The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1892-04-30
DISASTER RECALLED.
The Bursting of a Steamboats,
Boilers Brought to Mind.
SCORES OF PASSENGERS KILLED.
Story oil an Eye Witness Recent
Marriage Of One Of the Owners
OF the B0at-A Sad ReminiS-
cence-rhe Dead Captain.

The marriage at Kansas City, ut So'Clock
Monday evening, of Philip IL. Lanham, OF
st. Louis, and Mrs. Elizabeth L. Lock-
ridge, of Sturgeon, Mo-, serves to recall
the bursting of the boilers of The steam
boat, Saluda, at a point nearly opposite
the water works pump house, in 1852, Mr.
Llnham being an old river man, and n
half owner of the boat. The groom is a
motel man, and is the salesman for the
Hammett-A Anderson Wade Real Estate
iCompany, of st. Louis. lie il pictured as
standing on crutches, with the legend,
"WhoAl start err" under meath.
A lengthy interview with MIR. Lanham
was published in Tuesdays Kansas City
Star, where the disaster TO the Saluda was
referred to.
Recorder Meet, who was in Lexington
ri Jne time of the explosion, was seen by
an INTELLIaENcER reporter Wednesday,
and furnished the following account OF
the accident:
ain 1851" he said, 81 came to Lexington
| from st. Louis on this boat, and WAS about
ten days making the trip. The river was
different then-more water by a good deal.
You see, the whole northwest was prac-
ticalIy u~npeopled, aud the millions of
gallons of water that are now daily drawn
from the river to meet the demands of the
white settlers then flowed on toward the
Gulf OF Mexico.
ain the spring OF. 1852, in the latter part
of April or May, 1 cannot now exactly re-
member, the steamer Saluda, Captain Belt
and Clerk Thornton, arrived from st.
Louis and tied up here. The June rise
was just coming down, and the slow old
boat was hardly able to cope with the
lhSce g the current in those days. The
tast ii the Broadway landing for
se46fsf ans j 4ssfnfnHspf the.ex-
p!esf CAPTAIN ase }t6e hoslesa
steamed up. aud, Systh 1Re lsss<ark spa
AXE 'er around that bendsor III blow ser
to HI" started up stream. Hardly had
the big paddle wheels begun to churn the
water, and force the low-lying hull from
the shore, when the boilers exploded with
force. The boat was literally torn
10 piepess You never saw a more complete
* bniIdinga house on the
y tEtb VI vic WuOic
II en, and looking
u Idred feet high
a. ! and the debris
OF the ov~, Ill awful sight. l
Cannot now recall the number killed, but
there were a good many, and some mirac-
nlous escapes. The body OF the captain
was blown high up on the bluff. Mr..
Thornton, the clerk, knowing the unsafe
condition of the boilers, had vainly re-
nlonstrated with the captain for his rash
nr4s, and sought safety in the stern of the
boRt. He was rescued alive.
IA young man named George M
def, a printer, was saved; or, raLh
boy WHO was given the name of ~
by-his benefactor; and two young gI,ls
takenfrom the debris OF MISUNDERSTANDING
er were raised here. There was a sort of
man about these three in after years,
but / cannot now recall it."
In Mr.. Lanham's published interview
the statement is made that there were 700
Mormons aboard the boat, and that all
the passengers and crew were killed ex-
cept Peter Conrad, the bartender, who
now resides Ia 81. Louis. This statement
Judge Meet pronounced a mistakes as there
lived here in Lexington for many years a
man named Hall, whose wife still resides
in East Lexington, both having been res
cued from the demolished steamer.
A peculiar fatality seemed to have fol-
lowed Mr.. Lanham's steamboats,, for the
Planter, in which he owned a half inter
est, was blown up in 1S47 in the Illinois
ffvepand about fifty passengers were kill
ed. The Robert Campbell afterward burn
ed to the waters edge at st. Louis, but
the last steamboat he owned, the big
Alton, still exists and is now engaged in
the Orleans sugar trade. Captain Belt, a
well-known river man in those days, was
in charge OF nearly all of Mr.. Lanham's
steamboats,, and he was killed with the
rest OF those on board when the Saluda
was wrecked at Lexington. Lanham re-
tired from the boat business N for forty
seven years has been an ~auctioneer; and
he declares he has sold more real estate
than any other man living and he has
figures TO prove it.