.png)
The W.L. Mercereau tug in the 1920s. Photo from the Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives.
This Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union and the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum.
Masters of the PM Steamers
Family histories needed
Editor’s Note: This is the seventh article in the “Masters of the PM Steamers” series. I am seeking historical artifacts and stories from people whose family members worked as ship captains or in Ludington’s maritime industry. While this project focuses on the Ludington carferry fleet, I am also interested in items related to anyone from Mason County who worked on the Great Lakes or oceans.
This series has three goals:
- To share Ludington’s rich maritime history with readers of the Mason County Press.
- To publish a book on the topic.
- To create an interactive kiosk exhibit at the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum for historical research.
I am looking for artifacts such as photographs, written documents, or digitized materials. Items will be placed in the Mason County Historical Society archives, and donors will receive documentation of their contribution.
If you have items or stories to share, please email editor@mediagroup31.com or call/text 231-757-3202.
Note: I am also interested in collections related to the Mason County railroad industry.
The SS Spartan when it was a new ship. Photo from the Mason County Historical Society Society Ernest Beimer photographic collection, Rose Hawley Archives.
By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief
On the morning of Thursday, Oct. 23, 1952, a crowd of people gathered along the Ludington channel to watch the arrival of the brand-new SS Spartan carferry. The Spartan arrived in Ludington just three days after the end of a 15-week strike that had halted C&O Railroad ferry service since July 4. The ship was launched on Jan. 4, 1952 at the Christy Corporation shipyard in Sturgeon Bay, Wis. with little ceremony. It wouldn’t be christened until Sept. 6 when its sister ship, the Badger, was launched.
The arrival of the first new carferry in 11 years was something worth seeing. The previous ship, the SS City of Midland 41, had arrived in Ludington on March 12, 1941. Among the crowd was a legend. At 85 years old, Capt. Frank Butler had sailed on the very first carferries. He was not only a captain, but he was the son of a captain and the father of a captain.
Leonore P. Williams, a writer for the Ludington Daily News, came upon Capt. Butler at the boat docks that morning — a tradition held to this day among the alumni and fans of the fleet. With pen and paper in hand, Williams wrote a fitting tribute to the great master among the newspaper’s coverage of the arrival of the largest carferry to ever sail on the Great Lakes at that point in time.
“Capt. Butler, now retired and living quietly in his small apartment at 307 S. Harrison St., has a wealth of memories of sailing vessels, cargo steamers, carferries and tugboats, each of them playing an important role in the development of marine traffic on the Great Lakes over a span of 70 long years,” Williams wrote in an article published on page 7 of the Oct. 23, 1952, edition of the Ludington Daily News. “He has held his master’s license for 64 years, a record achieved by few in the annals of Great Lakes shipping.”
A.O. Wheeler
Frank Eugene Butler was born May 20, 1867, in Sheboygan, Wis., the son of Capt. Charles Jacob Sherwin Butler (1837-1906) and Grace Amelia (Foster) Butler (1839-1924).
When Frank was 18 months old, the Butler family moved to Golden Township near Pentwater in Oceana County, where Charles engaged in fishing for two years. Then the family moved to Leland on the Leelanau Peninsula, where Charles continued fishing.
“Then came the big Chicago fire of 1871 and at the same time the woods of Northern Michigan were engulfed in gigantic forest fires,” Williams wrote. “Capt. (Charles) Butler traded his fishing outpost for a team of mules and wagon into which he loaded his family and all their possessions and drove down to Frankfort.”
Now in Benzie County, Charles Butler operated a tugboat that moved booms of logs and vessels.
At age 16, Frank Butler began his sailing career as a linesman for the Canfield Tug Line in Manistee. He later worked as a fireman on a tug in Manistee Harbor.
“The harbor tugs of those days were the backbone of commerce and industry,” Williams wrote. “They brought the logs and other supplies to the mills and carried away the manufactured lumber products. Sailing vessels were helpless to enter or leave a port without the aid of a tug, and the steamboats, too, relied on the guidance of the harbor tugs to safely reach their docks.”
The Canfield Tug Line was one of the earliest and most important tugboat operations on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan during the late 19th century. It played a crucial role in supporting the booming lumber and shipping industries that made Manistee one of the busiest ports on the Great Lakes in that era.
The tug line was founded in 1866 by Manistee businessman John Canfield shortly after the Civil War. Canfield asked his brother-in-law, Abram Oren Wheeler (A.O. Wheeler), to come to Manistee and establish the towing business. The company was initially organized as a partnership, with Wheeler managing operations.
At the time, Manistee’s economy was booming due to the lumber trade. Hundreds of sailing vessels visited the port each year, carrying lumber and supplies. Tugboats were essential because sailing ships could not easily navigate the narrow Manistee River channel between Lake Michigan and Manistee Lake without assistance.
The Canfield Tug Line quickly became one of the primary towing services for ships entering and leaving the harbor. By the late 1870s the company operated six tugs, considered sufficient to handle most of the shipping needs at the port. In the early 1880s, Wheeler gradually purchased the interest of founder John Canfield and became the principal owner of the line.
Frank worked in that position for three summers and continued to attend school in the winters.
His next job was on the three-masted wooden schooner Mineral State, which operated between Wisconsin ports and Cleveland, Ohio. The Mineral State was built in 1873 by William Clark Shipyard in Trenton, along the Detroit River.
He then worked on a steam freighter that carried iron ore from Escanaba to Port Huron and then returned with coal.
Ann Arbor No. 1. Photo from the Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives.
SS Ann Arbor No. 1
In 1896, Frank became second mate of the SS Ann Arbor No. 1. The AA No. 1 was the first Great Lakes carferry. Built for the Ann Arbor Railroad, the 260-foot-long wooden vessel began service in 1892. Two years after being hired, at age 31, Frank was promoted to master.
The AA No. 1 was designed by naval architect Frank E. Kirby (1849-1929) and was built by Craig Ship Building in Toledo, Ohio, as Hull No. 55. The coal-powered steamship was operated by three horizontal compound engines, 20 inches plus 40 inches by 36 inches, at 1,830 horsepower. The engines were built by S.F. Hodge & Co., Detroit. Its three firebox boilers were built by Lake Erie Boiler Works, Buffalo, N.Y. In 1901 the boilers were replaced with two Scotch boilers built by American Ship Building Co., Cleveland. The ship had four tracks and could hold 24 cars.
(Read more about the AA No. 1 here)
“We could handle 22 freight cars (the ship could actually hold 24 cars) and carried flour, feed and grain going east and coal going west,” Butler told Williams. “Once each week we had an eastbound load of butter and eggs. We never stopped for weather, went through thick and thin and charted our course with just an old-fashioned compass. We traveled between Frankfort and Manitowoc, Wis., and carried a few passengers along with our freight.”
Frank told Williams about one winter when the AA No. 1 remained frozen in the ice of Green Bay for 60 consecutive days and he and his crew of 30 men waited out the two months aboard the boat.
“It was not too bad though,” he said. “The mail stage operating over the ice between Menominee and Sturgeon Bay passed within a few feet of our ship every day and brought us our mail and supplies from the mainland. We were stuck just a mile from Green Island and the chief engineer, Al Ackerman, and I used to walk across the ice to the island where we borrowed the lighthouse keeper’s rifle and dog and went rabbit hunting. As our coal supply ran low, more fuel was hauled out to us on sleighs by teams of horses.”
On Dec. 1, 1897, Frank married Eliza Helen Belonga (1874-1938) in Frankfort. They had four sons: Charles Ezra (1898-1978), Ralph S. (1899-1964), Ellis Millard (1901-1980), and Glynn Francis (1903-1928). Of those sons, Charles also served as a ship captain.
In 1900, the Butlers moved to Ludington, where Frank was hired by the Pere Marquette Railway and served as first mate on the Pere Marquette (later known as the Pere Marquette 15).
The Pere Marquette. Photo from the Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives.
SS Pere Marquette
The 337-foot-long Pere Marquette was designed by naval architect Robert Logan (1861-1918) and was built by F.W. Wheeler & Co. in West Bay City (Bay City) as Hull No. 119. It entered service for the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway in Ludington on Feb. 13, 1897. The Pere Marquette was the first steel carferry on the Great Lakes.
The F&PMRR had begun shipping freight from railcars across Lake Michigan in May 1875, just six months after completion of the railroad’s construction, which terminated in Ludington. The railroad used “break-bulk” ships, which required more than 400 men to work the docks at Ludington, removing freight from the railcars and loading them onto the ships (and then repeating the process on the other shore).
The Pere Marquette Railway was formed Nov. 1, 1899, to consolidate the Flint & Pere Marquette, the Chicago & West Michigan and the Detroit Grand Rapids & Western.
As first mate of the Pere Marquette, Frank served under the command of John Ackerman (1862-1916), whose brother, Albert (1867-1936), served as Frank’s chief engineer on the AA No. 1. Albert became chief engineer of the newly built Pere Marquette 17 in 1901. His career with the Pere Marquette Railway included service as chief engineer on the PM 17 (1901-1910, 1912-1916, 1917), PM 16 (1911), PM 18 (II, 1916, 1931-1932), PM 19 (1918-1924, 1926-1930), PM 21 (1925, 1933-1936).
In the April 21, 1904, edition of the Ludington Record Appeal, Frank is listed as first mate of the PM 20 with John Ackerman as captain and Robert McClaren as chief engineer. In an article published Feb. 1, 1906, in the Record Appeal, Frank is listed as first mate of the PM 15 with Ackerman as captain and McClaren as chief engineer. In the 1952 Daily News article, Williams stated Butler served as a supply captain on the PM steamers, but his primary job was master of the tug W.L. Mercereau during the winter months when the boat was chartered to the Pere Marquette Railway for duty in Ludington.
The W.L. Mercereau tug, left, assisting other vessels. Photo from the Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives.
Tug W.L. Mercereau
The 74-foot-long W.L. Mercereau was built in 1910 by the Great Lakes Towing Company of Cleveland, Ohio (Hull No. 12), which also operated the boat. During the warmer months, the boat operated on the Chicago River, where it towed steamboats.
The tug was named after William Lincoln Mercereau (1866-1955), who served as superintendent of the Pere Marquette steamships from 1899 until 1931. Under Mercereau’s leadership, the Ludington-based carferry fleet became the largest on the Great Lakes. Read more about William Mercereau here.
The tug W.L. Mercereau was sold in 1937 and renamed the New Mexico. In 1997, it was sold again, renamed the Punta Lima, and transferred to Puerto Rico.
Eventually, Frank went to work for Great Lakes Towing and became the ranking captain of its tug fleet in Chicago, a job he held until he retired in 1941.
Capt. Charles Jacob Butler
Frank’s father, Charles Jacob Sherwin Butler, was born Jan. 24, 1837, in New York state. He was the son of Horace Sherwin (1816-1887) and Thunsey Hogle (1816-1840). He married Grace Amelia Foster on July 8, 1866, in St. Joseph.
Grace (1839-1924) was born in Sheriff Hutton, England.
Grace and Charles had three children: Frank Eugene (1867-1962), Grace (1869-1870) and Maude (1877-1945).
When talking to Leonore P. Williams that October 1952 morning, Frank was reticent to talk about himself but “he did condescend to tell about his father whom he described as ‘a real sailor,'” Williams wrote.
“In the last years of his life the senior Capt. Butler lived year-round in the little cabin of his sort of pumpkin-seed-shaped sloop, the M.M. In the M.M. he crossed and recrossed Lake Michigan carrying fruit, wood and other cargo between Michigan and Wisconsin ports. He showed little regard for the weatherman and often ventured forth when many larger craft stayed safe in the harbor shelter. His only companion aboard the sloop was a large dog, who served as deck watch while his master slept. When Capt. Butler, regardless of the weather, went below to eat and sleep he would lash the tiller down and the little craft, heeled far over, would speed on through the water. The dog remained above deck and, should any other vessel approach near the M.M., he would quickly awaken the captain and warn him of the danger. During the early years of the 1900s the M.M. was a frequent visitor in port at Ludington and will likely be remembered by the residents of that day.”
It’s likely that Capt. Charles Butler didn’t live all his days on the sloop since he had a wife at home. Census records show Grace and Charles living in Benzie County by 1894. Both are buried at Crystal Township Cemetery North.
Capt. Charles Ezra Butler
Frank’s oldest son, Charles Ezra Butler, was born Sept. 18, 1898, in Frankfort.
In the May 31, 1967, edition of the Ludington Daily News, Dorothy Trebilcock wrote a feature about Charles Butler in her column, “Port Side.” Butler, who was 68 years old at the time, had been retired for about four years and was living on Lewis Street in Ludington.
As the son of a Pere Marquette Railway steamship employee, Charles began working as a teen at the boat docks, loading and unloading the “black boat” break-bulk freighters.
“There was also a paint shop, a carpenter shop and a grain elevator,” Trebilcock wrote. “Charles Butler knew them well. He was one of the ‘school kids’ who worked there.”
Charles E. began his sailing career at age 26 in 1925 when he worked as a watchman on the SS Joseph Block.
SS Joseph Block. Photo by Fred Miller II.
SS Joseph Block
The Joseph Block was named after one of the original investors of Inland Steel Co., who helped start the company in 1893. The Inland Steamship Co., a subsidiary of Inland Steel, was formed in 1911 with Hutchinson & Co. of Cleveland serving as purchasing agent and manager of marine operations. The company purchased two steamships from the Acme Transit Co., the Arthur H. Hawgood and the W.R. Woodford.
The Hawgood was built by Chicago Shipbuilding Co. as Hull No. 76. It was launched Oct. 5, 1907, at 569 feet long, 56 feet wide, with a depth of 31 feet. The ship was operated by coal-fired triple-expansion engines that operated at 2,000 hp. It entered service in 1907 for Neptune Steamship Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, with A.H. Hawgood as manager. In 1911, the fleet merged into Commonwealth Steamship Co., again with Hawgood as manager.
Inland Steamship Co. purchased the ship in 1912 and renamed it Joseph Block. The ship was rebuilt in 1945. Its boilers were converted to oil firing in 1947. On May 22, 1968, the Joseph Block ran aground at Death’s Door Passage north of the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin. The ship was abandoned to the underwriters as a constructive total loss and then was sold to Lake Shipping Co., a subsidiary of American Ship Building Co., and towed to South Chicago for repairs.
The Kinsman Marine Transit Co. of Cleveland purchased the vessel in 1969 and renamed it the George Steinbrenner. It was sold for scrap to Marine Salvage Ltd. of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, in 1978.
On Dec. 13, 1930, Charles married Marie Vera Farrington Butler (1905-1984). Marie was born Feb. 12, 1905, in Yates Township, Lake County, near Baldwin. On Feb. 24, 1925, she married Glynn Francis Butler, Charles’ brother, in Ann Arbor. The couple had one son, Glynn Butler Jr. (1926-2004).
Two years after Glynn died in 1928, at age 24, Charles married Marie (Dec. 13, 1930, in Ludington) and adopted Glynn Jr.
Charles E. and Marie had another child, Alice Marion Butler (1933-2019), and were divorced in 1949. Charles then married Cecile Elizabeth Rockwell (1899-1978) in 1951.
Charles E. sailed on several other ships before receiving his master’s papers. They included the Nagaunee, J.J. Sullivan, A.A. Augustus, G.A. Tominson and the James P. Walsh. In 1940, he had his first master assignment onboard the Buckeye Steamship Co.’s Maritana.
Charles Ezra Butler died July 15, 1978, in Muskegon at age 80.
Richard Ellis Butler
Richard Ellis Butler (1934-2019) was the grandson of Frank and Eliza, the son of Ellis Millard Butler (1901-1980) and Beatrice (Malliet) Butler (1905-1972). Richard took a slightly different route than his grandfather. Though he began his career on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway carferries (the Pere Marquette Railway was absorbed by the C&O in 1947), he became a train conductor and eventually was transferred to Grand Rapids.
The C&O became the Chessie System in 1973, a result of the final merger of the C&O, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Western Maryland Railway. In 1980, following the merger of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries, CSX was formed. Richard Butler worked over 40 years for the railroad. He died on Oct. 18, 2019.
The grave of Capt. Frank E. Butler at Lakeview Cemetery. Note, this image has been digitally enhanced to clean up the moss on the marker.
Retirement and death of Capt. Frank Butler
Frank’s wife, Eliza, died Dec. 4, 1938, in Ludington. After he retired in 1941, Frank split his time between Ludington and Frankfort. He was a member of the Pere Marquette Lodge No. 299, Free & Accepted Masons, and spent his last eight years at the Masonic Home in Alma, where he passed away.
Frank died Saturday, March 17, 1962, at age 94.
Frank and Eliza, along with Charles Ezra, are all buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington.
About the author: Rob Alway is editor-in-chief and owner of Mason County Press who has written about local history for 40 years. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Mason County Historical Society and serves as chairman of the society’s collections committee.
Masters of the PM Steamers series to date:
- Capt. John Stewart was first skipper of the Ludington fleet 150 years ago
- Capt. Muir commanded first Ludington ‘black boat’ until his death
- Ludington fleet captain Duddleson skippered the famed L.C. Waldo during the 1913 storm
- The remarkable career of Capt. Joseph Russell
- Capt. John Doyle, first master of the PM 19
- Capt. Dority commanded several PM ships, the Ann Arbor 2 and the notorious Eastland
________________________________
Filer Credit Union with offices in Manistee, Ludington, East Lake, and Bear Lake; filercu.com; 800.595.6630
The Mason County Historical Society is a non-profit charitable organization that was founded in 1937 that does not receive any governmental funding. It owns and operates the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum in Ludington, Historic White Pine Village in Pere Marquette Township, and The Rose Hawley Archives and the Mason County Emporium and Sweet Shop in downtown Ludington.
For more information about donating to and/or joining the Mason County Historical Society, visit masoncountymihistory.org.
_______________________________
Please consider making a one-time contribution to help support MCP.
Please Support Local News and Sports Coverage
Receive daily MCP and OCP news briefings along with email news alerts for $10 a month. Your contribution will help us to continue to provide you with free local news.
To sign up, email editor@mediagroup31.com. In the subject line write: Subscription. Please supply your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number (indicate cell phone). We will not share your information with any outside sources. For more than one email address in a household, the cost is $15 per month per email address.
We can send you an invoice for a yearly payment of $120, which you can conveniently pay online or by check. If you are interested in this method, please email editor@mediagroup31.com and we can sign you up. You can also mail a yearly check for $120 to Media Group 31, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454 (please include your email address).
Payment must be made in advance prior to subscription activation.
We appreciate all our readers regardless of whether they choose to continue to access our service for free or with a monthly financial support.
_____
This story and original photography are copyrighted © 2026, all rights reserved by Media Group 31, LLC, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454. No portion of this story or images may be reproduced in any way, including print or broadcast, without expressed written consent.
As the services of Media Group 31, LLC are news services, the information posted within the sites are archivable for public record and historical posterity. For this reason it is the policy and practice of this company to not delete postings. It is the editor’s discretion to update or edit a story when/if new information becomes available. This may be done by editing the posted story or posting a new “follow-up” story. Media Group 31, LLC or any of its agents have the right to make any changes to this policy. Refer to Use Policy for more information.
