Old times on the upper Mississippi : recollections of a steamboat pilot from 1854 to 1863 / George Byron Merrick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Merrick, George Byron.

Series:

Fesler-Lampert Minnesota heritage book series.

Fesler-Lampert Minnesota heritage book series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

River life--Mississippi River--History--19th century.

River life.

River boats--Mississippi River--History--19th century.

River boats.

Pilots and pilotage--Mississippi River--Biography.

Pilots and pilotage.

Steam-navigation--Mississippi River--History--19th century.

Steam-navigation.

Mississippi River Valley--Social life and customs--19th century.

Mississippi River Valley.

Mississippi River Valley--Description and travel.

Merrick, George Byron.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 p.)

Edition:

First University of Minnesota Press edition.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis, Minn. ; London : University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

George Byron Merrick chronicles the entire panorama of steamboat life he experienced in the mid-1800s, where he started as a cabin boy and worked up to cub pilot on the mighty Mississippi. Originally published in 1909, Merrick's narrative matches lively stories about gamblers, shipwrecks, and steamboat races with rich descriptions of river life and steamboat operations. George Byron Merrick (1841-1931) grew up in Prescott, Wisconsin, at the junction of the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers. After nine years of steamboating, he volunteered for the Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil War before settling into life as a newspaper editor and publisher.

Contents:

Prelude

Early impressions

Indians, dugouts, and wolves

On the levee at Prescott

In the engine-room

The engineer

The "mud" clerk

comparative honors

Wooding up

The mate

The "old man"

The pilots and their work

Knowing the river

The art of steering

An initiation

Early pilots

Incidents of river life

Mississippi menus

Bars and barkeepers

Gamblers and gambling

Steamboat racing

Music and art

Steamboat bonanzas

Wild-cat money and town-sites

A pioneer steamboatman

A versatile commander; wreck of the "Equator"

A stray nobleman

In war time

At Fort Ridgeley

Improving the river

Killing steamboats

Living it over again

Appendixes

A. List of steamboats on the upper Mississippi River, 1823-1863

B. Opening of navigation at St. Paul, 1844-1862

C. Table of distances from St. Louis

D. Improvement of the upper Mississippi, 1866-1876

E. Indian nomenclature and legends

Map of the Mississippi between St. Louis and St. Paul

Index.

Notes:

Originally published: Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1909.

Includes index.

ISBN:

0-8166-9364-1

OCLC:

476096346