Information
Sheet
R Anchor Milling Company.
110 Shipping records, 1897-1911.
Four
volumes.
MICROFILMThis collection consists of freight
lists, cash book, and weekly time book of boats operated on the Osage River by
the Anchor Milling Company of Tuscumbia in
The freight records of the Anchor Milling
Company were loaned for microfilming by Homer C. Wright of Tuscumbia. His father, C. B. Wright, was a boatman on
the Osage for many years, and was clerk of the steamer J. R. Wells. The firm’s
vessels carried many tons of grain from the upper Osage country to the Anchor
Mill at Tuscumbia, and often hauled the finished product to
The records in this collection are
primarily those of the J. R. Wells,
but the Dauntless is mentioned, and
there are freight lists for the Ruth
after 1910. The boats used barges in tow
for bulk commodities, but they also served as regular Osage packets, often
handling express freight from the Missouri Pacific Railroad at Bagnell. The itemized freight lists indicate the
varied cargoes carried by the boats, which on any single trip might include
grain, lumber, eggs, livestock, agricultural implements, and, once, in 1906,
an X-ray machine bound for a physician in Linn Creek. The freight lists also include annual
summaries of the trade on the Osage, and the summary for 1906 contains a
two-page narrative which describes a trip to Linn Creek in October. The river was low, and the J. R. Wells and its barge were
constantly grounding in the shallow water.
Frequent exertions were required to re-float them. The brief account provides an interesting
description of a routine, if strenuous, run up the Osage.
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