Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-01-09
STEAMBOAT DAYS ON MISSOURI.
F1rst Boat to Ascend the River-An
Inflated Fur Trader.

FIRST Boat to Ascend the River-An
IH-Fated Fur Trader.
The first steamboat to ascend the
IissOuri River was the independence,
John Nelson, master, says Phil Chap
)ell in the Kansas City Star. He came
up as far as the mouth Of the Chart
ton, just above Glasgow, in May, 1919.
A town had been laid out at that place,
which twas then supposed by the boom
erS would become the metropolis Of
Missouri, and 1t is a historical fact
that lots there were exchanged, foot
for foot, for ground in st. Louis, on
4th street, where the Planters Hotel
now stands. But, like many another
Missouri River town, old Charlton has
long since disappeared from the map.
There was no Kansas City here then,
but only a steamboat landing, called
Westport landing. Old man Keiser,
captain of the st. Peter, was one of
the best-known steamboat commanders
on the river in the 40s. He came to
Missouri at an early day and located
at Rocheport, in Boone County, Mo.
He was a skillful mechanic and built
the first mill In Boone County
COnOthys mill. Recognizing his skill,
Pierre Chouteau, then at the head Of
the American Fur Company, induced
him to remove to st. Louis, and en-
ployed him to superintend the building
Of his boats, which were engaged in
the mountain trade. He afterward
went on the river as a captain, and
commanded several boats, among 9th
ers the Satan, Trapper and st. Peter.
To recur to the st. Peter. The ter
rible results that attended the last vOy
age of this Inflated boat is one of the
| saddeSt pages in the annals of steam
boating on the Missouri River. The st.
! Peter was a single engine, sidewheel
| boat with cabin in the hold, built on
the same lines as were all other Mis-
souri, River steamboats, of that early
period. She was built for the upper
river fur trade in 1886, and Keiser was
her commander.
She left st. Louis on this unfor-
tunate voyage in the spring Of 1887,
| bound for the mouth of the Yellow
stone. She was loaded with a cargo of
Indian goods for the different trading
posts. Her deck crew was composed
of negroes, and before she arrived at
| st. Joseph, then called the Black Snake
River, the smallpox broke out among
them, and one. who had died, was
| buried there.
The contagion Immediately extended
| to other members of the crew, and the
| danger Of communicating the disease
to the Indians, who were then numer-
Gus along the upper river, became ap-
| parent. Runners were sent forward
to give the alarm and warn them to
| keep back from the river banks, but
notwithstanding this precaution, the
terrible contagiOn spread and was COM
municated to every tribe east of the
Rocky Mountains.
The fatality, as the Indians knew no
way to treat the disease, was appalling,
and among some tribes amounted to
humiliation. In the case of the Man
| dams, a tribe then seated near where
Bismarck, II. D., is now located, a pop
ulation Of 100 was reduced to 81.
Among the Pawnees, who were then on
the Platte, the death rate was so great
that, according to the official report
made to the government, they were re-
duced within a year from 10000 to
4,5O0-more than half Of the tribe had
died.
| Colonel John Daugherty Of Liberty,
Mo-, at that time an Indian agent for
the Western tribes, wrote of the Paw
nees during this epidemic: Judging
from what 1 saw during the four days
L spent with these Indians, 1 am fully
persuaded that one-half of the whole
number Of this unfortunate tribe have
been or will be carried off by this cruel
and fr1ghtful distemper. They told
me that not one under 33 years of age
had escaped the monstrous disease it
having been that length Of time since it
visited them before. They were dying
so fast that they ceased to bury their
dead"
Utter dismay pervaded all the tribes
| and they fed from the pestiIence in
every direction, leaving the bodies Of
their dead to be devoured by the
wolves.
The Missing Note.
One Of the leading tenors in Moscow