Streckfus Steamers
Streckfus Steamers was a company started in 1910 by John Streckfus Sr. (1856–1925) born in Edgington, Illinois. He started a steam packet business in the 1880s, but transitioned his fleet to the river excursion business around the turn of the century. In 1907, he incorporated Streckfus Steamers to raise capital and expand his riverboat excursion business. A few years later, the firm acquired the Diamond Jo Line, a steamboat packet company.
Company type
River excursions
Entertainment
Acme Packet Company
1910 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States
John Streckfus Sr.
Operated through 1978
Streckfus Steamers, Incorporated
Mississippi and Ohio Rivers
Joseph Streckfus, Roy Streckfus, Vern Streckfus, John Streckfus Jr., William Carroll, Fate Marable
John Streckfus Sr., Joseph Streckfus
The most active period started after the first World War. Bandleader Fate Marable recruited many musicians from New Orleans during this period, including Louis Armstrong. Streckfus Steamers expanded the number of excursion boats, acquired or converted larger boats, and hired more bands. After the death of the patriarch in 1925, the eldest son Joseph took over the company, and was assisted by his three brothers.
Packet service[edit]
John Streckfus bought his first steamboat in 1889 for $10,000. Verne Swain, a small steamer with a narrow profile, measuring just 120-feet in length and 22-feet in width, was constructed in Stillwater, Minnesota at the Swain Shipyard.[6] Verne Swain ran every day with several stops between Davenport and Clinton Iowa, making a three-hour, one-way trip, then departed Clinton in the afternoon and returned to Davenport every evening. By 1891, Streckfus had acquired his own operator’s license and the title of Captain, whereas before he had contracted for established operators to manage his steamers, earning an engineer’s license in this same period. The same year, he bought his second steamboat, the Freddie,[2] a triple-decked, 73-foot sternwheeler with a 16-foot beam.[7] Once established as an operator, he transported freight and passengers on both the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers, later restriciting his operations to packets on the Mississippi, north of St.Louis. Though he gained a reputation for punctuality and efficiency, he complained about the meager profits his packets earned running freight on the rivers.[8]
Early excursion service[edit]
By 1901, Streckfus changed his business model. Rather than using his slow paddle-wheelers to compete with the railroads for the freight business, he started transitioning to the excursion business. He tested this idea around 1900 when he installed a calliope on the City of Winona. The next year he increased his investment in the new venture with $25,000 in capital to convert a packet into a floating entertainment venue. According to his own design, Streckfus commissioned work on a 175-foot steamboat with a capacity to hold 2,000 passengers, sleeping berths for the crew and the entertainers, a 100 x 27 foot maple dance floor, a bar, a dining room, and electric lights. His first custom-built excursion boat he named the J.S.[9] Howard Shipyard of Jeffersonville, Indiana built the steamboat according to this new design.[2]
J.S. was the first steamboat in service on the Mississippi built especially for excursions. The 1901 excursions on the J.S. also corresponds to the first regular dance bands hired by Streckfus. Though the J.S. spent much of its time in St. Louis and St. Paul, it tramped on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.[10] While cruising the Mississippi near LaCrosse, WI on the night of June 25, 1910, Streckfus lost his custom-built steamer, the J.S., to a fire allegedly ignited by a drunken and disorderly passenger.[11] Streckfus started offering passenger service on his paddle-wheelers as a part of a new business model, balancing his business between moving freight and moving people.