Henry D. Coffinberry

Who was Henry D. Coffinberry?

Henry Darling Coffinberry 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 and a wooden shipbuilding firm,. Coffinberry became president of the Globe Ship Building Company in the early 1880s, which launched the first iron-hulled and steel-hulled 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.