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Che Betroit Marine Historian Rev. Edward J. Dowling, S. J., Editor University of Detroit, Detroit 21, Mich. » JOURNAL OF WARINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DETROIT, INC. Volume 10, No.9 May-June, 1957 KOR KR OR KOR KOK OK KR OK OR OR KOR KOR OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK KOK OK KOK KO ROK ROK OK "IF THE SHOE FITS, WEAR IT!" = The Story of the Kinsman Transit Co. The WESTERN RESERVE sails away to her doom From a drawing by R.D.Wilcox "If the Shoe Fits, Wear It" is a sage, old proverb which has a very special meaning in the life of the founder of that Great Lakes fleet which for the past 115 years has remained in the ownership of the same family. Philip J.Minch was born in 1820 in the village of Blankenheim in the old Principality of Hesse-Cassel, Germany. In his youth, Philip was apprenticed to a shoemaker and learned that humble trade and practiced it until his parents emigrated to America in 1840. The Minch family settled in Vermilion, Ohio. Here again, in this growing Ohio community, so well remembered for its contributions to Great Lakes history, he plied his trade as a shoemaker. Soon, however, he saw much greater opportunities for himself in shipping and decided that this "new shoe" would fit him much better. So he turned to shipbuilding and launched his first hull, a scow schooner, just two years patter his arrival in the New World. Two of his eight children would later be involved in his shipping interests, a son, Peter G.Minch and a daughter, Sophia, who became Mrs Steinbrenner and after her marriage resided on Kinsman Ave. in Southeast Cleveland. Captain Philip Minch died in Cleveland in 1887 and his son, Captain Peter Minch took over the family shipping interests and managed them until 1892 when he lost his life in the foundering of the new RbAAT Omntnhianan WROTEON DIeRDVT Cantinned - page