The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911, 1909-04-28
OLD DAYS ON THE MISSOURI RIVER.

ULu uAIS IN III
Captain w. r. Massie, veteran pilot,
whose knowledge Of the turbulent and
turbid Missouri and its history. is prob.
ably not equaled by that of any other
living man, is alternating at St.
Louis residence hotel and waiting for
gentle spring to clear the ice from the
channel of this favorite stream, that
he may turn . wheel above its tawny
waters once more.
ITO make a pilot a man ought to be
born right, to begin with" said the
captain, in answer to . question.
"Now, I was born on the Missouri
river, in the edge of Franklin county.
Ny father came to Missouri Territory
before 1900. He had been q lieuten.
ant under Daniel Boone, and had
fought alongside of Boone, Simon
Kenton and Gerety.. Ny uncle was
the first white man to plant any ground
in Missouri. He was killed by the
Indians just across the river from our
place, on Massie's creek, in Warren
county. Dangerous days, those we're.
After a rain, when the ground was
soft, the settlers'd 60 out, lookin' for
moccasin tracks. IF there was an In.
dian about, they'd muster and 60 after
'em; maybe they would kill some, and
maybe the Indians would get some Of
them. My folks settled right on the
river bank; they saw Lewis and CLARK
60 by.
"The first steamboat went up the
river in 1919. As there came to be
more boats, my father established a
woodward and had wood boats that he
could run alongside the steamboats,;
when I was a small boy 1 got used to
handling them, so later plotting came
natural to me. Why, l can remember
boats that used to run there when /
wasn't q bit higher than this table.
Il got into the pilot-house in course
O. time, and I've been on all the rivers
of the West-the Mississippi, the Mis-
souri,, the Tennessee, the Red, the
Atchafalaya, the Ouachita. I landed
the first passenger from a steamboat
where Omaha now stands. When the
Mormons left Nauvoo took 'em to
Council Bluffs on their way to Salt
Lake. I knew 'em all-Brigham
Young, Orson Pratt, Heber Kimball.
And their wives; I've danced with 'em
many a time on the grass. A pilot
was somebody in those days; it wasn't
like it is now.
"I've seen the river before they
improved it and afterward, and I say:
Give me the river the way nature
made it before them cadets from Bos.
ton that don't want to look at anybody
else come here and begun foolin' with
it, I'll tell you what the trouble with
the Mississippi river is-it's the Mis-
souri,. That's the one that kicks up
thunder. Go up the Mississippi above
the mouth of the Missouri-what do
you find? Hard bottom; river stays
in one place; no sand to speak Of.
The first steamboats, went to Fort
Benton in 1858. There was two of
them, the Morton and the Chippewa,
and the captains and pilots were John
La Barge and Bob Wright on the
Morton and Bill Humphreys and
Henry Dix on the Chippewa They
went up the river together and landed
at the same time. The Chippewa
afterward burned in the Benton ser.
vice, $50 miles above the mouth of the
Yellowstone. She had 400 kegs of
powder on board and a lot of
passengers; one of 'em was Glen Sea-
man, with a very fine gun, and there
were one or two from New York, two
from Calcutta, India, and twoor three
ladies, out for a sight of wild life.
When the fire reached that powder it
the boat all over the place.
Glenn Seaman's gun went up into the
air and came down muzzle end down,
away out on the prairie. An Indian
found it there and took it to Fort
and Mr.. Seaman got it again
two years after he'd lost it. There's
mighty few snags, when you get above
Yankton. The ice freezes fast around
EN- up there, and then the river raises
before the ice melts, and that pulls
EN- out and carries 'em off down
stream; you won't find one in fifty
miles. I went to Fort Benton first in |