Histories: Trempealeau Co. Historical Accounts:
"History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917":
Chapter 10:
Cruise of the Spray
-As transcribed from pages 162 - 164
One
day during the latter part of April in 1866 the little steamboat Spray
swung up to the river front landing at Trempealeau and stopped for
refreshments and supplies for the crew. "She was a trim little
boat," said the old riverman, "about 30 feet long and 10 feet wide, and
was a flat-bottomed craft with a stern paddle wheel."
The crew remained in town about an hour when the boat pulled out for
its journey up the Trempealeau River. Arrived at the Trempealeau
navigation became impeded by snags and leaning trees, and a gang of men
was kept busy removing these obstacles. Saws and axes were
brought into play, and now and then a headline was run out and fastened
to a tree and the capstan used to drag the boat over a shoal. Two
men stood on the forward deck with pike-poles to shove the boat away
from the bank in sharp bends of the river, or where shallow water was
encountered to take soundings.
Thus the steamboat struggled slowly along up the river, clearing its
way as it went, but of all the difficulties met with the wooden wagon
bridge was the most formidable, for settlers living along the river
hearing of the approaching steamboat where on hand to protest against
the damaging of their bridges. However, in every case except one,
the officers of the boat persuaded the people who resisted them that
the establishment of navigation on the river meant more to them than
the loss of a portion of their bridge. Some of the settlers
hailed the coming of the boat with joy, taking it as a messenger of
progress come to open an easy way to the world's markets, while others
cursed the audacious little "Spray" as "another freak endeavoring to
establish an impossibility," the navigability of the river. Still
others took the steamboat venture as a joke and laughed at the idea of
navigating a stream that a boy could wade when the water was at its
normal stage. But still they must have looked at the coming of a
steamboat more as a novelty than anything else, and made the most of it
by being on hand to feast their eyes upon the wayward little craft.
here and there along the route a few of the settlers would get aboard
the Spray, to enjoy a ride on the Trempealeau River. Among these
was Daniel Bigham of Arcadia, who boarded the boat down near the old
Dan English place and rode nearly to the present site of Arcadia.
Dan was interested in watching the boat navigate the river, but says if
he had been in a hurry he would have made better time walking.
"It took a good deal of time to cut out the snags and trees that
obstructed the channel," said Dan, "and when we grounded the engine
would stop and wait for the water to wash the sand from under the
boat. They destroyed all of the bridges in the town of Arcadia,"
continued Mr. Bigham, "and it caused considerable commotion among the
settlers, for in that day with but few sawmills and a scarcity of
lumber it was difficult to build a bridge."
The news that a real live steamboat was actually navigating the modest
little Trempealeau traveled so much faster than the boat itself that
the up-river people were on hand to welcome the strange visitor when it
arrived.
When the Williamsburg settlers heard the shrill whistle of the boat
they flocked down to the landing on the Baker place, and as the
gangplank touched shore many felt that the marvelous day of prosperity
was at hand. In fact a market landed in the burg that day, for
the captain of the boat bought bread and eggs from the inhabitants and
paid the expectant farmers for it in clean cash.
On the 2nd day of May, 1866, George H. Markham made record in his diary
of the passage up the Trempealeau River of the steamboat Spray.
The Markhams settled in the Trempealeau valley not far from the site of
the present village of Independence in 1856, and Mrs. Geo. H. Markham
distinctly remembers seeing the boat on its journey up the river.
The Spray continued on its course up the river until the wagon bridge
located three miles below Whitehall was reached, when it was met by
David Wade and David Wood, representing the town of Lincoln, who
refused it further passage on account of necessitating the destruction
of the bridge.
The people of Lincoln had heard of the approaching steamboat and of its
wanton destruction of bridges on the lower river, and had decided not
to allow such destruction in their territory. They were practical
men and had no rosy dreams of the future steamboat activity on the
river, and considered their bridge worth more than the vague
possibilities of a future waterway market.
And so the adventurous rivermen turned back, and on the journey down
stream they stopped at Arcadia to take on a shipment of flour from the
Massuere Company mill.
On account of the current and the river being free of snags and trees
the return run was much faster and easier than the up-river trip.
At Marshland the boat was laid up for some time, but it finally resumed
its course into the Mississippi and completed its round trip at La
Crosse.
Why such a trip was undertaken is somewhat of a mystery. Some say
that the Northwestern Railroad Company gave the owners of the boat a
bonus for not compelling the road to maintain a draw bridge across the
river at Marshland. Others say the journey was made to determine
the navigability of the Trempealeau River. Whatever the motive it
certainly established the fact that the river was not a suitable stream
for navigation.
(By Eben D. Pierce.)