2021.87.94

ROGERS & BIRD Hard working and talented partners, Charles E. Bird (1856-1941) and Reuben T. Rogers (1840-1926), loved the adventure of the lake and made a living by building boats and operating their shipping company. Charlie Bird, younger of the two came to Saugatuck as a young boy from Du Page County Illinois where his father Henry, who was born in New York, had been a farmer. The elder Bird came here to be a partner in a shingle mill just south of the ferry landing on the west bank of the river. Bird wanted to become a druggist and apprenticed in his teens in the Ensign Drug store located on the corner of Hoffman and Butler Streets. Only in his early twenties, he bought the drug store and ran it successfully for some fifty years. Rube Rogers grew up on the shore of Lake Erie near Cleveland. His father Diodate was a carpenter born in New York, a brother was a sailor. Rube went to sea at an early age to earn master’s papers. He also learned the art of building boats, probably from his father. By 1873 he had built and was captain of the H. D. Moore, a lumber schooner named for Horace D. Moore, successful local lumberman who had a large mill on Holland Street (He built the Park House next to it). In 1879 the Heath grist mill burned and the property, a prime location on the river just north of the Mason Street end, was for sale. Seizing the opportunity, Rogers and Bird formed a partnership - bankrolled by Alfred. B. Taylor - and began to build and operate steamboats. Appropriately enough, the first vessel launched was named the A.B. Taylor. Mr. Taylor was a prosperous merchant who had once worked for Horace Moore, and went on to have a number of retail stores including one in the Landmark Building (now Kilwins). In the back of that building Taylor founded the Fruit Growers Bank (now Chemical Bank). Numerous vessels were built and owned by Rogers and Bird Company from 1882 to 1899. Many were built for others and not operated locally. The steamship line usually operated two or more vessels on passenger and fruit runs between Saugatuck, Pier Cove and Chicago in that period. Rube Rogers sold his interest in the steamship operation in 1896 and the company itself ceased operations by 1900. I thank Kit Lane for her vast knowledge of local boat building history. Her book “Built on the Banks of the Kalamazoo” is a wonderful and invaluable resource on the builders and the boats they built here. By Jack Sheridan

Remembering When

Winthers, Sally

01/02/2022

03/31/2024