History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Volume 1 (of 2) Life and Adventures of Joseph La Barge — Themes and Context

ANCESTRY OF CAPTAIN LA BARGE, 1

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, 13

ENTERS THE FUR TRADE, 22

CHOLERA ON THE “YELLOWSTONE,” 32

FURTHER SERVICE AT CABANNÉ’S, 40

LAST YEAR AT CABANNÉ’S, 49

CAPTAIN LA BARGE IN “OPPOSITION,” 59

THE MISSOURI RIVER, 73

KINDS OF BOATS USED ON THE MISSOURI, 90

STEAMBOAT NAVIGATION ON THE MISSOURI RIVER, 115

THE STEAMBOAT IN THE FUR TRADE, 133

CHANGED CONDITIONS, 167

INCIDENTS ON THE RIVER (1845–50), 177

INCIDENTS ON THE RIVER (1851–53), 189

ICE BREAK-UP OF 1856, 200

THE HEAD OF NAVIGATION REACHED, 216

ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON THE MISSOURI, 240

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

CAPTAIN JOSEPH LA BARGE, _Frontispiece_

_Facing page_ CAPTAIN JOSEPH LA BARGE (when young), 1

A NEW “CUT-OFF” IN THE RIVER, 77

MAP OF THE MISSOURI RIVER CHANNEL, 79

SNAGS IN THE MISSOURI RIVER, 80

THE INDIAN BULLBOAT, 97

MISSOURI RIVER KEELBOAT, 102

THE FIRST “YELLOWSTONE,” 137

ALEXANDER CULBERTSON, 228

FORT BENTON LEVEE, 238

In the summer of 1896 the author of this work, while engaged in collecting data for a history of the American Fur Trade of the Far West, met the venerable Missouri River pilot, Captain Joseph La Barge, at his home in St. Louis. In the course of several interviews he became deeply impressed with the range and accuracy of the old gentleman’s knowledge of early Western history, and asked him if he had ever taken any steps to preserve the record of his adventurous career. He replied that he had often been urged to do so, but that lack of familiarity with that kind of work had hitherto caused him to shrink from it, and he presumed he should die without ever undertaking it. Believing that his memoirs were well worth preserving, as a part of the history of the West, the author proposed to prepare them for publication if he would consent to dictate them. After some hesitation he concluded to try it, and the work was forthwith begun. Full notes were taken in the rough, and a clean copy was then submitted to Captain La Barge for revision. He went through the whole with painstaking care, and the record was left as complete as a memory of extraordinary power could make it. The intention was, at the time, to put the notes into shape for publication at once; but the Spanish-American war interfered with the author’s part of the work, and before it could be resumed Captain La Barge died.

This event led to a material change in the plan of the work, and it was decided to make it, not merely a narrative of personal experiences, but a history of steamboat navigation on the Missouri River. Very few people now have any conception of the part which this remarkable business played in the upbuilding of the West. There is no railroad system in the United States to-day whose importance to its tributary country is relatively greater than was that of the Missouri River to the trans-Mississippi territory in the first seventy-five years of the nineteenth century. The business of the fur trade, the intercourse of government agents with the Indians, the campaigns of the army throughout the valley, and the wild rush of gold-seekers to the mountains, all depended, in greater or less degree, upon the Missouri River as a line of transportation.

[Sidenote: AN IMPORTANT BUSINESS.]

It is not alone from a commercial point of view that the record of this business is an important one. From beginning to end it abounds in thrilling incident, and the life which it fostered was full of picturesque and even tragic details. The circumstances surrounding a voyage up or down the Missouri, whether by canoe, mackinaw, keelboat, or steamboat, were quite out of the line of ordinary experience. No other river in this country has a record to compare with it.

Captain La Barge’s life embraced the entire era of active boating business on the river. He saw it all--from the time when the Creole and Canadian voyageurs cordelled their keelboats up the refractory stream to the time when the railroad won its final victory over the steamboat. He was on the first boat that went to the far upper river, and he made the last through voyage from St. Louis to Fort Benton. He typified in his own career the meteoric rise and fall of that peculiar business. He grew up with it, prospered with it, and was ruined with and by it. He saw and shared the wonderful metamorphosis that came over the Missouri Valley in the space of fourscore years, and his reminiscences are a succession of living pictures taken all along the line.

[Sidenote: HISTORICAL METHOD ADOPTED.]