[M] #44686 Arthur Leroy Mechling ( Jonas Henry Mechling • Augustus Andrew Mechling • Jonas Mechling • Philip Jonas Mechling • Philip Mechling • Diebold "Theobald" Mechling◊ • Diebold Mechling◊ • Martin Mechling◊ )

Arthur was born 19 Nov 1895 in Nebraska. He died Jan 1976 in Ft. Meyer Beach, Lee Co., Florida.

[Mercy VI-00] gives the death date as 1973. The 1920 Census lists him as a factory machinist.

In 1920, Arthur owned a gravel pit next to the Hennepin Canal on the Illinois River, north of Peoria. To transport the gravel, he acquired barges and tow boats, thus the beginning of the Mechling Barge Line. The Mechling Barge Line transported not only gravel, but grain and steel along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. During World War II, the barge line was used by the Coast Guard in central United States, transporting coal and petroleum products. After the war, the line expanded to the Tennessee River, transporting coal, grain and limestone. Still later, it expanded into the Gulf of Mexico, where it carried fertilizer from Tampa to New Orleans, where the cargo was loaded onto barges for the trip up the Mississippi River. Grain, metal products, sulphur and soda were added to the Gulf Coast transportation. In 1961, a Mechling tow-boat was modified to "shove" a barge containing a Saturn rocket from Huntsville, Alabama to the Cape Canaveral launch site. In 1937, Arthur's three sons became involved in the operation of the Barge Line. In 1947, the line won a case before the Supreme Court pertaining to the discriminatory tariffs imposed by eastern railroads, as the Supreme Court declared that the cheaper cost of barge transportation should not be denied to shippers. In 1962, the Mechling Bargeline merged with the John I. Haye Line and, in 1973, it was purchased by the Dravo Corporation and operated under various names. Finally, in 1988, it became known as the National Marine Inc. of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Arthur married first #45230 Sarah Elizabeth Andrews.

Sarah was born Abt 1896 in Indiana.

Children of this relationship:

Arthur (relationship status suppressed while one person possibly living) second #62482 Living.

(Information suppressed while possibly living)

Dorothy Hallarn Mercy, Mechlin Mechling Macklin - Descendants of Theobald Mechling, 1728-2000, Volume VI - Philip Mechling, (Butler, PA: Mechling Associates, 2000). Ref. as [Mercy VI-00].

Line Generation: 9

Relationship: Fifth Cousins Two Times Removed through Diebold "Theobald" Mechling◊