JUNE 2002: BACK AND FORTH ACROSS THE RIVER
The picture accompanying this column is of another item from Brettun & Black’s records. In this case it is an account with L Wells. This would be Lucius Wells who lived where Roland and Nancy Bartscher now live at 912 1st Ave. Among many other things, Lucius Wells ran a ferry across the river, and this slip of paper shows the use Francis Black made of it, in a period of time from October 1850, to January 1851. The writing is pretty legible and we can make out his transactions, revealing some interesting things as well as creating a minor mystery.
The first two items deal with ferrying wheat across the river in September. This would have been shortly after harvest time and Brettun & Black dealt in grain. It would have been sacked wheat. There was no provision for handling large quantities of loose grain in the 1850’s. Black used the upstairs of his store for grain storage.
The third item is the one that opens up a mystery. “Oct 9th ferrying horse & Erastus over and back 80 (cents)”. The wording seems strange. Why would he write “horse & Erastus” instead of “Mr. Erastus & horse”? Furthermore, Erastus was a name commonly given to slaves. Was this, in fact, a horse accompanied by a slave sent across the river and back? If so, why would Brettun & Black pay for this trip? Brettun was a vehement abolitionist and his son-in-law, Francis not as vehement but still anti-slavery. Why would a slave have been in Hampton in 1850? Much less taking a trip across and back on the river, paid for by Brettun & Black? It seems unlikely that these questions will ever be answered. This opens up the chance for some literary minded individual to write a fiction story about all this. Keep in mind that there was a high probability that Brettun was an Underground Railroad Conductor, and it seems there is background here for a good story. I’ll be waiting to see which of you readers does this first. Please hurry. I’m holding my breath!
Looking at the next item: “Oct 14 ferrying 99 sacks of onions” reminds us that the rich bottom land Hampton is built on was perfect for growing onions, and in fact this was done until fairly recent times. Actually, Pleasant Valley was more famous for their onion fields (though they’re down to just one, now-a-days), so it would seem like taking coal to Newcastle, sending more onions over there.
The last two items deal with pork, which was a large operation at Brettun & Black. The December 30 shipment seems to have been barreled pork judging from the wording. Jan 20 was probably 8-butchered hogs, not squealing porkers. Black never butchered on site but instead purchased butchered hogs from farmers.
Notice that Black received $ 1.25 discount on his bill. Also, that the proceeds were divided up, half going to L Wells, ¼ to G R Wells (a brother), and ¼ to S Poston (a son-in-law). We assume they were members of Wells & Co in 1850.
There is another interesting thing about Wells’ Ferry. If you go across the river to where the Ferry would have landed on the Iowa side, you will find a Wells Ferry Road that runs over the bluff into the country, a vestige from 150 years ago.
Ferries were the only way to cross the river in 1850. It was several years before a bridge was built, the famous bridge that the steamer Effie Afton hit and prompted a law suit that Abraham Lincolin took part in, defending the railroad from the steamboat interests that sued, claiming that it was wrong to build a bridge over a navigable river.
Ferries are still with us, of course. The Staten Island Ferry in New York is famous and there are dozens of ferries in many places across the country. A few years ago there was a movement to install an automobile ferry at New Boston since people in that area had to travel a considerable distance to cross the river. I have not heard about the progress of the proposal. In any case we can say that one of the first ferries across the Mississippi River was Well’s Ferry in Hampton.
This was not the only ferry in Hampton, the house where Harriette Gillespie lives, 318,1st Ave, was the residence of one of the members of the Silvis family, which gave the name to the town over the bluff from us. “Ship” Silvis, as he was called, farmed Campbell’s Island (no one living there at that time, and had a ferry large enough for a team and farm equipment, to cross the slough. This wasn’t intended to carry passengers, however. So Hampton has a long history of being a ferryboat port.