Lee Line Steamers | Riverboat History

1896 Lee Line Pass

Here is a new find for my Lee Line Pass collection.  Currently in the collection are passes from 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1905

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-31/the-horrific-accident-that-created-the-regulatory-state

This Bloomberg article details the Federal Governments involvement in regulating the steamboat industry as a result of horrific steamboat MOSELLE explosion April 25, 1838.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal Mid-South Memories January 1, 2013 reported:

January 1913

More than 200 whiskered hoboes and tramps, gathered from all quarters of the city by the Associated Charities, will leave Memphis this afternoon aboard the John Lee, chartered for that purpose, to take up employment on the levees between Memphis and Vicksburg.

 The VERNE SWAIN pictured above was purchased my by great uncle Peters Lee after the liquidation of the Lee Line in 1926.  Peters Lee along with my grandfather S Rees Lee Sr. in 1916 purchased the REES LEE and the GEORGIA LEE.  Minutes from the 1916 company annual  meeting indicated that the REES LEE had been laid up with no business the previous year.  In 1924 Peters Lee and my grandfather purchased most of the remaining assets of the Lee Line which took back a note secured by the steamboats, wharf-boats and landings.  By 1926 it became apparent that their effort would not be successful and a liquidation of the property was put into effect.  Peters Lee who was said to have river water in his veins purchased several boats and continued in the business until his death in the mid 1930’s.  He also purchased several non-Lee Line small packets and ferry boats.  I will add pictures of these boats under a tab labelled Peters Lee Boats.

Proclamation of Thanksgiving

October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States

A Proclamation

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward Secretary of State

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm

The Memphis Commercial Appeal October 31, 2012 Mid-South Memories:

October 31, 1887 “A report spread like wildfire throughout the city that an unidentified housewife had boarded the Somerville accommodation train, brandishing a shotgun and announcing that she was bound for Memphis to search for her errant husband.  As a result the early train last night was crowded with men who appeared to be in the greatest rush to get back to their home and hearth.”

Mid-South Memories from the Memphis Commercial Appeal Nov. 7, 2012

100 years ago Nov. 7, 1912:  “The steamer, Peters Lee, will arrive this morning after being tied to the bank at Caseyville, Ky., for almost a month.  She will be unloaded and tied to the bank here to await a better stage of water in the Ohio before resuming her trips.  Capt. Pete Lee was in command on her trip downriver.”

125 years ago Nov. 7, 1887: “A police sergeant has been accused of accepting $25 from a contractor who had a gang of 300 laborers aboard a steamboat and wanted them kept on board when the boat tied up here for fuel and provisions.  The city escaped the plague of lawlessness that would have fallen upon it had the 300 been allowed off the boat, but the police force had to fight valiantly with their clubs and fist to resist the landing.”

Since most Lee Line silverware is at the bottom of the Mississippi River, I was very happy to see this fork listed on EBay and was able to add it to my collection of 2 Lee Line spoons.  Perhaps a Lee Line knife is hidden away in someones drawer waiting  to visit EBay.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported on October 16, 1887 the following:

As might have been expected the huge crowd in the city for the visit of President and Mrs. Cleveland proved to be a rich harvest for the pick-pockets and sneak thieves, with large sums of money and many pieces of jewelry nipped from the people lining the streets.  Police arrested 10 of the fine-fingered operators and on them found cash and valuables amounting to several thousands of dollars.  But many more of their ilk escaped arrest.

The previous week, President and Mrs. Cleveland arrived in St. Louis Mo where they took a riverfront tour of the city on a steamboat.  The above picture is from a post card commemorating their visit to the city.  Apparently,  the Presidential party disembarked on to the St. Louis Lee Line wharf-boat.  The trip continued down the west side of the Mississippi River before taking the KATE ADAMS across the river to thousands of people lining the bluffs of Memphis who welcomed President and Mrs. Cleveland.

This past Saturday, Jose and Jennifer Valazquez hosted the Harsson family descendants along with my wife and myself at the unrenovated house.  The James Lee House property was first deeded to Seth Wheatley January 25, 1839 who deeded the property to William Harsson January 10, 1852 who then deeded the property to his son-in-law Charles Wesley Goyer who along with his wife Sallie lived in the home until they deeded the home July 8, 1890 to Rowena Lee (wife of James Lee Jr.).   on May 15, 1929 their daughter Rosa Lee deeded the home to the City of Memphis.   Rosa founded the James Lee Memorial Art Academy.  The house along with the next door Woodruff Fountaine House housed the James Lee Memorial Art School until 1959 when the Memphis Art Academy was build and the school moved to the new facilities.

Jose and Jennifer have hired Fleming and Associates Architects to design plans to create an upscale Bed and Breakfast in this historic Memphis home.

http://www.jamesleehouse.com/  pictures by Charlotte Lee