Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
KIMBEL, Albert L.
Family History: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2771210&id=I548199980
KIMBEL, Albert L. (Bellevue, IA, Apr, 14, 1880--Dubuque, IA, June 8, 1951). Albert Kimbel was the first river captain to take a boat through the locks at EAGLE POINT. At the time of his death, Kimbel was believed to be the oldest active river captain on the upper MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
At the age of five, Kimbel came to Dubuque with his father, Richard KIMBEL who taught his son how to captain riverboats so well that the boy received his pilot's license when he was only sixteen. He operated his father's ferry from Eagle Point to KIMBEL'S PARK, a popular recreation spot located on an island north of the present site of the lock and dam.
In 1913, Kimbel became the captain of Dubuque Sand and Gravel Company's sidewheeler, Ruth. He later captained the Iris, Harriet, and Aquila for Molo Sand and Gravel. Prior to this, Kimbel had been a captain for the Line Hanson which operated packet boats. In the late 1920s, he captained the General Ashburn, a boat built in Dubuque, on its maiden voyage on the Mississippi.
Kimbel spoke often of how he helped riverboats turn around in the Galena River prior to its being closed to navigation and his work in the construction of the ZEBULON PIKE LOCK AND DAM.
