Francis B. Stockbridge

Francis B. Stockbridge

Francis Brown Stockbridge (born April 9, 1826 in Bath , Maine , †  April 30, 1894 in Chicago ) was an American politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of Michigan in the US Senate .

After attending school in Maine, Francis Stockbridge first worked from 1843 to 1847 as an employee in a wholesale company in Boston ; then he ran his own lumber business in Chicago. In 1851 he moved to Saugatuck , Michigan, where he managed several sawmills and worked as a businessman; from 1863 he lived in Kalamazoo and also got into the wood business there.

Stockbridge's political career began in 1869 with membership in the Michigan House of Representatives ; two years later he entered the State Senate . On July 12, 1875 he was appointed US ambassador to the Netherlands and also took the oath of office, but did not take the post. Instead, he went on about his business and acquired in 1882 the land on which later the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Iceland should arise. Stockbridge merged the three major transport companies active on the island into one finance company: Michigan Central Railroad , Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad and Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company together formed the Mackinac Island Hotel Company , which enabled the hotel to be completed in 1887 .

In the same year, Stockbridge returned to the political scene when he was elected to the US Senate for the Republicans. After his first term in office he was confirmed in 1893; however, he died the following year while visiting his nephew in Chicago. During his tenure in the Senate, Francis Stockbridge chaired the Fisheries Committee . He was the last member of the Michigan State Legislature to stand in the US Senate until Debbie Stabenow succeeded in 2000.

Web links

• Francis B. Stockbridge in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Francis B. Stockbridge in the database of Find a Grave (English)