Ackerman family built a lasting legacy on the Great Lakes

September 11, 2026

Capt. John Ackerman. Photo from Sable Points Media Historic Photo Collection. Photo has been digitally restored.

This Great Lakes History Log is presented by Filer Credit Union, the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum and Sable Points Media.

Masters of the PM Steamers

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

LUDINGTON — The final order Capt. John C. Ackerman gave aboard Pere Marquette 18 (II) was an ordinary one.

The carferry was entering Ludington harbor and closing on the railroad slip on the afternoon of Dec. 28, 1916. Ackerman was in the pilothouse as the vessel swung toward the dock. He rang the engine room to stop the engines.

Almost immediately, the 54-year-old captain clutched his chest and collapsed. A December 1916 Kenosha newspaper death report stated that by the time members of the crew reached him, he was dead.

It ended a Great Lakes career of more than three decades that included passenger steamers, the early Ann Arbor railroad carferries and the steel carferries of the Pere Marquette fleet. During his final years, Ackerman commanded the fleet’s flagship and served as commodore.

Maritime service ran through his family. His father and an uncle were captains, while his younger brother, Albert Waldron Ackerman, became a longtime Ludington carferry engineer.

Theodore Ackerman. Photo from Sable Points Media Historic Photo Collection. Photo has been digitally restored.

A Kenosha County family

John Clayton Ackerman was born Aug. 2, 1862, in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, the son of Capt. Theodore Meigs Ackerman (1832-1886) and Eliza Jane Waldron Ackerman (1835-1915). Theodore was a Great Lakes mariner. A newspaper account published after John’s death reported that he died aboard the tug Osgood at Manistee. John’s uncle, Capt. Alfred Ackerman, also sailed from Kenosha.

John was working aboard lake steamers by the late 1880s. A surviving crew list identifies J.C. Ackerman as mate of the passenger steamer Mabel Bradshaw under Capt. Thomas J. Waters. By the early 1890s he had advanced to command, first on the City of Fremont and then the City of Marquette.

The City of Marquette operated between Kewaunee, Manistee and Frankfort. An 1893 “Kewaunee Short Line” advertisement listed Ackerman as its master. An August 1893 newspaper item reported that on his 31st birthday, officers and crew gave him a smoking chair as “a mark of esteem for kindness shown to them.”

Earlier that year, Ackerman had married Cora Almeda Laughlin Ackerman (1873-1952) in Kewaunee. The couple eventually had five children: Esther Lillian, Grace, Doris, Donald and Elaine Mildred.

Ann Arbor No. 1. Photo from Sable Points Media Historic Photo Collection.

The Ann Arbor carferries

Ackerman became one of the early masters of the Ann Arbor Railroad’s carferry fleet during the 1890s. He commanded Ann Arbor No. 1, with Albert serving in the engineering department. Their service included some of the most difficult winter navigation experienced by the early carferries.

In February 1895, Ann Arbor No. 1 broke out of the ice at Frankfort and came to Ludington for coal. In a 1995 Ludington Daily News history, James L. Cabot wrote that it was the first recorded visit of a railroad carferry to Ludington, two years before the Flint & Pere Marquette inaugurated its Ludington carferry service.

Ackerman also took part in attempts to maintain winter service through Green Bay and the Sturgeon Bay canal. A Sturgeon Bay newspaper dispatch reported that Ann Arbor No. 1 once spent nearly three days forcing through heavy ice. After reaching open water, Ackerman said two ferries working regularly could keep a channel open.

Conditions could be far worse. Contemporary newspaper reports described another trip when ice piled into banks several feet thick and the ferry exhausted its coal. Ackerman went ashore across the ice at Manistee while the crew burned lumber aboard the vessel to keep one boiler operating and maintain heat.

Capt. Frank E. Butler later recalled in a 1952 Ludington Daily News article that he sailed aboard Ann Arbor No. 1 with John as captain and Albert as chief engineer. During one winter, the ferry was frozen in Green Bay for six days. With supplies running short, Butler and Albert crossed the ice to Green Island, borrowed the lighthouse keeper’s rifle and dog and hunted for food.

John also served aboard Ann Arbor No. 2 and later commanded several passenger and freight vessels, including the wrecking tug A.J. Wright and the steamers Weston, Ford and Nyack.

PM 17 in Ludington. Photo from Mason County Historical Society Rose Hawley Archives.

The Pere Marquette fleet

Ackerman returned to railroad carferry service at Ludington in 1901. A July 18, 1901, Ludington Record-Appeal account, later quoted by historian Agnes E. MacLaren, reported that he had taken command of the carferry Pere Marquette while Capt. Peter Kilty prepared to take charge of the new Pere Marquette 17. The newspaper noted Ackerman’s earlier carferry experience with the Ann Arbor fleet. His permanent association with the Ludington fleet had begun.

Late in 1903, Pere Marquette 20 arrived at Ludington from the Cleveland shipyard with Ackerman as its first master, according to historical fleet records. On July 17, 1907, the Ludington Chronicle reported that the ferry lost its starboard propeller and about six feet of shaft a few miles from Ludington. Ackerman brought it safely back using the remaining port propeller.

Pere Marquette 18 on excursion in Chicago. Photo from Sable Points Media Historic Photo Collection.

During the summer of 1908, Ackerman temporarily commanded the original Pere Marquette 18 after the railroad chartered it for excursion service from Chicago. The Ludington Record-Appeal reported June 24 that the ferry would enter the excursion trade; on Sept. 9, the newspaper reported its return to Ludington after carrying summer crowds numbering in the thousands. Kilty then resumed command.

The fleet changed dramatically on Sept. 9, 1910, when Pere Marquette 18, with Kilty in command, foundered in Lake Michigan while sailing from Ludington toward Milwaukee. Contemporary newspaper reports stated that Kilty and the vessel’s other officers were among the 29 who died. Capt. Joseph Russell, commanding Pere Marquette 17, answered the distress call and directed the rescue of survivors.

A replacement Pere Marquette 18 (II) entered service in 1911. Russell became its first master and commodore of the fleet, while Ackerman took command of Pere Marquette 17. After Russell died in Milwaukee in July 1913, the Detroit Free Press reported on Oct. 1 that Ackerman, described as the captain longest in the company’s employ, was next in line to command the flagship. Capt. William H. LaFleur took Ackerman’s former position aboard Pere Marquette 17.

The appointment placed Ackerman aboard the vessel he would command for the rest of his life. By the time of his death he also held the title of commodore of the Pere Marquette carferry fleet. The Detroit Free Press, reporting LaFleur’s appointment as commodore on Dec. 30, 1916, identified him as Ackerman’s successor.

Capt. Charles E. Robertson, left, and Chief Engineer Albert W. Ackerman about Pere Marquette 19, circa 1920s. Photo from Sable Points Media Historic Photograph Collection.

Albert W. Ackerman

John’s younger brother, Albert Waldron Ackerman (1867-1936), spent an equally long career aboard Great Lakes vessels, almost entirely in the engineering department. Albert’s April 18, 1936, obituary in the Two Rivers Reporter stated that he was an engineer aboard the first Ann Arbor carferry in 1892. He later served as chief engineer while John commanded Ann Arbor No. 1.

Albert followed John into the Pere Marquette fleet. By 1904 he was chief engineer aboard Pere Marquette 17 under Russell. His later assignments included Pere Marquette 16, 18 (II), 19 and 21. On Pere Marquette 21, he kept a passenger register and often showed visitors through the vessel. His obituary said former passengers later sent him postcards and letters in appreciation for his courtesies aboard ship.

Illness forced Albert to leave Pere Marquette 21 in March 1936. He died at his Ludington home on April 17, 1936, after more than four decades as a marine engineer.

The second ship named the Pere Marquette 18. Rose Hawley Archives, Mason County Historical Society.

The last arrival

Three years after taking command of the flagship, John Ackerman brought Pere Marquette 18 (II) toward Ludington on the afternoon of Dec. 28, 1916. The ferry entered the harbor normally.

As the vessel approached the slip, Ackerman rang the engine-room signal to stop the engines. A Kenosha newspaper death report published in December 1916 stated that hardly had the echo of the signal died away when he clutched his chest and fell to the deck of the pilothouse. Crewmen rushed to him, but he was already dead.

The news traveled quickly across the lake to Kenosha, where Ackerman had been born and where much of his family remained. Company officials described him as one of the most capable men to have served the Pere Marquette fleet. The Kenosha account said he had been a favorite with his crews and reported that crew members wept as they carried him from the vessel to the dock.

Ackerman’s remains were taken from Ludington to Kenosha. A Kenosha funeral notice reported that services were held at the Masonic Temple before he was buried in the Ackerman family plot at Green Ridge Cemetery.

Family burial plot at Green Ridge Cemetery, Kenosha, Wis. Photo by Rob Alway.

Cora remained in Ludington after her husband’s death and became manager of the Western Union office. Her 1952 Ludington Daily News obituary stated that she held the position until 1937, when she moved to Ionia, and continued working for Western Union until 1943. She died in 1952 at age 79 and was buried in Kenosha.

Cora Ackerman. Photo from Sable Points Media Historic Photo Collection. Photo has been digitally restored.

What began as one of many assignments during a captain’s career had become the place where the Ackerman family lived for decades and where both John and Albert spent much of their working lives.

For John, the connection lasted until his final arrival. He had brought Pere Marquette 18 (II) through the Ludington harbor entrance, turned the vessel toward its slip and given the order to stop the engines.

It was the last command he gave.

Masters of the PM Steamers series to date:

In search of information

Editor’s Note: 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 biographical book about the Ludington fleet captains.
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.

If you would like to financially contribute to the book project, please click here for more information.

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