The Captain, part 2

The Bridges moved to Saginaw, Michigan initially to begin their married life.  Work in the lumber industry would have been plentiful for an enterprising 27 year old with relevant experience and connections from out east.  Within a few years, they moved a few miles up the Saginaw River to Bay City which was rapidly becoming a major center of shipping for the Great Lakes.

Bay City, Michigan 1872

It was at this time that Bill became involved in the shipping business, and in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s started and grew his own shipping business that ran lumber and later coal from the western tip of Lake Superior at Duluth, Minnesota to the eastern tip of Lake Erie at Buffalo, New York.

Bill and Nettie had their first child, Elizabeth Louise (Lizzie) in 1870.  Their next 2 children, a daughter and a son, both died within a few days of birth in 1874 and 1880, and it wasn't until 1884 that Willard Allen (Bill) was born.

Bill Bridges, Bay City, 1888

Lizzie Bridges, Bay City, 1873

Bill Bridges' business letterhead with his family history

During this time, Bill would have been away from home for many weeks at a time on his boats picking up lumber at towns along the Great Lakes and delivering them to mills and cities in the east.

Sault Ste. Marie August 28, 1902 The Barge Alleghany. This was WHB's last boat on the Great Lakes. He was master of this barge, then retired. He is standing atop the lumber at left.

By the end of the century, Cleveland, Ohio on Lake Erie was becoming the center of the Great Lakes shipping business and the Captain and his family moved there in 1904.  By his mid-60s, Bill had achieved a modest success in his shipping business and had become a pillar of Cleveland society.  He was an active Republican and senior member of the Kinghts Templar masonic society.

WHB at South Bay, NY July 1923

In 1910, he finally retired from his business and when Nettie died in 1914, Bill moved to Syracuse, New York to live with Lizzie, who ran a small hotel there.  He lived in Syracuse until his own death in 1923 at the age of 82.  He is buried with Nettie in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.