Author Archives: leelinesteamers

 Way’s Packet Directory makes no mention of this boat being owned by the Lee Line.  However, the following is taken word for word from a newspaper clipping of unknown date (likely written in the 1940’s).  The byline of the article … Continue reading →

November 25, 1912 Former Friend Objects to His Enthusiasm for the Colonel Special to the New York Times Memphis, Tenn, Nov. 25.  Gilbert E. Raine, editor and publisher of the Memphis- News Scimitar, was beaten with a cane in the … Continue reading →

Memphis Commercial Appeal article Feb. 4, 1943.  In the Pilothouse byline by Joe Curtis.  Every now and then two or three old steamboat men congregate to discuss their years on the Mississippi, and they generally go back to the days … Continue reading →

      When the JAMES LEE (second) renamed the DESOTO was crushed by ice December 1918 the bell was salvaged and went to a plantation in Arkansas.   On October 16, 1970, Dr. Webster Riggs Jr. along with his wife … Continue reading →

Way’s Packet Directory has the following history of the KATE ADAMS (the first) as follows; built Sewickley, PA, 1882. 250 feet long x 37 foot width x 8 foot draft.  Five boilers .  Boat built entire under contract to James Rees & Sons., … Continue reading →

Old books telling the history of steamboats occasionally refer to rousters being able to carry a 500 pound bale of cotton on their backs.  These references mention that a bale of cotton was what 2 men could lift and one … Continue reading →

When James Lee founder of the Lee Line Steamers was a young man, he rushed to rescue a trapped mate when a boiler burst and wrecked part of his boat.  In the process of pulling the injured mate away from the … Continue reading →

   One of the earliest records of Capt. James Lee founder of the Lee Line Steamers comes from the book Steamboatin on the Cumberlin by Byrd Douglas on page 55, which records him as captain of the steamer PARAGON which … Continue reading →

My great grandfather and great grandmother are surrounded by young people dressed as gypsies notably the young women.  This party would have taken place some time in the early 1900’s to 1905.   Young men then as now enjoy mugging for the … Continue reading →

The Diary Of An Old Lawyer or Scenes Behind the Curtain by John Hallum, published by Southwestern Publishing House 1895.   John Hallum recounts his ancestory, youth, move to Memphis and his various experiences as a lawyer as well as recollections … Continue reading →