Prior to this time the products of the great West had been transported by means of rafts and flat boats, both slow and dangerous. Now river trade could be carried on up as well as down the river, and in what was then considered very quick time.
During the year 1819, Capt. Nelson was the first to propel a steamer, "The Independence," up the Mississippi river from St. Louis. It was not till 1825, according to an old pioneer, Dr. Isaac Galland, that Capt. James White, commanding the steamer "Mandan," passed the rapids at Keokuk.
In 1831, Col. George Davenport, the founder of the town which bears his name, explored the Red Cedar as far as Rock creek, and at this place established a trading post with the Indians, which continued for four years. This is the first navigation of this river by the whites on record. The first steamboat on the Des Moines river, of which we have any knowledge, was in 1837, which arrived as far as Keosauqua. The first keel boat was owned by Capt. Cash, and came up in the following year.
It seems that the settlers of the territory early began to encourage steamboat traffic with the world. On the 12th of January, 1839, the legislature of Iowa Territory empowered a company to incorporate in the amount of $200,000, in order to build a slack water canal from the Cedar river to the Mississippi by way of Rock creek. An act was also passed for the inspection of steamboats, boilers, etc., at this session. Congress on November 6, 1846, for the purposes of improving the river traffic, granted certain lands to the Territory of Iowa, to aid in the improving of the Des Moines river for the purpose of navigation. Even the other day a large appropriation was granted for the erection of locks and a canal at the Keokuk rapids on the Mississippi.
The Red Cedar river is about 248 miles long and is comparatively free from any rapids as far as this city, and hence, was early looked upon as one of the most favored rivers for steamboat navigation. The Iowa, into which the Cedar empties, is about 240 miles in length, and not so favorable for navigation.
It is well known that Linn county was created by an act of the legislature of Wisconsin territory, and approved December 21, 1837; and the spot which our city now covers, was settled the following spring, by Osgood Shepherd and William Stone, soon followed by Robert Ellis, Philip Hull, the Listebargers, Thos. Gainer and David King.
One cannot speak of steamboating without mentioning Robert Ellis, our respected pioneer who landed on the present confines of our city May 8, 1838, and found only one shanty inhabited, which was on the present location of the T. M. Sinclair packing house, and was owned by Philip Hull; the other hut was built near the Cooper mills and was then vacant as the owner, Osgood Shepherd, had gone east for his family. Mr. Ellis located on his present farm that summer and obtained a patent for it from President Polk, and he is no doubt one of the very few in this county who hold title direct from the government of this date. Mr. Ellis in the winter of 1846, had three flat boats built at Palo, each boat being sixty feet long, sixteen feet wide and drawing three feet of water when loaded. On these boats he loaded four thousand bushels of wheat which he consigned to Noble and McCutchins, of Burlington, millers of that place. On each boat he had three men and these were provided with side oars to be used when they got into bends of the river. They started with their cargo the latter part of March and arrived after some trouble at Burlington; when arriving at Burlington the firm were in financial trouble and it looked as though the men could not get their pay, but it was finally arranged if Mr. Ellis could take flour to New Orleans, they could then realize some money and he would be paid. They remained here for some little time, and started out the three flat boats again, loaded down with flour. They were a long time in getting down the stream but kept on paddling when they got fast in the stumps and otherwise floated down the river. By the latter part of June they arrived at New Orleans in safety and disposed of the flour, but again were unable to realize on the flour as it had been consigned to certain brokers and the payments were tied up. They took in the slave markets and otherwise looked around the great city which was now the great emporium of the west and the southwest, and then took steamer for Burlington. Arriving at Burlington Mr. Ellis stood no show of getting his money, but trusted to luck and bought a horse, riding horseback from Burlington to Cedar Rapids. Not till that fall did he realize anything on this wheat deal, and finally was paid after much trouble by the parties, who were not dishonest, but whose property interests had been tied up so they were unable to realize on their goods sufficiently to pay creditors.