George A. Grubb

It falls to the lot of a few men to carry along the burden and responsibilities of any good movement intended for the general good. One of the institutions in connection with the Great Lakes which has become a potent factor for the benefit of those directly interested therein, is the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association.

One of the most prominent workers of this organization in Chicago has been the subject of this sketch. Mr. Grubb was the corresponding secretary from 1893 to 1897 inclusive. The order was founded at that port in 1875, and for some considerable time there were two lodges, known as Lodges No. 4 and No. 68. They subsequently became amalgamated under the name of Chicago No. 4. Besides filling the offices of treasurer, recording secretary and others, Mr. Grubb was the representative of the Chicago lodge to the national convention in Washington for the years 1895, 1896, and 1897.

Mr. Grubb was born in Canada in 1862. He sailed on the Mississippi early in life, and came to Chicago from Burlington, Iowa, and began sailing from this port in 1881. For several years he was on the river tugs, and in 1884 became engineer on the tug Uncle Sam. He was then on a number of tugs of the Dunham Towing & Wrecking co. until 1890, when he was appointed engineer for the Chicago & Northwestern Elevator Co. He remained in that position for five years, and in 1895 entered the employ of the city. He is now assistant engineer of the Chicago avenue water works. For over ten years he has been associated with the traffic of the Great Lakes, and besides the work on the river, he has taken occasional trips on the lakes. He is one of the prominent members of the engineering department of lake navigation.

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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.