James P. Pearson (Towboat/Dredge, 1907-1953)

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sternwheel
• BOAT TYPE: Towboat/Dredge
• BUILT: 1898 at Moline, Illinois
• FORMERLY: H.A. Barnard (1898)
• BECAME: Julius C. Wilkie
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Decommissioned in 1953; transferred to the Winona (Minnesota) County Historical Society who renamed her and placed her on exhibition
• OWNERS: Moline Sand Company; Missouri Gravel Company (1925); Moline Consumers Company (1953)
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain D.A. Dorrance (1913); Captain Harry Lancaster (1915); Captain Joe Young (1915)
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T1336; In photos the boat appears to be half excursion boat and half dredge: there is a device for dredging sand on the bow but benches for passengers on the boiler deck. She is listed in the 1911 LMV as a passenger vessel, in 1916 at Chicago still listed for passengers but by 1917 the designation had changed to miscellaneous. By 1925, she was again listed as a towboat. In 1937 she was completely rebuilt at Rock Island as a sandsucker and towboat
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Man at the wheel in the pilot house