Captain Ed Montgomery

Captain Ed Montgomery is a skillful tug master, and although he has not devoted many year to affairs maritime he has come forward rapidly and is now in command of one of the good boats of the White line, operating in Duluth harbor. He was born on a farm near Goderich, Ontario, September 25, 1865, son of Joseph and Lucy (Dockstader) Montgomery, the former of whom came to the United States when a child; the mother was born in Canada. The Captain spent his boyhood attending the public school and working in a high-class livery stable, where a fine breed of horses was kept and his admiration for a good horse developed, and although he made commendable progress in his studies the horses engrossed much of his time. It was in 1888 that he first decided to follow the lakes and shipped as fireman in the steamer Iron King, and when his boat was laid up he went to work in a livery stable, where he remained among his favorites all winter. The next spring he shipped on the steamer Ossifrage as fireman, closing the season in the tug J.L. Williams, and during the winter months he was in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Omaha railroad. During the season of 1890 he fired on the iron tug Record, was later wheelsman on the same boat, and was afterward transferred to the tug John Upham, changing from her to the John Martin and finishing the season in a pumping scow. The following year he helped to fit out the tug Walton B., after which he joined the tug Buffalo as fireman, transferred to the George Emerson, and closed the season in the Maud S. That winter he worked for the American Steel Barge Company until the Pathfinder came out, when he shipped in her as wheelsman, after one trip transferring to barge No. 118. At the close of the season he returned to work in the shipyard, and was next employed in Alfred Scarlet's livery in West Superior.

In 1893 Captain Montgomery took out pilot's papers and was appointed master of the steamer Rambler, owned by the Lake Superior Marine Supply Company, the next season sailing the same steamer for Joseph Hansel, of Canfield, Ohio, who had a boathouse in St. Louis harbor. In 1895 he chartered the steamyacht Cecelia B. and sailed her in the ferry and excursion business, doing fairly well. In the spring of 1896 he entered the employ of Captain Singer as mate of the tug Zenith, and at the end of two months was promoted to the command of the D.T. Helm, closing the season as master of the H.B. Abbott. The next spring he came out as master of the D.T. Helm, sailed the ferry tug Estelle, and completed the season as master on the H.B. Abbott, which he commands at the present writing. Fraternally he is a member of the American Association of Masters & Pilots of Steam Vessels.

In December, 1893, Captain Montgomery married Miss Minnie McMillan, daughter of William and Margaret McMillan, of Superior, formerly of Saginaw, Mich., and the children born to this union are Lucy Mabel and Edwin Joseph. The family reside at No. 504 Morris street, Duluth, Minn. Mrs. Montgomery's father served as a soldier during the Civil war.

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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.