The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1906-06-01
CHAPTER VI.

Y sense, fairly though not liber-
~ ally educated whose life from
bovhOod onward had been devoted to
the task of taking quick advantage of
every opportunity that the great river
traffic of the fifties had offered to men
of enterprise and sound Judgment.
BEGINNING as a barefoot boy about
1850 or earlier-he never mentioned
the date-he had run the river in all
sorts of capacities until when the war
came. temporarily paralyZing the river
trade, be had comfortable little sum
of money to the good.
Unable TO foresee what the course
and outcome of the war might be, he
determined as measure OF prudence
to indulge himself and his little hoard
In a period of safe waiting. He con-
verified all his possessions into gold and
deposited the whole of 1t In a Cana
dian bank. where, while it earned no
interest. it was at any rate perfectly
safe.
Then he sought and secured a clerk
ship in the commissary department or
the army, living upon the scant salary
that the clerkship afforded and mean
while acquainting himself in minute
detail with the food resources of every
quarter of the country. the means and
methods OF transportation and han
ding and everything else that could IN
any wise aid him in making himself a
master in commerce.
Then one day in 1863, when he had
satisfied himself that the fortunes OF
war were definitely turning and that
in the end the Union cause was destin-
ed to triumph, he made change.
He resigned his clerkship. He re-
/ called his money from Canada and
considerably Increased at least its nom
inal amount by converting the gold in
to greatly deprecated greenbacks.
With this capital ne opened com
mission and forwarding house at Cairo
together with coal yard, bank, five
wharf boats. half a dozen tugs, an in
J surance Office, flour mill and othe
things. He sent for his brothers to &c
as his clerks and presently to become
his partners.
From the beginning he made none,
rapidly, and from the beginning n
was eagerly on the lookout for oppor
tunities which in that time of raph
change were abundant. He quick.
secured control of nearly all the com
mission and forwarding business tina
conferred at Cairo BY underbiddin
the government itself he presently ha
contracts for all the vast government
business Of that character.
He was always ready to take up
collateral enterprise that promised RI
, suits When the Mississippi river wa
, reopened to commerce by the fall c
, Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Capital
VIII Hallam was the first to see an
D seize the opportunity. He bought e'
erything he could lay his hands on
the way of steamboats, and barges an
sent them all upon trading voyages
each under charge Of a captain, bj
each directed by his own masterf'
i. mind-up and down the Mississippi
r and up and down the Ohio, and up al
down every navigable tributary
those great rivers.
1t was Captain VIII Hallam's pra
tice to make partners of all men WI
- might render him service. Thus wht
he saw how great a business the
l. must be at Cairo in supplying Pitt
i. burg steam coal to the gOvernme
% fleets on the Mississippi and to Il
thousands of other steamboats, ira
n ticking in those waters he went
once to Pittsburg, and two days lat
he had made a certain Captain Red /
partner In the control of that vast
lie rich trade.
II Captain Red was the largest own
- Of the Pittsburg mines and the phone
In the business of carrying coal lad
barges In acres and scores Of acr
down the river, pulling them WI
stern wheel steamers Of large pow
but still Of power insufficient for
=. accomplishment of the best results.
- Captain Reds fleet was unable
~ control the trade. Captain Halli
pointed out to him the desirability
making ii adequate and DONNA
Within two days the two had formed
partnership which included numi
-. of New York bankers and investors
o. unknown and silent stockholders
- the enterprise, and an abundant ca
tai was provided. An order was civ
- for the hurried building of the Al
the Hector, the AgamemnOn, the III
cules and half a dozen other ST
wheel steamers of power so great {
'' they could carry the coal needed
their own furnaces, but must tow II
barges alongside.
u, These powerful steamers were
. push vast fleets of coal laden bar
down the river all the way from ri
'rk burg on the east to St Louis on
I've west and New Orleans on the sol
nte They were to supply, through Halla
agents. every town along the river
:. every steamboat that trafiicked to
part Of It, Hallam was master o
all Cairo was TO be the central
ces tributing point. and If anybody al
To- the river owned a coal mine In X
Dne lucky or Indiana or elsewhere he
quickly made to understand that
. best means Of marketing his proc
ii 41..ar.a -.