Tonawanda Barge Line (A. Weston & Co.).htm

Photos: (1) The steamer-barge A. Weston. (2 & 3) The schooner-barge A. Stewart, seen in its later years as the Keuka (4) The hold of the Keuka transformed into a floating dance hall and speakeasy during Prohibition (5) Keuka sinking (6) The underwater wreck of the Keuka in Lake Charlevoix, Michigan, where it sank in August 1932. Photograph by Chris Roxburgh. (7) Charles Weston, part of a different fleet.

North Tonawanda's lumber fleet on the Great Lakes

North Tonawanda's rise as a great lumber port depended on more than its sawmills, lumberyards and docks. It also depended on a fleet of vessels that carried millions of board feet of lumber across the Great Lakes from the forests and mills of Michigan to markets in New York and beyond.

Among these was the Tonawanda Barge Line, associated with the far-reaching lumber interests of the Weston family. The Westons had substantial operations in Manistique, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where their lumber companies operated sawmills and logging railroads. Their vessels provided a vital transportation link between these western operations and the lumber markets at Tonawanda.

A fleet built in Michigan

The Tonawanda Barge Line had close ties to Captain William DuLac (1837–1902), a Great Lakes mariner and shipbuilder of Mount Clemens, Michigan. DuLac held a financial interest in the company and began building vessels for it in 1881. His first was the Jennette, a wooden tow barge.

Over the following decade, DuLac's shipyard built all five vessels that would appear in a 1905 directory of Great Lakes shipping.

The directory identifies Charles Weston, son of lumber magnate Abijah Weston, as manager of the line, with L. S. DeGraff serving as purchasing agent.

The fleet consisted of two steam barges and three vessels described as schooners. Shipbuilding records identify the latter as tow barges, which could carry large quantities of lumber while being pulled by steam-powered vessels.

The fleet of 1905

- Chas. Weston, Manager
- L. S. DeGraff, Purchasing Agent

• Steamer A. Weston (Congercoal)—Captain, D. McKenzie; Engineer, W. Boyce.
• Steamer F. R. Buell (Nagaho)—Captain, C. W. Woodgrift; Engineer, Edw. Cottrell.
• Schooner A. Stewart (H. J. McAvoy, Keuka)—Captain, Frank Laforge.
• Schooner Eleanor—Captain, Fred Chamberlin.
• Schooner Jennett (Jennette)—Captain, Geo. Laforge.

Steamer versus schooner: what was the difference?

The essential distinction was how the vessels were propelled.

• Steamer: A vessel with its own steam engine and propeller. The Tonawanda Barge Line's A. Weston and F. R. Buell were steam barges—powered vessels designed to carry lumber or other bulk cargo and sometimes tow additional vessels.

• Schooner: Traditionally, a sailing vessel with two or more masts and fore-and-aft sails. But by the late nineteenth century, many Great Lakes schooners were used as schooner-barges: large cargo-carrying vessels that were ordinarily towed by steamers rather than sailing independently.

This arrangement was particularly economical for lumber transportation. One steam barge could carry its own load while towing one or more heavily laden schooner-barges behind it. The operator got substantially more carrying capacity without needing a steam engine, boiler, fuel and engine crew aboard every vessel.

The barges could retain masts and sails, which could supplement the tow or allow some independent navigation. In fact, this hybrid arrangement was a characteristic feature of late-nineteenth-century Great Lakes commerce.

And we have a documented example involving the Weston fleet itself: in June 1897, the steamer A. Weston ran onto a reef near Cedar River, Michigan, while towing the schooner Eleanor. Both vessels were traveling without cargo.

There's another fascinating example from October 1896: the Tonawanda Barge Line's steamer Alleghany was towing the barge Transfer near Summer Island in Lake Michigan when both grounded. The Alleghany was subsequently abandoned. Neither vessel appears in the 1905 roster, demonstrating that the company had operated other ships earlier.

The Charles Weston was not part of the five-vessel Tonawanda Barge Line fleet listed in 1905. It was a steel freighter launched in 1906 for the related Tonawanda Transit Company. I included it to illustrate the evolution of Weston shipping, but it shouldn't be presented as part of the original fleet.

The A. Weston and F. R. Buell

The A. Weston, built in 1882, was a wooden steam barge approximately 164 feet long. Originally owned in part by Charles Weston and the Chicago Lumbering Company, it served the Great Lakes trade for more than a quarter-century.

Renamed Congercoal in 1909, it continued carrying freight until May 11, 1917, when it burned at Little Sodus Bay, New York. Its remains are still known to divers.

The F. R. Buell, launched in 1888, was a considerably larger vessel, measuring approximately 202 feet overall. It passed through several owners after its Tonawanda service and was eventually acquired by North Tonawanda shipowner John J. O'Hagan.

In 1921, the vessel was renamed Nagaho—O'Hagan spelled backward. Its career ended the following year after it suffered severe damage in an October 1922 storm on Lake Ontario while carrying grain from Buffalo toward Montreal. The vessel reached Montreal but was declared a total loss.

From lumber barge to floating speakeasy: the remarkable A. Stewart

One of the Tonawanda Barge Line's vessels had a particularly colorful second life.

Built by DuLac in 1889, the schooner-barge A. Stewart served the lumber trade under Captain Frank LaForge. Later renamed H. J. McAvoy and then Keuka, it survived long after its original commercial purpose had faded.

In 1928, the aging wooden barge was purchased by the Wolverine Steamship Company and transformed into a floating entertainment establishment on Michigan's Lake Charlevoix.

The Keuka opened as a dance hall on New Year's Eve 1929, offering music, dancing and roller skating. But during Prohibition, the vessel also became a floating speakeasy and gambling establishment.

Its notoriety grew following police raids and a violent confrontation in which the barge's manager was shot. On August 14, 1932, the Keuka sank under circumstances that remain disputed. Some suspected deliberate sabotage; others blamed the vessel's deteriorating condition.

The wreck remains in Lake Charlevoix, where divers can still explore the remains of a vessel that once carried North Tonawanda's lumber.

From wooden barges to steel freighters

The Weston shipping interests did not remain confined to the comparatively modest wooden vessels of the Tonawanda Barge Line.

In 1906, the Tonawanda Transit Company, based in North Tonawanda, took delivery of the steel freighter Charles Weston. Measuring 569 feet overall, it represented an enormous advance in size and carrying capacity over the company's earlier wooden vessels.

The following year, the Weston Transit Company, also based in North Tonawanda, launched the even larger LeGrand S. DeGraff, a steel freighter measuring nearly 606 feet overall. It bore the name of the man listed as purchasing agent of the Tonawanda Barge Line only two years earlier.

The LeGrand S. DeGraff was among the longest vessels operating on the Great Lakes when it entered service in 1907. A surviving photograph, taken around 1908 by maritime photographer Louis James Pesha, shows the massive ship under steam, with crew members visible on its bridge.

Suggested photograph caption: The steel freighter LeGrand S. DeGraff, launched in 1907 for the North Tonawanda-based Weston Transit Company. At nearly 606 feet overall, it was among the largest vessels on the Great Lakes. Photograph by Louis James Pesha, circa 1908. Detroit Historical Society, accession 2011.040.109.

Suggested photograph caption: The steel freighter Charles Weston, built in 1906 for the Tonawanda Transit Company of North Tonawanda. At 569 feet overall, it was more than three times the length of the wooden steamer A. Weston, built just 24 years earlier.

These steel freighters belonged to related Weston shipping enterprises rather than the five-vessel fleet recorded in 1905. Nevertheless, they illustrate how rapidly Great Lakes transportation was changing as the lumber era gave way to an age of increasingly large bulk carriers.

Today, the surviving photographs and shipwrecks provide a tangible connection to North Tonawanda's industrial past. They also reveal the surprisingly long and varied careers of vessels that once belonged to a local lumber fleet—some continuing to work for decades, and one finding an unlikely final occupation as a Prohibition-era party boat.

A Captain's Tale: Captain Charles Woodgrift of the F. R. Buell

https://www.linkstothepast.com/marine/captainsW.php

Captain Charles Woodgrift is one of those hardy Danes who are noted as good sailors. He was born in Schleswig, Denmark, in 1841, and began a life on salt water when but fourteen years of age. In 1861 he came to the United States, and went sailing from Philadelphia to the West Indies and Brazil.

In 1865 he went to Chicago and shipped before the mast of the Chenango, sailing from Chicago to Buffalo, and during the next year, in 1866, he again sailed on salt water out of Philadelphia. In 1867 he went back to the lakes, shipping on the William Crosthwaite. That fall he changed to the schooner Willaim Grandy, and in 1868 went as second mate of her. In 1869 he filled the position of second mate on the Sweetheart, running from Chicago to Buffalo, and in 1870 bought a half-interest in the schooner Rosa Ann; selling out his interest in the fall of 1871, he went back to the Sweetheart as first mate, where he remained until 1874, when he went as second mate of the steamer Superior. In 1875 he bought a half-interest in the schooner Hathaway, and sailed her until the fall of 1881, when she was lost on the beach at Springport. During the seasons of 1882 and 1883 he was captain of the Louisa, then entered the employ of the Tonawanda barge line, where he has since remained. He was captain of the schooner Alva four years; of the steamer Canisteo two years; and since then of the steamer F.R. Buell. During these years he has never grounded nor had any trouble; the line carried no insurance, claiming that it thus saved money.

In 1867, at Buffalo, Captain Woodgrift was married to Miss S.J. Brady, and they have four children; Alice; Jennie; Charles, who is a sailor; and Willie.

Captain Woodgrift is a member of the Detroit Harbor No. 47, Masters and Pilots Association, and expects to remain "on deck" some years yet.

Sources and further reading

• Marine Vessels Navigating the Great Lakes in 1905, fleet and crew listing for the Tonawanda Barge Line.

• Mount Clemens Public Library, William DuLac and Shipbuilding in Mount Clemens (2008).

• Sterling Berry, Great Lakes Vessel History, entries for the F. R. Buell, Charles Weston and LeGrand S. DeGraff.

• Detroit Historical Society, Louis James Pesha photograph of the LeGrand S. DeGraff, circa 1908.

• Sean Kingsley, “Once a Floating Speakeasy, This Shipwreck Tells a Tale of Bullets and Booze,” Smithsonian Magazine, January 20, 2023.

• A History of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan and Its People, Vol. I, for the relationship between the Manistique lumber operations and the Tonawanda Barge Line.