Steamboats

Scope and Contents Descriptive diary of trip by waterways through Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Travels to Charleston, Pekin, Peoria, and to Spoon River. Attends some social activities. Describes a storm and finding a boat wreck while on the river, how helpful the husbands are to wives in the west and several encounters with Indians. Returned to New York via Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Buffalo and on to New York. Includes typed transcript.

Scope and Contents Letters home to Thomas from Tennessee and Arkansas. Gives a description of Memphis, Arkansas and the hot springs in Arkansas. Discusses life on and the business of the boat. Very descriptive explanation of why steamboating is "a doggs life". Mentions family often. Discusses his plans to stop the river and go into "business".

Scope and Contents List of steamboats and their captains running on the upper Mississippi during the years 1847-1855, taken from the shipping books of S.S. Phelps and Co. and McKinney and Adams both of Oquawka, Illinois.

Scope and Contents Bill of lading for twenty cattle, one dog and fifty horses to be sent from London to New York. Shipped by J.A. Perry aboard the steamship Greece.

Scope and Contents Transcript of a journal kept while traveling round trip from Philadelphia to Springfield, Illinois. Describes the scenery along the way, as well as describing Pittsburgh and its smoky atmosphere and Springfield, Illinois. Visits family in Wheeling and attends a barn raising and mound excavation where two human skeletons had been unearthed with copper bracelets and beads around the bones. On steamboat to Cincinnati, his boat picked up passengers from previous night's boat wreck. Describes their...

Scope and Contents Letter to Jessie Palmer Weber re: the Lincoln Birthday Observance aboard the steamship Maui while at sea. Includes program listing Rees as having spoken on "The Four Homes of Lincoln."

Scope and Contents Journal describes experiences along the way. Vividly describes several bouts of seasickness among the passengers during rough waters, the passengers and their different nationalities, several tales of drunkenness among various passengers and workers and the boat trying to pass through thick ice near Mackinack and being forced to remain there due to ice. Describes the stops at Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago. Traveling by stage he describes the prairies and the towns of Naperville, Aurora and...