| We had a very good sidewheel tug which we called the Balcom,
which was built for us at Oshkosh in the winter of 1881 and 1882 and was
built after the pattern of the tugs operating on the Fox River. We used
her to tow rafts of lumber from the mouth of the river to vessels, and
rafts of logs up river to the mill. These logs had been put into the Peshtigo
River and driven down to the mouth, where they were rafted.
At one time we had a tug called the Pensaukee, which was a small but powerful propeller driven boat, which towed logs from the mouth of the Peshtigo River to the mouth of the Oconto River. Later on we did not have enough work to keep both tugs busy so the Balcom towed the logs from Peshtigo, as well as doing the other work. While Mr. Cole was in charge of Holt & Balcom he used to let the young people take the tug Balcom occasionally for a dance out in the Bay, and on one occasion he took a party of young people to Idlewild, near Sturgeon Bay. Nothing ever happed but when I got control I told them they could not do that unless they towed a scow along side, as there were no life-boats or life-preservers and if any accident occurred, or a fire broken out, they might all have lost their lives. However, after that they only used the tug a few times. The last work the Balcom did was towing a large scow between Oconto and Peshtigo, carrying six freight cars at a trip. These cars were loaded in our yard and we had an engine which switched the cars down to the loading dock below Spies's mill, where the present City Dock is. The first year that we operated we took cars from both Oconto Company and Holt Lumber Company, and sometimes made as many as three round trips a day to Peshtigo, but the second year the Oconto Company got a special rate from the Chicago and North Western Railroad for shipping from Oconto, and they abandoned the Transportation Company, so the second year we operated alone. We used to deliver the cars to the Wisconsin- Michigan Car Ferry, which operated between Peshtigo and South Chicago, and on large cars we got a rate of five cents per hundred pounds, which was half the rate charged by the Chicago and North Western Railway Company. The reason we started this Car Ferry Line was that the Railroad Company wanted to make the rate from Oconto higher than the rate from Marinette and Menominee, on the theory that Oconto was not a water point, while Marinette and Menominee were, but after we had demonstrated that we could ship the lumber by water they gave up that idea and thereafter made the same rate from Oconto as from Marinette and Menominee. The Car Ferry was operated during the seasons of 1896 and 1897. Later on when we were operating the American Lumber Company at
West Superior, my brother got the idea that We could use the Balcom, and
a scow which we had here, in moving lumber from the docks around Duluth
and Superior to our planing mill. Captain J. J. Ramsay had been running
the Balcom but at that time she was out of Commission. Captain Ramsay had
no pilot's license but Captain Soyer had. The latter was getting to be
quite an old man and had retired, but he and Captain Ramsay concluded to
make the trip to Duluth together. They succeeded in reaching Duluth safely
although it was a risky business and they got into a storm on Lake Superior
and were very nearly wrecked, but they succeeded in getting into the harbor
at Ontonagon until the storm was over. It was not a success towing
lumber around Duluth and
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the old tug was finally tied up to the bank and allowed to go
to pieces, and the scow was sold to somebody for a small sum. The last
I saw of the Balcom she was lying in a slip at Duluth and some one was
filling the slip in with dirt, burying the tug after having removed the
machinery from her. We never claimed her because we were afraid some one
would want to collect from us for having her tied up in the slip.
After Captain Soyer quit sailing the Richard Mott he ran the tug Balcom for several years, and then the Hart Line hired him to run one of their steamboats on Green Bay, I think it was the Eugene Hart. Captain Soyer had never operated a screw propelled boat and the first time he tried to make a landing he figured he could reverse the engines and stop the boat as quickly as he could the tug Balcom, so he did not signal the engineer to reverse his engine soon enough and the steamer crashed into the dock and did a lot of damage to the dock and to the steamer, and to Soyer's reputation. I think he was on that run a year or two before they laid him off. The Oconto Company never operated any sailing vessels but they did have a tug called the 0. A. Ellis, which towed logs for them from Peshtigo and at one time they hauled quite a lot of coal from Green Bay to Oconto, on scows; and during the summer that they towed lumber from Nahma to Oconto the Ellis handled the scows up and down the Oconto River. Holt & Balcom used to Supply all of their own logging camps and jobbers, through the store in Oconto and in the fall of the year they bought large quantities of goods and loaded them on the Mott and shipped them to Oconto. Mr. T. B. Goodrich used to go to Chicago and buy these goods and usually the value of the cargo would amount to about $40,000.00. One fall the Mott got into Oconto in the night and in the darkness missed the pier and went aground opposite where the City Park now is. The goods were all unloaded onto scows and towed up the river and when the vessel was unloaded the tugs pulled her off and she took on a load of lumber and took it to Milwaukee. Another fall I remember the Mott was towed down the Chicago River past the office about 4:30 P. M. It was late in the fall and that night it turned very cold, with a gale from the northeast. When she left Chicago there was a very strong wind from the southwest so that by midnight the Captain said he was off Manitowoc, but when the wind swung around to the northeast and the ice began to form on all of the rigging, he turned around and ran back to Milwaukee. Next day we got word from Oconto that the river was frozen over and it would not be possible to unload the Mott, although they were running the tug up and down the river day and night to try and keep it open. Father had Captain Soyer tie up in Milwaukee for two or three days; then when the wind came around to the south and it began to warm up he made up his mind she might make Oconto yet and ordered her out. By the time she got to Oconto the ice was all out of the river and they had no trouble unloading her and taking on a cargo of lumber. As a matter of fact we should have gotten the supplies a little earlier and not have waited until so late in the season, but we never lost a cargo. In later years we discontinued the store and all goods were shipped by rail to the nearest railroad station and hauled from there to the camps. Our principal stations were Gillett and Ellis Junction. Before the North Western Road was built through Oconto all supplies Nineteen
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