Captain Joseph Marie LaBarge - famous steamboat captain

on the Missouri & Mississippi rivers

At the age of 10 years old, when the Marquis de Lafayette visited
St. Louis, the young Joe La Barge made a name for himself.  From
page 16 of Hiram Chittenden's book:

"When General Lafayette visited the city in 1825 the populace turned out
to greet him.  He was a French nobleman and an American patriot -
two distinctions that entitled him to the greatest courtesy.  The children of
the town had gathered to welcome his coming.  When he was driven away
hundreds paid homage by following the route of the carriage.  To follow was
not enough for Joe La Barge.  He broke from the crowd and ran to the
carriage in which Lafayette rode.  Jumping upon the rear axle, he
remained there a considerable time.  The crowd was horrified, but Lafayette
was too great a man to be thus wounded.  Gently stroking the lad on the

head, he asked his name.  The boy responded 'La Barge.'  Ah,' said the
General,' then we are both Frenchmen, and the only difference is the
ending of our names.' "

Here is a partial list of some of the people who Captain Joseph LaBarge
knew or met:
 

Michel Laberge - Yukon Explorer

Michel Laberge was born in Châteauguay on 14 Nov 1836.  In 1866, the
Western Union Telegraph Company sought an alternative transcontinental
route across Alaska and Asia to Europe after efforts to lay a cable across
the Atlantic had failed.  In 1866 & 1867, Laberge explored and surveyed
a route for the cable through the Yukon Territory along the Yukon River
to Fort Yukon.  Laberge was first European explorer of the Yukon Territory.

The cable, however, was never completed because the transatlantic cable
was successfully completed in July of 1867.  In 1870, the lake located next
to White Horse (Kluk-tas-si) was named Lake Laberge.
 

In 1907, poet Robert W. Service published his most famous poem

The Cremation of Sam McGee

"It concerns the cremation of a prospector who freezes to death near
Lake Laberge (spelled "Lebarge" by Service), Yukon, Canada, as told by
the man who cremates him.

The night prior to his death the title character, who is from the fictional
town of Plumtree, Tennessee, asks the narrator "to swear that, foul or fair,
you'll cremate my last remains". The narrator knows that "A pal's last need is
a thing to heed," and swears he will not fail to cremate him. After McGee dies
the following day, the narrator winds up hauling the body clear to the "marge
[shore, edge] of Lake Lebarge" before he finds a way to perform the
promised cremation." *

* taken from Wikipedia, The Cremation of Sam McGee