Cape Girardeau christens its namesake

The first steamboat the Eagle Packet Co. of St. Louis named for Cape Girardeau started its life as the War Eagle. It was built in 1899 by the company, owned by the Leyhe family, expressly to serve the Cape Girardeau and Commerce trade. It had operated only a year, however, when bad luck struck. The boat caught fire at the St. Louis wharf and its upper decks were burned off.

The War Eagle was rebuilt in 1901 and became the first steamer Cape Girardeau. Sporting red stacks, the boat was nicknamed “Red Stack Cape,” according to “A History of the Eagle Packet Company” by Roy L. Barkhau, 1951. Grand christening ceremonies were held in Cape Girardeau for its new namesake on June 29, 1901.

The CG1, however, could not escape its bad luck. Around 1 a.m. Monday, July 11, 1910, the boat struck a snag about 51 miles south of St. Louis and sank rapidly. The loss of the CG1 meant that the Leyhe brothers had to shuffle their vessels about in order to cover the territories they served. The Spread Eagle was shifted from the Alton and Grafton, Illinois, trade to the Cape Girardeau/Commerce route. And the Spread Eagle was renamed the (second) Cape Girardeau. Unlike the CG1, there was no ceremony here for the CG2.

Alas, it seems the “Cape Girardeau” name may have been hexed. The CG2 also sank after striking a hidden piling at Fort Gage, Illinois, Oct. 15, 1916. Like its predecessor, the CG2 was a total loss, and again the Leyhes shifted a boat from the Illinois River trade — the Peoria — to serve their lower Mississippi River towns. The following year, the Peoria was replaced by the Bald Eagle.

The harsh, icy winter of 1917-18 nearly ruined Eagle Packet Company. It lost four of its packets — Spread Eagle, Grey Eagle, Alton and Peoria — “ground to bits in the devastating ice floes“ (Barkhau) and leaving the company with only two boats, the Piasa and the Bald Eagle. In order to supplement their fleet, the Leyhes purchased a cotton boat, the Wm. Garig, in New Orleans in March 1918. After it was remodeled, the Wm. Garig became the Golden Eagle, probably the company’s best known vessel.

Late in December 1921, Capt. William H. “Buck” Leyhe announced the company was contracting to have a steel-hull boat built to be placed in the St. Louis-Cape Girardeau-Commerce service in the fall of 1922 or spring of 1923. The packet boat, the (third) Cape Girardeau was launched in May 1923 on the Ohio River at Louisville, Kentucky. Girardeans got their first look at the big sternwheeler on Nov. 16, 1923, when Capt. W.E. Leyhe piloted the boat past Cape Girardeau on the way to winter quarters at “the Alton slough.”

The following April, huge crowds gathered along the riverfront in Cape Girardeau to see its namesake christened by Mary Christine Rolwing of Thebes, Illinois.

While I haven’t been able to locate any photographs of the christening of the CG1, I did find an article describing the event in The St. Louis Republic newspaper on June 30, 1901. The description of the day’s activities was written by Clara G. Albert, daughter of Leon J. and Clara G. Haydock Albert. Leon was a banker in Cape Girardeau, but as a young man, he worked as a clerk on a packet boat owned by the Memphis & St. Louis Packet Line.

The first steamer Cape Girardeau was christened in Cape Girardeau in June 1901.This photograph was made from a 1910 postcard. (Southeast Missourian archive)

POURED OUT THE WINE AND SAID:
‘I CHRISTEN THEE CAPE GIRARDEAU’

MISS LUCILLE LEECH BROKE THE BOTTLE OVER THE BOWS OF THE NEW RIVER
STEAMER, WHILE CROWDS CHEERED AND CANNONS BOOMED —
MAYOR PORTERFIELD PRESENTED SILVER WATER SERVICE
AND PROFESSOR ALBERT GAVE THE COLORS

From 6 to 8 o’clock Tuesday evening the streets of the city of Cape Girardeau were filled with people moving toward the river. The occasion was the christening of the new steamboat Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau, a regular twice-a-week packet between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, belonging to the Eagle Packet Company.

About 8:30 p.m. the levee was packed, and as the boat, returning from Commerce, glided into port, with lights twinkling from every point, she resembled a moving, white palace, and was indeed a thing of beauty.
She was saluted with cannon and fireworks. When she lowered her stage, people rushed on, and in a little while she was packed, while the levee was still crowded with people, and the City of Warsaw, a ferry-boat, was the dress circle for many sightseers.
About 9 o’clock congressman W.D. Vandiver ascended an elevation on the prow of the boat and called for order. The quickness with which his injunction was obeyed was remarkable among such a mass of people. Ex-Senator R.B. Oliver, chairman of the committee from the Commercial Club, then made a few preliminary remarks, and he exercises began.

Miss Lucille Leech, who had received the greatest number of votes in a contest to decide for the most popular lady of the city to christen the boat, stepped forward, saying:

“With the best wishes of the people of Cape Girardeau for the welfare and prosperity of the boat and its crew, I christen thee ‘Cape Girardeau,’” breaking a bottle of champagne over the bow. Cheer after cheer went up as Miss Leech gave to the new boat the name of the city.

Mayor Porterfield presents water set

Doctor J.D. Porterfield, mayor, presented with well-chosen words, a beautiful water set to the officers of the boat, given by the citizens. In part he said:

“Capt. Leyhe and officers of the steamer Cape Girardeau: The city of Cape Girardeau, situated on the broad banks of the great Mississippi, with her schools, her churches, and her prosperous and happy people, has been identified with the commercial traffic on the great Mississippi since navigation first began by man. A very great part of our prosperity is due to the river interests. Our commercial and social relations have been very close and harmonious. The marked courtesies shown our families while guests on your great steamers, and the fact that many who are engaged in this great traffic are residents, and here married our daughters, has engendered a brotherly feeling which has been enhanced by the naming of this beautiful steamer after our city.

“In a sentiment of reciprocity, our citizens met to devise some appropriate gift as a memento of the event that would be a constant reminder of the high regard that our citizens entertain for those gentlemen who so successfully conduct this great commercial enterprise. This article of service was chosen by the citizens of Cape Girardeau, and upon it they inscribed the following words:
“‘Presented to the Steamer Cape Girardeau by the citizens of Cape Girardeau.” Hoping that when nature makes her call to replenish the wasted fluids of the body, officers and guests who draw the aqua pura from the fountain, in these silver cups, will read the inscription and remember the loving affection of the donors, whose sentiments are as pure as the sparkling water that they drink.

“Take it, Capt. Leyhe, not its intrinsic value or worth, but as a memento of the high regard held for the officers of this beautiful steamer by the citizens of Cape girardeau, and may this palatial steamer long live to plow the waters of this great ‘artery of commerce,’ and may financial and social success continue, and the strong bonds of commercial and social intercourse never be broken, and these scenes ever remain green in the memories of those who participated in them here tonight.”

Professor Albert gives colors

Professor Harry Lee Albert presented the colors, which were complimentary of the ladies of the city.

Judge F.E. Burrough was the next speaker introduced and represented Capt. H.W. Leyhe and the other officers of the boat, and in their name thanked the people of Cape Girardeau for their enthusiastic welcome and tokens of regard.

This concluded the exercises, and those on the boat were requested to leave in order that those on shore might have an opportunity to view the interior of the boat. A supper was served in the “texas” to all those who could be accommodated, and after the crowd had somewhat thinned dancing was begun in the cabin and continued until midnight, when the Cape Girardeau left the wharf of the little city of the same name on her up trip to St. Louis.

Difficulty over the name

When it was rumored that the Eagle Packet Company was to build a new steamboat for the St. Louis and Cape Girardeau trade, some one suggested that the boat be called “Cape Girardeau.” The suggestion was taken up and favored by the company, the officers and the Commercial Club of Cape Girardeau, which used all its influence to secure the name. The boat was built and was to make her first trip on June 24, when a few days prior to that time the Government authorities objected to the double name, the two names being liable to confusion in abbreviating when making out bills of lading and in Government records, and it appeared for awhile that the people of the city of that name were to be disappointed. But through the influence of Senator Cockrell and others at Washington, to whom the Commercial Club had sent a lengthy telegram, the Government authorities showed clemency and permitted the entire name to be used.

How the boat was met first

A number of citizens from Cape Girardeau went to Grand Tower on an early train Tuesday morning to meet the boat there. Others had gone to St. Louis and were already on. Capt. Leyhe entertained these guests at a sumptuous breakfast. About noon, the boat appeared around the point and in sight of the old historic town of Cape Girardeau. Cannons roared, whistles blew, crowds rushed down to the Levee, and to the music of a brass band she swung gracefully into port. At 1 o’clock she left for Commerce, returning about 8.

To people who live in river towns, a steamboat is not only a pleasant means of travel, but to them it is a thing of life and sentiment, too. To the young it is truly a floating palace, full of romance. To a man of 60 it awakens memories of the time when steamboating was a larger and a grander scale than now, and when with his young bride he sat out in the moonlight and gazed on the rippling waters and the passing shores. Steamboating is not what it was before the war, but the beginning of this century has seen the dawn of a new day for Mississippi River traffic. Men are beginning to see the business possibilities that it affords, and by 1903 there will be many new boats on the Father of Waters to carry to St. Louis, visitors to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (the 1904 World’s Fair).

CLARA G. ALBERT

Left without a namesake plying the waters of the Mississippi River, Cape Girardeau was again honored by the Eagle Packet Co. in 1911, when it renamed the Spread Eagle for this city. It took over where the first Cape Girardeau left off and made its first stop here on March 18, 1911. (Courtesy of Katherine Cochran ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

Next week's blog will bring you the christening of the third Cape Girardeau.