15. Monday. Up by 5 1/2. Talks with Lewis & Northberry in
the forepart of the boat, where the carven image of Sam Ward, as
like him as I to Hercules served as figure-head. Northberry s
story how E.B. Ward commenced Captain. Boat aground at Chi-
cago, (name in Indian for Skunk ;) Captain about to abandon her,
Ward disputed it, and they fought as to who should command. Ward
the victor.) 7 o clock and we are laying at Marquette, a little,
ten years back located place, named after the Ancient Missionary.
Why hasn t Rene Mesnard stood godfather to a town yet ? Twelve
miles back are Iron mines. Disembarking with Northberry, Lewis,
Mr Elrath and others at the little unfinished pier, the piles of
which cast reflections like wiggling worms in the rippling lake water;
we gymnastically progressed on beams which an inebriated wooden-leg-
ged man would have found difficulty in crossing, to the land. Up
a bank, and into a place where Iron, the bones of the Giant Ci-
vilization was being wrought into dumpy bass or blooms. A ponderous
hammer worked in simple, primitive manner by steam
a man astride a huge roughened bar of metal, turning it round,
so that the strokes might descend and sever the heated
end. Big furnaces fed by charred wood. Twas a big shed, this
edifice, a chimney on the rock behind, with a sort of viaduct
leading to t. Near were masses of ore. We got several spe-
cimens, mostly very pure, [unclear word] pure metal. Back into another
compartment of shed, where the ore was bruised into powder, by four
or five piles, steamworked from above, one being in a rough trough
below. Marquette is but a few houses, folks fish a little,
but chiefly ply Iron-delving. Aboard, breakfast, an attempt
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Six: page sixty-seven |
| Description: | Describes his arrival at the mining town of Marquette, Michigan, on the ''Sam Ward.'' |
| Date: | 1853-08-15 |
| Subject: | Great Lakes (North America); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Lewis (passenger); McElrath, Thomson; Mesnard, Rene; Mining; Northberry; Sam. Ward (Ship); Travel; Ward, E.B.; Ward, Sam |
| Coverage (City/State): | Marquette, [Michigan] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-02 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Six |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of Gunn's writing and drawing work in New York, a visit to the Catskill Mountains, attending the wedding of his friend Charles Damoreau (Brown), a visit to the Crystal Palace in New York, his friend Lotty's difficult marriage to John Whytal, a sailing trip around Lake Superior, a visit to Mackinac Island in Michigan, a visit to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and a journey by horseback from Kentucky to Louisiana with friends. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Marriage; Native Americans; Publishers and publishing; Slavery; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Michigan; Wisconsin; Ohio; Kentucky; Mississippi; Alabama; Louisiana |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
