Bits and pieces of riverboat lore, page 3

This is a company that operated out of New York City in the late 1800s. As it has not to do with midwest riverboats I know little about it, but since a site visitor was good enough to send links to his 1800's EPHEMERA site wherein there are a few notices on the company's letter heads I thought it might be interesting to some of you out there.
A letter to a customer A notice about the 1887 excursion season to Coney Island

Note received from this man's great niece, Annabelle Henderson Rupert Hello, Just visited your web page and it is wonderful, however, looking for my great uncle who was a Riverboat Captain on Mississippi for many years. Name: William Howard Pritchartt. Here is his obituary and business listings. Newspaper article from St. Louis Newspaper about 1885 "SURPRISE - Among the many gallant and courteous gentlemen who do service in the offices of the various steamboats coming to this city, and particularly those of the Anchor Line, there are none perhaps more courteous, polite and efficient than Mr. W.H. Pritchartt, of the steamer Arkansas City. As a proof of his popularity, and the esteem in which he is held, especially by the ladies who are fortunate enough to secure passage on this boat, Mr. Pritchartt was presented, on the last trip to Natchez, with a beautiful stool or ottoman cover, exquisitely finished, and wrought in various colors. To say that the fortunate gentleman was surprised would be putting it mildly. The fair donors of the handsome present were Mr. Capt. C.B. Ziegler, Mrs. Oscar Moore, and Miss Anne Mounger, all of St. Louis. These ladies are making the round trip on the elegant steamer. Mr. Pritchartt is proud of his treasure, but cannot realize how the ladies managed to resurrect Joseph's many colored coat of ancient fame, with which the dainty piece of work is finished." Excerpt from his obit in 1934 - Natchez Democrat: ". . . For a time he was connected with the Anchor Line steamboats on the Mississippi river. When he came to Natchez in Sept, 1889, he went into business with the late Captain S.E. Rundle. In 1905, with W.R. Wade, he organized the firm of W.H. Pritchartt & Company and was connected with it until 1916. ............" William Howard Pritchartt was born in St. Louis in 1856 and died in Natchez MS 1934. He married the lady Annie Munger that made him the stool.

dated 25 February 1862: ....We left Cairo yesterday morning, the 24th, with our teams onboard the steamer ECONOMY bound for Ft. Donelson. This morning at three o'clock she struck a floating log and knocked a hole in her bow. They ran her to shore and put their pumps to work. They kept her up until we got the mules off and part of the wagon beds and some harness. The running gears of the wagons was down in the hull, so they went down with the boat. She is a total wreck.

Dated March 25, 1862..... We left Ft. Donelson on the 5th. We got to Ft. Henry on the 6th. We laid there one day then we moved six miles above to Happy Landing. We stayed there one day. Monday the 10th, the Regiment went on board the steamer D.A. JANUARY and left us teamsters there in the mud. We laid there until Sunday the 16th. We went on board the steamer CHAMPION No. 3. While going up we stopped to wood. While wooding, the WAR EAGLE loaded within a half a mile, when we saw her firng. We paid no attention to it. We thought they was just trying their guns. We soon overtook them and they told us they had been fired into by some Secesh that was hid along the bank......On the 18th we went 10 miles above and went on shore at a place called Pittsburg Landing......They have sent all the sick on the hospital boat, CITY of MEMPHIS; today they are agoing down river.

12., 13., and 14. July and August 1861
"On the seventeenth of August 1861 (14) Capt. Cason had word... that two steamboats [the White Cloud and the McDowell] loaded with troops were coming down the river en route to St. Louis. An ambuscade was... formed on the Howard County side, and almost... opposite Saline City. Here the current of the river sweeps very near to the shore.... Unsuspicious of danger and crowded with a human freight ... the boats... swept swiftly along. A sudden flame leaped out from the bushes ... and then on the crowded decks were terror, confusion, bleeding men and dead men. For nearly an hour Cason fought the boats thus, making of every embankment and earthwork, and of every tree a fortress. Finally a landing was effected and two pieces of cannon hurried ashore, and used for shelling the timber which concealed the Guerrillas. Cason held on. As the infantry advanced he fell back; as the infantry retired he advanced.... Night alone ended the savage duel, the Federal loss being about sixty-two killed and nearly a hundred wounded.' Edwards adds that following the above activities Capt. Cason went South with most of his men. (See also the History of Howard and Cooper Counties, P. 284)

Then most of the Scandinavian Saints (Latter Day Saints-d.) went on board the large steamboat Oceana and sailed up the Mississippi River. Seven of the group died on this trip. On the 7th of March they arrived at St. Louis, Missouri. Here the company was divided. In one of the camps, cholera broke out and a number of the group died at Leavenworth. From there the journey was continued to Salt Lake City, the arrival date being September 7th, 1855.

Many of the old-time dances of the town were given on board steamboats lying
at the leveee here on dark nights on the St. Louisward trip of the boats. The boat carried its own orchestra – colored musicians. The steamers were palatial passenger boats. Hospitality reigned, no admission fee being charged. Some of the old-time steamboat captains who were hosts at these festive occasions of long ago were: Thomas H. Brierly, John Shaw, Joseph Kinney, John La Barge, Joseph La Barge, Patrick Yore, Charles K. Baker, Sr., Benjamin Glime, William Edds, Alexander Gillham, William Baker and P.M. Chouteau and Andrew Windland.