A. B. Hamilton

A.B. Hamilton was born July 14, 1829 in Uxbridge, Canada, and where he received a common-school education. In 1847 he removed to Buffalo and resided there until about 1879. Soon after settling in that city he was employed on the tow-boat Commerce, running on the Niagara river, where he remained three years, beginning as a fireman and finally becoming chief engineer. He then went to the shops of Barton & Truman, afterward known as the Vulcan Machine Company, and there remained five years when he accepted a position as second engineer on the propeller Bay State, remaining on her for a short time, after which he was employed as second engineer on the propeller H. A. Kent, being on her when she burned off Grand River Bluff on Lake Erie, the crew all escaping in small boats. Then went as oiler on the side-wheel propeller Baltic, after which he was second engineer on the following boats: Forest Queen; Fountain City, for three seasons on the Evergreen City, running from Chicago to Collingwood; and for a short time on the propeller Buffalo, running from Chicago to Buffalo. He was then made chief engineer of the Baltic, where he remained two years, then of the Evergreen City for one year; of the propeller Chicago one year; the propeller Mandota one year; the propeller Wenona one year; and then back as chief on the propeller Chicago for part of a year.

In 1866 Mr. Hamilton left the lakes and took the position of foreman in the Clark & Allen boiler shop, in Dunkirk, N.Y., where he remained eighteen months, and then went to Buffalo, where he accepted a similar position in the Sheppard Iron Works, afterward called the King Iron Works. He went from there to the oil regions, and was engaged in the oil business for some time, and then came to Cleveland to enter the new department of the Globe Iron Works, taking a fourth-interest in the boiler shop, of which he was made superintendent, a position he still fills.

On October 1, 1851, Mr. Hamilton was married to Miss Jane Pendill. They have had three children, one of whom is still living, a daughter, Florence, who married George Kridler, and resided in Cleveland. Mr. Hamilton is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is well known to the lake-faring and marine class generally.

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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.