The schooner Mary A. Gregory (US No. 90776) was built by John Gregory at Edgar M. Doolittle & Orville Olcott’s yard (located at 54 Charles St in 1874), Chicago, and was launched at 4:00 pm on May 18, 1875. She was a two masted schooner of 87 tons, 84.6 feet in length, 23.8 foot beam and drew only 6.6 feet of water with centerboard up, without cargo. The boat cost $7,000 to build. Despite the common superstition among sailors that ships named after a living person would not outlive their namesake, the ship was probably named after a niece of the builder, Mary A. Gregory of Amboy, IL. She relocated to Chicago after her marriage in 1870.
The vessel was built for Chicagoan Nathan Saunders, who was so proud at the launching he passed out ten cent cigars while dreaming of the profits he will be soon making. Mr. Sanders kept ownership for fifteen years and always took good care as it was reflected in the insurance ratings which never received a lower rating of A-2.
She was known for her hauling of lumber cargo from Michigan ports such as Cross Village, North Manitou Island, Hamlin Lake, Beaver Island among many others. She was usually manned by only two crewman plus the captain. Her record on the lake was good, having only capsized once in 1903.
At the turn of the century her ownership shifted to Michigan ports, usually owned by her master, and was well known from the Straits of Mackinac to St. Joseph.
Mary A. Gregory
About 1912
Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1875
Inter Ocean, April 30, 1875
Another New Vessel.
John Gregory is building a schooner at the shipyard of Doolittle & Olcott (one of the Dry Dock Company’s yards) which he hopes to have ready for launching within a few weeks. She is all planked, and some painting have been done. The dimensions are about as follows: Length of keel, 115 feet; breadth of beam, 24 feet; depth of hold, 8 feet. Her cost when completed will have been about $10,000. She is intended to be used as a fishing schooner.
The Inter Ocean, May 3, 1875
Our New Vessel!
John Gregory, builder of the vessel now on the stocks at Doolittle & Alcott’s yard, takes no little pride in the craft, and claims that when complete she will be acknowledged to be a perfect beauty. And she probably will. The exact dimensions are: keel, 83 feet; length on deck, 90 feet; beam, 23 feet; hold, 7½ feet. She is planked with 3-inch plank outside, her clamps are 4 inches, and her bilge stretches 4 inches. She is to be fore and aft rigged. The foremast will be 60 feet, and the mainmast 68 feet, the topmasts 41 feet each. When completed the cost will have been a $8,000. It is hoped to have her ready for launching by May 10. Captain Nathan Saunders is the owner, who will put the new craft into the fishing business in Green Bay.
Chicago Tribune, May 18, 1875
LAKE MICHIGAN.
Chicago.
The new schooner which has been in course of construction for some time past at John Gregory’s shipyard on the South Branch, near the Alton depot, will be launched this afternoon at 4 o’clock. Her dimensions are as follows: Keel, 12 feet 6 inches; Beam, 23 feet 4½ inches; Hold, 7 feet 4 inches.
She is intended for the fish trade in Green Bay, and is owned by Capt. Nathan Sanders, of nowhere in particular. Capt. Gregory refuses to disclose her name until the time of her launching. But this much may be revealed, that she will have the name of a lady. Can it be possible that her bachelor owner has a sweetheart after all?
Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1875
The new schooner which has been in course of construction at Gregory’s shipyard for some time past, and a description of which was given in yesterday’s Tribune, was successfully launched yesterday afternoon, in the presence of some 300 or 400 people. She was christened the Mary A. Gregory, after a niece of the builder.
Chicago Tribune, May 29, 1875
The new schr, Mary A. Gregory, lately finished at Gregory’s shipyard, came down the creek yesterday to ship her anchors. She will leave for Mackinaw to-day to engage in the fishing business.
Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1875
Chicago.—The schr Mary A. Gregory has made her first round trip between this port and Green Bay.
Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1876
ON THE LAKE.
One small vessel, which has been in the fishing business, Mary A. Gregory was forced to make an unscheduled port in Chicago. Finding it impossible to make harbor, she came to an anchor outside, and weathered the night. Temperatures hit as low as 15 degrees below zero. The crew kept as warm as they could around the stove in the cabin, but they did not dare to go to sleep for fear of the vessel, capsizing, as it was nearly iced up, and was getting worst every hour. The noses and cheeks of the crew were frost-bitten, but otherwise showed no traces of the terrible experience they went through. Saturday morning she was sighted by the tug O. B. Green, which brought her to the dock near Rush street bridge, not being able to get further up the river, as the ice was too thick to break through. The Captain of the Gregory stated that he passed, Thursday evening, out on the lake, three schooners – one three-and-after, and two, fore-and-afters. He could not make out their names, but supposed them to be the schooners North Cape, Metropolitan, and Reindeer. It was reported at a late hour that one or two schooners had come into sight and the tug O. B. Green was sent out to get them, if possible. The tug McClellan was busy all day breaking up the ice in the main branch of the river, but made slow progress.
Inter Ocean, December 11, 1876
THE WINTER STORM ON THE LAKE.
The little schooner Mary A. Gregory arrived here at 1 o’clock on Saturday afternoon with 1,900 half-barrels of fish from Menominee. The captan reports the weather as very cold and boisterous, and a glance at the schooner satisfies all of any doubts in that direction. The vessel is covered with ice several inches in thickness, and is loaded down very heavily. She arrived outside at 7 o’clock on Friday night, but the weather was so thick the captain did not attempt to enter the city until the city tug O.B. Green, having sighted her, broke the ice in the river and went out and brought her inside. The captain says he has had enough for this season, and will get the schooner into winter quarters. He passed three schooners on the way up between Port Washington and Milwaukee, one of which answers the description of the North Cape, due here on Saturday. The three were coming along under lowered canvas, and were left in the wake as the Gregory spread all the canvas she had. The captain also reports that the schooners Lucy Graham, Ebenezer, Merchant, Graham Bros., and D.A. Wells are all coming here with fish from St. Martin’s and the islands on the north shore. The Gregory left Plumb Island at 9 o’clock Thursday morning.
Up to a late hour last night there were no additional arrivals. The propeller Menominee, of the Goodrich line, left last evening for Manitowoc.
June 30, 1877
The large steam propeller Messenger (US No. 16654) was damaged by fouling the Mary A. Gregory.
From Jacksonport, 14 Sept 1877
Captain Nate Sanders of the schooner Mary A. Gregory was buying fresh fish along this shore and shipping them packed in ice to Chicago. He was in port Monday and took 1800 pounds the days’ catch of P.G. Hibbard.
November 23, 1878
Mary A. Gregory lost her jib-boon by a gale in Lake Michigan.
October 2, 1880
The Mary A. Gregory was reported to be in the Chicago Company’s South Side dock for caulking.
Inter Ocean, December 8, 1880
THE WINTER FLEETS.
Most All In Port.
The schooners J. C. King, F. B. Gardner, Granger, S. B. Pomeroy, Ketchum, General Sigel, and Mary Gregory are all in port here. There was lots of ice on this shore yesterday, and the little Gregory came to a standstill some distance down the lake. The Granger passed along fortunately, and the master of the Gregory, crowding on all sail, succeeded in following in her wake. The Gregory has a cargo of fish from the foot of the lake. All these vessels report desperate weather, and desperate chances outside, with great suffering and hardship among the crews.
Chicago Tribune, December 2, 1890
The Wrecked Schooner Gregory.
Minorville, Mich., Dec. 1—Another effort was made last night toward releasing the schooner Mary A. Gregory, ashore at Whitefish Bay, ten miles north of here. A channel had been dredged by tugs to within a few rods of the wreck when the wind shifted to the northeast and the work had to be abandoned owing to the rapidly increasing sea. No further attempt will be made to get the vessel afloat this fall.
Buffalo Evening News, December 2, 1890
The schooner Mary A. Gregory, ashore at Whitefish Bay, will not be released this fall.
Green Bay State Gazette, December 24, 1890
The schooner Mary Gregory was released from the beach at Whitefish bay Tuesday. She appeared little damaged, but will be taken to Manitowoc and placed in dry dock.
Green Bay State Gazette, October 12, 1891
The schooner Mary A. Gregory, owned by Joseph Lemere, of Jacksonport, was purchased by Thos. Olson and Jacob Johnson for $1,809. The Gregory was built by Capt. Nate Sanders several years ago and employed by him in the fish trade between Fayette and Chicago.
June 1, 1896
The Mary A. Gregory collided with the all-steel passenger steamer Virginia (US No. 161654). A hole was punched in her, but was in no danger.
C. H. Hackley and Mary A. Gregory (right)
The News-Palladium (Benton Harbor, Michigan), October 20, 1925
The schooners Waleska, Mary A. and Gregory and the scows Emily and Eliza are in port waiting for good weather to continue their trip.
Historical Society News, May, 1935
Published by the Chicago Historical Society
THE MARY A. GREGORY
Recently parts from a famous old sailing schooner, the Mary A. Gregory, were recently sented to the Society. The ship was built on Goose Island in 1875 and bought by John Henry Woltman who sailed her for more than fifty years on the Great Lakes. She is said to be the last of the trading schooners to sail from the port o{ Chicago. Capt. Woltman’s daughters have given the eagle figurehead and other articles which will be placed on exhibit in memory the days of sailing ships.
Historical Society News, May, 1935
Published by the Chicago Historical Society
and Chicago Historical Society Fact Sheet
Masthead from Mary A. Gregory
1938
The Mary A. Gregory has the distinct honor to be the last commercial sailing vessel to arrive in Chicago. The Chicago History Museum (formerly the Chicago Historical Society) has the following artifacts from her in their collection:
- ① Bow Sprit and Prow Ornament, carved with eagle head, secured from the Mary A. Gregory built on Goose Island in 1875 – the last of the Great Lakes Schooners. This object is currently on display in the museum’s “Crossroads” exhibition.
② Stentorn Megaphone from the Mary A. Gregory, c. 1900. This object is currently on display in the museum’s “Crossroads” exhibition.
③Set of Seven Caulking Chisels (used to drive caulking between planks) on the Mary A. Gregory. Traditional caulking (also spelled calking) on wooden vessels uses fibers of cotton, and oakum (hemp fiber soaked in pine tar). These fibers are driven into the wedge shaped seam between planks with a caulking mallet and a broad chisel-like tool called a caulking iron. The caulking is then covered over with a putty in the case of hull seams, or in deck seams with melted pine pitch in a process referred to as paying. These objects are currently on display in the museum’s “Crossroads” exhibition. The plaque reads:
Set of seven steel caulking chisels used on the Great Lakes schooner Mary A. Gregory, c. 1900. Captain John Harry Woltman used these chisels on the schooner to drive caulk between the wooden planks of the ship. Some of the chisels have his initials ‘J.H.W’ inscribed on them.
④ Lantern with Blue Glass from the Mary A. Gregory. This object is currently in museum storage.
⑤ Ship’s Lantern from the Mary A. Gregory. This object is currently in museum storage.
⑥ Starboard Marine Lantern from the Mary A. Gregory. This object is currently in museum storage.
Inland Seas, Spring, 1989, Volume 45, No. 1
Schooner’s Last Trip Began From Douglas
By Carl A. Norberg
Back in 1924, the slip alongside the rotting old Red Dock at the foot of Union Street in Douglas (Michigan) became a landmark in the final chapter of the sailing days on southern Lake Michigan.
Captain John Woltman, owner of the schooner Mary A. Gregory, bent on the the best of ancient canvas she owned, cast an experienced eye over the weatherbeaten standing and running rigging and with particular attention to the bilge pump, declared her ready to sail.
A small cargo of potatoes and local fruit was stowed in the hold by his two seamen, docking lines were cast off as the small tug put a strain on the tow line.
With mixed feelings, her master guided his craft past old Saugatuck, into the broad Kalamazoo River, passing a ripple away from the old sawmill city of Singapore buried beneath the sand dunes and out the “new” cut into Lake Michigan. Mainsail and foresail rattled up to their places aloft in cadence to a half-forgotten chantey. As the tow line was cast off, two headsails slid up the stays and she was bound for Chicago.
Captain Woltman fully realized that this was the last chapter for the Mary A. Gregory. Furthermore, he knew this was the swan song of his sailing career. He suspected, and rightly, that this was the last cargo to reach the port of Chicago under sail, and unbelievable contrast to the maiden voyage of his schooner in 1875 when 20,900 sailing vessels arrived and departed that port in a single season.
After discharging her cargo at South Water Street Market, she was towed up the north branch of the Chicago River and moored in the mud alongside of Abe Burrell’s Yacht Yard, where Captain Woltman became the foreman. it became well acquainted with the schooner here, which quickly became a haven for homeless sailors of the old school, who could spin endless yarns of Skillagalee, Beaver Island and the Straits.
But the old vessel was deteriorating rapidly so that in 1926 she was towed out into Lake Michigan, well off shore, for her last moments. Set to the torch, she was a vivid spectacle to only a half dozen old salts. When the charred embers slipped beneath the waves, the last vestige of commercial sail was gone from Chicago and Lake Michigan.
It is reported that she was not forgotten by the Chicago Historical Society, which is said to have acquired her capstans, compass, figurehead, port and starboard running lights, megaphone and sternpost.
John Woltman, last owner of the Mary A. Gregory, was born in Holland, Michigan, in 1857, son of Captain Thomas Woltman, master of the Great Lakes schooners William Tell, Union Mary and Anteres. Young Woltman shipped aboard the Mary on her maiden voyage to Chicago with a cargo of lumber, in 1874.
Douglas, Michigan, in 1923, was the scene of the very last departure of an old sailing schooner in southern Lake Michigan. The Mary A. Gregory was definitely the last of her kind to enter the Port of Chicago.
After ten years of sailing he married Selma Sundman and made his home in Chicago. When he obtained his master’s papers in 1893, he purchased the schooner Wonder, of 39 tons, which a few months later was caught in a vicious late fall storm and on Nov. 29, with sails in ribbons and anchor dragging, was driven ashore seven miles south of Grand Haven. Farmers assisted the exhausted crew to safety. Undaunted, Captain Woltman saw the Wonder floated the following spring and once more he sailed her.
It was in 1875 when the new schooner splashed into the murky waters of the north branch of the Chicago River at John Gregory’s ship building yard. This is about a mile from Abe Burrell’s yard where she ended her days fifty years later. The vessel was built for Nathan Sanders, of Chicago, who was so proud at the launching he passed out ten cent cigars while dreaming of the profits he would make from his new vessel.
Not a sailor himself, he would have a captain and crew engaged in carrying lumber from the north woods ports to booming Chicago. Soon he would regain his investment of $7,000, which was the building cost. In the late ’70s and early 80s the freight earned to Chicago from Grand Haven was $1.25 per thousand board feet of lumber and $1.65 from Manistee. Lumber cargoes were always available and demand for lumber in Chicago unlimited. Sailor’s pay was .75¢ to $1 per day.
The Mary A. Gregory was a handy two-master of 87 gross tons, 84.6 feet in length, 23.8 foot beam and drew only 6.6 feet of water with centerboard up, without cargo. Always well cared for, insurance inspectors rated her A-1 and A-2 even in 1895. Mr. Saunders sold her in 1893 and for some time she loaded barreled fish from northern Wisconsin waters to Milwaukee and Chicago. At the turn of the century her ownership shifted to Michigan ports, usually owned by her master, and was well known from the Straits of Mackinac to St. Joseph.
As lumber and cedar posts became scarce at the great sawmill ports like Manistee and Muskegon, our schooner found cargoes at anchorages such as Port Village, North Manitou Island, Hamlin Lake, Beaver Island and innumerable small piers requiring risky and skilled vessel handling, always without benefit of tow boats. Her curse was common ton all schooners—that of too small a crew. She usually carried two men besides the captain, once in a while one more or less. In heavy weather and close quarters they always needed more hands, but in fifty years of constant sailing, often in late fall, or evading ice floes in the spring, she had a good record. Only once, 1903, did she capsize, when four men were swept to their death in a strong gale. In 1907 she stove a hole in her bottom anchored off Boris Blanc Island in the Straits, loading cedar posts.
In late summer and early fall her captain-owner often became an inter-island trader, peddling fruits and vegetables from the mainland. When Captain Woltman bought her in 1912 he continued to seek a few extra dollars in this manner for his wife and four daughters back in Chicago.
Records of the Life Saving Service and Coast Guard show only a few minor assists to the schooner, so well was she handled in spite of depleted rigging and an aging hull. On December 3, 1913, truly a late month to be sailing, but still seeking a few more dollars before winter lay up, Captain Woltman loaded potatoes at the Sands and Maxwell Waterhouse in Pentwater. The marine recorder of the Lexington Chronicle wrote “These vessels, which once lined the docks almost continuously, are seldom seen in Pentwater nowadays.”
As a postscript to our story of the Mary A. Gregory’s final trip in 1924, there still remained on Lake Michigan three old schooners. They were Lucia A. Simpson (US No. 140097), carrying cedar posts to Milwaukee, The City of Grand Haven (US No. 33869), a two master, and Our Son (US No. 19437), a three master, both carrying pulpwood logs to Muskegon. By Sept. 30, 1930, all three were gone—forever.
Obituary forCaptain John Harry Woltman, 1927
Funeral rites will be held today for Capt. John Harry Waltman (sic), 75, veteran lake captain, who passed away at his home at 3509 Janssen av. Friday.
Capt. Woltman was born in Holland, Mich., in 1859. His father was the late Capt. Thomas Waltman, master of four famous Great Lakes schooners, the William Tell, the Union, the Mary and the Antares.
Capt. Woltman as a boy of 15 sailed the schooner Mary on her maiden cruise into Chicago harbor in 1874 with a cargo of lumber—the first trading ship to reach the new dock. He liked Chicago so well that he later made it his home port.
He was married to Selma Sundman in 1884, and, after receiving his master’s papers in the in the Fall of 1893, he purchased the Wonder. One of the severest storms in lake history took place the same year and the Wonder was wrecked off Grand Haven. He and his crew were rescued by farmers on the coast.
Undaunted by his loss, he purchased the schooner Mary Gregory, which he navigated for many years, retiring in 1927 after the ship made the last voyage any schooner made out of Chicago port. Thus Capt. Woltman opened and closed the history of sailing ships in the Port of Chicago.
His widow, four daughters, a sister and brother survive, Services will be held at the late residence at 2:30 o’clock, with burial in Graceland Cemetery.
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