Sam meets Horace Bixby and learns the river. He pilots steamboats on the lower Mississippi until the onset of the Civil War. At which time he heads to the Nevada Territory withn his brother Orion.
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Meets Horace BixbyMon Feb 16, 1857
February 16, 1857: Monday– Sam boarded the packet Paul Jones (353 tons), on its way from Pittsburgh, for passage to New Orleans, commanded by Hiram K. Hazlett and piloted by Horace E. Bixby (1826-1912) and Jerry Mason. Sam claimed in his autobiography that his intention was to travel to the Amazon, but could not find passage once in New Orleans. His other longtime dream of becoming a steamboat pilot then took over and he approached Bixby about becoming his assistant. Bixby had a sore foot, which made standing at the wheel painful, so Sam did “a lot of steering” for him.