hISTORY OF MANITOWOC COUNTY


the Lake Superior trade and she proved a money maker for many years. In the
spring of i868 she was fitted out and started southward on April 8th carrying
aboard many of Manitowoc's business men en route to Chicago on various busi-
ness errands. Others joined the boat at Sheboygan and Milwaukee, so that
the
passenger list was quite heavy as she headed for Chicago. In the early morning
a fire broke out, supposedly from coals of fire dropped from a stove in use
in the
cabin and within a few moments the unfortunate craft was enveloped in flames.
Such was the rapidity of the conflagration that but three persons were able
to
lower themselves into the water and save themselves. Among the dead and miss-
ing from Manitowoc were Capt. N. T. Nelson, George W. Emery, James A.
Hodges, John Sorenson, and many others. A deputation from Manitowoc was
immediately despatched from the village to Waukegan to receive such of the
bod-
ies as had been recovered and to bring them home and the disaster made a
most
profound and deep impression in the local life of the time.
To fill the place left by the loss of the Seabird, Capt. Goodrich purchased
the
Alpena for some $8o,ooo which craft itself was lost twelve years later carrying
down two more Manitowoc men, Arthur Haines, the clerk and William Shepard,
the steward. The steamers Sheboygan and Corona were also soon after con-
structed at the Rand & Burger yards at Manitowoc, the former of which
is still
in commission. The shipbuilding industry was made more important and profit-
able at this time as well by an enterprise, built largely by subscription,
the new
drydock for the repair of vessels. These docks were purchased by Henry Burger
in I887 and were thereafter maintained by him as a part of his plant. Rand
&
Burger, during the early seventies, constructed for the Goodrich interests,
the side-
wheeler Muskegon and the propellers Oconto and Menominee (now the Iowa),
and the building of 'lumber barges was quite generally undertaken as well.
Jonah Richards, a well known Manitowoc vessel owner, was very active at this
time and by his excellent management and business acumen succeeded in build-
ing a fleet that was well and favorably known on the upper lakes.
During all of these years Manitowoc was the hailing port of the Goodrich
Line but questions of taxation arose and Kenosha secured the revenue by a
transfer, Duluth being chosen in later years. Lake Superior steamers called
in
at Manitowoc in the eighties, and in the latter part of the year Flint &
Pere Mar-
quette Railway opened their line of break-bulk boats between that city and
Lud-
ington, Michigan, F. P. Gaines being the first agent. The Ludington was built
for Capt. Goodrich in i88o, later renamed the Georgia, still a staunch and
reliable
craft of the line. The government revenue cutter, Andrew Johnson, was also
thoroughly rebuilt at this time, a work that was followed by the construction
of
the Racine (now the Arizona) and the Indiana.
In 1887, one October night, a terrible disaster took place on the lake off
Two
Rivers. The Vernon, a steamer of the Northern Michigan Line, en route from
Charlevoix to Chicago, was engulfed in the terrible waves of a storm then
raging,
and when the weather cleared and dawn came but a few bits of broken wreckage
remained upon the waters to tell the tale of the craft. Nineteen bodies were
picked
up by fishing tugs and were given the proper care by the authorities at Two
Rivers.
A fireman escaped death but his condition was such that he never was able
to relate
the sequence of events upon that horrible night. This disaster was the last
great loss suffered by any craft in waters adjacent to Manitowoc county up
to
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