CAPTAIN GEORGE WINANS 221 cont During this time he he had owned the steamers 'Admiral,'C.W. Cowley,' 'Dan Thayer,' 'Frank,' 'julia,' 'Mars,' 'Neptune,' 'John H. Douglas,' 'May Libby,' 'St.Croix,' 'Pathfinder,' 'Sam Atlee,' 'Satelite l,' 'Satelitell,' 'Saturn,' 'Saturn ll,' 'Silas Wright,' and 'Zalus Davis,' and served as master and pilot on many others including the 'Union,' 'Alvira,' 'Buckeye,' 'Chippewa Falls,' 'J.W.Van Sant l,' 'Pearl,' 'G.H.Wilson,' Lone Star,' 'Mountain Belle,' 'City of Winona,' 'A.J. Whitney,' 'Jas. Means,' and WymanX.' Captain Winans was the first pilot to try to run a raft with a steamboat.In September,1863, he chartered a little side-wheel geared boat of only twenty-nine tons; hitched her into the stern of a lumber raft at Reads Landing and started for Hannibal. He pudently had secured a good bow crew to work the forward end and he also had men to form a full stern crew if the steamboat failed to handle her end. Owing to the lack of a rig or machine to change or control the position of the boat behind the raft they soon got in trouble and before going ten miles, he hadthe boat go back to Read; his crew shipped up the stern oars and they proceede in the usual way to their destination, Hannibal, Missouri. But Captain Winan's idea was correct; it only needed working out. The next year Cyrus Bradley took the same boat, the 'Union,' and successfuly used her behind a raft of logs to Clinton, Iowa, for W.J. Young and Com-pany. W.J. Young authorized Bradley to charter the 'Union' and was well pleased with the result and soon bought larger, better boats to use on his own work. Captain Bradley soon after built the 'Minnie will,' a side-wheel geared boat-used her and later built the stern-wheeler 'Mark Bradley.' In the meantime Captain Winans secured the 'Union' and used her successfully in 1867 and 1868; the little side-wheel 'Lone Star' and the larger 'Buckeye' in 1869. In 1870, when the first real raft-boat built for the business came out, he chartered her for twenty-five dollars per day and made a lot of money with her in 1870 and 1871. This boat was the first 'J.W. Van Sant,' built by J.W. Van Sant and Son at there yard in LeClaire,Iowa. Captain Winans quit the river before i began, probably about 1874, with considerable money for that day. He built a $40,000.00 hotel in Chippewa Falls and lost it by fire, with no insurance. He then went to California and spent some time on its rivers. He came back to the Mississippi about 1880 and got into the game bigger than ever and stayed in to the last; he did a lot of work and cut prices on lumber contracts; ran some very large rafts and took too many chances; this resulted in many bad and expensive losses. When his skill as a pilot and his energy and his honorable 223 methods in business he deserved more profit than he got out of it. We cannot help feeling that more caution mixed in with his operations would have secured better results. Captain Wyinans made his home for many years at teh Merchant hotl in Saint Paul until his death, January 22, 1926.