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CAPTAIN LA
BARGE , THE DeSMET AND EMILIE
Collected and Transcribed by
Sue Rekkas
Steamboats and
Steamboatmen of the Upper Mississippi
by George B.
Merrick,
The Saturday
Evening Post of Burlington, Iowa,
July 25, 1914,
page 1.
DeSMET
Built at St.
Louis, Mo., 1872; 485 tons; 162 h. p. Captain Joseph La Barge, in
his memoirs published under the title; “Early Navigation of the
Missouri,” edited by Captain (now Brigadier) M. H. Chittenden,
relates the history of this boat as follows: “ I remained at home
all the winter of 1871-1872, when I again got tired of doing
nothing; and being bred to the steamboat business, and not daring to
turn my hand to anything else, commenced building another boat. She
was completed by the middle of summer, named “DeSmet,” in honor of
the distinguished Jesuit missionary. I at once took a contract to
transport freight from St. Louis to Shreveport, La., for the
construction of the Southern Pacific railroad. This enterprise was
disastrous in the extreme. I found the Red River without water
enough at the mouth for me to enter, all of it going down the Bayou
Atchafalaya. I did not get away from there until January, having
had to import one hundred mules at my own expense to get the freight
through, bales of cotton for my return trip. The enterprise was so
disastrous that I was released from the contract. I secured fifteen
hundred bales of cotton for my return trip to St. Louis, but the
winter was severe and I was stopped by ice at Helena, Ark., and had
to send the freight on by rail. Take it all in all the season’s
venture was a most ruinous one.”
The DeSmet did not
arrive at St. Louis until February, 1873. Captain La Barge again
contracted to go to the Red River for the railroad company, and this
time made a profitable run. Returning to St. Louis he put his boat
into the Missouri River trade, making a trip to Fort Benton, and
getting back to St. Louis in July, and entering the Alton trade in
opposition to the Eagle Packet Company for the balance of the
season. In 1874 he again entered the Alton trade under an
arrangement with John S. McCune, who long controlled the trade on
this part of the river; but in March of this year--1874--while
Captain McCune was in Jefferson City on business, he was taken sick
with pneumonia, and died on day after his return to St. Louis. The
death of Captain McCune disarranged Captain La Barge’s plans, and he
sold the “DeSmet” to the Eagle Packet Company. She was running in
the Alton trade in 1875 and 1876, Captain Leyhe in command. Do not
know what became of her afterward.
EMILIE (First)
Pronounced
“Emily,” although spelled in the French form--a side wheel boat with
independent engine--one of the first. Owned by the American Fur
Company of St. Louis. In 1841 she was at St. Peters, now Mendota,
Minn., for a cargo of furs for the owners, Joseph La Barge master
and pilot. Captain M. H. Chittenden, United States Engineer Corps,
in his “Early Navigation on the Missouri,” which is in effect a
biography of Captain La Barge, says that she was running on the
Missouri on 1840, and that Captain La Barge was then pilot. The
“Emilie” was snagged and sunk in Emilie Bend, Missouri River, 1842.
She was named in honor of Pierre Choteau’s wife.
EMILIE (Second)
A very
fine side-wheel boat, designed, built, owned and commanded by
Captain Joseph La Barge, and named for one of his daughters, who in
turn had been named in honor of Pierre Choteau’s wife.
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