Captain John W. Averill

Captain John W. Averill, deceased, was born at Canandaigua, N. Y., in 1817, the son of William and Polly Averill. During his boyhood he attended the public schools of his native city, remaining there until his twentieth year, when he commenced his marine life, going on the Black Hawk as boy with Capt. Daniel Green. He gradually passed the successive stages of a sailor's life until he became master, in which capacity he served for many years, being engaged thus the greater part of the time from 1837 until 1854. He then purchased a small coasting vessel, and followed this line of work in his own interest for several years. In 1862 he built the U. S. Grant, which he sailed for many seasons, also purchasing other small vessels until about 1874, when he retired. He made his home in Painesville, Ohio, where he died in December 1891.

In 1840 Captain Averill was married at Painesville, to Miss Mary E. Hall, and to them were born seven children: Clara J., Captain William L., Daniel M., Capt. John W., Mary J., Capt. Benjamin H. and James H.

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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.