Dear Sir:
I have been requested to state my views on the practicability and the importance of the navigability of the Cedar river, and will say that for the past ten years I have devoted more or less study to this subject from a historic standpoint, and will herewith give you my views. I believe that what you want more than anything else is whether or not the Cedar river has been navigated formerly, whether or not the rainfall is the same as it used to be, and whether or not there is at present a demand for the opening of this river as a water way for transportation purposes.
Historically speaking, traffic on the Cedar river was an epoch making period of this section of the country in the early pioneer days, and the prosperity of Cedar Rapids and other cities was due in a large measure to the river traffic which in those days made, at least, this city what it later became.
The first notice we have of a white man exploring what is known as the "Red Cedar River" was by Col. George Davenport as early as 1831 when he established a trading post, at Rock Creek. The first steamboating on the Des Moines river was about in 1837, and from this time on the Des Moines, the Iowa and Red Cedar became the inland water ways by which grain was exported and freight was brought up from the cities on the Mississippi river. As early as 1839 the legislature of Iowa territory empowered a company to incorporate in the amount of $200,000.00 to build a slack water canal from the Cedar river to the Mississippi river by way of what is known as "Rock Creek," and while this project did not come to anything, it shows that the people of this early day believed in a public water way in order to come in contact with the towns along the river further up.
The Red Cedar river is about 248 miles long and is comparatively free from any rapids as far as Cedar Rapids, and hence was early looked upon as one of the most favored rivers for steam boat navigation. The Iowa river, into which the Cedar river empties, is about 240 miles in length and is not so favorable for navigation. One of the early settlers who first saw the use of this inland water way was Robert Ellis, who came to these parts in 1838 and who is still living, and who, as early as 1846, caused three flat boats to be built, each boat being about sixty feet in length, sixteen feet in width and only drew three feet of water when loaded. On these boats he loaded 4,000 bushels of wheat consigned to certain millers at Burlington; at Burlington he unloaded the wheat and loaded the same boats with a cargo of flour which was duly taken to New Orleans. From this time on much wheat, corn, bacon, and other articles were shipped from Cedar Rapids to Burlington, Keokuk, St. Louis, and other places on the Mississippi.
It is also true that Mr. Haman, one of the oldest druggists of this city, went to St. Louis for his first stock of drugs and these were brought back by water.
W. B. Mack, one of the early settlers, and one of the first wholesale grocers, secured a cargo of salt in Ohio, which was duly freighted to Cedar Rapids and caused a decline in the price of this commodity in the amount of $5.00 a barrel.
It is known that as early as 1839 keel boats had reached Ivanhoe, and quite a trade was carried on at certain seasons of the year. The first Mississippi steamer which came as far as our city limits was in the month of June, 1846, called "The Maid of Iowa," when a number of settlers came this way as land seekers and at a time when each passenger was offered a lot by the enterprising people of this city. During the next ten years many large and many small steamers made the Cedar river towns as far as Cedar Rapids, and quite a trade had been established between St. Louis, Keokuk, Burlington, and other cities. One of the large Mississippi steamers of 200 tons burden was "The Uncle Tobey," which made her way up here among the brush and hanging willows in the spring of 1853, having on board a large cargo of freight.
To show how much importance the river was to the early settlers it might be well to state that in the fifties—in about 1857—a contract was entered into for the building of a steamer about 155 feet long, single deck, stern wheel, clinker built, to be arranged for freight and passenger traffic and to draw the least possible amount of water. The contract price of this steamer was $20,000.00, and it was launched in June, 1858, and was put into service, arriving at Cedar Rapids July 22, having arrived from Pittsburg in three weeks, stopping at all the cities along the way; this boat had on board about three hundred tons of freight, drew only three feet of water, and had on board nearly one hundred passengers. This was, undoubtedly, the best built passenger and freight boat put on Iowa rivers at that time; during that season this boat made in all twelve trips. On the first trip down stream on July 29, of that year, the papers show that she was loaded down and had in tow a barge loaded with 1,138 sacks of oats, 736 sacks of wheat, some corn, and nearly 1,000 barrels of flour. On one of the trips in October up stream this boat had on board 45,000 feet of lumber; in the following summer this boat got into a collision with another steamer on the Mississippi, and on account of a lawsuit the boat was tied up by litigation.