Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage) [Paperback]

George Byron Merrick (Author)

Book Description

Series: Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage | Publication Date: September 4, 2001

George Byron Merrick chronicles the entire panorama of steamboat life he experienced in the mid-1800s, where he started as a cabin boy and worked up to cub pilot on the mighty Mississippi. Originally published in 1909, Merrick's narrative matches lively stories about gamblers, shipwrecks, and steamboat races with rich descriptions of river life and steamboat operations.

George Byron Merrick (1841-1931) grew up in Prescott, Wisconsin, at the junction of the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers. After nine years of steamboating, he volunteered for the Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil War before settling into life as a newspaper editor and publisher.

Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Series

Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press (September 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816639434
• ISBN-13: 978-0816639434
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great personal account!, March 3, 2002

By 

R. Blomberg "vibraphonusrex" (Kenosha, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage) (Paperback)

Thank goodness someone has had the good sense to reprint this classic book about steamboating on the upper Mississippi! George Merrick relates his personal experiences as a steamboat pilot during the heyday of steamboating with stories about the boats, towns, and people of the stretch of river between St. Louis and St. Paul. I grew up in that area, and found his recollections fascinating. I learned a lot about the history of the towns along the river, and about the rich tradition of steamboating. Imagine piloting a 500 ton boat down a winding, wild river in the dead of night with no headlight, moonlight, or navigation aids!! Captain Merrick tells how he did it! A must for anyone who is interested in steamboating or the history of industrial expansion to the West.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: Recollections of a Steam, June 4, 2004

By 

Nigel Clark (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage) (Paperback)

A mine of information about the "Golden Era" of Steamboats on the Upper Mississippi River. One of those rare books that does not leave the reader with more unanswered questions than when one started reading. With no wasted words one gets a real feeling of how it was living between 1840 and 1870 as a "Riverman". Along with Charles Edward Russell's "A-Rafting on the Mississip" I would recommend it as a base for anyone doing research on the subject. For true adventure lovers it is exciting reading in it's own right...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable history & a good read, too, November 3, 2004

By 

J. OBRIANT (Gilroy, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage) (Paperback)

There are a number of parallels between the lives of Samuel Clemens (i.e., Mark Twain) and George Merrick. Both grew up in towns along the Mississippi River, both first worked as typesetters, and both became river pilots. And Merrick's writing is nothing to sneeze at, either.

Twain's "Life On the Mississippi" gives us a pretty full picture of steamboating from St. Louis to New Orleans. Merrick's "Old Times on the Upper Mississippi" does the same from St. Louis to the head of navigation at St. Paul, and it does so in a readable and personable style that keeps the reader interested. And there are none of the long, tangential stories like those Twain stuck into his book in order to bring it to the number of pages promised by the book agents who sold it door to door before it was published.

Long out of print (I searched for a decade for my first edition copy), "Old Times on the Upper Mississippi" is once again available. It belongs in the library of any serious student of river history.