Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863

by George Byron Merrick

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Genres: History, Memoir

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

1841-1931

Reviews

[Smick]

If you're a fan of Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi then you will enjoy this book as well. Books written in this era by non-literary writers can have an annoying pedantic style that kills the joy of reading, but Merrick has a great, raconteur style that engages you like a grandpa telling tales.

This book is a memoir, so some early chapters focus on his childhood--but don't skip them. They are a fascinating portrait of a young boy free in the world. He had a number of harrowing experiences that are fascinating in the telling, and his description of the Wisconsin/Minnesota region in that period is also engaging. He lived in a town of 200 whites between a village of 1000 Sioux and 500 Chippewa that would occasionally come into his hometown of Prescott , Wi, to trade--and fight.

As a former steamboat cub engineer, clerk, and pilot, Merrick is very interested in the business of steamboating, so he breaks down the particular job of every officer on board, devoting a chapter to each. In each chapter he adds anecdotes and tales from his river experiences which are many and varied. Not only do you get a strong sense of the Upper Mississippi and its winding course of sandbars and snags, but also the people and work found along it. There are many details on the river towns, some no longer in existence, and the cargoes they provided. There are tales of various emergencies. The book not only describes how boiler explosions, snags, crushing ice and fires destroyed many a steamer, but he also adds examples and lots of technical detail that you don't find in other steamboat books.

If the book has any problem, it's that he writes for a more contemporaneous audience, so he assumes you know what a steamboats 'buckets' are, for example (they're the boards comprising the 'paddle' of the paddlewheel). There isn't a lot of jargon, but a glossary like the one found here can be helpful.

If you enjoy listening to an old man reflect on a youth that he loved and desperately misses, then pick up this book. It's history in its purest form, the first person narrative, told by an expert.

[Not: this book is available free on Google Books]

[C.]

Found this e-book on Barnes & Noble instead:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/old-...
(The Amazon link went to a blank page with a picture of a dog.)

[Ebook Reader]

Great book, the e-book version can be found at:
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/old-...

[Rita]

I got this book via Project Gutenberg. This is a great book for anyone interested in the history of the river, and is a fascinating memoir of the steamboat era on the upper Mississppi River. There is a lot of detailbabout how the boats were operated, the roles of the different crew members, and the challenges of navigating the river itself before the Army Corps of Engineers began working diligently to maintain a navigable channel through the islands, sloughs, shifting sand and other obstacles on the river from St. Paul to St. Louis. There are lots of photographs of various steamboat, the towns visited, and the captains of some of these boats. This book was written in 1908 and as another reviewer mentioned, for a contemporaneous audience. This is reflected in some of the terminology used.

[Cws]

977.02