The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-10-04

deposited the whole of it 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 of
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 1868, 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 a 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 he opened a COM
mission and forwarding house at Cairo,
together with a coal yard, bank, five
wharf boats, half a dozen tugs, an in
surance Office, a flour mill and other
things. He sent for his brothers to act
as his clerks and presently to become
his partners
From the beginning he made money
rapidly, and from the beginning he
was eagerly on the lookout for oppor-
tunities which in that time of rapid
change were abundant. He quickly
secured control Of nearly all the CON-
mission and forwarding business that
centered at Cairo. By undertaking
the government itself he presently had
contracts for all the vast government
business of that character
He was always ready to take I'D a
collateral enterprise that promised re-
suits. When the Mississippi river was
reopened to commerce by the fall Of
Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Captain
Will HallAm was the first to see and
seize the opportunity. He bought ev-
erything he could lay his hands on in
the way Of steamboats, and barges and
sent them all upon trading voyages
each under charge Of a captain, but
each directed by his own masterful
mind-up and down the Mississippi,
and up and down the Ohio, and up and
down every navigable tributary of
those great rivers.
It was Captain Will Hallam's prac-
tice to make partners of all men who
might render him service. Thus when
he saw how great business there
must be at Cairo in supplying Pitts
burg steam coal to the government
fleets Oh the Mississippi and to the
thousands Of other steamboats, traf-
ticking in those waters he went at
once to Pittsburg, and two days later
he had made certain Captain Red his
partner in the control of that vastly
rich trade.
Captain Red was the largest owner
Of the Pittsburg mines and the pioneer
in the business of carrying coal laden
barges in acres and scores of acres
down the river, pulling them with
stern wheel steamers of large power,
but still of a power insufficient for the
accomplishment Of the best results.
Captain Reds fleet was unable to
control the trade. Captain Hallam
pointed out to him the desirability Of
making it adequate and dominant.
Within two days the two had formed a
partnership which included number
Of New York bankers and investors as
unknown and silent stockholders in
the enterprise, and an abundant capt.
tai was provided. An order was given
for the hurried building of the Ajax,
the Hector, the Agamemnon, the Her.
cules and half a dozen other stern
wheel steamers of power so great that
they could carry the coal needed for
their own furnaces, but must tow it in
barges alongside.
These powerful steamers were to
push vast fleets of coal laden barges
down the river all the way from Pitts
burg on the east to St. Louis on the
west and New Orleans on the south.
They were to supply, through Hallam's
agents, every town along the river and
every steamboat that trafhcked to any