William G. Beckbissinger
William G. Beckbissinger is a native of Germany, having been born at Wurtemburg, October 16, 1867. His parents are George A. and Annie M. (Scholl) Beckbissinger, also of that place, where the father is in the milling business. Our subject has four brothers and two sisters, of whom John A. is a florist of Lansing, Mich.; another brother is in the postal service at Stuttgart, Germany; one is in the milling business; and the other is employed in a paper mill in the old country.
William G. Beckbissinger attended school and assisted his father in his native city until fourteen years of age, when he secured employment as oiler in a paper mill. He remained there two years, at the end of which time, believing that advancement in any profession was more rapid in America, he emigrated to these shores. This was in 1884. For the first six years he worked in machine shops, and in 1890 took to steamboating, starting on the Iron King as oiler, in which capacity he served three seasons. In 1893 he received his first issue of license, as second engineer, and shipped on the Wyandotte for that season. In 1894-95 he was second on the W. R. Stafford, and in 1896 went onto the John Oades as second, remaining on her until August 14, when he went as second to George Lawrence on the Appomattox, which they brought out new. He has continued on her ever since.
Mr. Beckbissinger was married at Detroit, Mich., in 1895, to Miss Fredericka Leucht, of Wurtemberg, Germany, and one child has blessed their union. The family residence is at No. 94 Lafferty street, Detroit, Mich. Mr. Beckbissinger is a member of the M. E. B. A. No. 3, of Detroit, and also of Detroit Lodge No. 6, A. O. U. W.
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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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