Riverboatman and legendary folk hero. Mike Fink was probably born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, during the last quarter of the 18th century. He evidently lived a colorful
life as a boatman on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. He is thought to have died around
1823 as a result of a personal feud. Although he does not appear in conventional histories
of the early 19th century, there is some indication that he was for several decades a wellknown individual around whom anec-dotes and legends clustered, expanding his
personality into an image of an exclusively American backwoods hero. Associated with
this image was a personality characterized by rough ways and exaggerated speech and
behavior, which appealed to the American aesthetic conscience of the middle part of the
19th century. Constance Rourke referred to this type as “The Gamecock of the
Wilderness.” Mike’s exuberant and explosive ways were too confined by civilization to
make either comfortable around the other. But at a distance the backwoodsman seemed
amusing and even intriguing. It was as if a new, white-skinned, noble savage had
emerged. Richard M. Dorson described these characters as “nineteenth-century Ringtailed Roarers, bullies, brawlers, and daredevils,” who could shoot farther, jump higher,
dive deeper, and come out drier than any man this side of Roaring River. Walter Blair
characterized Mike Fink as “half horse and half alligator” (Blair and Meine 1956).
Alphonso Wetmore’s three-act farce The Pedlar, written in 1821, gives the first
known reference to Mike Fink, who appears in the play as a stereotype of the uncouth
boastful river man. Mike Fink is known today almost exclusively from similar printed
sources of subliterary works of the 19th century, including almanacs and sporting
journals. Many of the writers who produced these stories about Mike Fink claimed oral
sources for their accounts. Several of the Davy Crockett almanacs contain anecdotes
about Mike Fink, usually referring to “the celebrated Mike Fink” and always carrying the
assumption that the reader has heard of the “Roarer.” Writers of these backwoods tales
and other humorous regional sketches often credited an eyewitness as a source for their
creative journalism, although some of the writers actually heard their basic facts from
narrators who told them orally as anecdotes. Mike Fink was known during the early 19th
century in a vigorous oral tradition and was once a “folk” hero.
Certain episodes about Mike Fink recur. Mike demonstrates prowess with his rifle by
shooting a cup of whiskey off the head of another boatman, or in some cases the head of
his wife. Sometimes the compliment is returned by another sharpshooter. This practice
even plays a part in his own death, by most accounts, when he shoots at the cup on the
head of his protégé after a disagreement and either accidentally or intentionally shoots
him dead. Mike is then killed in revenge by the boy’s friend or relative. Other common
episodes include shooting the scalp lock off an Indian’s head and removing a Negro’s
protruding heel by a surgically precise shot.
In some ways, Mike Fink is of the same ilk as Davy Crockett. Mike appears in several
episodes of the Crockett almanacs, having some encounters with Davy himself. Dorson
showed that Davy’s portrayal in the almanacs sets him in an early American “Heroic
Age.” Mike Fink’s portrayal sets him in this same age. His vainglorious boasting and
self-confident challenges are quite similar to those of Crockett. They both are “Roarers.”
While Mike can match Davy in some heroic aspects—he can boast as well, fight as
fiercely, and his rifle is a match for Davy’s—he lacks Davy’s heroic qualities in others.
In later accounts, Mike is drawn to be even less heroic. Beginning in 1850, most
stories written about Mike’s fights had him defeated, his colorful braggadocio now turned
to bluster. The circulation of Mike Fink legends diminished greatly with the advent of the
Civil War, partly due to the changing sensibilities of the American people, no longer
amused by the inglorious aspects of his death and the more negative presentation of his
character. Later, the life of the keelboatman that Mike Fink personified was no longer
relevant to a modern age of transportation.
In the 20th century, Mike Fink lived again, but in a dubious resurrection. Colonel
Henry Shoemaker, who wanted to turn Mike into a regional folk hero by stressing his
Pennsylvania origins, claimed to have heard oral tales about Fink, but his claims have
been widely discounted. Writers of children’s books and compilers of bedside
companions cleaned up the distasteful elements of Mike Fink’s character and included
him along with Davy Crockett in quaintly worded stories about “folk”-type heroes. But
once again, Mike Fink was overshadowed by Davy Crockett, this time as a popular
culture hero. Though Davy could be toned down to suit the bland tastes of the popular
markets, including Disney portrayals as “king of the wild frontier,” Mike Fink appeared
only as a minor character.
Kenneth A.Thigpen
References
Blair, Walter, and Franklin J.Meine. 1933. Mike Fink: King of Mississippi
Keelboatmen. NewYork: H.Holt.
——. 1956. Half Horse, Half Alligator: The Growth of the Mike Fink Legend.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dorson, Richard M. 1959. American Folklore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 202–214.
Hoffman, Daniel. 1965. Form and Fable in American Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press,
pp. 56–78.
Rourke, Constance. 1931. American Humor: A Study of the National Character. New York:
Harcourt, Brace, pp. 37–69.