Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2014
                           All Rights Reserved
                        USGenNet Data Repository

        Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page:
                <http://www.us-data.org/fineprint.html>

Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/
===========================================================================
Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded.
===========================================================================
History of the Great Lakes
Illustrated, In Two Volumes, Vol. II
Chicago, J. H. Beers & Co., 1899

           [98]

                   CAPTAIN FREDERICK C. STARKE.  In the complicated
                activities of modern commercial and industrial life there
                is need for the employment of widely diversified talents,
                and any enterprise of magnitude calls to its service the
                practical business man, skilled in affairs as well as the
                man who works with his hands. The subject of this sketch,
                one of the substantial business men of Milwaukee, has shown
                marked ability in the management of large interests, and at
                present holds the office of vice-president in the Sheriff
                Manufacturing Company and the Milwaukee Dry Dock Company,
                while he is also a leading member of the Ship Masters
                Association.
                   Like many of our successful men, the Captain is of
                German blood, the home ofhis ancestors having been in the
                Kingdom of Hanover.  FREDERICK STARKE, the father of our
                subject, was born in Hanover and come to America in 1847,
                locating in Milwaukee, where he became prominently identi-
                fied with marine interests. He was the founder of the
                Starke Dredge & Dock Co., of that city, and was the sole
                owner of its plant until his death in 1858, when his
                brothers succeeded him. The first dock built in the city
                was constructed by him, as were all the piers built along
                the beach from 1850 until 1858. A number of bridges were
                erected under his direction, and in 1858 he built the first
                tug constructed in Milwaukee, the vessel being also owned
                by him. His energy and executive ability seemed equal to
                any undertaking, and his name will always be associated
                with the development of the city in which he made his home.
                   CAPTAIN STARKE was born in 1855, in Milwaukee, Wis., and
                was educated in that city, attending first the elementary
                schools, afterward spending three years in the German High
                School, and three years in what is now known as Concordia
                College, then an academic institution. On leaving school,
                at the age of eighteen, he began to gain a practical know-
                ledge of shipping by working upon the tugs in which his
                family had an interest, and on attaining his majority he
                was made captain of a tug, a position which he held for
                four years. In 1880 he was appointed manager of the
                Milwaukee tugboat line, and after continuing in this
                responsible post until 1891 he sold out all his shipping
                property and interests, and purchased stock in the Sheriff
                Manufacturing Company, of which he is now a vice-president,
                as above stated. In the same year he bought the plant of
                the Wolf & Davidson Dry Dock Company, and arranged for a
                consolidation with the Milwaukee Shipyard Company, and
                formed the Milwaukee Dry Dock Company, of which he has
                since been vice-president and general manager. This company
                owns the entire dry-dock system of Milwaukee, and is one of
                the leading corporations of the city.  CAPTAIN STARKE has
                always shown great interest in marine matters, and since
                the organization of the Ship Masters Association, in 1890,
                he has served as its treasurer.  While he has apparently
                an inexhaustible fund of energy for his business enter-
                prises, he has never diverted it to political activities,
                and notwithstanding the fact that he is a stanch Republican
                he does not seek official honors of any sort.

===========================================================================