the ocean

The schooner Ocean, of Mackinac, was visited this morning by the steamer Champion about 6 miles north of St. Joseph, and 2 miles from shore. She is a complete wreck having lost her boat and davits, carried away her mainmast, her sails torn into rags, hatches off and lumber in the hold. There were no persons on board, and it is supposed that the crew were all lost. She had the appearance of having been capsized and righted again. -Detroit Daily Advertiser, November 10, 1845

Alexander McGregor was Captain of the schooner Ocean. His brother-in-law, Henry Newton Quiner, was Second Mate. Also lost were the First Mate, Mr. Russell, and a cabin boy. This was the entire crew.

Henry Newton Quiner was survived by his wife Charlotte, and children Joseph, Henry, Martha, Caroline, Eliza, and Thomas - the grandmother, mother, aunts and uncles of Laura Ingalls of the "Little House" books.

Alexander McGregor was married to the former Margaret E. Quiner; her parents (and Henry's) were William Quiner and Margaret Doer. In most of the Quiner histories, one reads that Margaret Doer Quiner died in 1839 and that Margaret Quiner McGregor died in 1854. Neither could possibly be true. Margaret Doer Quiner was alive at the time of her son's death; she lived with her son and was still living with his widow in 1850.

Margaret McGregor remarried after her husband's death. Following her second husband's death, she lived with her and Captain McGregor's son Alexander, a printer in Delafield, Wisconsin. She was still living in 1870.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:21 PM