#keokuk

Howard Hughes (24 December 1905 – 5 April 1976) always claimed that he was born on Christmas Eve, although there is little evidence to confirm the actual date.

Gideon Phillips Sells and Henrietta Bellaria Perrigo

Iowa Landscape Gideon Phillips Sells and Henrietta Bellaria Perrigo are my second grand uncle and grand aunt. Gideon and Henrietta married on December 22, 1872, in Clark County, Missouri. Gideon’s parents were Elijah Sells and Phebe Walker. Henrietta’s parents were Jonathan Perrigo, Sr., and Mary Caroline Ann Keokuk. All these family members came together in the corner of Missouri called Clark…

On 18 August 1927 - the 4th day of its maiden voyage - the S.S. Thorpe arrives at Keokuk, IA.

In 1927 a Minneapolis-St. Paul group formed the Upper Mississippi Barge Line Company to seek extension of the Inland Waterways Service to the upper Mississippi River. The new company raised money and built a fleet of barges and towboats. Three paddlewheel steamboats, including the S.S. Thorpe, were designed by noted naval architect Thomas Rees Tarn and built by the Dubuque Boat and Boiler Works at a cost of $175,000 each (about $2.6 million in today’s value).

The S.S. Thorpe was named after Samuel S. Thorpe, the first president of the Upper Mississippi Barge Line.

On 15 August 1927 the S.S. Thorpe departed from St. Louis with three barges carrying 1600 tons of coal. The S.S. Thorpe was under the command of Captain Oscar Olsen and had a crew of 28.

This maiden voyage was a major turning point in American transportation history for it marked the reopening of the Upper Mississippi River to commercial traffic. 

Keokuk Chert Arrowhead Necklace by Steven Saffold