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Audiobook edition · 11 h 49 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How do you steer a steamboat when the river you know keeps changing?
In Old Times on the Upper Mississippi, George Byron Merrick brings you into the working life of a steamboat pilot. His firsthand memoir follows the northern river, where bars, bends, rapids and snags demand close knowledge. A pilot must learn the water by heart, yet its channels shift with the seasons.
Beyond the pilot’s work lies a valley that depends on boats. Steamboats bring settlers, supplies and mail, then carry grain and other goods outward. Merrick recalls the towns along the banks, the hazards of low water and a trade that fades as railroads grow. This is working history told through personal memory, rather than a driving plot.
What you’ll discover
- The pilot’s craft Learn why knowing every bend and shifting channel matters to the person steering the boat.
- A valley connected See how steamboats link river settlements with the supplies and wider world they depend on.
- Hazards beneath the water Follow the dangers of a changing river, where low water can strand a boat.
- Life along the banks Meet the river through its towns, its trade and the daily work of navigation.
- A trade remembered Discover Merrick’s memories of steamboat days as railroads grow and river traffic thins.
Who will love it
Readers who love steamboats, Mark Twain’s river, frontier boyhood, and the workings of old machines and trades will enjoy this memoir. It also suits those curious about early Wisconsin and Minnesota.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The crews deserve their own story
- River freedom builds a boy's nerve
- Engineers join daring to careful craft
- An honest count protects an officer
- Authority and shared work move boats
- Pilots carry the river in memory
- Good steering needs nerve and finesse
- Boom profits come with hidden risks
- A trade lives through its people
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Old Times on the Upper Mississippi
by George Byron Merrick · 1909
A Michigan boy becomes a steamboat cub on the Mississippi, where one wrong turn at night can sink a boat.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would it feel like to stand at the wheel of a steamboat on a night so black that the river itself disappears? George Byron Merrick knew.
Old Times on the Upper Mississippi at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 20 min5 h fast, 7 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 90,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1909by George Byron Merrick
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Michigan boy falls for the river
Merrick is born in Niles, Michigan, on the St. Joseph River. Small steamers tow keelboats up from the lake, and the boys race to a seventy-five foot bank of blue clay to watch them pass. A neighbor named Kimball Lyon plays the accordion and tells sea stories.
Lyon also gives the boys their first lesson in piloting, and it is wrong. He says the man in the little house on top of the boat is drawing water for the boiler, and that if he stops, the boat will blow up. The children believe every word and worry about the man at the wheel.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1909
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Merrick, George Byron. Old Times on the Upper Mississippi. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/old-times-on-the-upper-mississippi.
Merrick, G. B. (2026). Old times on the Upper Mississippi. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/old-times-on-the-upper-mississippi (Original work published 1909)
Merrick, George Byron. Old Times on the Upper Mississippi. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/old-times-on-the-upper-mississippi.
@book{merrick2026old,
author = {Merrick, George Byron},
title = {Old Times on the Upper Mississippi},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/old-times-on-the-upper-mississippi},
note = {First published 1909}
}
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What is Old Times on the Upper Mississippi about?
It is George Byron Merrick's firsthand account of working on Mississippi steamboats between about 1854 and 1862. He describes engineers, clerks, mates, captains and pilots, along with boat races, wrecks, profits and the arrival of the railroads.
Who was Thomas Burns in the book?
Thomas Burns was a Scottish-style pilot on the upper river who taught Merrick as a cub. He is careful, knows every crossing in the dark, and teaches the rule to ring the stopping bell when in doubt. Merrick meets him again in 1881.
What does mark twain mean in this book?
It is the leadsman's call for two fathoms, or twelve feet of water, read from a sounding pole. Merrick explains how the pilot listens to such calls and compares them with earlier trips. Samuel Clemens took his pen name from the same call.
The author
George Byron Merrick
1841–1931 · American river pilot and author
George Byron Merrick was an American author and steamboat pilot who lived from 1841 to 1931. He lived in the United States and worked on the Mississippi River. He wrote Old Times on the Upper Mississippi, which was published in 1909.
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