Sinking of the Erie L. Hackley

 

Our LaPeer Grandparents met in a very unusual way...

In the Fall of 1903, Clarence Jacob LaPeer ( 'CJ' ) was working as a young Commercial Fisherman on a Great Lakes ship out of Charelvoix, MI. On the evening of October 3, 1903, the ship Erie L. Hackley went down in a fierce storm that swept across Green Bay on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan. CJ's ship helped to recover the wreckage, and the bodies, and return them to the Hackley's home port in Fish Creek, WI. There, on the docks, CJ met Grace Edna Vorous... Sister to the Hackley's Captain, Joseph Vorous. Three years later, after a lengthy courtship across Lake Michigan, they were married...

The two published articles below tell this fascinating story... and leaves out one other recorded mystery; That fateful night did Capt. Joseph Vorous have a 'premonition' about the pending voyage, and choose to leave his sister, Grace Edna, back in Menominee? Some say that is exactly what happened...

 

Click on the Pictures to read the story...


This excellent book about 'Ships and Men of the Great Lakes' has a fascinating story (Chapt. 6) about Great Uncle "Captain Joseph Vorous" and his ship nicknamed The Egg Harbor Express. On the night of October 3rd, 1903, during a great storm, Captain Vorous went down with his ship... This book was the last of several on Great Lake Ship Wrecks written by well-known Marine Historian, Dwight Boyer.

Click on the above picture to read the article "The Final Voyage of the Hackley"as published in the 1999 Summer issue of the Door County Magazine. This magazine article contains a very good picture (circa 1911) of Grandmother & Grandfather LaPeer (Grace and CJ).