“When General Lafayette visited the city in 1825 the populace turned out to greet him. He was a French nobleman and an American patriot—two distinctions that entitled him to the greatest courtesy. The children of the town had gathered to welcome his coming. When he was driven away hundreds paid homage by following the route of his carriage. To follow was not enough for Joe La Barge. He broke from the crowd and ran to the carriage in which Lafayette rode. Jumping upon the rear axle, he remained there a considerable time. The crowd was horrified, but Lafayette was too great a man to be thus wounded. Gently stroking the lad on the head, he asked his name. The boy responded: ‘La Barge.’ ‘Ah,’ said the General, ‘then we are both Frenchmen, and the only difference is in the ending of our names.’”
[7] The term engagé was applied to the common hands who did the ordinary work of the fur trade. The term bourgeois was used to designate the person in charge of a trading post.
[8] “Captain Pratt of the Assiniboine reports that he met the Yellowstone at the mouth of the Kansas River, having lost her best pilot from the cholera, and four or five men in the space of twenty-four hours. I fear that, in this situation, she will not be able to continue her voyage.”—Pierre Chouteau, Jr., to John Jacob Astor, July 12, 1833.
[9] See account of American and Rocky Mountain Fur Companies, in “American Fur Trade of the Far West.”
[10] This man had a long and honorable career in the West. As late as 1859–60 he was in the service of the government as interpreter on the expedition of Captain W. F. Reynolds, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.
[11] A curious illustration of the great changes which have taken place along the Missouri Valley occurred a few years ago. In 1896 a farmer was digging a well near the mouth of Grand River, Mo., several miles from the present channel of the Missouri. A Bible was found in the excavation, and on its cover was the name Naomi. The book was sent to Captain La Barge to see if he could suggest any explanation of its presence where it was found. The Captain recalled perfectly the fact that the steamer Naomi was wrecked at that precise spot fifty-six years before. In those days the missionaries always left Bibles on board the various boats, attached by chains to the tables or other parts of the cabin, and lettered with the names of the boats to which they belonged.
[12] The first Yellowstone, built in the winter of 1830–31, is a good example of the original river boat. It was 130 feet long, 19 feet beam, 6 feet hold: beautiful model; side wheels; single engine; flywheel; cabin aft of shaft; ladies’ cabin in stern hold; boiler decks open; no hurricane roof; pilot-house elevated; two smokestacks; one rudder; 6-foot wheel bucket; 18-foot wheel; stages aft; draft, light, 4½ feet; loaded to 75 tons, 5½ feet.
In the river boats the main or forecastle deck was the first above the water, and the one covering the hold; the boiler deck was the second one, just over the boilers, covered by the hurricane roof; the hurricane deck was the third deck. Upon this were situated the texas and the pilot-house.
[13] A noted steamboat that ran on the lower river during a portion of the fifties was the Felix X. Aubrey. Between the smokestacks was the figure of a man riding at full speed on horseback. The reference was to a horseback ride, very celebrated in its day, from Santa Fe to Westport, where Kansas City now stands. In the year 1853 Felix X. Aubrey made this ride in five days and thirteen hours. The distance was 775 miles.
[14] “Of all the variable things in creation the most uncertain are the action of a jury, the state of woman’s mind, and the condition of the Missouri River.”—Sioux City Register, March 28, 1868.