Many well-known lake vessels called at Northport, But none was more famous than the sidewheel steamer Lady Elgin.

The Lady Elgin at the Rose and
Fox dock at Northport.

The boat is famous for the same reason the White Star liner Titanic is probably the most famous ship ever built.

The Lady Elgin sank in the early morning hours of Sept. 8, 1860, after being rammed by the schooner Augusta north of Chicago. Almost 100 people were saved, but at least 287 drowned in what is the second worst disaster in Great Lakes history. (Over 830 were lost when the steamer Eastland capsized in the Chicago River in 1915.)

Lost with the Lady Elgin was her skipper, John “Jack” Wilson, who five years earlier had piloted the first ship (the Illinois) through the just completed locks at Sault Ste. Marie.

He had served aboard many vessels before assuming command of the Lady Elgin, including the schooner Excelsior. There was later a bark-rigged Excelsior, which was briefly owned by Thomas Kelderhouse of Port Oneida. It was lost, with all but one of the crew, on Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay on Oct. 15, 1871.

Capt. Wilson, a 24 year veteran of the lakes, had an excellent reputation and, following his death, the Chicago Daily Press Tribune offered an editorial comment: “In all these years there has lived no man who could declare that he ever betrayed a trust, or deserted a friend, or proved faithless to duty. With a great generous heart, a clear head, a strong warm hand, he was a thorough sailor and ‘all in all’ a man.”

Although he was a “sailors’ sailor,” Wilson had hoped to retire to a farm, something a large number of lake captains have done.

“To the sailor, a farm seems to symbolize the stability, serenity, a final home port – an end to the storms and endless wandering that have forever been his lot,” historian Dwight Boyer wrote in True Tales of the Great Lakes. Wilson had actually purchased a Michigan farm in Branch County and had envisioned “spending his declining years picking apples and peaches,” according to Boyer.

Money raised after the tragedy enabled Wilson’s family to keep the farm.

No blame was attached to either the Lady Elgin’s officers or those of the schooner. A gale had sprung up just before the collision and the Augusta, commanded by Nelson Malott, was said to be “completely unmanageable.”

“After the collision,” Capt. Malott told a Detroit Free Press correspondent, “it was impossible for the vessel (Augusta) to stay by or follow the steamer, as the steamer was going dead to windward, and the vessel had all she could do to save the spars.”

The schooner, which regularly traded out of “Michigan’s sawdust ports,” was heavily laden with lumber loaded at Port Huron and bound for Chicago, where Malott reported striking the steamer, not then knowing what the consequences were.

The Lady Elgin’s course, which had been for Milwaukee, was altered after the collision to the nearest shore, which was about 10 miles distant.

But the steamer was leaking too badly and foundered before the shore could be reached. The ship carried small boats and plenty of “Michigan pine,” which served as life buoys. In addition, wreckage buoyed up passengers and crew and carried them to shore where heavy surf at Winnetka took a heavy toll. A divinity student, Edward Spencer, became a hero but was rendered an invalid. During the course of many hours, he plunged into the raging surf again and again, until 18 had been brought to safety.

Exhausted and collapsing after the ordeal, he asked, “Did I do my best?”

The 252-foot wooden Lady Elgin was built at Buffalo in 1851 and originally operated on Lake Erie. After a few years, the ship was acquired by A.T. Spencer and Co. for service between Lake Superior and Chicago.

In 1860, Gordon Hubbard of Chicago became her final owner, but she continued to sail on her established route, which took her the length of Lake Michigan to Mackinac and thence to the “Soo” and Lake Superior.

In 1855, Bohemian and German settlers came north from Chicago to settle North Unity near Pyramid Point in this county. Later, an account of the settlement appeared in a Chicago Bohemian language newspaper and a translated version appears in Edmund Littell’s 100 Years in Leelanau.

“In Chicago was epidemic of typhoid fever, so my parents, Kraitz and Muzil’s left at once for Michigan, at the end of October. We sailed only a short time, when opposite Racine our boat hit sand. Motor was damaged and water was filling our boat. Our luck was, we hit nice weather. In about 2 hours a steamboat, Lady Elgin, picked us up and took us to North Manitou Island, which was about 15 miles from our destination. There, we waited a few days, till a small boat came along and took us to North Unity on Nov. 1, 1855.”

When the Lady Elgin sank, the officers of a fledgling Milwaukee insurance company were very apprehensive. Many Milwaukee residents were known to have been aboard the ship, and too many payouts could bankrupt the three-year old company. As it turned out, there was only one claim, and it was promptly paid.

One wonders whether the Lady Elgin was recalled, when, 98 years later a ship, owned by the insurance company and built as an investment, was launched at Detroit. Freshwater ships routinely operated for many decades and could offer a good financial return.

Arrangements were made for the ship to be operated by the Columbia Transportation Division of Oglebay Norton Company under long-term charter. It would carry bulk cargoes such as iron ore and would, for a time, be the largest such vessel on the Great Lakes.
It was named for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company’s chairman of the board: Mr. Edmund Fitzgerald.