William Henry Gratwick (1839-1899)

He was born in Albany, New York, and after school found work with the lumber merchants Folsom & Arnold. In 1861, he started out on his own and established William H. Gratwick & Co., quickly becoming the leading lumber merchant in Albany. In 1877, he moved to Buffalo where he continued in the lumber trade in the firm of Gratwick, Smith & Fryer that became one of the largest lumber companies in America with timber tracts in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Louisiana. After, 1880, he started building barges on the Great Lakes to transport lumber and other products that saw him become President of the Aetna and Cleveland Steamship Lines. He married Martha, daughter of Samuel Coleman Weare and they were the parents of three children. They lived at the Gratner House on Delaware Avenue, aka Buffalo's 'Millionare's Row'.