"Fifty Years on the Mississippi: Gould's History of River Navigation"

Gould, Emerson W. Fifty Years on the Mississippi: Gould’s History of River Navigation. Saint Louis: Nixon-Jones,1889. Reprint 1951. R 386.2 G696 and circulating copy

"Containing a history of the introduction of steam as a propelling power on ocean, lakes and rivers--the first steamboats on the Hudson, the Delaware, and the Ohio rivers--navigation of western rivers before the introduction of steam--character of the early navigators--description of first steamboats--steamboat New Orleans in 1811, and sixty consecutive boats, when and where built--their effect upon the settlement of the valley of the Mississippi--character and speed of boats at different periods--appropriations by Congress for the improvement of western water ways-- floods in the Mississippi valley for 150 years--Mississippi river commission and its work. Rapid increase and decline of river transportation. Causes of the decline--destruction of steamboats on western waters--biographies of prominent steamboatmen."

Captain Gould became president of the Atlantic and Mississippi Steamship Company and subsequently president of the Western River Improvement and Wrecking Co., formerly owned by Eads and Nelson. He was president of the St. Louis and Miami Packet Company, 1865-1866. Most river aficionados recognize E. W. Gould as a 19th century river historian,

He wrote to numerous aging river men to obtain biographies and memories and compiled extensive lists of 19th century steamboats. Gould’s History has not yet been equaled by any other historian, and it forms a sound historical foundation to which any subsequent river and steamboat historian must inevitably first turn.