Beadle's Pocket Novels, Vol. V, No. 56

This issue of River Rifles (volume V, no. 56, August 1876) contains the serial "Joe Napyank" by Billex Muller. The story follows a tall, sandy-haired frontier hunter named Joe Napyank as he encounters a flatboat emigrant party on the Ohio River. Joe signals the boat captained by Theophilus McGowan, a Pennsylvania Revolutionary War veteran, feigning distress to test their alertness. After proving themselves cautious, Joe wades out to board while Indians on the shore fire upon him. McGowan's return shot drives them off. The narrative introduces the boat's inhabitants: McGowan, his obese wife, and daughter Ruth; Abram Smith and his two sons, Abram and Stoddard; and Stoddard's betrothed Ruth McGowan. The party has endured nightly Indian attacks during their western emigration journey.