05/08/2026
As an added bonus to our members, NLHA will periodically post articles from past issues of our Journal. Over the next week, watch for articles from the NLHA Journal from 1976. While some libraries have issues going back 50 years or more, we want to make sure we use every avenue to share North Louisiana history with others. If you are not a member, we encourage you to check the "Photos" file for a membership application to support us in this effort.
The first article is by a Louisiana Tech student who researched Tensas Parish steamboats as part of her M.A. degree requirements., winning the Association's Overdyke Award for graduate students. She also served as assistant editor of the Journal from 1975-1976.
Steamboats on the Rivers: Lifeline of Tensas Parish
by Martha Holoubek Fitzgerald
Graduate Student Winner of Overdyke Award, 1976
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At the time of the Louisiana Purchase, that area in northeastern Louisiana which is presently Tensas Parish was largely a wilderness. It was incorporated as part of Concordia Parish in 1805 when the political structure of Orleans Territory was organized. Densmore's Landing, on the present site of St. Joseph, remained the only major settlement in the heavily-forested area between the Tensas and Mississippi Rivers. The primary means of access into and out of this country was by the Mississippi. Inland travel was accomplished by pirogue through the swamps and bayous, or by foot over the Indian trails.
Several towns sprang up in the region during the first decades of the nineteenth century, largely as centers of the plantation system then being established. The only effective means of shipping cotton and other products to market was by flatboat and keelboat. Economic growth in northeast Louisiana was sluggish, and would remain so until the 1830's.
The sudden appearance of steamboats on the Mississippi River in the second decade of the century furnished that vital spark necessary to bring to life the sleepy river towns of northeastern Louisiana. By 1830, a second major settlement had been founded -- Waterproof, about two and one-half miles south of its present site. As steamboats carried in the tide of American immigration, more towns were settled. In 1843, Tensas Parish was incorporated as a separate political unit. Seven years later, the United States census recorded a total population of 9040 inhabitants for the area; by 1860, the total had increased to 16,078. For sixty years, steamboats were the lifeline of Tensas Parish to the outside world.
Early prototypes of the steamboat operated on the lower Mississippi between New Orleans and Natchez. Above this point (some twenty miles south of Waterproof), the river was plagued by swift, narrow channels. The dense forest that stretched from Tensas Parish, Louisiana, northward to St. Louis, Missouri, was a further source of peril. Trees, logs, and other driftwood came down the river and became tangled together; many became rooted in the river bottom, forming underwater snags.
In December, 1811, the first steamboat on the Mississippi River, the New Orleans, arrived at Natchez on her maiden voyage to New Orleans. The astonished inhabitants of the river towns through which it passed rushed to the bank to view this strange phenomenon. Built by Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston and financed by Nicholas Roosevelt, the New Orleans plied the waters of the lower Mississippi for two and a half years.
The owners of the New Orleans were the recipients of a monopoly to build and navigate all steam- or fire-powered craft in the waterways of Orleans Territory for a period of eighteen years. In 1814, Henry Miller Shreve, the gentleman responsible for revolutionizing the steamboat industry, arrived in Louisiana aboard his own steamboat, the Enterprise. Shortly thereafter, he succeeded in having Roosevelt's exclusive franchise declared null and void in a United States court. Over the next few years, Shreve designed and constructed a new vessel to cope with the peculiar characteristics of the Mississippi River above Natchez.
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The Washington, finished by Shreve in 1816, was designed along the general principle of the shallow-draft keelboat but was much broader in beam. The driving wheel was placed at the rear of the vessel and the engines were located at deck level instead of below. With these functional modifications, a steamboat could more easily maneuver the shoals and snags of the upper Mississippi. Shreve's original design was quickly copied by others and, by 1820, a total of sixty-two steamers had been launched on the Mississippi and its tributaries.
Before the towns of northeast Louisiana could truly prosper from the industry, however, still another design had to come off Shreve's drawing board. The Heliopolis, launched in 1827, was Shreve's prototype for a twin-hulled "snagboat." Derricks and spars were mounted on the deck of the vessel to remove wooden obstacles from its path:
"Wedging a snag in those iron jaws, she either wrenched it free or broke it off from the river bottom. Grappling hooks lifted the timber and a clanking windlass brought it aboard. Power saws cut it into disposable lengths, and rollers passed it through the tunneled vessel and out the stern. Waterlogged roots and stumps sank harmless to the river bottom; salvaged cordwood was fed into the furnaces. A day's work cleared out snags that had imperiled navigation for thirty years."
So efficient was this type of craft that by 1834, steamboats were able to run the channels of the Mississippi above Natchez swiftly and safely, even at night.
With the clearing of the river channels off northeastern Louisiana, the riverfront became a scene of frenzied activity. Tensas Parish, a producer of cotton in abundance, was one of the richest regions in Louisiana before the Civil War. Steamboats engaged in keen competition for her trade. The riverboats brought goods and supplies to the parish "front," also new settlers, mail, and several forms of entertainment. The meandering course of the Mississippi and the variable height of the water from spring to fall rendered many landing sites unsuitable. The few important landings were at Waterproof, St. Joseph, Hardtimes, Buck Ridge (at Point Pleasant), and Ashwood. Boats of very light draft also operated along the Tensas River and in some of the lakes.
Steamboat lines carried the United States mail under contract with the federal government. They paid messengers to run on the "mail-boats," securing and dispatching mail to the local representatives of the Post Office Department. At each of the main ports, a landing-keeper was employed to receive shipments of goods and to oversee the placement of cotton, cotton seed, and other products aboard.
The planters of northeastern Louisiana frequently boarded downstream packets to confer with commission merchants and to partake of the social life of New Orleans. The fare to New Orleans from Natchez was fifteen dollars; the return trip upstream cost thirty dollars.
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The trip was made leisurely, with no particular concern as to the time of arrival at the destination. The passengers gathered over card-tables or at the bar.
Certain rules of conduct were established for the passengers by the captain of each boat. One Captain Gale set fines and penalties for such transgressions as smoking in the cabins, speaking to the man at the helm, lying down in one's bunk with shoes or boots on, and entering a lady's cabin without permission of the lady!
The inhabitants of the river towns of Tensas Parish flocked downtown whenever the arrival of a steamboat was imminent, in order to hear the latest news from abroad and to see who might be returning home from travels. Should an itinerant preacher chance to be aboard, he might be depended upon to conduct an impromptu religious service upon the bank. If the boat were lying in for the night, the people might enjoy other forms of diversion. The singing and dancing of roustabouts were an especial source of amusement.
African American men were the most durable group of deckhands, judged superior to German and Irish immigrants at this type of work. Singing, dancing, and playing the banjo served to lighten the burden of a roustabout's life. Their music expressed wistful, mournful moods, and recorded dramatic moments of steamboating:
"I am the man that can raise so long, Raised 10,000 (lbs. of cotton) at Lake St. John, of Lawd. Oh boat's up the river and she won't come down. She got a head lead uv water and she droppin' on down.
Oh, tell my baby don't be oneasy. I'll be home someday . . ."
Mississippi riverboats proved to be "an incomparable medium for aspiring politicians, electioneers, and stump speakers" to reach a wide audience. This new breed of spirited politician began to appear in Louisiana in the 1840's. Another type of entertainment appeared on the inner rivers -- the "medicine show." After tying up at a landing, the "doctor" or "professor" would bring out a banjo-strummer or a buck-and-wing dancer to attract the crowds. Then he would launch into a prepared spiel, declaiming the merits of an elixir or other panacea.
In 1831, the forerunner of the magnificent showboats began running along the Mississippi. Three generations of the multi-talented Chapman family launched the first Floating Theatre. Later known as the Steamboat Theatre and Chapman's Floating Palace, this boat made short runs of twenty to thirty miles a day, playing one night stands at smaller river landings like St. Joseph, and laying over a full week at Natchez and larger towns. With candles for footlights and board benches for seating, the Chapmans presented English drama to the Louisiana settlers. The ticket office took in apples, potatoes, and bacon, in addition to cash.
The first floating circus to stop at landings in Tensas Parish was the "Spaulding and Rogers Circus and Floating Palace." An 1852 advertisement for this extravaganza glowingly described the seating arrangements:
"All can participate in the pleasure of beholding the gymnastic sports, free from rain, fanned by a thousand breezes, ensconced luxuriously in arm chairs or lounging on easy sofas, with chef d'oeuvres of painters and sculptors on every side, to keep up an illusion of fairy enchantment."
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Along with news and entertainment, steamboats occasionally brought disease to the Tensas Parish riverfront. During the 1830's and 1840's, a cholera epidemic swept across the country; every steamboat on the Mississippi was infected and spread the contagion at every landing.
Thirty years after the appearance of the New Orleans, 450 steamboats were plying the Mississippi waterways. Two decades later, steamboat traffic was brought temporarily to a halt by the outbreak of war.
During the Civil War, commercial navigation was greatly restricted, largely because steamboats were too easily captured. Many vessels, however, were requisitioned for direct use by either the Confederate or Union army.
In 1861, United States President Abraham Lincoln ordered a blockade of the Mississippi River to cut off a major southern supply route. This action greatly disrupted the lives of Tensas Parish citizens. Because no goods could arrive from New Orleans and no products could be shipped there, the people were forced to practice strict economy. Mail-boats, bringing news of the war and letters from loved ones in uniform, arrived irregularly if at all.
With the arrival of the Federal fleet on the lower Mississippi, the cotton industry in northeast Louisiana was thrown into disorder. As the campaign for Vicksburg progressed, many plantation owners in Tensas Parish piled their cotton along the levee and atop Indian mounds and burned it, to avoid its being seized by the Yankees. A number of planters moved inland to escape Federal raids; their abandoned plantations were also liable to seizure by the Union.
During the war, Tensas Parish was temporarily the base of operations for U. S. Brigadier General Ellet's ram fleet. This steam-powered squadron was organized to break up Confederate guerrilla activities along the banks of the Mississippi. In 1864, four hundred marines serving under Ellet were ambushed by Confederate Captain Joseph C. Lee of the Missouri guerrillas. The Federals suffered heavy casualties and took refuge in their boats. For the duration of the war, the marines raided plantations along the river for cotton.
Control of the Mississippi had been secured by the Union in 1862; shortly thereafter, commercial steamboat service was resumed on a port-to-port basis. In 1863, the lower Mississippi was reopened to traffic from the Ohio and the Missouri Rivers.
The last few decades of the nineteenth century witnessed the highest development of the steamboat industry, along the Tensas Parish front, as all along the Mississippi. It was the era of the famous showboats, the largest and most magnificent steamers ever built. An occasion of great excitement at this time was the legendary race between the Robert E. Lee and the Natchez.
On June 30, 1870, residents of the parish crowded the riverfront to view the event and laid bets on their particular favorite.
The captain of the Natchez made few preparations for the big event, loading his craft with several tons of freight and collecting several thousand dollars in fares from passengers. Captain John W. Cannon of the Lee, however, stripped his boat down to bare essentials and admitted only a few select passengers aboard. Arrangements were made for supplies of highly combustible pine knots to be stored at strategic points along the route for refueling. Furthermore, the Lee carried "a large supply of spoiled fat bacon, rosin, pitch, tallow candles and other combustibles" to stimulate its boilers.
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The Lee reached Natchez, Mississippi, in the record time of sixteen hours and thirty-six minutes. The Natchez was only fourteen minutes behind. Some 25,000 people gathered on the bluff to catch a glimpse of the racers. In the waters off Tensas Parish, the Natchez began to gain ground. It was a tight, thrilling race. Both of the vessels had to make periodic stops and each ran aground more than once. Finally, on July 4th, the Robert E. Lee reached St. Louis, only three and one-half hours ahead of her opponent, with allowances made for time lost in repairs.
Despite the ravages of war and the uncertainty of Radical Reconstruction, cotton remained the principal product of Tensas Parish. In the 1870's a price war pulled the cotton freight rate down from one dollar to fifty cents a bale. The editor of the North Louisiana Journal, published in St. Joseph, asked his readers to support the local packet, the Governor Allen, against the monopolies in the price war.
The price of a steamboat ticket from New Orleans to St. Joseph fell to about $7.50 in the 1870's. Steamboats arrived at the Tensas Parish front on a regular basis. The following is a schedule of arrivals at St. Joseph one week in 1873:
Coming Up Natchez - Monday A. M. Robert E. Lee - Thursday A. M. Belle Lee - Thursday P. M. Pargoud - Saturday P. M.
Going Down Pargoud - Monday night Belle Lee - Monday night Natchez - Wednesday morning Robert E. Lee - Saturday morning
In 1879, a large portion of the rural black population of the parish departed by boat for St. Louis -- "Kansas Fever" had reached Tensas Parish. "Kansas Fever" was a general migration northward on the part of dissatisfied Southern blacks in the vain hope of obtaining homestead privileges in the Midwest. This movement reached its peak in northeast Louisiana and Mississippi during April. Approximately five thousand African Americans were observed sitting or standing on the levees between the towns of St. Joseph and Vidalia, awaiting transportation northward.
In 1880, the residents of Tensas Parish were offered a round-trip excursion on board the Natchez to the jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi River, for a cost of twenty dollars. The Centennial Cotton Exposition of 1884 occasioned another flurry of steamboat travel. Northeast Louisiana planters and their families numbered among the million visitors to New Orleans for the hundredth anniversary of the export of Louisiana cotton.
Passenger accommodations had greatly improved over the early days of steamboating, when women were installed in cabins in the hold and men in a single room above. The stateroom system had evolved, so called because of the practice of naming each cabin after a state of the Union. (The crew's quarters, the largest room on the ship, was always called the "Texas" cabin.)
The Mississippi showboats furnished the only opportunity many Louisianians had to sample luxury and fine drama. Their interior appointments were magnificent -- gleaming silver and crystal, plush red carpeting, bright white paint and gilding. Their staff and crew were generally highly competent; the mulatto chefs were often cooks of truly inspired skill. Famous touring stars from the east and west coast were booked on these shows, together with various minor talents. Further amusement was to be found in the ballrooms or at the card-tables.
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At the height of the showboat era in Louisiana, the extension of railway lines across the South made it feasible for famous entertainers to travel inland, playing a series of one-night stands after a week-long engagement at New Orleans. The stately showboats were forced to bow before this sort of pressure, and passed slowly out of existence. By the end of the century, only the cheaper, shabbier showboats were left.
At least ten of these weatherbeaten showboats stopped in Tensas Parish from 1893 to 1909: the Floating Palace, the New Sensation, the New Sensation Nos. 1 and 2, the New Era, the Water Queen, the Sunny South, the Goldenrod, the New Showboat, and the Cotton Blossom. The theatre was built on a barge. It contained a stage, boxes, and an orchestra, with a balcony being reserved for African Americans. These barges were often pulled by gasoline-powered tugs.
Despite the decline in quality, showboats were still the primary source of entertainment to the residents of northeast Louisiana:
"I can conceive of nothing that created more excitement than the first blast of the calliope (calli-ope we called it) which practically every showboat that called itself a showboat was equipped with. Up until the turn of the century the showboat was the only entertainment that the towns along the Mississippi River had available unless you wanted to make a trip to Natchez or Vicksburg for a theatrical show in town. By the time you had paid your transportation [sic] and hotel bill in addition to the ticket for the show, you were set back quite a little.
The average price of a showboat [sic] ticket was fifty cents and those who did not have the price at the moment could always raise that much to attend the show."
The tributary trade of northeast Louisiana reached maturity during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Captain Stoughten Cooley and his son, Captain L. V. Cooley, dominated Tensas River trade until 1880. They made use of a "scow-bow" boat of shallow draft, equipped with stern wheels that operated independently of one another.
In the declining days of the industry, at least two major steamboat disasters occurred in Tensas Parish. In 1882, the Robert E. Lee burned at the water line while at port opposite Hardtimes Landing. Over thirty lives were lost, many more were injured. "Bodies of the dead, some washed ashore and others floating, were picked up all along the Tensas front for days after."
In 1902, the steamer Providence, capsized in Lake Palmyra, twenty miles north of St. Joseph. It had been blown from its mooring at Ione Landing during a tornado. Twenty-two people were killed, eighteen of them African Americans.
As late as 1901 and 1902, steamboats were still operating on Lake St. Joseph. A movement to drain the lake was successfully opposed so that steamboat service could continue.
The Natchez and Vicksburg Packet Company produced some of the last packets to operate out of Tensas Parish. The Rebstock and the Minnie plied the waters between Natchez and St. Joseph, later on to Vicksburg. They were joined by the Charles D. Shaw, the Correal Goldman, the St. Joseph, and the Senator Cordill. The latter, built in 1902, was the most elegant of the local packets, and was finally placed out of commission in 1934.
In 1904, the railroad finally reached Tensas Parish: a branch of the Missouri Pacific Railway Line touched points in Waterproof, St. Joseph, and Newellton. Henceforth, the days of the steamboat were numbered. In 1908 it was estimated that travel between St. Joseph and New Orleans was only twelve hours by rail, forty-one hours by boat. After the Senator Cordill was put out of commission, the river traffic remaining on the waterways of Tensas Parish was gasoline-, not steam-powered, craft.
For nearly a century, steamboats had served as the lifeblood of Tensas Parish, providing the main facilities for travel, communication, and entertainment, for shipping goods to market and returning supplies to plantations and industries. The economic growth of the parish had flourished along with the steamboat industry, until the early years of the twentieth century. Ultimately, the vital force of the community was transferred to the steam-powered locomotive.
Notes
1. A Compendium of the Ninth United States Census (Washington, 1872), 54.
2. Walter Havighurst, Voices on the River: The Story of the Mississippi Waterways (New York, 1964), 59.
3. Ibid., 72.
4. Tensas Gazette, January 8, 1960; Thomas W. Wade, Collection of Research Materials on Tensas Parish (History Department, Louisiana Tech University), n.p.
5. Ibid.
6. Harry Sinclair Drago, The Steamboaters: From the Early Side-Wheelers to the Big Packets (New York, 1967), vii.
7. Lake St. John is an oxbow lake of the Mississippi River located approximately five miles south of Waterproof.
8. Mary Wheeler, Steamboatin' Days: Folk Songs of the River Packet Era (Baton Rouge, 1944), 27.
9. Tensas Gazette, March 3, 1933; Wade, Collection.
10. Drago, Steamboaters, 36.
11. Havighurst, Mississippi Waterways, 236.
12. Frederick W. Williamson, Lillian Herron Williamson, and George T. Goodman, Northeast Louisiana: A Narrative History of the Ouachita River Valley and the Concordia Country (Monroe, 1939), 228.
13. Havighurst, Mississippi Waterways, 131.
14. Williamson, Northeast Louisiana, 206.
15. John D. Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana (Baton Rouge, 1963), 392-394.
16. Tensas Gazette, March 3, 1933.
17. Robert Dabney Calhoun, A History of Concordia Parish, Louisiana (New Orleans, 1932), 167.
18. North Louisiana Journal, April 26, 1879; William Ivy Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics 1877-1900 (Baton Rouge, 1969), 86.
19. Wade, Collection.
20. North Louisiana Journal, October 19, 1872; Wade, Collection.
21. J. S. Johnston, "The Passing Showboat" (unpublished manuscript, incomplete copy), n.p.
22. Ibid.
23. Williamson, Northeast Louisiana, 222.
24. Tensas Gazette, March 3, 1933; Wade, Collection.
25. Wade, Collection.
26. Ibid.
