A Raft Pilot's Log cont. Some of the Men Prominent in the Rafting Industry, 1840-1915 CAPTAIN PAUL KERZ 239 Captain Paul Kerz was born October 15, 1837, at Nackenheim, Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. His father was a mill-owner. At the age of seventeen, the son left home for America and arrived at Buffalo in the fall of 1854. From the spring of the following year dates his residence in Galena, Illinois. On arriving there he engaged in flat-boating with adam and Stephen Younkers, but subsequently engaged in the mat business with Jacob Koehler. After a year at that trade, he returned to boating and in 1862 he with Stephen Younker and Ben Lambertson of Bellevue, Iowa,bought the steamer 'Charley Rogers,' which they operated between Bellevue and Galena until 1868, when they sold it and bought the 'Sterling.' In 1870, Captain Kerz began rafting with the 'Sterling.' Teo years later he sold the 'Sterling' to W.J. Young of Clinton and entered the employ of W.J. 240 Young as commander of the 'Sterling' and afterwards of the 'J.W. Mills.' Later he superintended the building of the 'Douglas Boardman,' at the boat yards at Eagle Point and became its first cammander. Afterward he suoerintended the building of the 'W.J. Young, Jr.' and became its commander in1882 and was its commander at the time of his death, although he claimed that he was going to retire from the steamboat business that fall. He had been made commodore of the entire Young fleet and had absolute charge of the steamboat business of the W.J. Young and Company, and his recomendations governed all of the appointments of the officers of the fleet. He died quite suddenly at Galena, December 19, 1893, while walking home from town. Captain Kerz left surviving him his widow, Babbara Kerz, who later died, September 18, 1925; a daughter, Barbara Heid, still living; and a son, Adam. The latter followed in the footsteps of his father as a river pilot, and was with him to the time of his death. He later went with Captain Winans on the 'John H. Douglass' and 'Saturn' and after spending several years on the Yukon on the 'Julia B.', owned and operated by the Yukon Transportation and Trading Company, composed principally of Galena residents, he entered the employ of the United States Government on its fleet of rievr boats and was employed on the 'Coal Bluff' when he took sick at Hannibal, Missouri, and after being brought home at LaCrosse, Wisconsin, died in 1908. He was further survived by a son, Philip Kerz, still living at Dixon, Illinois, and employed by the International Harvester Company, and by his youngest son, Paul Kerz, an attorney, with offices at 11 South LaSalle 243 Street, Chicago, formerly City Attorney of Galena. Illinois, and also County Judge of Jo Davies County, Illinois. If there ever was a man who really loved his work it was Captain Paul Kerz. I never knew any one else who worked so many hours and slept so few, and no one ever heard him complain of want of sleep or over-work. He was thoroughly loyal to his employers, to his family and hius church, and he had the complete confidence of all who knew him. Captain Kerz demonstrated the truth of the old saying, "He succeeds best who is most wedded to his task."