George A. Brabant
George A. Brabant is a worthy member of that band of fearless men who form Chicago's fire department, and has for the past seven years had charge of Engine No. 3. Prior to that time he had sailed successfully upon the lakes. He was born in Marine City, Mich., in 1857, a son of John and Sarah (Kennedy) Brabant, the former a native of Canada, the latter of Ireland. The father, who was a ship carpenter by trade, was one of the early settlers of Marine City, but spent his last days at Otter Lake, Mich., where his death occurred in 1885. The mother died in Marine City, in 1857.
George A. Brabant was reared in Marine City, and from that port commenced sailing, in 1874, as stoker on the V. H. Ketchum, remaining on her one season. He was then stoker for one year on the William Cowie, and had a similar berth on the Aberdeen. For two years he was on the Bay City, and, after a time spent on the N. K. Fairbanks, he came to Chicago, where he engaged in tugging for the Chicago Towing Company, being on the tug Tarrant one year as stoker and four years as engineer. He was then engineer of the J. H. Hackley for two years, and later was engineer on the A. Miller and F. Crane, after which he quit the lakes, in 1888, and entered the employ of the city. At first he was engineer on Engine No. 32, later on Engine No. 43 and Engine No. 30 and since then has been on Engine No. 3, located at No. 86 West Erie street. Fraternally, he is a member of the M. E. B. A. No. 4, and of the United Order of Engineers.
Since 1878 Mr. Brabant has made his home in Chicago, and there he was married, in 1882, to Miss Emma Faerber, and the children born of this union are: Jennie and Gifford. The family residence is at No. 321 Noble street, Chicago, Illinois.
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Volume I
This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.
Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.
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