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Capt.
Daniel Smith Harris and By
S H. |
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Captain Daniel Smith Harris was a bit of a character in his time. He was born July 24, 1808 in Kortright, New York. He was the oldest of five boys . The family later moved to Ohio. When Daniel was fifteen he and his father went with Moses Meeker to Galena. His mother and brothers came to Galena later. He saw the boats on Fever River. He became fascinated with them. In 1824, he and his brother mined and struck it rich. Later he met Captain David G. Bates. He was one of the most famous riverboat captains. They became cub pilots for Captain Bates. Later Daniel became assistant engineer and learned steam boating. |
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| He went to fight in the Black Hawk War in 1832. After the war, he decided to build a boat. It was named the Jo Daviess. It was a small steamer. He completed it in 1834. It was the first steamer constructed on the upper Mississippi. After this, he was the pride of Galena. | |
| He kept boats only a short time and then traded them in. Most of the boats he kept for a year or two. The Grey Eagle and the Otter are the only ones he kept longer than that. | |
| His boats had to be fast; he loved speed. His first fast boat was the first War Eagle, in 1845. It was the fastest on the upper Mississippi until 1850. It set a record from Galena to Saint Louis. This trip only took 43 hours and 52 minutes. He was always the first to port in spring, and always the last one out in fall. | |
| He liked starting feuds. Staring in 1843, his biggest competitors were the Minnesota Packet Company. They were the biggest monopoly on the upper Mississippi. Harris loved to taunt them with his faster boats. He would run along side them, and dash into port, and grab all the freight passengers by cutting off boats, and almost causing crashes. The rates were reduced to ridiculous levels, and the Minnesota Packet Company was almost ruined, except for the income from lead mines. Finally the Minnesota Packet Company asked him to join. | |
| He was always scrappy and liked a good fight. In 1856, he competed with the wild boats, independent steamboats not operated by any of the big packet companies, for business. One time he rammed the Tisho Mingo in Dunleith. Then he offered her passengers a trip for fifty cents on the War Eagle. Merchants in Winona refused to give him business, even at cheap rates, because the Tisho Mingo was a Winona boat. In spite of this, Harris remained popular. | |
| Minnesota was the only state in those days not connected by telegraph. When the Atlantic telegraph was laid Queen Victoria sent a message. News of this message reached Dubuque on August 16th. Captain Harris, The captain of the Grey Eagle, was determined to reach St. Paul, Minnesota, with the big news before anyone else. The Grey Eagle left East Dubuque at 8:30 A.M. August 17, 1885. On its way, it delivered papers from Galena and Dubuque. The Itasca left Prairie Du Chien with a 65 mile lead, but soon the Grey Eagle had made up two-thirds of this lead. The Captain Harris ordered his men to heave the newspapers to each boat landing. This trip was already promising a record breaking run. | |
| At four A.M. the Grey Eagle was only fifty miles away from St. Paul. The Grey Eagle sped over to Hastings in time to see the Itasca’s smoke. He ordered as much steam as possible. A mile away from St. Paul the two boats were neck and neck, but the Itasca was on the dock side of the river. The Itasca reached the wharf first , but Captain Harris had a plan. He tied the papers to an arrow and threw them ashore. Therefore, the Gray Eagle had got the news there first. The Gray Eagle also set a record for the fastest trip by a steamboat from Dubuque to St. Paul. It beat the old record by over three hours. | |
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Bibliography Peterson, William J. Steam boating on the Upper Mississippi. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1968. |
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