James Scholes

James Scholes, the efficient superintendent for Samuel F. Hodge & Co., Detroit, Mich., was born October 21, 1836, in Lancashire, England, and at the age of eleven began work in the cotton factories there. Four years later he entered the foundry and machine shops of Walker & Hackins in the town of Berry, near Manchester. In 1857 Mr. Scholes came to America, intending to go to Chicago, and had, indeed, purchased his ticket for that point, but on looking out of the car window at Detroit he saw an old-country acquaintance and left the train. Soon he found employment in the Great Western roundhouse in Windsor, and later crossing the Detroit river secured work at the Detroit Locomotive Works, corner of Third and Congress streets, where the Buhl stamping works are now located. He also worked for James Flower & Co. for a time, but during the early part of the Civil war was back again in Windsor at his old place in the roundhouse. In 1863, returning to Detroit, he began work at the bench in the machine shop of Cowie, Hodge & Co., the immediate predecessors of Samuel F. Hodge, and with the exception of four years spent at the Frontier Iron Works. Mr. Scholes has been employed in the Hodge shops ever since, at present holding the responsible position of general superintendent of that establishment. He is a careful, painstaking man, thoroughly conversant with the duties of his position and fully commands the respect and confidence of his employers. A large proportion of the great engines turned out by the company have been constructed under his immediate direction, and no small share of the success attending the business of this large manufacturing institution has been due to his advice and care.

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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.