A Raft Pilot's Log cont. Some of the Men Prominent in the Rafting Industry, 1840-1915 CAPTAIN S.B. HANKS 211 Stephen B. Hanks was born near Hodgensville, Kentucky, October 9, 1821. His father's only sister, Nancy, later married Thomas Lincoln and became the mother of Abraham Lincoln. After the death of his father and when Stephen was twelve years old, the family moved up to White County, Illinois, and the mother marrying again, young stepehn and and a sister, Mary, went toi live with a brother of Mrs.Hanks, named Alfred Slocumb, who moved to Knox County, Illinois, in 1830 and from there to Albany, Illinois, in 1836. He made his home with Alfred Slocumb , doing hard work with little pay, and having laudable ambition backed by a large, strong frame, good health and willingness to work, he left Albany in 1841 for the far northern pineries, where he worked four years cutting and getting out logs and driving them to the sawmill at Saint Croix falls, and helping raftand run the lumber to Saint Louis with Sandy McPhail as pilot. In this way he became a pilot himself. Late in 1843 he ehlped run two rafts of lumber that only got to Albany when winter set in. Part was sold there and the rest stored in Cat Tail Slough. In January he went back to Saint Croix falls, mostly by following the ice covered Mississippi and Saint Croix rivers with a sled and a pair of mules. 212 In June of this year,1844, he made his first trip as pilot of a log raft that floated all the way down from Stillwater, at the head of Lake Saint croix to Saint Louis, a good, long seven hundred miles. In 1845 he helped cut the logs and get them to the first mill in Stillwater owned by John McKusick. He helped raft the ,imber from these logs and ran the raft to Saint Louis where it was sold. He was one of the first to run logs and lumber by contract;so much a string or per thousand feet, fiding the crew and paying all expenses. He continued this work running mostly by contract for ten years when he quitrafting for a time and began piloting steamboats in the Galena and Minnesota Packet Company between Galena and Saint Paul, first on the 'Dr. Franklin ll,' with Captain D.S. Harris. On hisfirst arrival in Saint Paul the only house there was a double log cabin used as a trading post by Louis Robert. He was a delegate from Stillwater that aided in locating the old Capitol building. The same committees also located the old penitentary in Stillwater. Captain Hanks served as pilot on nearly every boat in the Galena and Minnesota Packet Company's line. He was on the 'Galena' when she had a hard race from Lake Pepin to Saint Paul and not only won the race but free wharfage in Saint Paul for that year. He was on the 'Galena' when she burned at Red Wing landing July 1, 1858. He was pilot on the 'Alhambra' and reached Albany a few hours after the tornado had wrecked Comanche, Iowa, and Albany, Illinois, June 4, 1860. Many were killed in the two towns but Captain Hanks found his family and relatives uninjured. In the summer of 1860 Captain Hanks got off the 215 fine fast mail packet 'Key City' and left the company he had been with fourteen years. There had been many changes in the ownership and manage- ment of the boats of the old Galena and Minnesota Packet Company and when Mr. Joseph Reynolds or 'Diamond Jo' as he was best known , offered Hanks ten dollars per day and steady work throughout the season, he accepted the proposition and went on the 'Ida Fulton,' a stern-wheel boat that was a good carrier herself and always towed barges during the wheat season. He was master and pilot of the 'Ida Fulton' most of the time he worked for 'Diamond Jo,' and it was hard work, as the river was generally low in the fall when the grain movement was greatest, which meant that the boat herself and her barges were always loaded to all the water in the rievr and they were pushed for time. Early in 1877 Captain Jenks associated himself with E.W. Durant and R.J. Wheeler and put the 'Bro. Jonathan' into the new concern styled 'Durant Wheeler and Company,' which had a long and successful career. (I think he meant Cap. Hanks) Captain Hanks did not follow the 'Bro. Jonathan' into the new company. He engaged early in 1877 with C.Lamb and Sons of Clinton, Iowa, at $1600.00 per season and went asa captain and pilot of the 'Hartford.' 216 He continued in their service fifteen tears during which time he worked on all their fine boats, but mostly on the 'Artemus Lamb.' Not only did the Captain hold his job but he held the confidence and respect of his employers and the crews of the different boats in the Lamb fleet, and he was held in high esteem by all who knew him. He was a large, well built, strong man, full of energy and enterprise, but mild and gentle in his disposition. Turned out as he was at the age of twelve to make his own way in a rough new country and as he grew older working in the woods in winter and on the river in summer, he acquired no bad habits. In a day when drinking and gambling were common; much of the time working and dealing with men who used liquor, tobacco, and cards, he never cared for either. He did not play the saint or preacher, but he didn't care for those things, that was the end of it. Captain Hanks was generous and kind to all, especially his family and relatives. He retained his mental faculties and pleasant manner until his death in 1917.