseding the keel-boat system
of transportation, except in dead low
" alter, when the latter was resOrted TO.
Captain Harris, while commander Of
steamboat on the Upper Mississippi in
1884. became intimately acquainted with
] efferson Davis, who was frequently one
of his passengers, and who was stationed
at Prairie du CHEN under General Tay-
lor. He also knew Governor Cass, Of
Michigan, who visited Galena in 1927, on
his wav from Green Bay to ST. Louis in
bark canoe During the Black Hawk war
Captain Harris was a Lieutenant IN the
United States Army, and commanded
company at the battle of Wisconsin