John James Leavy

John James Leavy was born at Buffalo July 12, 1868, a son of Patrick and Mary Leavy, the former of whom was a cartman by occupation, and died in Buffalo several years ago. Our subject has only one brother, William Leavy, who was fireman on the steamer Arabia during the season of 1896.

Mr. Leavy attended Public School No. 3 in Buffalo, but because of the death of his parents in his early life he was compelled to forego the advantages of a good education, and commenced the work of his life at a very tender age. He began first by feeding the press of the Evening Telegram, at which occupation he remained two years. After a couple of months at the same work on the News, he acted as bell-boy at the "United States Hotel," Buffalo. His first employment in connection with Buffalo harbor was on the canal steamer Clock, he acting as assistant engineer for a trip which lasted a month. He then shipped as porter on the steamer Robert Mills for a month, and at the expiration of that time went as deckhand on the ferry steamer Niagara, subsequently acting as fireman and succeeding that employment as fireman of the Mascot, an excursion steamer belonging to the International Ferry Company, on which he remained four years all told. His next berth was that of fireman of the tug Alpha for a month, shipping after that as engineer of the fish tug Helen Lewis for three months, which constituted his first experience as marine engineer.

Mr. Leavy's next service was as engineer of the Dispatch, a supply boat for Messrs. Howard Baker & Co., ship chandlers on the Terrace, Buffalo, and he followed that with a term as engineer of the tug James C. Fullerton. In each of the two last mentioned berths he remained six months. He was then engineer of the small canalboat Star for a month, after which he entered the employ of the Maytham Tug line as engineer of the tug John C. Ingraham, and continued with the line about nine months altogether. The next berth he filled was that of engineer of the Ismalia, a supply boat for the Buffalo Ship Chandlery, and for the season of 1896 he was engineer of the tug A.I. Holloway, owned by Fox & Holloway, in the sand trade from Port Abner, Canada, to Buffalo. For season of 1897-98 he was engineer for second time of the Ismalia.

Mr. Leavy was married September 28, 1895, to Miss Barbara Hullmer, and they have two children: William and Nettie. The family reside at No. 208 Trenton avenue, Buffalo, N.Y. Mr. Leavy is a member of the Buffalo Harbor Tug Pilots Association.

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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.