This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
In those quiet moments of reflection, sitting in your kitchen as the sun rises and the coffee finishes perking, what memories of a lifetime come back strong? Sam Van Sant's story gives us a clue.
Sam was born in 1844 in the west end of Rock Island to boatbuilding family who had moved here from New Jersey in 1837.
His father, J. W. Van Sant had his own boatyard at the foot of Fifth Avenue in Rock Island. Sam himself seemed to have been born loving the river. At the age of nine, he bought a skiff with the first dollar he earned, and at thirteen, was already working as watchman, fireman, and cook on steamboats.
By the time he was 25, Sam had invented a new kind of steamboat designed to take the huge rafts of Minnesota and Wisconsin white pine down to the mills along the river. His design soon revolutionized the whole logging industry.
In 1883 Sam Van Sant moved his business upriver to Winona, Minnesota. There he was elected to the Minnesota legislature where he became Speaker of the House by the unanimous vote of both Democrats and Republicans. In 1900, on his third try, he was elected Governor of Minnesota and served two terms. Against the advice of friends, he stood up for steamboat interests against the famous railroad magnate, James J. Hill, and won. In 1909 he was made national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Of all the accolades and events of this busy life, what really mattered? A clue comes perhaps from a visit back to Rock Island in 1902 when he was governor. As his carriage passed a small cottage in Rock Island's west end, Sam cried out for the horse to stop. He ran to an old stone well with an oak bucket.
"This is what I dream about," he said. "I've never been so happy as when quenching my thirst here."
On Memorial Day in 1936, four months before he died, Sam Van Sant returned to Rock Island for a last visit. He spent his hours there poking around the beached boats and odd debris at the Kahlke Boatyards. Perhaps not even being governor can compare with the memory of shaping pieces of wood into a beautiful and useful steamboat and having a cool drink of water on a hot summer day.
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
