Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967) Memoirs: “White Water” River Drive or Spanish American War

From Mathias Hemmingsen’s Memoirs ¹

The pay for ordinary river work was $1.00 for eleven hours, and $2.50 for sixteen hours on the main drive.

The first day of May was set that year for the drive to start, so the last day in April I went to town intending to enlist in the Army (Spanish American War). The quota of volunteers asked for was filled the first two days which left us two days late. We had no radio then to advise us of what went on. I therefore worked on the river all that summer and the following winter I joined Dad in his logging camp where Harry and I worked together cutting logs until spring. Being employed by Dad seemed to me a bit tame in as much as the number of men in camp was concerned. Having been used to seeing a 100 or more men in camp (we had only 20 men, including Harry and myself.)

The spring of 1900 found me on an upper Mississippi River drive where logs were winched across two lakes by manpower before reaching the outlet to the river. Adverse winds kept us idle for days at a time.

These logs were driven through an Indian Reservation and by law all Indians, whether fit for the jobs or not, were put to work in order to keep peace while going through the Reserve. Those Indians were hard gamblers. They played a game called “mocassin” which is somewhat similar to the shell game, but instead of shells three mittens were used. During the idle days the game went on all day and continued into the night without intermission. Some of the gamblers lost everything they owned including shoes and shirts they wore. The continuous sound of “tom-tom” and the chanting of Indians at play got on my nerves so badly that I quit my job there.

Two days later, together with a pal, we hit the headwater of the Clear Water River which flows into the Red River to Winnipeg, Canada, and then to Hudson’s Bay. There we were promised a job of taking in “rear” which meant that we joined the river crew and also meant being in water up to the neck rolling off logs which had been stranded on sand bars, etc. But having no spare peaveys at camp we were sent down river three miles to arm ourselves with these necessary tools and come back. The Jam Crew foreman handed us each a peavey and told us to go down river a mile to help break a huge log jam, cautioning us about “white water” below and suggesting we follow the trail to the jam. But not being very fond of walking we jumped onto a passing log on our way down to work on the jam. Someone in the crew had informed the foreman that those two new men had come through Hell Rapid on one log. After being reprimanded mildly he said “I am looking for white water men so you fellows stay here and I’ll send two other men back to the rear camp.”

My prowess was exaggerated by a lot of my fellow river men who seemed to think this young man could do the impossible – even to make a bubble on the water – and ride it if no log was in sight.

When the drive reached Red Lake Falls I felt like taking a rest, as did many of the other boys. Bad feet were the main complaint. The term “scalded feet” was prevalent and was a form of poison from the water and fine sand in the heavy boots on long walks in hot weather – it did put some of the uninitiated in hospital.

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Descendant Notes

Luckily Granddad mentioned the Spanish American War – conducted April 21 to Aug 13 1898 – for it trued his timeline. He had just been talking about loading logs in the “Winter of 1898” – but that operation typically began Nov. to Dec., weather depending. So he may have meant Winter 1897-1898, or, a year later. This takes on importance to establish the date of death of his brother, Harry.

Dad’s Family History put it between 1892 and 1894.² Here, Harry appears to be alive in the Spring of 1899.

Question: might he have misspoken Harry for his brother Ed? Recall we have seen him misidentify when he was confronted with memories of great trauma.

Granddad was on the upper Mississippi River in Spring 1900 for a drive starting May 1st.

US Census 1900 enumerated him in Mason WI on the 19th of June as a laborer in a lumber camp.³ Ed was in Mason too, at another camp. Harry was not found in that census anywhere in the US.

Either Matt was in Mason in June 1900 for the rest he noted after Red River Falls, or for the marriage of his sister Henrietta (Etta Church) or both.

It is 1898, when about this time his sister Marie succumbed to TB. Ole’s second family now consisted of Henry, Arthur, and Clarence, with Mildred added in 1897