The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1915-08-06
Captain Marsh
On Long Trip
Famous River Pilot is Selected
to Guide Boats to st. Paul,
Minnesota

In charge of Captain Grant
Marsh, chest known Of all the
surviving steamboat men Of the
old days on the Missouri, the
river boats Montana and Dakota
passed here last week on their
long trip fromW illiston to st.
Paul where they are to be used
in the river excursion business.
The boats which have been sta
toned at Williston for the
past three years were built by The
Guthrie Construction company
for use in hauling material for
the railroad in Mckenzie county.
For their LOO mile trip down
the Missouri the two boats were
lashed side by side and ahead OF
them they pushed two barges
which may be taken to the desti-
nation or may be sold on the
way. With Captain Marsh was
Captain j. M. Belk, Of Bismarck,
another prominent figure in the
old time river traffic. On board
also were Harry Peyton of Will
iston who will make the trip as
far as St. Louis, Curator Fish
of the State Historical society
and j. H. Reilly, superintendent
for the Guthrie Construction Com
pany'
Captain Marsh has become a
national figure as the result OF
the publication of the book "The
Conquest of the Missouri" a
history of river navigation by
Joseph Mills Hanson. The book
is really biography Of Captain
Marsh although it gives a very
clear and accurate account Of the
old river traffic ON the Missis-
sippi and Missouri rivers.
Eghty-one years old now,
Captain Marsh began his active
career 20 years ago when, left
homeless, he began work as a
cabin boy ON an old Ohio river
steamboat at Pittsburg. Grad
ually he worked his way west
ward and climbed in position un-
til few years later he was master
of a boat sailing from St. Louis
to New Orleans. Captain Marsh
we'll remembers the old days Of
river navigation on the Missis-
sippi so we'll described by Mark
Twain in some of his best books,
With the gold rush to Cali
fornia and the opening of other
sections Of the West came the
growing Importance Of the Mis-
sou1i river traffic, then the only
method by which this section Of
the continent could be reached.
Because of his skill, his fine
judgment and his good record
Captain Marsh was selected for
some Of the hardest, and at the
same time most profitable trips,
to the great Northwest. His
earlier trips took, him only as
far as Yankton, then he came
to Fort Abraham Lincoln, near
where Bismarck now stands and
later he brought his boats as far
as Fort Stevenson, up as far as
Fort Benton on the Missouri and
far nm the Yellowstone which
Captain Marsh was the first to
prove navigable.
On some of hia trips up the
river Captain Marsh often re-
ceived as much as $500 a monta
and the profits for the owners
Of the vessel often totaled as
high as $4,000 and $780, 900 for a
single trip. CAPTAIN Marsh was
the first river boat master to
make two complete trips from St
Louis to Fort Benton and return
in a single season.
Captain Marsh was in charge
Of the. steamer Far West which
carried provisions to the ekpedi-
tion against Sitting Bull and his
Sioux warriors on the upper
Yellowstone in 1876. This was
the expedition Of which Custer
famous cavalry troop formed a
pert. Captain Marsh, Captain
/. Blaker Of the q. s. army and two
other white men who were on the
Far West lying in q tributary Of
the Yellowstone some distance
from the battlefield, were the
assacre. Cnrley, the Crow In
First, to receive the news Of the
dian scout who had been with
Custer and escaped, came to the
boat with the first news Of Che
fate which had oyertaken Custer
and his gallant men.
Later Captain Marsh and the
Ear West were dispatched down
the river carrying the wounded