Captain H. D. Ingraham

Captain H.D. Ingraham, a popular and competent master of tugs operating out of Fairport harbor, and a courteous and genial companion, is the son of Daniel N. and Marian (Brooks) Ingraham. His father was born in Fairport in 1832, and will be remembered by some of the older lake masters. He was made a skipper when but nineteen years old, taking command of the schooner Mohegan, and he also sailed the schooner H. P. Bridge, the bark Zach Chandler (which he brought out new), the Sonora, and the bark City of Painesville, of which he was master four years, and which he designated as the clipper ship of the lakes. He brought out the G. S. Hazard new. His steamboat commands were the Minneapolis and D. C. Whitney, and he closed his active career on the lakes in the Whitney about the year 1884. He then entered the employ of the American Transportation Company, of Fairport, looking after the interests of the tugs and sailing them as occasion required. In 1890 he finally retired from his busy life, and he passed over to the silent majority May 10, 1895, at the age of sixty-three years. His widow is still living on the old homestead farm near Mentor, where she was born. Of their children Capt. Freeman E. was master of the steamer Robert Wallace during the season of 1897, and was assigned to the new steamer built at F. W. Wheeler's West Bay City shipyard for the Bessemer Steamship Company, considered the largest on the lakes; Mary R. is the wife of D. K. Patterson, of Davisville, Cal.; Sarah E. is the wife of G. E. Brooks, of Mentor, Ohio.

The grandparents on the paternal side were Joseph and Sarah Ingraham, and on the maternal side Henry and Mary Brooks, all of old New England stock, and pioneers of Mentor and Fairport townships.

H. D. Ingraham was born in Fairport, Ohio, October 9, 1845, whence he soon after removed with his parents to Mentor, where he attended the public schools until he reached the age of seventeen years, assisting his father with the farm work in the meantime. It was in 1862 that he began sailing in the bark City of Painesville, of which his father was part owner, and in which he remained four and a half years, following with a season in the schooner G. S. Hazard. In the spring of 1868 he shipped in the schooner Charley Crawford, as second mate with Captain Averill, holding that berth four seasons. The next spring he was appointed mate of the schooner Minnehaha, and his father purchasing the scow Vampire the Captain sailed her next, his brother, Freeman, going as mate. He then sailed as mate of the Ogaritta, Thomas W. Palmer and Zach Chandler, until 1885, when he was appointed master of the Zach Chandler for a short time. In the spring of 1886 he joined the schooner Ashland as mate, and the next season assumed command of her. In 1888 he came out as mate of the steamer Sitka, closing that season as mate of the Wocoken. In 1889 he entered the employ of the American Transportation Company, of Fairport, as master of the tug George R. Paige, sailing her five seasons, and transferring to the tug Annie, which he commands at this writing. He has fifteen issues of first- class pilot's papers.

On December 25, 1880, Captain Ingraham wedded Miss Lydia Lapham, daughter of Edward and Rebecca Lapham, of Mentor, and two children - Daniel H. and Elizabeth S. - have been born to this union. The family homestead is in Mentor township, near Painesville, Ohio. Socially, the Captain is a Master Mason, holding membership with Temple Lodge No. 28, of Painesville, and belongs to Cornucopia Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

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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.