“The Raft,” sometimes referred to as the “Great Raft,” was “a series of naturally occurring logjams that clogged the Red River for more than 150 miles” until the United States government cleared the obstacles from 1833 to 1838. In 1839, however, a new raft formed approximately fifty miles north of Shreveport, Louisiana. By 1844 several unsuccessful attempts had been made to remove this raft. Louis Hunter, a historian of steamboat navigation, noted that “to circumvent the raft it was necessary to follow narrow and tortuous channels through bayous, lakes, and sloughs, which compelled the use of steamboats of small tonnage.” Fort Towson, located in present-day Oklahoma, was a federal military installation constructed in 1824 near where the Kiamichi River feeds into the Red River. The United States Army abandoned the fort in 1829 only to build a new Fort Towson six miles upriver from the original site in 1830. (Gudmestad, “Steamboats and the Removal of the Red River Raft,” 391, 398, 401–402, 411; Hunter, Steamboats on the Western Rivers, 198.)

Gudmestad, Robert. “Steamboats and the Removal of the Red River Raft.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 52, no. 4 (Fall 2011): 389–416.

Hunter, Louis C. Steamboats on the Western Rivers: An Economic and Technological History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949.

Hollister likely left Nauvoo shortly after signing the lease for the Maid of Iowa, on 2 or 3 December 1843. (See Lease to David S. Hollister, 2 Dec. 1843; and Clayton, Journal, 2–3 Dec. 1843.)

Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

Jones claimed that it was Hollister’s fault that the Maid of Iowa was detained in New Orleans until its debt was paid. Word that Hollister was coming to take the boat had apparently leaked in St. Louis, and one of the vessel’s creditors—which Hollister identified later in his letter as McAllister & Co.—arrived in New Orleans before Hollister and sued for payment of the debt. This was not the first time that creditors had hounded the steamboat. Jones recounted that in 1842 creditors had attached the boat for his business partner’s personal debts, but the financial intervention of Jones’s friends had freed the vessel. Later, when the boat visited St. Louis in September 1843, creditors descended upon the vessel to demand payment. William Clayton recorded that “almost as soon as we landed the creditors began to come on board with their claims, but in consequence of our dissappointment, we were compelled to ask them to wait longer. Some of them appeared very angry and we had to pay them.” McAllister & Co. might have been one of these angered creditors. (Clayton, Journal, 26 Sept. 1843; see also Letter from Dan Jones, 8 Jan. 1844; Green’s Saint Louis Directory, 113; and Jones, “Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith,” [21].)

Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

Green, James. Green’s Saint Louis Directory (No. 1) for 1845: Containing the Names of the Inhabitants, Their Occupations, Places of Business, and Dwelling Houses; Also, a List of Streets and Avenues; Together With Other Useful Information, and an Advertisement Directory. Saint Louis: By the author, 1844.

Dennis, Ronald D. “The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith and His Brother Hyrum.” BYU Studies 24 (Winter 1984): 78–109.

When JS purchased his half interest in the Maid of Iowa, he gave Jones two promissory notes, which together were worth $1,375, and paid $625, making JS’s share of the boat $2,000. If Hollister’s estimate was accurate, the boat had lost half its value. (Clayton, Journal, 2 June 1843; JS, Journal, 12 May and 2 June 1843; JS to Dan Jones and Levi Moffet, Financial Statement, 12 May 1843, Newel K. Whitney, Papers, BYU.)

Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

Ice prevented steamboats from traveling on the upper Mississippi River during the winter months, with the river freezing over entirely some years. (See JS, Journal, 18, 20–22, and 27–28 Feb. 1844; “Nauvoo,” Burlington [VT] Sentinel, 26 Jan. 1844, [2]; “Nauvoo Ferry,” Nauvoo Neighbor, 18 Oct. 1843, [4]; News Item, Nauvoo Neighbor, 7 Feb. 1844, [2]; and News Item, Nauvoo Neighbor, 28 Feb. 1844, [2].)

Burlington Sentinel. Burlington, VT. 1830–1844.

Nauvoo Neighbor. Nauvoo, IL. 1843–1845.

According to Jones, Hollister would not accept any proposal unless Jones made him the captain. (Letter from Dan Jones, 8 Jan. 1844.)

In an earlier letter to JS, Erastus Derby hinted at the influence of Jones’s family, contending that “a Steam boat is no place for a family to Live when they med[d]le with that that is not their buisness.” (Letter from Erastus Derby, 9 Oct. 1843.)