Lee Line Steamers | Riverboat History

 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 is “In the Pilot House” by Joe Curtis  and reads as follows:  “First Mississippi river packet to have a seperate cabin for negro passengers was the GENERAL ANDERSON.  Before the Civil War, Negroes were not permitted in any boat’s cabin unless they were maids or housemen traveling with their owners.  Capt. James Lee was the first owner of a boat to conceive the idea of a negro cabin.  It was installed on the GENERAL ANDERSON when he acquired her for the Memphis and Vicksburg trade and what brought it about was increasing travel of negroes who paid first class fares along the lower Mississippi.  When Capt. Lee bought the GENERAL ANDERSON he brought her to Memphis from the Ohio River.  Carpenters were put to work extending the rear of the texas (deck) leaving all forward rooms for the crew and the rear for negroes.  A nice well furnished cabin was fitted up with staterooms and a small place for them to occupy if they did not want berths.  Meals were served in the “parlor,” as the Negroes called it.  And they had the same food set before first class passengers in the main cabin.  Capt. Lee was advised against building such quarters for Negroes but answered his friends: “I believe any person paying first class fare on a steamboat is entitled to first class passage.”  That settled the argument.  It was October 12, 1869, when repairs to the ANDERSON were finished.  Steam was raised.  That afternoon she was given a trial run downstream.  The bluffs of Memphis were crowded to watch the boats performance because she was talked about on account of quarters for Negroes.  Her average speed was 20 mph, considered fast for a packet.  Capt. Stacker Lee was chief purser.  His assistants were J.B. Booker and Henry Mathes.  She loaded next day to Vicksburg, departing amid screeching whistles from a dozen boats in port.

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 hands of Rees Lee, Superintendent of the Lee Line of Mississippi River packets, this afternoon in front of his office.  Friends of the editor say the attack was made from behind. 

The men had formerly been friends, but quarreled yesterday when Mr. Lee took the editor to task for supporting Col. Roosevelt in the recent campaign and for announcing after the defeat of Roosevelt that he would soon offer his paper for sale at public auction.

A fistic encounter was narrowly averted yesterday and to-day the fight went on until bystanders interfered and picked the editor up from the pavement to which he had been felled.  Lee has not been arrested.

According to my grandmother, my grandfather suffered blows which bloodied him during this encounter.  This part of the event was neglected by the New York Times which may have been favorably inclinded toward the progressive Col. Roosevelt and his supporters.

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 of the packets.  Yesterday, when Marine Inspectors Capt. J. Benton Wyckoff and Clinton Critchfield were resting up a bit before trackling some reports received who walked into their office but Capt. Charlie Greenwood, onetime inspector of hulls at Memphis when their office was known as United States Steamboat Inspectors.

Although Capt. Greenwood walks slightly bent, he gets around lively with the help of a cane.  He still resides on Young Ave.  He had just sat down when he started talking about old steamboat whistles.  Of course Capt. Wyckoff held out that the CHAS. ORGAN, a famous Memphis steam ferry had one of the best on the Mississippi.  After Capt. Greewood scratched his head a few times he disagreed about that.

I have always contended that the last JAMES LEE had the finest whistle on the Lower Mississippi.  It was a chime, about 10 inches in diameter, and was first bought for the RUTH, which boat was built by Capt. W.P. Hall in 1888, for the Memphis and New Madrid trade.  The RUTH first had a course whistle and Tom Skipper, one of her pilots, started a subscription amoung the crew to buy a better one.  The money was sent to Philadelphia and there is where it was built at a cost of $100.  It went on the RUTH, but when the Lee Line bought the RUTH from Capt. Hall she was kept in the same run until the Lee Line sold her to the Greenville and Vicksburg Packet Co.

When she was about to be delivered to the new owners , the late Capt. Robert E. Lee went down to the boat and told the engineer he would like to reserve the whistle, so it was removed and another whistle took its place.  The RUTH whistle then went to the ROWENA LEE and remained on her until she sank in the Mississippi River at Friars Point.  Again the whistle was saved and put on the JAMES LEE.  When she was withdrawn from the packet trade it was put on the HARRY LEE.

                                                  Probably Lost in the River

It never was on the COAHOMA Capt. Greenwood continued.  It was never on the GENERAL ANDERSON because during the years of the steamer ANDERSON chime whistles had not been perfected.  The COAHOMA had the whistle off the A.J. WHITE made by engineer Lou Botto.  It was 12 inches in diameter with a 30 inch bell made of sheet irom.  After it wore the COAHOMA out it went on the LADY LEE which sank and then the whistle went on the CITY OF OSCEOLA which formerly was the CITY OF OWENSBORO.  From that steamer it went on the ROBERT E LEE owned by the Lee Line.  Now, she wasn’t the ROBERT E LEE of fame , but a very nice boat at that.  After the ROBERT E LEE sank, it was put on the first HARRY LEE which formerly was the CITY OF WHEELING.  When she was dismantled, it went on the BOB LEE JR and it probably was lost when this boat turned over in the Mississippi after being converted into a towboat and owned by the Standard Oil Co.

  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 and mother were at the dedication of the JAMES LEE bell.   Previously in May of 1961 the Riggs gave the bell to the James Lee Memorial which was started by James Lee’s daughter Miss Rosa Lee.   Rosa Lee began the James Lee Memorial Art Academy in 1929 when she deeded the house to the city of Memphis.   The James Lee Memorial Art Accademy occupied the home until 1959 when the Art Accademy moved to its current home in Overton Park and became the Memphis Art Accademy.  At the October 16, 1970 dedication, plans were announced to restore the James Lee house.  Nothing developed from those announced plans and the house has been vacant since the Art Academy moved from the James Lee House.  The house is currently for sale by the City of  Memphis and likely will be converted into a bed and breakfast.  The Woodruff-Fountain House next to the James Lee home was also owned by Rosa Lee who donated it along with the Lee House to the James Lee Memorial Art Academy.  The Woodruff-Fountain House has been restored and is open to the public 1 to 4 pm Wednesday through Sunday.

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., Pittsburg.  Built for Maj. John D. Adams and named for his wife.  He headed the Memphis & Arkansas City Packet Co..  Had an Edison electric light system, one of the first so equiped.  This boat and the WILL S. HAYES were completed side by side at the Rees shop bordering the Allegheny River near the Point, Pittsburg.   The hull origionally intended for the KATE was sold to the Lee Line, Memphis, to become the JAMES LEE whereupon a second hull, almost identical was built for the KATE.  These two side-wheelers, alike in many respects, vied for the speed championship between Helena Ark. and Memphis, 90 miles.  On Sunday March 18, 1883, the KATE ADAMS “went over the track” in 5 hours 18 1/2 minutes.   The previous record was held by the JAMES LEE at 5 hours 33 minutes.  The owners of the JAMES LEE handed over a elegant set of deer horns which the KATE wore the rest of her career.   Fred Way also wrote “She Takes the Horns” which recounts various steamboat races and disasters.  Deer horns went to the fastest boat and were prominently displayed by the winning steamboat.  Compare this picture to the JAMES LEE at shipyard picture.

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 man carry.   I have yet to see a picture of rousters loading a steamboat where one man is carrying a bale of cotton on his back.  Where rousters are pictured moving cotton, there are 3 men rolling the bale up the steamboats ramp or moving cotton along the cobble stone river bank.

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 boiler spewing hot water and steam, his legs were badly scalded.   Even though Capt. Jim was a tall talker with such tales as “I’ve been blowed up by steamboats in 21 states and several territories.  On most occasions everybody on board perished except myself.  Pieces of my skull is layin’ around loose all up and down the river.”  In complete seriousness  though, he intended to keep his 300 pounds together.  Capt. Jim did not permit wild races.  No putting anvils on the safety valves of his boilers tying them down to get a bigger and bigger head of steam until everyone went to kingdom come.  The Lee Line did engage in time trials in 1885 when the steamer JAMES LEE made a trial run against the KATE ADAMS for a mail contract.  His newspaper ads since 1857 had been telling gospel truth when they styled him “one of the oldest and best … commanders of the Western Waters.  When he was called “a sure guarantee of safety,” that was steamboat puffing. But his boat was as safe as any; far safer than some finer ones. (Memphis Down in Dixie)

   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 sank June 29, 1843 on the Cumberland River 10 miles from Eddyville, Kentucky (western Kentucky).   Way’s Packet Directory makes no mention of a steamer PARAGON from or around 1843.  Way’s list two steamers named PARAGON however both boats were built much later.  Steamboatin on the Cumberlin also records Capt. James Lee as captain of the steamer OLD HICKORY.  Way’s Packet Directory records the following about the OLD HICKORY as a “sternwheel packet, wood hull, built at Louisville Kentucky 1845, 445 ton capacity, 250 feet long x 33 feet wide x 7.3 foot draft.  Commanded by Capt. James Lee, Memphis.  Off the list 1850.”   Page 82 of Steamboatin on the Cumberlin also records Capt. James Lee as captain of the steamer BLANCHE LEWIS.  Way’s Packet Directory records the following for the BLANCHE LEWIS, ” sternwheel packet, wood hull, built Dycusburg, Kentucky 1855, 155 ton capacity.  When completed she ran Nashville-Paducah, sank at Nashville, Nov. 5, 1860.  Machinery went to steamer LAWRENCE built 1863 Cincinnatti OH.   Memphis Down in Dixie by Shields McIlwaine records that Capt. Jim moved to Memphis in 1856 when he was 48 years old after he had already spent 27 years on steamboats.  Capt. Jim was born near Dover Tennessee in 1808.

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 camera.

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 of many people who crossed his paths both friend and foe.  I have copied and published pages 159, 160 and 161 which you will find under the Lee Family Members tab Family Portrait sub-page for James Lee Jr.  His recounting of the story where my great grandfather James Lee pranked him is quite humorous.  This would have occurred sometime during the Federal occupation of Memphis.