Lee Line Steamers | Riverboat History

The Memphis Commercial Appeal Mid South Memories section March 17, 1887 reported the following.  ” Dr. A.M. Kimbro has opened an Electric Infirmary at 381 Main which is believed to be the largest of its kind in the South.  Treatments are given there, under the supervision of George B. Hamilton, mechanical electrician, for rheumatism, nerualgia, constipation, kidney and liver troubles and all nervous diseases.

Sinking of the GEORGIA LEE and DeSoto U of Wisconsin neg 12957

During the great Mississippi River ice gorge of January and February 1918 the GEORGIA LEE and the DESOTO were crushed and sunk.   Following the great flood of 1937 which forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and flooded thousands of square miles of land along the lower Mississippi River, great efforts were made to tame the river by chanelization and other methods to control flooding.  Prior to that time the river flowed at a slower rate allowing the river to freeze resulting in boats being crushed by the ice.   The DESOTO formerly the JAMES LEE was converted into an excursion boat in 1914.  The Texas deck was removed with an open canopy going in its place.  The only other picture of this event, I am aware of, shows both boats from the bow.

This picture was used with permission from the University of Wisconsin Collection.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal March 12, 2012 Mid-South Memories section reported the following for March 12, 1887,  “One of the chain gang prisoners became unruly at the jail yesterday and a guard attempted to put him in the dungeon.  The prisoner resisted so fiercely that a second guard had to be summoned.  Now the prisoner is basking in the dungeon with a head so sore that it hurts to have a fly light on it.”

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported in the Mid-South Memories section March 8, 2012 the following:  “The river here is as high as it was in 1882, being two feet and one inch above the danger line.  But Captain Cheek of the steamer KATE ADAMS, running from Memphis to Arkansas City, says he does not fear any flood, that the levees are all right on both sides of the river and can stand three and a half feet more water.”

There are a number of new Lee Line pictures on the site from the University of Louisville and the University of Wisconsin collections.  I have 4 more pictures coming from the U of Wisconsin collection which will be added to the site once they arrive.

Thank you for visiting LeeLineSteamers.com

Jim Lee

Lee Line Steamers Poster R. Ferris Collection

This picture was sent to me by Keith Norrington Curator of the Howard Shipyard Museum Jeffersonville Indiana with the following history.  “I am attaching a photo of a Lee Line poster that is now in the collection of the Pott Waterways Library at the Mercantile Library in St. Louis.  The late Miss Ruth Ferris, well known St. Louis river historian, acquired this poster when she purchased a large framed steamboat picture.  When she took it apart for cleaning, she found not one, but two of these Lee Line posters being used for backing.  What a find!  One of them was framed and displayed in Ruth’s “Midship Museum” aboard the steamer BECKY THATCHER (formerly the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s steamboat MISSISSIPPI) at the St. Louis riverfront from 1966 until it closed in 1970.  I have no idea where that poster went, but the other one is in the collection at Mercantile now.”

Thank you Keith for sending this picture.

This picture of the STACKER LEE is from the University of Louisville Howard Shipyard collection.   The STACKER LEE was a consistent money maker for the Lee Line until she sank 4 miles north of Memphis downbound October 21, 1916 at 11:00 pm.  The Howard Shipyard collection of pictures can be seen at http://digital.library.louisville.edu/collections/howard/

Goodspeed’s History of Hamilton, Knox and Shelby Counties of Tennessee origionally published in 1887 and republished 1974 pages 870, 871 and 872 records the building of a naval yard at Memphis.  “After the failure of numerous special projects to build up the city, the navy yard project came up in 1843.  In 1841 Congress had appointed commissioners to locate a navy yard somewhere in the Mississippi Valley, and after a careful examination of the Mississippi River throughout its entire length, from the mouth of the Ohio to New Orleans, these commissioners reported that at the mouth of Wolf River was the best location.  When this subject was first broached it was regarded by many as a joke; but it was necessary then as now for congressmen to do something for their constituents.”  This account continues with the history of how the land was purchased and the navy yard constructed and ends as follows, “After struggling along for a number of years with increasing difficulty to secure the necessary appropriations for its support, the navy yard and its buildings were abandoned the amount of money spent theron having been from $1,200,000 to $1,500,000.  The only creditable piece of work turned out of this novel navy yard, was the great iron steamship of war, “Alleghany,” which was entirely built and equipped here with the exception of her hull.  This was a most wonderful war vessel!   Her speed is said to have been four miles per hour down stream, that being the ordinary rapidity of the current, and four hours to the mile upstream, and after a brief but entirely unsatisfactory history, having cost the government $500,000, she was totally condemned.  In 1853 Senator (ex.-Gov.) James C. Jones, incensed at the parsimony with which Congress made appropriations for the support of the Memphis navy yard, made a demand that the property be returned to the city.  The Senate, as if hoping some such way would be present itself to get the elephant off its hands, instantly took the senator at his word, and thus ended one to the greatest failures in the shape of a navy yard this country has known.”

The more things change the more they seem to stay the same – as far as the politics of spending taxpayers money goes.