Charles A. Bloomer

Charles A. Bloomer, formerly president of the Western Elevating Association, is a native of the Empire State, having been born May 15, 1818 at Scipio, Cayuga county, of Quaker heritage. He is a son of John and Tamma (Chamberlain) Bloomer, the former of whom was born in Westchester County, N. Y., and the latter near New Haven, Conn. The Bloomer family on both sides trace their ancestry back to early English colonists of Plymouth Rock.

The education of Charles A. Bloomer was received in the common schools, and during his boyhood he lived successively in the counties of Cortland, Seneca and Ontario, to which his parents moved. While yet young he learned the trade of carpenter, millwright and contractor, and in 1852 removed to Rochester in order to establish himself there in the business of millwright. For several years he was thus engaged in the "Flour City," where his skill at his trade led to his recognition as one of the ablest men in that line in the country.

In 1854, through some financial complications, Stephen Whitney, of New York, became virtually the owner of a chain of flouring-mills located at Oswego, Macedon, Rochester and Black Rock, and Mr. Bloomer was placed in charge of the property, with authority to lease, sell or operate, according to his own judgment, and it was while he held this trust that he rebuilt the Frontier Mills at Black Rock. In 1856 he became one of the lessees of the Exchange Mill at Rochester, operating it until 1862, in which year he removed to Buffalo to take charge of the construction of the elevator built that year by William Rankin, Alfred Ely and Ashley Hall. This elevator, after passing through the hands of several different owners, became the property of Greene & Bloomer in 1881, burned down in 1889, and was rebuilt in 1890. Mr. Bloomer became part owner of this elevator, and in 1890 was president of the company that owned the property. In 1885 Mr. Bloomer was chosen president of the Western Elevating Company, retaining the position until 1890, when he was succeeded by George Sowesby. The same year he became a stockholder and president of the Exchange Elevator Company, relations which he still sustains, the office of the company being at No. 66 Board of Trade Building. Mr. Bloomer's elder brother, Dexter C. Bloomer, has been for many years a prominent lawyer of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and another brother owns a fine farm and vineyard on the eastern slope of Seneca lake. Mr. Bloomer is a member of the Merchants Exchange, of the Young Men's Christian Association, of the Buffalo Library Association, of the Republican League and of the Delaware Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, of which latter he has been a trustee and treasurer many years.

On October 15, 1839, Mr. Bloomer was married, in Newark, Wayne Co., N.Y., to Miss Cornelia Frear, and on October 15, 1889, they celebrated their fiftieth anniversary. Mrs. Bloomer died September 2, 1894. Mr. Bloomer has his home at No. 28 Orton Place, Buffalo, New York.

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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.