Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-12-26
STEAMBOATING DAYS ON THE DES MONIES
RIVER is TOLD ABOUT BY SETH GRAHAM
Some early history of steamboating

/ Some early history of steamboating
on the Des Moines river, written by
Seth Graham, of Des Moines, will prove
/ of interest to many of the older set
+, tiers of this vicinity. Mr.. Graham re.
], lates an incident of boat sinking near
Ottumwa in his article. which follows:
! In the fall of 1850 went to work
for N. l.. Milburn on bridge across
Cedar river on proposed plank road
from Muscatine (then called Blooming
! tom to Oskaloosa, bridge of NIL.
burns invention. He called it wood
en- suspension bridge. The span across
the river was 557 feet and the floor in
the center was sixty feet above low
water, to allow steamboats, to run un.
der. In March, 1851, he took all OF his
men but five of US to work on draw.
bridge. across the Des Moines river at
lKeosauqua, leaving us to finish the
Cedar river bridge, which we had SO
nearly completed that old Joe Bennett.
had ridden out from Bloomington and
ridden his horse across the bridge.
Stopping at the center he sat his
horse and made us quite a fine speech,
shook hands all around and went home
happy. But I think 1t was the very
next day, the 4th Of April, 1851, we had
regular hurricane that struck the
bridge broadside and blew the whole
span down. The bridge was never
completed and the plank road was
never built.
Then we went to Iowaville, getting
out our hewed timber on Tick ridge
and our sawed timber and lumber at
1owaville and rafting 1t all down to
Keosauqua. During the fall we put in
one abutment and the first pier and
one span to connect them. At the
second pier the rock was covered with
about two feet of quick sand and for
week we made little or no progress.
The next pier would be for the draw
and there was also sand there, and
Ed Manning, president of the bridge
company, told Milburn that the CON-
pany would not advance any more
money until the timbers for the pier
were bolted to the rock. Milburn told
him that their contract provided that
they we're to furnish the money each
month to pay for the material and
labor and II they did not he would
quit They had stormy meeting Of
the board of directors, and decided to
stop payment and let him quit and they
would go on and use the material and
complete the bridge, but when he
showed them that he had patent on
the truss he was using and II they
used 1t or his material, he would make
| 1t very expensive for them. they finally
concluded to abandon the bridge and
the material went to waste.
In 1852, Milburn organized the Des
Nj rA 10 Of
Iowaville and got A. e. Dudoe Bosquet
LOT Pella interested. He figured on hav.
ing steamboat connection between the
then new colony and Keokuk, and es-
tablished the town OF Amsterdam as
their port of entry. They built two
barges and the steamer N L. Milburn,
and in the spring of 1853, the two
barges were loaded with coal and sent
down to Keokuk. They and the boat
!, were loaded there for up the river as
far as Red Rock, there being no
freight to bring down, we were just in
condition to take the freight OF the
Badger State, which had sunk just
around the bend below Ottumwa.
We found her tied up at the bank
with most of her freight out on the
shore, which We paroceeded to pick
up, most Of it for two passengers who
were on the boat and went up with US
to Fort Des Moines. They were Col.
J. M. Griffith, who was then in the dry
goods business and is living here yet,
and Jesse Dicks, who was in the hard
ware trade and died here some wears
ago. They both had large stocks of
goods on board; we also took Captain
Eaton, an insurance adjuster, who had
been sent up from st. Louis to adjust
I the damage. The Badger State pulled