Mr. Isherwood speaks of the boat doing a big business, both in freight and passenger traffic, and that on the whole he did a paying business for the short time it was in service. On this first trip, was enrolled as a member of the crew, George Horridge, a young tinner, who had recently come from the east, and who is now well and favorably known as a banker and capitalist at Vinton. Marion Evans, now mayor of said town, tells me of running a mile and a half to the river to see this first steamer, and when he saw the smoke from the smoke-stack he hid behind the hazelbrush thinking of the eruption of Vesuvius. The paper of October 21st speaks of a picnic party having chartered the boat and gone up the river, and among the names of those well and favorably known to most of you, at least by name, I shall mention a few: George Greene, Dr. S. D. Carpenter, Dr. Lyon, J. F. Ely, J. S. Cook, Rev. Durley and ladies. During the winter the "Export" was sold to J. J. Snouffer and W. D. Watrous. It was remodeled, called the "Blackhawk," and on March 16th made its first trip to Waterloo, with J. J. Snouffer as captain and George A. Ohler as chief carpenter. Arriving at Vinton, they were unable to get under the bridge, and threatened to destroy it. A council of war was held and it was finally decided to elevate one span of the bridge about four feet, and Ohler superintended the work. Mr. Snouffer tells me that the biggest business the steamer did was on June 15th, when he carried 107 passengers at $5.00 a head for round trip for the Cedar Rapids celebration, including board and lodging. He made in all, twenty-nine trips, and during this season, free of all expenses, netted the owners $2,000. The "Blackhawk" as remodeled, was 110 feet long by 19 feet wide, and had two rows of berths on each side, and accommodated 24 passengers, besides a crew of seven people. It took four cords of wood per trip. The table of distances by river compiled by the pilot on the "Blackhawk" is as follows: Palo, 14-1/2 miles; Benton City, 42 miles; Vinton, 50 miles; La Porte, 82 miles, and Waterloo, 113 miles. It was sold to Burley & Durlin, and the owners accepted one-half of the purchase price in land. The cash was never paid, and attachment was gotten out for labor claims and the boat was sold for $19.00. It was sold to a preacher, at Western, who threw up the deal, and again the boat was sold to N. B. Brown and John Curliss, the entire purchase price being paid in woolen goods. On account of dry season, the boat was sent south and was sold by the owners to the government for $6,000 during the war, and was used for carrying provisions for the soldiers on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. At one time some of the Linn county soldier boys saw the little steamer make its way up one of the rivers, and a yell went up for the old "Blackhawk." The sight of the steamer brought them nearer home.
On one of the trips Mr. Snouffer made that summer, the wife of the fireman, who was acting as maid, was taken ill and the captain sent two doctors who were passengers to examine her. After a hurried examination both came up very much excited, stating that the patient was suffering from spotted fever and for him to stop the boat that they wanted to get off at all hazards. Mr. Snouffer thought perhaps of damages and financial loss so he was in no hurry to comply, but took the husband and went into the small cabin up next to the smoke-stack to investigate for himself. There was the woman in great stress of mind and much worried. He took hold of her hand and tried to rub the spots out and sure enough it was found that during the night the coloring in the cotton goods had colored her arms and the headache was no doubt due to the stuffy room and extremely warm quarters. It is needless to say that for the rest of the trip the doctors were made the butt of ridicule by the passengers.
The "Surprise" freighted between this city and Vinton in '63 and the next steamer was known as the "Nettie Munn," being a stern wheeler 70 feet long and 12 feet wide, and was brought here from Wisconsin by Mr. Passmore in 1866, and was blown up at Kelsey's landing the following year. Another steamer was built by E. Robins and used as a ferry boat, and in the wool and lime trade, but was never fully equipped, and was sunk many years ago. The "Carrie Wallace" was built by W. G. Brock in about 1870; was 16×40, a stern wheeler without state rooms, and was used mostly to tow barges, excursion steamers, etc., and was blown up about 1879-80. The "Kitty Clyde" was run awhile and abandoned. John Kozlovsky built the "Rose" in the early days, and after a steamboat venture on the river, was minus several thousand dollars, but had gained a heap of experience in the meantime. The boiler of the "Rose" was shipped to Solon to be placed in the grist mill, and the engine was sent to Spirit Lake, while Captain Elias Doty bought the hull for a mere song in 1884. In this "Rose" hull, Capt. Doty installed the boilers of an abandoned steamer, the "Carrie Wallace," and into it he also installed the engine of an old freighter, called "General Weaver." This combination, Doty called the "Climax." A stock company was organized with the amount of $1,000 and is the only stock known on record which never at any time went below par. Doty put in $600, and his Cedar Rapids friends the balance. He says that he was not out any interest as he had the money in the bank when he started. He was out only his time, but he didn't count that much, as he had all the time there was, and a whole lot of fun in the bargain. It is true, he lost the principal, but then the captain consoles himself with the fact that he might have lost that anyway. The "Climax" was not the only boat the "Governor" ran, for a number of years he had a side wheeler called the "Khedive" and another boat named after his patron saint of greenback days and called the "General Weaver." After his exploits upon the river the captain, like the snail, carried his house with him, and for a number of years, one of the hulls of one of his stranded boats is said to have served him as a photograph gallery.
There had been more or less trouble growing out of the fact that this river and the Iowa, which seems to have been known as one stream, were navigable, as the people preferred bridges and dams to open river fronts. In an Act of Congress passed May 6, 1870, the following appears: "That so much of the same river as lies north of the town of Wapello be and the same is hereby declared not a navigable stream." Another act was passed on the 18th day of August, 1894, to the effect that "so much of the same river as lies between the town of Toolsborough and Wapello in Louisa county, Iowa, shall not be deemed a navigable stream, but dams and bridges may be constructed across it." Thus it would seem that the Iowa and Red Cedar rivers for nearly the entire distance in Iowa are not navigable so far as Congress has the right and power to enact such laws, which of course merely refer to whether or not such streams may be used for other purposes than navigation.
After all, the story of steamboating is a history of a struggle, which began under auspicious circumstances, and ended in financial failure, but for all that, it made a new Cedar Rapids, and we perhaps today, are profiting by the failures of half a century ago, for it shows what energy and public spirit its first citizens had, which left an impression upon the community and upon the state. We must bear in mind, that Cedar Rapids had only 2,000 people and the county less than 18,000, when these enterprising men of energy, perseverance and thrift put $20,000 into a hazardous undertaking, and even presented passengers and crew with corner lots on arrival.
Well might the first passenger have said, when he stepped off the steamboat landing, at Third avenue, much like Moore said of Washington a hundred years ago,
"An embryo capital where fancy sees,
Squares in morasses and obelisks in trees,"
but the observing traveler, amid these crude surroundings, must have been alive to new impressions, for Cedar Rapids was a thrifty place, even then, where the new man was a pilot on a boat today, and a banker tomorrow, and although the waters of the Cedar henceforth ran quietly by, unhindered by paddle or screw, railroad building claimed the attention of its people, and they became equally at home on land, as they had been on water. Just the other day I asked one of your old settlers why they could keep up several newspapers in that day, really before they had a postoffice. The venerable ex-postmaster replied with fire in his eye, "Why, heavens sakes my man, it took three newspapers to keep up the town."
I have attempted to give you an idea of steamboating on the Red Cedar. I have omitted much, and can only say in the words of the old miller, that he sees not all the water that goes by his mill. Neither have I mentioned all the steamboat ventures on the beautiful Cedar.
In this connection it is of interest to note a report made by B. L. Wick to Lew W. Anderson, chairman of the River Front Improvement Commission of Cedar Rapids, under date of May 8, 1909, which report was later submitted to the authorities at Washington, and an appropriation made for a survey of the Cedar. The survey was made in 1909, and report submitted that it was not feasible without a large expenditure of money to make the river navigable except for a short distance from its mouth.