A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I, Part 22

Author: Perry F. Powers
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 597


USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 22


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57


Horticulture spread northward from the Detroit district, Grand River valley, St. Joseph, Benton Harbor, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and the Saginaw valley, but the first state society for its encouragement was not organized until 1870 (at Grand Rapids) and fifteen years afterward the only county societies established in Northern Michigan were those in Mason county (Ludington), Manistee county (Manistee). Benzie county (Benzonia), Wexford county (Cadillac) and Osceola county (Evart).


Consequently, although horticulture is much older than lumbering it has been of slower development, and commenced to fairly come into the great sources of wealth and prosperity in Northern Michigan at about the time that her pine forests had been practically cleared away. In fact, the fruit raiser followed very closely on the heels of the lum- berman, and much of the most productive land for apples, peaches, pears, plums and berries in Northern Michigan was formerly covered with forest growths.


* Hon. Charles W. Garfield in address delivered at Lansing in 1886 during semi- centennial celebration of Michigan's statehood.


Hosted by Google


.


171


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


MICHIGAN'S EPOCHAL YEAR (1840)


Before entering into a detailed account of the founding of the lumber industries of Northern Michigan, and the establishment of the railway system of that part of the state, as a direct result of their development, the writer feels justified in pausing a moment to insert a picture of the state as drawn by Hon. Byron M. Cutcheon in his "Fifty Years of Growth in Michigan" (1892). He speaks of that epochal year 1840: "It is no part of my purpose to dwell at all upon the events which fill the years from 1830 to 1840. In many re- spects they are the most interesting years in the history of the state. Here belong the administration of the Boy Governor, Stevens T. Mason, who was acting governor at nineteen; the rapid rush of immigration and the settlement of the interior across the southern portion of the state; the boundary war with the neighboring state of Ohio; the addi- tion of the Upper Peninsula to the domain of the state; the founding of our educational system, including the University of Michigan; the great land speculative excitement, when paper towns were platted upon every stream and by every waterfall; and the banking craze-a special development of the cheap money insanity which has passed into history as the 'wild cat' epoch. During this decade also arose the schemes to gridiron the state with railroads and canals, which fostered every form of speculation, and ultimately plunged the state into disas- trous debt and brought it to the brink of repudiation."


In 1840 Chippewa and Mackinac were the only organized counties in the Upper Peninsula, with 534 and 923 population respectively. Ludington, Manistee, Cheboygan, Alpena-not one of these, or any other of the progressive cities in Northern Michigan with which this history deals had an existence. Detroit and Monroe were the only in- corporated cities in the entire state.


In 1840 the railroad system of Michigan consisted of three short lines-the Erie & Kalamazoo, from Toledo to Adrian, 33 miles; the Detroit & Pontiac, from Detroit to Royal Oak, 12 miles (one locomotive) ; the Detroit & St. Joseph, from Detroit to Ypsilanti, 29 miles. The last was the most pretentious, its rolling stock consisting of four small locomotives, five passenger cars and ten small freight cars.


SPLIT INTO TWO PARTS


The railroad system which now partially accommodates Northern Michigan has its base on the east and west lines of the Michigan Cen- tral and Pere Marquette railroads. These great corporations, as well as the Grand Rapids & Indiana and the Detroit & Mackinac roads, have now north and south lines converging at Mackinaw City, the extremity of the Southern Peninsula. The Grand Rapids & Indiana pushes its system up between the lines of the Pere Marquette and Michigan Cen- tral lines, while the Detroit & Mackinac hugs the Huron shore as far as Alpena, venturing further inland as far as Cheboygan, and occu- pies northeastern Michigan. But while Southern Michigan has a net- work of lines running in all directions, that part of the state north of


Hosted by Google


·


172


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


the Pere Marquette road which runs from Saginaw to Ludington has virtually no east and west lines. The eastern and western portions of Northern Michigan are as foreign countries; but small spurs are shoot- ing out toward the interior from all the four north and south systems, so that before many years it is probable that this serious defect in the transportation facilities of that section of the state will be remedied.


FATHER OF MICHIGAN RAILROADS


As is generally known, the Michigan Central is the father of the railroad system of Michigan, although the Grand Rapids & Indiana reached the extremities of the Southern Peninsula shortly after it. In his annual message to the state legislature of 1837-8, Governor Mason reminded its members of the undeveloped resources of the state and exhorted it to prompt action in providing canals and railroads. "The period has arrived," said he "when Michigan can no longer, without detriment to her standing and importance as a state, delay the action necessary to the development of her vast resources of wealth." Ani- mated by the same spirit, the legislature promptly responded, and passed an act for the construction of three lines of railroad across the state-one from Detroit to the mouth of the St. Joseph river; one from Monroe to New Buffalo, and one from the mouth of Black river to the navigable waters of Grand river, or Lake Michigan. Thus was South- ern Michigan early provided for by the governor and legislature in their recommendations to future generations.


In the face of the "wild cat" banking, limitless speculation, panic, depression and threatened bankruptcy, the state of Michigan continued work upon its three east and west trunk lines until 1846, when the Central had been completed to Kalamazoo and the Southern to Hills- dale. Early in the session of that year's legislature a syndicate of Boston capitalists through their agent proposed to the state authorities the purchase of the Central road. The proposition was favorably re- ceived by the legislature to whom it was referred by the governor ; and a bill chartering the Michigan Central Railroad Company and pro- viding for the sale to it of the Michigan Central Railroad for the sum of $2,000,000 in due time became a law.


With the acquisition of its property the Michigan Central Railroad Company at once commenced the extensions and improvements that have made it the chief railroad property in the state. The old line was relocated and reconstructed along its former tortuous course up the Huron valley, relaid with heavy rail to Kalamazoo, and in the spring of 1849 "the locomotive for the first time roused the echoes among the dunes of Lake Michigan. The Southern Company, lacking in finan- cial ability, was less prompt in carrying out the engagements required by its charter, and it was not until after much supplementary legis- lation and an almost entire change in corporate ownership that work was at last commenced in good earnest. From that time the strife be- tween it and its old rival for the first entrance into Chicago waxed very warm; and so close was the race that both crossed the corporate limits of that city within a few hours of each other. in May, 1852.


Hosted by Google


173


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


"Soon after the other of the first trio of Michigan railroads resumed the work of extension, and November 22, 1858, the Detroit & Pontiac, rechristened as the Detroit & Milwaukee railway, ran its first train into Grand Haven; and Governor Mason's prophesy that within twenty- five years from the admission of the state three railroads would cross its territory from east to west met with fulfilment."*


What is known as the Detroit & Bay City Railroad-a division of the Michigan Central was organized May 6, 1871, and the main line opened to Bay City, July 31, 1873. In 1866 the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw Railroad had purchased the franchises and land grant of the Amboy, Lansing & Traverse Bay Railroad Company, including the road already built from Owasso (Shiawassee county) to Lansing, and in July, 1873, finished the road to Gaylord (Otsego county), 236 miles north of Jackson "and," says a report of 1878, "will undoubtedly, at no distant day, extend their line to the straits of Mackinac."


In May, 1875, the original Michigan Central defaulted and its prop- erty was sold to the Michigan Central Railroad Company, which also secured the section road from Bay City to Owasso, finished by the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw road, as noted, and in possession of the old Michigan Central. The present company was formed February 26, 1881, and in the fall of that year the line was completed to Mackinaw City.


The following proprietary and leased railroads are portions of the great Michigan Central system which penetrates the territory covered by this work from north to south :-


Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad runs from Jackson to Macki- nac City, over 295 miles (with branches 355 miles). It was chartered February 24, 1865, and acquired the incomplete Amboy, Lansing & Traverse Bay Railroad, which had been operated between Owasso and Lansing in 1863. It was leased September 1, 1871, to the Michigan Central Railroad Company, at a rental of $70,750 per annum, that company also acquiring the original land grant. During 1901 the Sagi- naw Bay & Northwestern Railroad (sixty-two miles) was merged into this road.


Detroit & Charlevoix Railroad runs from Frederic to East Jordan, Charlevoix county, forty-three miles, and Blue Lake Junction to Blue Lake, eight miles; total, fifty-one miles. It was chartered and opened in 1901, and is a northwestern spur from the main line.


The original charter of the Michigan Central Railroad Company was repealed in 1900, and the company was incorporated under the general railroad law of Michigan, on December 30, 1901. The rail- road forms a part of the New York Central system, but is operated as an independent organization.


The present stations on the Michigan Central, which are at the same time postoffices, are as follows, those selected being in the counties embraced in this history :


Mackinaw Division-Standish, Sterling and Alger, Arenac county ;


* Major W. C. Ransom's address at Michigan's semi-centennial celebration at Lansing, June 15, 1886.


Hosted by Google


174


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


West Branch and Beaver Lake, Ogemaw county; St. Helen and Ros- common, Roscommon county ; Grayling and Frederick, Crawford county ; Waters, Otsego Lake, Salling, Gaylord and Vanderbilt, Otsego county ; Trowbridge, Wolverine, Rondo, Indian River, Topinabee, Mullett Lake, Cheboygan and Mackinaw City, Cheboygan county.


Saginaw Bay & Northwestern Division-Rhodes, Highwood and Gladwin, Gladwin county.


Twin Lakes Branch-Grayling and Lovells, Crawford county ; Knee- lands, Oscoda county ; Vienna and Lewiston, Montmorency county.


THE GRAND RAPIDS AND INDIANA


The Grand Rapids & Indiana main line runs from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Mackinaw City, Michigan, a distance of over 366 miles. It passes through west of the central portions of Northern Michigan- the western townships of Osceola county and the eastern of Wex- ford, where (at Cadillac) it sends off branches toward Lake Michi- gan on the northwest and Lake Erie on the far southeast; cuts through a southeastern corner of Grand Traverse county, with branches running northwest to the extremity of Leelanau county, on Lake Mich- · igan; then passes through northwestern Kalkaska county and central Antrim into Charlevoix county; turns north to Petoskey, and thence northeast and north, through Emmet county, to Mackinaw City.


The original survey of the Grand Rapids & Indiana trunk line was made in the late fifties, but the Civil war and other events and con- ditions detrimental to railroad construction delayed the actual build- ing, so that nearly fifteen years passed before the line reached Reed City, or the Northern Michigan of this history.


The engineer father of the road was General William P. Innes, of Grand Rapids, who died at his home in that city on August 2, 1893. He was born in New York City and came to Michigan, in 1853, as a civil engineer in the employ of the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee (then the Oakland & Ottawa) Railroad Company. He remained in the employ of that road until its completion, when he took charge of the Amboy & Lansing, then extending from Jonesville to Saginaw, and was with that road until 1861. In 1857 he made the preliminary sur- vey for a road from Grand Rapids to Mackinaw, being the land grant road afterward merged into the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad. In the Civil war he was colonel of the Michigan regiment of engineers and mechanics and for a time was military superintendent of railroads of the department of the Cumberland


In its extension northward the Grand Rapids and Indiana road reached Morley, Mecosta county, in October, 1869, and Big Rapids a year afterward. In the closing days of 1870 Reed City (the first sta- tion in our historical territory) was bound to the outside world through the iron horse, and thereafter progress was more rapid. Cadillac cele- brated her advent into the list of railroad towns before the close of the year 1870 and in 1871 Traverse City followed. By the spring of 1874 Boyne Falls (a creature of the road) and Petoskey had been reached, and then, for some years the enterprise lagged, for the good


Hosted by Google


175


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


reason that land titles were somewhat insecure in Emmet county, and the inland region from Petoskey to Mackinaw City was wilderness.


The general settlement of the county and the development of its agricultural resources had been delayed by the fact that the lands of Emmet county were still subject to the Indian treaty. In August, 1874, the eastern tier of townships came into market, and April 15, 1875, the remainder of the county was thrown open to actual settlers. At that time the white population of the county was about one hun- dred and fifty. As stated, the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad had just opened a highway of travel and transportation through the county, and the village of Petoskey had just entered upon its career. Upon


-


-


PUTTING A RAILROAD THROUGH NORTHERN MICHIGAN


the date named the books were opened at the United States Land Of- fice at Traverse City, and so great was the rush for land that over eight hundred claims were entered during the first three days. Under an act of congress soldiers in the late war could homestead one hundred and seventy acres of land while a citizen could homestead only eighty acres; consequently the greater portion of the land was taken by sol- diers who settled upon homesteads of one hundred and sixty acres.


During the summer and fall of 1875 a steady stream of immigra- tion poured into the wilderness of Emmet county and wilderness it indeed was. There was not a road in any direction in the woods ex- cept one state road to Cheboygan. The settlers who came in scattered over the county so that settlement was general, and the woods re- sounded with the sturdy strokes of the woodman's ax. and log cabins were set in the numerous openings in the wilderness.


But the development of the interior country did not warrant the


Hosted by


Google


176


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


extension of the Grand Rapids & Indiana road to Mackinaw City until 1882, although Bay View had secured connections in 1876 and Harbor Springs in 1880.


The corporation now known as the Grand Rapids & Indiana Rail- way Company was chartered in July, 1896, under the laws of Michigan and Indiana, to take over the railroad and property of the Grand Rap- ids & Indiana Railroad Company, which was sold under foreclosure August 1st of that year. The company owns practically the capital stock of the Traverse City Railroad Company and a one-third interest in the Mackinac Transportation Company.


The following lines, in Northern Michigan, are now operated by the Grand Rapids & Indiana:


Main line-Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Mackinaw City, Michigan, 366.63 miles.


Missaukee branch-Missaukee Junction to Michelson, Michigan, 31.94 miles.


Missaukee City spur-Northward from Ardis Junction, 3.85 miles.


Harbor Springs branch-Kegomic to Harbor Springs, Michigan, 5.91 miles.


Traverse City railroad, from Walton to Traverse City, Grand Trav- erse county, 25.86 miles.


The stations and postoffices along the lines of the Grand Rapids & Indiana in the territory under consideration are as follows: North- ern division-Mackinaw City, Cheboygan county; Carp Lake, Lever- ing. Van, Pellston, Brutus, Alanson, Oden, Conway, Bay View and Petoskey. Emmet county; Clarion and Boyne Falls, Charlevoix county ; Elmira, Otsego county; Alba and Mancelona, Antrim county; West- wood, Leetsville, Kalkaska and South Boardman, Kalkaska county ; Fife Lake, Grand Traverse county ; Manton, Cadillac and Hobart, Wex- ford county ; Tustin, Le Roy, Ashton, Crono and Reed City, Osceola county.


Harbor Springs branch-We-que-ton-sing and Harbor Springs, Em- met county. Missaukee branch-Michelson, Roscommon county ; Jennings, Lake City, Falmouth, and Missaukee City, Missaukee county.


Traverse City branch-Summit City, Kingsley, Mayfield and Trav- erse City. Grand Traverse county.


NORTHERN CONNECTING LINKS


The Boyne City, Gaylord & Alpena railroad is a line twenty-seven miles in length, from Boyne City, Charlevoix county, to Gaylord, Ot- sego county, and is a connecting link between the Grand Rapids & In- diana and the Michigan Central systems.


The Detroit & Charlevoix Railroad runs from East Jordan, Charle- voix county, to Frederic, Crawford county, forty-four miles, and also connects the Grand Rapids & Indiana and the Michigan Central lines.


Hosted by Google


177


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


THE PERE MARQUETTE RAILROAD


The Pere Marquette railroad which is the great transportation agent for the extreme southwestern and western sections of Northern Michi- gan was chartered in January, 1857, as the Flint & Pere Marquette railroad, to build the line from Flint to Pere Marquette (afterward Ludington), on Lake Michigan, a distance of 171 miles. The western division of the line was from Saginaw to Pere Marquette and was sur- veyed in 1862 by Ezra G. Goddard, of the former place.


Mr. Goddard, who died at Saginaw, July 13, 1893, became a resident thereof in 1862, the year of his preliminary survey. He was a native of Massachusetts and passed his mature active life as a civil engineer in connection with railroad work. He was first employed by the Worcester & Nassau railroad in his native state, and was afterward engaged with the Buffalo, Corning & New York, the Richmond & Danville, the Vir- ginia Central and Northern Central. Then, at the early age of twenty- nine, he was appointed chief engineer of the Cleveland, Ohio & Indiana, Cleveland & St. Louis and Terre Haute railroads. After leaving Worces- ter for a time he made his home at Ithaca, New York, his duties finally taking him to Winona, Minnesota, where he was in charge of the en- gineering work on the Winona & St. Paul railroad. Mr. Goddard's next railroad work was his survey of the Pere Marquette route. He afterwards became heavily interested in the lumber industries of both the northwest and south, but retained his home at Saginaw, where he was recognized as an able business man and a substantial, courteous citizen.


From the first the headquarters of the Flint & Pere Marquette road -that is, its western division-were at the place which did not assume the name of Ludington until 1874. That locality was not only the leading lake port and outlet for the rapidly developing lumber and salt industries of northwestern Michigan, but was largely dominated by the remarkable energy, enterprise and foresight of Captain E. B. Ward, nephew of Captain Samuel Ward. The younger man became even more widely known than his uncle in the more modern world of industrial and commercial development. Beginning life as the humble servant of his prosperous uncle, his energy and genius for great under- takings made him the leading ship owner on the greatest waterways of the globe; more specially, he was identified as president with the early embarrassments of the Pere Marquette road and guided it into safe waters. He was also largely interested in railways west of the Missis- sippi river; was the largest pine land owner in all the vast pine region of these north-central states, and built the first of Ludington's immense saw mills. As a promoter of the iron industries of the northwest he obtained national fame. Locally, Detroit claimed him, as well as his famous uncle, both of whom had much to do with the development of enterprises which were at the basis of the progress of Northern Michi- gan.


The first locomotive to reach Flint over the Pere Marquette road arrived in that city during the spring of 1863. The line had been com- pleted as far as Saginaw, but it afforded such a limited outlet, or the Vol. 1-12


Hosted by Google


178


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


city was so distracted with the events of the Civil war, that the arrival of the first locomotive seems to have excited no special attention. Work on the Flint and Holly road was begun the same spring that the above named section of the Pere Marquette road was completed, and largely through the untiring energy of Governor Crapo, president of the com- pany, it was graded, tied, ironed and ready for the rolling stock in about eighteen months. The trip of the first locomotive, Pere Mar- quette, in November, 1864, was the occasion of great rejoicing. A few years later the road was sold to the Flint & Pere Marquette Company at a handsome advance upon its original cost, and prior to 1880 the latter added the Flint river division, extending from Flint to Otter lake, to its system. Early in 1882 the Flint & Pere Marquette system had been extended to Manistee, and along in 1887-8 the latter city en- tered into the business of railroad building herself by constructing the lines known as the Manistee & North-Eastern and the Manistee & Grand Rapids.


The extension of the Flint & Pere Marquette, with its numerous spurs lakeward and inland, is a matter of such detail that it is beyond the province of this work, and it is of such comparatively recent date that the information is accessible through the newspapers and other agencies.


As we know it today, the Pere Marquette Railroad Company was chartered December 11, 1907, under the laws of Michigan and Indiana, being a consolidation of the Pere Marquette Railroad Company organ- ized in December, 1899, and of one of its subsidiary companies, the Pere Marquette Railroad Company of Indiana, organized in 1903.


The principal lines owned by the road as they affect Northern Michi- gan are the following: Grand Rapids to Bay View, 247.10 miles. and Saginaw to Ludington, 217.40 miles.


The stations, which have the distinction of being postoffices. on the various lines of the Pere Marquette Railroads passing through the territory covered by this history are as follows :


Main line (Grand Rapids to Bay View)-Baldwin, Peacock and Trons, Lake county; Dublin, Brethren, Kaleva and Henry, Manistee county; Thompsonville, Wallin and Bendon, Benzie county; Inter- lochen, Grawn, Acme, Bates and Williamsburgh, Grand Traverse county ; Elk Rapids, Alden, Bellaire, Central Lake and Ellsworth, Antrim county ; Barker Creek and Rapid City, Kalkaska county; Phelps. Charlevoix and Bayshore, Charlevoix county; Petoskey and Bay View, Emmet county.


Honor branch-Honor. Benzie county.


Kalkaska branch-Rapid City, Kalkaska; Spencer and Sharon, Kalkaska county.


Toledo to Ludington-Beaverton, Gladwin county; Clare, Farwell, Lake, Chase, Nirvana and Baldwin, Lake county; Chippewa, Sears, Evart, Hersey and Reed City, Osceola county; Branch, Walhalla, Cus- ter, Scottville and Ludington, Mason county.


Clare to Harrison-Clare. Hatton, Harrison and Leota. Clare county.


Hosted by Google


179


HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


Walhalla to Manistee-Walhalla, Fallman, Fountain and Free Soil, Mason county ; Stronach, East Lake and Manistee, Manistee county.


ANN ARBOR RAILROAD


The Ann Arbor Railroad Company operates from Toledo, Ohio, to Frankfort, Benzie county, northwestern Michigan, a distance of over 300 miles. It was chartered September 21, 1895, under state laws, as successor to the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan Railway Com- pany, whose property was sold under foreclosure on July 2d of that year. The company operates three car ferries from the Frankfort terminus on Lake Michigan, which afford connection with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, Chicago & North-Western, Wisconsin Central and Canadian Pacific systems and with the Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western, the Wisconsin & Michigan and the Manistique & Lake Su- perior railroads. The line was formerly controlled by the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railway Company, through stock ownership, but on April 1, 1910, control passed to the present management, and the road has since been operated as an independent line.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.