LA BARGE AGAIN IN OPPOSITION.
With a view to entering, upon a large scale, into the newly developing
business at the head waters of the Missouri, the firm of La Barge,
Harkness & Co. was formed in St. Louis in the winter of 1861–62. The
members were Joseph La Barge, Eugene Jaccard, James Harkness, John
B. La Barge, and Charles E. Galpin. Each partner put in ten thousand
dollars. Two steamboats were purchased--Captain La Barge’s boat, the
_Emilie_, and a light-draft boat, the _Shreveport_. In the division of
duties and responsibilities among the partners Jaccard was to attend to
the affairs of the firm in St. Louis, the La Barges were to manage the
steamboat business, Galpin was to look after the trade along the river,
and Harkness was to go to the mines with an outfit of merchandise, and
was to remain there and develop a business with those rapidly growing
communities.
[Sidenote: VOYAGE OF 1862.]
When it was known that Captain La Barge was to make a spring trip to
Benton, he was overwhelmed with applications, not merely from those who
wanted to go to the mines, but from business men and capitalists who
wished to join the enterprise. He could easily have organized a capital
of a million dollars, but he adhered to his first plan and pushed his
preparations with vigor. The _Shreveport_ was first gotten ready to
sail and left port April 30, 1862. Captain John La Barge was master.
The _Emilie_ followed on the 14th of May.
As a performance in steamboating the voyage of the _Emilie_ was a great
success. She was loaded to the guards with some 350 tons of freight and
160 passengers. Captain La Barge himself had never been more than a
hundred miles above Fort Union; yet he made the whole trip, 2300 miles,
in a little less than thirty-two days, and would have finished it
sooner but for the fact that he had to help the _Shreveport_ the last
hundred miles of the distance. The boats arrived at Fort Benton at noon
June 17, and at 6 A. M., June 19, the _Emilie_ started down the river,
reaching St. Louis on the 3d of July. Her speed up averaged 71 miles
per day; down, 152 miles.
[Sidenote: A DESPERATE GAME.]
An exciting incident of the trip was the passing of the American Fur
Company’s boat, the _Spread Eagle_. The new opposition of La Barge,
Harkness & Co. was a formidable one, and the Company bestirred itself
with unusual vigor to be first on the ground with its annual outfit.
The _Spread Eagle_ left St. Louis with three days the start, but was
overtaken by the _Emilie_ near Fort Berthold. For the next two days
the boats were near each other most of the time. The day after leaving
Berthold the _Emilie_ passed her rival for good. When the officers of
the _Spread Eagle_ saw that they were beaten they played a desperate
game, which showed to what lengths the Company’s servants would go when
it was a matter of rivalry in trade.
[Sidenote: THE “SPREAD EAGLE” RACE.]
At the point where the race took place there was a towhead (a newly
formed island) which at the stage of the river then prevailing was
covered with water. The main channel, and at ordinary stages the only
channel, passed on the right-hand side going up, and this channel the
_Spread Eagle_ took. But the water was now high enough to give a good
channel on the other side of the towhead. As the distance by this
channel was somewhat shorter, and as the _Emilie_ was the faster boat
anyway, it was a good chance to get well ahead and out of the way. La
Barge promptly seized the opportunity. The pilot of the _Spread Eagle_
with quick eye realized that he had been out-maneuvered, and seeing no
other way to prevent the _Emilie’s_ passage, determined upon wrecking
her. He accordingly left the main channel and made for the chute that
the _Emilie_ was entering. He steamed alongside of her for a moment,
but found that he was losing ground.[52] The boats were scarcely fifty
feet apart, when the pilot of the _Spread Eagle_, seeing that he could
not make it, deliberately put his rudder to port, and plunged the bow
of the boat into the _Emilie_ immediately opposite her boilers. Several
of the guards were broken and the danger of wreck was imminent. La
Barge was in the pilot-house at the time and was not looking for such a
move, for he did not believe that even the American Fur Company would
play so desperate a game when human life was at stake. He instantly
called out to Bailey, the pilot of the _Spread Eagle_, to stop his
engines and drop his boat back or he would put a bullet through him.
The passengers likewise became thoroughly aroused, and some of them got
their arms and threatened to use them if the _Spread Eagle_ did not
withdraw. These threats were effective; the _Spread Eagle_ fell to the
rear and was seen no more on the voyage. She was four days behind at
Benton, and a week on the whole trip. She lost four men on one of the
rapids by the grossest carelessness. A crew had gone to the head of the
rapids to plant a deadman,[53] and having finished this work dropped
down to the boat in their yawl. Instead of passing alongside of the
steamer they made directly for the bow, and on reaching the boat the
swift current instantly rolled the yawl under and the crew were drowned.
[Sidenote: LA BARGE’S GENEROSITY.]
When the _Spread Eagle_ returned to St. Louis charges were preferred
against Bailey for having attempted to wreck the _Emilie_. He was
brought to trial before the steamboat inspector and his license was
canceled. It was a hard blow to him, for steamboating was his trade,
and he had a large family to support. About a month afterward he went
to La Barge saying that he had been trying to get the inspector to
reinstate him, but that he would not do it except upon La Barge’s
recommendation. Bailey admitted his guilt, but said that he had acted
at the instigation of the Company’s agents, and he begged La Barge to
reinstate him for the sake of his wife and children. The Captain was
never good at resisting appeals of this sort, and he accordingly went
to the inspector and got Bailey reinstated.
[Sidenote: CHOUTEAU IN DOUBT.]
When the _Emilie_ was reported as back from her trip, the old gentleman
Chouteau sent his carriage to bring La Barge to the office.
“At what point did you turn back?” he asked when La Barge arrived, for
the phenomenally quick trip indicated that the _Emilie_ did not reach
Fort Benton.
“Fort Benton, sir,” replied La Barge.
“Tut, tut! I know you could not have done that. Tell me candidly where
you left your trip.”
“Fort Benton, sir.”
“We’ll see about it. I don’t believe it, don’t believe it.”
“Sorry you doubt my word, but it is nevertheless true.”
“Where did you leave the _Spread Eagle_?”
“’Way below Benton; found her cordelling.”
“Well, if you got to Fort Benton you made a good trip; but I don’t
believe it.”
As soon as Captain La Barge reached St. Louis he loaded his boat with
merchandise for the new posts along the river, intending to go back
until he should meet the _Shreveport_, a much lighter-draft vessel, and
transfer the cargo to her for the rest of the trip. The _Shreveport_
left Fort Benton July 6, and met the _Emilie_ at Sioux City. The
transfer of cargo and passengers was made, and the _Emilie_ returned to
St. Louis. The _Shreveport_ went as high as the mouth of Milk River,
the farthest of the new posts except that near Fort Benton. After the
_Emilie’s_ return from her second voyage she went to work for the
government, carrying stores from St. Louis to Memphis, and remained in
this service all winter.
The river portion of the season’s operations of the new firm had been a
complete success. Three large cargoes had been sent up the river, two
to Fort Benton and one to the lower posts. Of these posts there were
four--La Framboise, near old Fort Pierre; another near Fort Berthold;
Fort Stuart, near the mouth of Poplar River, and Fort Galpin, near the
mouth of Milk River. It remains to notice what was done at Fort Benton
and in the projected expedition to the mines.
[Sidenote: FORT LA BARGE.]
The operations at Fort Benton and beyond were placed in the hands of
Mr. Harkness. The first step was to build a post at Fort Benton, where
it was intended to locate the principal establishment of the firm. The
site chosen was near the spot where the Grand Union Hotel later stood.
The work was begun June 28, Mrs. La Barge driving the first stake. The
inclosure was made three hundred feet long by two hundred feet wide,
and the post was named Fort La Barge.
[Sidenote: HARKNESS VISITS THE MINES.]
Before the _Shreveport_ set out to return to St. Louis, a considerable
party made an excursion to the Great Falls of the Missouri. Among them
were Father De Smet, Eugene Jaccard, member of the firm; Giles Filley
of St. Louis, and his son, Frank; Mrs. John La Barge, Miss Harkness,
W. G. Harkness, Tom La Barge, and Mrs. Culbertson, the Indian wife of
the noted trader. Mrs. La Barge and Miss Harkness are supposed to be
the first white women to have seen the Great Falls of the Missouri.
Four days after their return the _Shreveport_ left for St. Louis,
taking with them all who had come up only for the trip.
[Sidenote: LA BARGE CITY.]
The _Shreveport_ having gone, and affairs at Fort La Barge being
well under way, Harkness set out July 9 with an ox train laden with
assorted merchandise for the mines in the Deer Lodge Valley. When the
boat left St. Louis it was expected to go to the Salmon River mines,
but the recent discoveries in Montana gave a better prospect nearer
home. In fact the demand for goods, even at Fort Benton, was brisk,
and the firm had carried on a thriving trade ever since the arrival of
the boats. Harkness followed the usual trail up the Missouri River and
Little Prickly Pear Creek, through the broad valley on the border of
which the city of Helena now stands, and thence to the valley of the
Deer Lodge. Nothing of unusual note transpired on the trip. Harkness
did not like the experience, except the trout fishing. His journal is
full of complaints at the hardship he was compelled to undergo, and
he plaintively asks if he “will ever live to reap the benefit.” He
generally “nooned at 11 A. M.” in order to “catch trout for dinner.”
He reached the Deer Lodge Valley July 23, near the point where the
town of that name now stands.[54] Here he found a fellow passenger on
the _Emilie_, Nicholas Wall of St. Louis, who had reached the mines
some days before, and who was destined to figure prominently in the
future affairs of La Barge, Harkness & Co.
After remaining in this section and prospecting around for eleven days,
Harkness grew disgusted at the prospect, placed such of his goods as
he did not sell in the hands of Nick Wall to be sold on commission,
and set out for the Missouri “glad to be on the road home.” On the
Sun River he met the Northern Overland Expedition from St. Paul. He
visited the Great Falls on his way down, and arrived at Fort La Barge
August 18. Harkness was now “tired and out of spirits,” and “adjusted
his expense accounts and turned over everything to the store.” He had
evidently had enough of this kind of life, and forthwith ordered “a
boat built to go down the river.” The boat was launched August 26 and
was christened the _Maggie_. Harkness lost no time in getting away,
and left Fort La Barge at 4 A. M. on the 28th. No incidents occurred
on this trip which are of much interest. The party reached Omaha
September 30, where Harkness “sold the _Maggie_ for five dollars,” and
took passage on the _Robert Campbell_ to St. Joseph. From that point he
went by rail and the Mississippi River to St. Louis, where he arrived
October 6.
[Sidenote: INCOMPETENT HANDS.]
The foregoing details, taken entirely from the diary of Harkness, show
in what unfit hands the important business of the company in the upper
country had been intrusted. From his arrival at Fort Benton until his
departure was only two months and a half, including a trip of several
hundred miles to the Montana mining regions. Only eleven days did he
spend in establishing his trade in that section, the most important
point of all, and then practically gave his goods away to Nick Wall,
for the company never received a cent for anything left with that
gentleman. Yet Harkness was the partner who was to remain in the upper
country two years. “He was back in St. Louis almost as soon as I was,”
said La Barge, with just indignation, in commenting on the affair.
[Sidenote: FIRST SEASON’S OPERATIONS.]
Such were the first season’s operations of the firm of La Barge,
Harkness & Co. In most respects the firm had made a brilliant
beginning. The prospects in the river portion of the business were all
that could be asked. Only Harkness’ weak management of his part of the
enterprise can be criticised. He was not the man for the place, and
lacked the courage and hardihood for that kind of work, and he threw
away an opportunity from which a more enterprising man would have made
a fortune.