These spoons were dug up by my friend Ed Provine who along with a gang of diggers dug large numbers of old privets, cisterns, and wells in the downtown area of Memphis when urban renewal removed hundreds of old homes during the 1970′s.  The Lee Line spoon was found in a trash pit somewhere south of Beale Street.  Ed and a friend dug this spoon along with an old jug.  After a lenghty discussion on how to divide their findings, Ed left with the spoon which was badly bent and had no plating.   Even with new plating, it is evident that the spoon was quite corroded.   Ed has a much nicer Lee Line spoon in his personal collection.  Likely, there are not many Lee Line utensils in existense since the Lee Line wharfboat burning in 1924.  Additionally, these utensils were inexpensive copper plated utility items.   Ed sold me the Lee Line spoon and gave me the Majestic Hotel spoon.  My great uncle G. Peters Lee bought the Majestic Hotel in 1913 or 1914.  Memphis City Directories from the period record that in addition to the Majestic Hotel, there was a Majestic Pool Hall and Majestic Bar which was forced to close in 1914 when Tennessee enacted Prohibition.  Peters Lee renamed one of the Lee Line steamboats which he purchase at the voluntary liquidation of the Lee Line in 1926 the MAJESTIC and formed the Majestic Excursion Line.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal Mid-South Memories Saturday October 22, 2011 reported 125 years ago October 22, 1886 the following: “Cottenmen are confident now that Memphis will receive more than 600,000 bales of cotton this season.”  On October 22, 1911 the Commercial Appeal reported, “Business was unusually heavy on the river front yesterday.  Cotton from the HARRY LEE, which arrived from Ashport (TN), was being unloaded and opposite the Lee Line Wharfboat the staple was piled high.  Inside the (wharf) boat, freight practically filled it with just enough passageway left for the mule teams to pass in and out.”

James Lee Sr and Penniah Gibson descendants

The Memphis Commercial Appeal Mid-South Memories section reported that on

October 20, 1886  the following:  “More cotton was received in Memphis yesterday

than any other city in the country, New Orleans and New York not excepted.  The

CHICKASAW (Lee Line) alone brought in 1,357 bales in addition to those on other

steamboats, the trains and wagons.”

RUTH: Boat 4880 Way’s Packet Directory page 406. 160 x 31.5, 5 x 5. Stern Wheel, Packet, Wood Hull, built Paducah Kentucky 1888. Built for Capt. W.P. Hall, Memphis and ran Vicksburg – Greenville. Crew in 1900: Capt. Charles Nichols, master; Clarence Nichols and Henry Auter, pilots; Scott Phillips and John Schaffer, clerks; James O’Brien and James Gillespie, mates; Mike O’Keefe and Thomas Wylie engineers. She also went up the Yazoo River (Mississippi) to bring out trips. Still running in May 1900. Her whistle is said to have gone to the ROWENA LEE, JAMES LEE (2nd) and HARRY LEE (2nd).

 CHICKASAW: Boat 1010 Way’s Packet Directory page 85. Sternwheeler, Packet, wood hull, built Pittsburgh, Pa. 1883, 185 x 38 x 6. Engines, 16’s – 7 foot, three boilers each 48” x 26 ft, seven flues. Designed to carry 1650 bales of cotton. Owned by the Memphis & White River Packet Co. and later owned by the Lee Line, Memphis. The Lee Line sold her to New Orleans in November 1897 where she ran to Bayou Lafourche, Capt. J.J. Dodd master with Leonard Noyes clerk. The machinery in 1904 was placed on the towboat CHARLEY JUTTE at Jeffersonville Ind.

  This serving dish is in the collection of the Woodruff Fountain House 680 Adams Ave. Memphis Tennessee. Likely there are only few of these serving dishes in existence since the Lee Line wharf boat burned sometime in the mid 1920′s taking with it quite a number of Lee Line boat furniture, utinsils, serving dishes and boat parts taken from various boats the family owned.

 The Lee Line carried freight for Anderson Tully a land and timber company.  Anderson Tully is still in operation and still owns vast tracts of timber land.  Other Bill of Lading showed the Lee Line hauling railroad iron for Anderson Tully.