Frank J. Upper

Frank J. Upper was born in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1873. He attended school for seven years, and commenced his career in life as a newsboy, continuing to sell newspapers until 1882, when he shipped as fireman on the tug Mary E. Pierce, out of Buffalo harbor. He remained on her about seven months, and the next season fired on the tug O. W. Holloway. Proceeding to Fairport, Ohio, he fired two seasons on the tugs Annie and George W. Paige, after which he removed to Cleveland and engaged as fireman on the tug Chris Grover. In 1896 he took out his first papers as engineer and shipped in that capacity on the tug C. G. Curtiss, finishing the season on the Tom Maytham.

Mr. Upper was married, December 26, 1895, to Miss Lizzie Scott, of Cleveland, who died on the 22d of the following June, of typhoid fever.

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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.