6694 Norcliff Dr., Sebastopol California 95472
In the current Nov. Dec. I.M.A. Mr. Earl Conklin seems to want
steamboat articles so I will enclose a picture of Sternwheeler
Marquette with two sand barges of the Moline Illinois Consumers Co.
It is now in a museum at Winona, Minn. The other picture is of the
famous sternwheeler, Verne Swain, taken at our landing, 3 miles
Illinois. It was taken by my Aunt Marion Williams with a 3 by 4
glass plate Kodak about 1905. Please note the size of the paddle
wheel. I don’t know of any other boat that had such a large
diameter wheel. She also had compound condensing engines and was
very fast and economical. Said to have made 20 M.P.H. The Swain Co.
built many fine boats. We still have the white cloth on a stick
that we would flag down the steam packet boats with at our landing,
and then get on and go down to Davenport, Iowa. We could return the
same day if we wished. I don’t think that I have a black &
white picture of Steamer Lone Star, which towed sand & gravel
for a Davenport Iowa Co. until the middle of this Summer but is now
replaced with Lady Lone Star, a Diesel.
I believe Capt. Way of Sewickley, Pa. has estimated that there
have been six or seven thousand steamboats built and operated on
Midwestern Rivers so I expect that stories about them would fill a
great many large volumes.
One would be the story of the wreck and burning of the Effie
Afton which struck the bridge between Dav. Iowa & Rock Island
111. I believe that Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer in the law suit
that followed. Her bell was dredged up 15 or 20 years ago, & I
wonder what became of it.
