A local resident, Arthur Vosbury, was manager of the Havre de Grace Branch of the Binghamton, New York, DuBois Lumber Company that was located along the water from Fountain to Girard Streets beginning in 1858. At the Mill, logs shipped downriver on rafts were used for building materials with even the rafts being taken apart for the lumber. Many structures in town were framed from the trimmed logs.

The John DuBois Saw Mill and Lumber Yard is shown extending into the river at Fountain Street on Martenet’s 1878 Map of Harford County, with its office at 300 Market Street. In August 1888 the Mill advertised in the Havre de Grace Republican that they sold lumber for “parking barns,” and “tomato and peach crates.” By 1899 many buildings associated with the mill were crowding the waterfront on Market Street between Bourbon and Fountain Streets as well as the whole block from Market Street west to Strawberry Alley.

As with anything else over time, the waterfront was evolving and changing. The 1910 Sanborn Insurance Map shows the Walter T. Jackson Fish Sheds on the water here just north of the DuBois Sawmill (Walter Jackson lived in the home at 414 Congress Avenue). A 1916 telephone directory lists the Tolchester Steamboat Company at the foot of Fountain on the water. And the 1921 Sanborn Map shows the Diebert Barge Building Company on the water between Bourbon and Fountain Streets.

The 1930 Sanborn Map shows “Wettig Bros. Boat Works” on the water here at the foot of Fountain Street, and also appears on the 1955 Sanborn Map. Begun by William Marshall Wettig (1903-1949) and Elma C. Wettig (1905-1976), it was then operated by their sons, including James “Bay” Wettig, Sr. (1930-1976), Robert L. “Bobby” Wettig, and William “Bill” Wettig. Prior to the Wettigs owning it was Taylor’s Boat Yard, owned by Edward L. Shires, a boat builder. Bay and Bobby Wettig had piers for boats, good fishing, and a gigantic fish tank that kids remember in Bay Wettig’s office in which they kept local river fish. Their brother, Bill, “did the books for the brothers” says Jane Wettig. They did boat and engine repairs and also pulled boats of up to 45’ and stored them for winter. Brenda Hall Wettig says that Bobby was her husband’s Dad and “He was such an awesome man!”

The boat on the rails in a photo belonged to William Schweers’ grandfather as they were getting ready to launch it in 1971. Diana Ramey Angelucci says her Dad had a 42-foot fishing boat there on which he would take kids out and throw them off into the water to teach them how to swim. And Rob Pennington says he pretty much grew up down there going bass fishing and sledding in winter.