Henry D. Coffinberry, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetHenry D. Coffinberry
Union Navy, industrialist, shipbuilder
Date of Birth: 12-Oct-1841
Place of Birth: Maumee, Ohio, United States
Date of Death: 17-Jan-1912
Profession: business magnate
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Libra 
About Henry D. Coffinberry
- Henry Darling Coffinberry (October 12, 1841 – January 17, 1912) was a prominent American industrialist from Cleveland, Ohio.
- Along with his partner, Robert Wallace, H.
- D.
- Coffinberry is considered one of the founding fathers of modern Great Lakes shipping.
- Following a memorable Civil War career on the ironclad gunboat Louisville, Coffinberry returned to civilian life in Cleveland, Ohio.
- There he met Robert Wallace and together they built the first iron and steel hulled freighters to be used on the Great Lakes. Coffinberry and Wallace were partners in both a foundry (Globe Iron Works) and a wooden shipbuilding firm, (Cleveland Dry Dock Company).
- Coffinberry became president of the Globe Ship Building Company in the early 1880s, which launched the first iron-hulled (Onoko, 1882) and steel-hulled (Spokene, 1886) Great Lakes freighters.
- After selling their share to M.
- A.
- Hanna, Coffinberry and several partners left Globe in 1886 to create the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, followed by the Ship Owners Dry Dock Company.
- Coffinberry served as president of the firms until retiring in 1893.
- He was also an investor in the Elwell Parker Electric Motor Company of America, formed in 1893 to produce electric motors for bulk cargo handling.
- By 1899 the firm produced motors for battery-driven automobiles, but the company earned its reputation after 1906 as a manufacturer of electric industrial trucks to more efficiently move baggage and cargo at train terminals and shipping ports. Coffinberry died January 17, 1912.
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