USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 12
USA > Michigan > Berrien County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 12
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A large number of State roads were authorized by the first Legislature of Michigan, at the session of 1835-36, several of which were laid out in the counties of Berrien and Van Buren, or across some parts of their territory. An act approved March 26, 1836, provided that "there shall be laid out and established, a State road from Edwardsburg, in Cass Co., via Cassopolis, Volinia, and Paw Paw Mills, to Allegan, in Allegan County." David Crane, Jacob Silver, and John L. Shearer were appointed commissioners for the purpose. The same act appointed Albert E. Bull, Na- thaniel M. Thomas, Alexander Copeley commissioners " to lay out and establish a road from Schoolcraft, in Kalamazoo County, to the village of St. Joseph, in Berrien County." A State road was also authorized at the same time " to be laid out from the mouth of the Galien River to the mouth of the St. Joseph River, Berrien County." John Witten- myer, John F. Porter, William G. Baller, commissioners.
The following roads were authorized by act of July 26, 1836, viz. :
1. A State road " from Paw Paw Mills, in the village of Paw Paw, Van Buren County, leading through the village of Otsego, to the falls of Grand River, in the county of
Kent." Samuel Foster, Oka Town, and John Brackett, commissioners.
2. A State road "from French's tavern, on the Chicago road, at the crossing of Prairie River, to Constantine, in St. Joseph County ; thence to Cassopolis, crossing the river at Buck's tavern, and from thence to the mouth of St. Joseph River." Thomas Langley, George Buck, and E. B. Sherwood, commissioners.
3. A road " from Constantine, in St. Joseph County, through Berrien, to New Buffalo village." Wessel Whit- taker, R. E. Ward, and Thomas Charlton, commissioners.
4. A road from Constantine to Niles. William F. House, H. W. Griswold, and Robert S. Griffin, commis- sioners.
5. A road " from Detroit River through the centre of township 4 south of base line to Clark's Lake, and thence to St. Joseph River." Daniel C. Vreeland, Abraham C. Truax, and Eli Bradshaw, commissioners.
6. A road "from Centreville, in St. Joseph County, through Cassopolis, and through Berrien, to the entrance of Galien River into Lake Michigan." E. P. Toll, Robert E. Ward, and Wessel Whittaker, commissioners.
7. " A State road from Geneva, on the most direct and eligible route, to the entrance of St. Joseph River into Lake Michigan." H. L. Stewart, John Wittenmyer, and E. P. Sanger, commissioners.
8. A road " from Constantine, in St. Joseph County, to the mouth of the St. Joseph River, by the most direct and eligible route." William F. House, James Odell, and Moody Emerson, commissioners.
The following-named roads were authorized by legislative act, approved March 17, 1837 :
1. A State road from Whitmanville to the State road, at or near Bainbridge. Charles J. Martin, C. Whitman, John P. Davis, and Jehial Enos, commissioners.
2. A State road from Whitmanville to St. Joseph. Eleazer Morton, John Wolver, and E. H. Spaulding, com- missioners.
3. A road from Cassopolis through Berrien to New Buffalo. Abiel Silver, Isaac Sumner, and Pitt Brown, com- missioners.
4. A State road from Liverpool, in Berrien County, to Berrien. Pitt Brown, William Huff, and E. P. Deacon were appointed commissioners.
5. A road " from Berrien, in Berrien County, through Bainbridge, to South Haven, in Van Buren County." Pitt Brown, John P. Davis, and E. P. Deacon, commissioners.
6. A State road from St. Joseph, in Berrien County, to the southern boundary of the State, on the most eligible route, towards South Bend, Ind. Joseph Bertrand, John K. Finley, and John Wittenmyer, commissioners.
7. A road " from St. Joseph to the southern boundary of the State, on the most direct and eligible route, towards Lakeport, Ind." John Wittenmyer, Hart L. Stewart, and Sampson Stanberry, commissioners.
8. A road " from the village of_Berrien, running west- wardly until it intersects the State road leading from St. Joseph to New Buffalo." William F. St. John, James T. Lord, and Joseph F. Barnum, commissioners.
The fever for laying out State roads appears to have
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50
HISTORY OF BERRIEN AND VAN BUREN COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.
abated during 1838 and 1839, but again, on April 1, 1840, an act was approved, which authorized the establishment of the following :
1. A road commencing at some point at or near the north bank of the river St. Joseph, in the county of Ber- rien, in the vicinity of the village of St. Joseph ; thence running in an easterly direction, on the most eligible route, to the village of La Grange, formerly called Whitmansville, in Cass County."* L. L. Johnson, Morgan Enos, and Jacob Allen, commissioners.
2. A road " commencing at the village of St. Joseph, in the county of Berrien, running in a southerly direction, on the most eligible route, to New Buffalo, in the same county." The commissioners on this road were Fowler Preston, Isaac O. Adams, and William C. Hammel.
3. A road " to commence at the village of St. Joseph, or at some point on some of the highways leading to or from said village, and to run in a southerly direction till it inter- sects the southern boundary of the State." E. A. Morton, William Huff, Eleazer Lord, commissioners.
4. A State road " commencing at or near the north bank of the river St. Joseph, in the vicinity of the village of St. Joseph, in the county of Berrien; thence in a south- easterly direction to the village of Niles, in the same county." Daniel Olds, Jr., David S. Rector, and Job Brookfield, commissioners.
Other State roads were authorized April 7, 1846, as fol- lows: One " commencing at the village of Buchanan, in the county of Berrien, running thence to New Buffalo." Hezekiah Mitchell, Nathaniel Stratton, Samuel Garwood, and John P. Johnson, commissioners. Another, " com- mencing at Buchanan, running on the most eligible route to the village of Berrien." Joseph Demont, John Engle- right, Jesse Helmick, and Jacob Stotter, commissioners. Also, " a road from the village of Buchanan, on the most eligible route, to some point at Terre Coupee Prairie on the State line best suited to connect with the Chicago turn- pike." John Reynolds, Hezekiah Mitchell, and Joseph G. Ames, commissioners.
On April 3, 1848, an act was passed appropriating seven thousand acres of the internal improvement lands of the State " for opening and improving of the State road from Constantine, in St. Joseph County, to Paw Paw, in Van Buren County."
It is to be borne in mind that to " lay out and establish" a road-particularly in the earlier years-was not equiv- alent to opening and making it ready for travel, but that in many instances years intervened between the time when a highway was laid out by the commissioners and the time when it was made passable for vehicles, and that it was not unfrequently the case that roads which had been authorized and laid out were never opened. This was the case with regard to a number of those mentioned in preceding pages.
PLANK-ROADS.
About the year 1848 the construction of plank-roads began to come into general favor in Michigan, and nearly
every county in the settled portion of the State had some part of its territory traversed by the routes of these high- ways,-projected, if not actually constructed and put in operation. The first project of this kind, the proposed route of which would cross any part of the counties of Van Buren and Berrien, was that of the "Paw Paw Plank- Road Company," which was incorporated by act of the Legislature, approved April 3, 1848. This company was empowered " to lay out, establish, and construct a plank- road and all necessary buildings, from the village of Paw Paw, in the county of Van Buren, on the most eligible route, to some point on the Central Railroad, at or near where the Little Prairie Ronde road crosses the Central Railroad." Isaac W. Willard, James Crane, and Nathan Mears were appointed to receive subscriptions to the capi- tal stock, which was authorized to the amount of ten thou- sand dollars. The incorporation was for sixty years, but subject to repeal at any time, under certain conditions ; and it was so repealed by act approved Feb. 12, 1855.
The New Buffalo and La Porte Plank-Road Company was incorporated by act of Feb. 13, 1849, with an author- ized capital stock of five thousand dollars. Commissioners, Isaac O. Adams, George W. Allen, Alonzo Bennett, L. N. Bowlsby, and Edwin Ballengee.
The Niles and Mottville and the Decatur, Lawrence and Breedsville Plank-road Companies were incorporated March 22, 1849. The stock of the latter company was placed at forty thousand dollars, and the proposed route of its road was as indicated by its title. Aaron W. Broughton, Marvin Hannahs, William B. Sherwood, Henry Coleman, J. N. Hinckley, Milo J. Goss, B. F. Chadwick, H. N. Phil- lips, Israel Phelps, and John Andrews were named as com- missioners. The Niles and Mottville Company was empow- ered to construct a plank-road between these termini, " by way of Edwardsburg, Adamsville, or Cassopolis." The commissioners named to receive subscriptions were James L. Glenn, H. P. Mather, J. M. Finley, H. B. Hoffman, Nathaniel Bacon, George Meachem, Ezra Hatch, Moses Jay, Hiram Hollibard, Orrin E. Thompson, H. Follett, and Norman Sage. Capital stock authorized, one hundred thousand dollars.
The Lake Michigan and Terre Coupee Plank-Road Com- pany was incorporated March 31, 1849. Capital stock authorized, twenty-five thousand dollars. Commissioners, H. E. Crosby, E. N. Shead, J. P. Johnson, Moses Cham- berlain, A. Emery, and Elkanah Ryther. The route over which the company was empowered to build its road was "from the State line, near the village of Terre Coupee, Ind., to the village of New Buffalo, or to some point on the Michigan Central Railroad."
The following plank-road companies were incorporated by acts of March, 1850, viz. :
1. The Niles and State Line Plank-Road Company. Capital, twenty thousand dollars. Commissioners, Jacob Beeson, Nathaniel Bacon, Richard P. Barker, and William McComber. This company was empowered to build a road from Niles to the Indiana State line, running on the east side of the St. Joseph River.
2. The Breedsville and South Haven Plank-Road Com- pany, to build between the points indicated. Capital,
# An act was passed March 28, 1848, appropriating three thousand acres of the internal improvement lands of the State for the pur- pose of opening and improving this road.
51
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
twenty-five thousand dollars. Commissioners, Marvin Han- nahs, Elijah Knowles, Joseph B. Sturges, Smith Brown, and Jonathan Hinckley.
3. The Paw Paw and Lawrence Plank-Road Company. Capital, twenty-five thousand dollars. Commissioners, Fitz H. Stevens, J. R. Baker, and Nelson Phelps. This .com- pany was empowered to build " from any point in the vil- lage of Paw Paw, on the most eligible route, to the village of Lawrence, in Van Buren County."
4. The Paw Paw and Schoolcraft Plank-Road Company, " to construct a plank-road from the village of Paw Paw Station, on the Central Railroad, in the county of Van Bu- ren, on the most eligible route, to the village of Schoolcraft, in the county of Kalamazoo." Capital authorized, twenty thousand dollars. Commissioners, Edward A. Parks, Uriah Kinney, Evert B. Dyckman, and Isaac W. Willard.
5. The Paw Paw and . Allegan Plank-Road Company, to construct a road " commencing at the village of Paw Paw, in the county of Van Buren, and terminating and intersecting with the Kalamazoo and Grand River Plank- Road, at the most eligible point, in the county of Allegan." Capital, twenty thousand dollars. Commissioners, J. W. Willard, James Crane, and J. R. Baker, of Van Buren County, and Henry H. Booth, Joseph Fisk, Abraham Hoag, Joshua Hill, Charles Parkhurst, D. W. C. Chapin, Eber Sherwood, and A. Rossman, of Allegan County.
6. The Decatur and St. Joseph Plank-Road Company, to construct a road " commencing at the village of Decatur, in Van Buren County, on the most eligible route, and ter- minating at the village of St. Joseph, in Berrien County." Capital, thirty thousand dollars. Commissioners, Solomon Wheeler, B. C. Hoyt, Henry C. Morton, and Samuel McRoys, of Berrien County, and William Sherwood, Henry Coleman, and W. H. Keeler, of Van Buren County.
7. The Lawrence and St. Joseph Plank-Road Company, empowered to build " from such point in the township of Lawrence, in the county of Van Buren, as the commis- sioners may determine, to St. Joseph, in the township of St. Joseph, in Berrien County." Commissioners, H. W. Phelps, John Andrews, Isaac N. Swain, John R. Haynes, Talman Wheeler, B. C. Hoyt, Henry C. Morton, and Gelson Osgood. Capital authorized, fifty thousand dollars.
A number of other companies became incorporated after- wards under the general law, but no plank-roads were built and put in operation within the counties of Berrien and Van Buren except three of the above-mentioned, viz., that from Paw Paw to the Central Railroad, which was controlled by Isaac W. Willard and kept up until 1853; the road from Paw Paw to Lawrence, of which John R. Baker was the leading spirit, and which was also kept in operation till about 1853; and a section of about five miles of road extending from Niles, on the Niles and Mottville Company's route. All of these three roads were failures as to the realization of any profit to their stockholders.
The mention made above of the numerous companies which accomplished nothing beyond the obtaining of acts of incorporation is made for the purpose of showing how general was the plank-road mania at that time in these counties, as in other portions of the State. It also shows what the several projects were and the names of their originators.
STAGE-ROUTES.
The first stage-line which entered the territory to which this history has reference was that which was started in the spring of 1831, by Col. Alamanson Huston, to run between Niles and Detroit. Col. Huston was soon afterwards suc- ceeded in the proprietorship of this line by Jones & Avery, of White Pigeon, who continued to operate it until the end of 1832. At this time the stages made the round trip be- tween Niles and Detroit in about seven days.
With the opening of 1833, immigration to the western part of the State began to increase rapidly, and in that year, De Garmo Jones, Benjamin B. Kercheval, Maj. Robert A. Forsyth, of Detroit, and Joseph W. Brown, of Tecum- seh, established a line of stages from Detroit to Chicago, running tri-weekly, with Concord coaches and stage-wagons, and changes of teams at the end of every section of twelve or fifteen miles. The route passed from Detroit by way of Ypsilanti, Jonesville, Coldwater River, White Pigeon, and Niles, to Chicago. The stage-station at Niles was the " Council House." In 1834 an interest in this line was purchased by Saltmarsh, Overton & Boardman, the last- named gentleman acting as general superintendent, with headquarters at Detroit. The concern was then known as the " Western Stage Company." Soon afterwards the line was divided into sections, and that part of the road extend- ing from Jonesville to Chicago was placed under charge of Maj. William Graves, who located at Niles, as superinten- dent, June 15, 1835. He had previously been employed in the office of the company at Detroit.
In the spring of 1835 the travel had so much increased that daily stages were put on the line, and even then trav- elers were compelled to secure seats in advance, and places in the coaches were not unfrequently subjects of speculation. Later in that season the stock of the company was increased, a double daily line was put on the road, and it was not an uncommon thing for the agent to be compelled to purchase an extra team and wagon, fill the latter with passengers, and send it on to Chicago. This was the only stage thor- oughfare through the State, east and west, and being the direct route to Chicago and other Western points, was very liberally patronized. From Michigan City (which was laid out in 1835) the stage-route followed the lake beach to within twelve miles of Chicago.
About 1836, what is called the "Territorial road" was surveyed through the townships of Van Buren County, and soon after the opening of this road the first line of stages was put on by John Allen. Upon his failure, the business was carried on by others, and about 1840 it had attained considerable magnitude. When the Central Railroad was completed to points west of Ann Arbor, cross-lines began to be put on ; and from Kalamazoo, D. Humphrey, of Ba- tavia, B. F. Haddock and Granville Kimball, of Buffalo, had charge of and owned the route through Paw Paw, Keeler, Bainbridge, and Benton to St. Joseph. The com- pletion of the railroad to New Buffalo destroyed the busi- ness of this route as well as the others, and the road be- came no more than an ordinary township highway.
A contract for the delivery of the mail from the railroad terminus to St. Joseph was held by D. Humphrey & Co.,
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HISTORY OF BERRIEN AND VAN BUREN COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.
who afterwards united with the Western Stage Company, and both routes were continued. Fifteen or sixteen stages ran daily to St. Joseph, and the steamboat " John F. Por- ter" was also used in the service. Later, the stages met the lake boats at Michigan City in summer, and in winter continued to Chicago. The divisions of the road were broken up as the contracts expired and railroad facilities were increased. Overton & Graves purchased eighty miles of the route (from Niles to Coldwater), and sold the route from White Pigeon to Coldwater to Lock wood & Raymond, and the remainder was kept till the mail contract expired, when the railway-trains superseded the stages. The Con- cord coaches-and-four, the gathering of the loitering crowd at the tavern when the horn of the driver was heard in the distance, the alighting, changing of horses, and the crack of the long whip, are all events of the past.
MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD.
On the 29th day of June, 1832, the Legislature of the Territory of Michigan passed an act incorporating the De- troit and St. Joseph Railroad Company. This was the first official movement towards the construction of a railroad in Michigan, and the company thus organized was the legiti- mate ancestor of the present powerful corporation, the Michigan Central Railroad Company.
. The. act just mentioned named twenty men, including Calvin Brittain and Talman Wheeler, of St. Joseph, as commissioners to open subscriptions and attend to the elec- tion of the first officers. The capital stock of the company was fixed at one million five hundred thousand dollars. It was authorized to build a single or double railroad from Detroit to St. Joseph, through the village of Ypsilanti and the county-seats of Washtenaw, Jackson, Calhoun, and Kalamazoo Counties, and to run cars on the same "by the force of steam, of animals, of any mechanical or other power, or of any combination of these forces." The com- pany was bound to begin work within two years from the passage of the act, to build thirty miles of track within six years, to complete half of the road in fifteen years, and to finish the whole of it within thirty years, under penalty of the forfeiture of its franchises.
The proposed line was surveyed by Lieut. Berrien, of the regular army, and some work was done on it near the eastern ends, so as to hold the corporate rights of the com- pany past the two years prescribed in the act. The ques- tion whether the company could have built thirty miles of road within the six years prescribed by the act was not solved, for before that time expired new, and important official action was taken.
Michigan, after a long contest, having been admitted by Congress as a State early in the year 1837, one of its first movements under the new government was to inaugurate a grand system of internal improvement, doubtless designed to keep up the good times prevalent during several specula- tive years, and to disperse the cloud of financial disaster already looming over Michigan, as well as the rest of the country .*
* A board of commissioners of internal improvements was estab- lished to carry the system into effect, and plenty of work was soon given them to do.
On the 20th day of March, 1837, an act of the Legisla- ture was approved by the Governor, which provided for the construction of three railroads, by the State government, across the whole breadth of its territory, to be called the Northern, Central, and Southern Railroads. Of these the Central Railroad was to run from Detroit to the mouth of the St. Joseph River. The act also provided for the pur- chase of the rights and property of railroad companies already established, and especially of those of the Detroit and St. Joseph Company.
We have said that the act provided for the construction of the three railroads mentioned, but it did so in a very in- direct and covert way. It first authorized the survey of the three routes, then the purchase of roads already begun on either route, and then appropriated five hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the "survey and making" of the three roads, viz .: for the Southern road, one hun- dred thousand dollars; for the Central, four hundred thous- and dollars ; and for the Northern, fifty thousand dollars.
By another act, approved the following day (March 21, 1837), the Legislature authorized a loan of five million dol- lars. With the money obtained from this and other sources the board of commissioners proceeded in the work of con- structing the Central and Southern roads. The work, however, was but slowly carried forward, and it was not until the 2d day of February, 1846, that the Central Rail- road was constructed as far as Kalamazoo.
In the mean time the State had run out of money, and the people had become thoroughly sick of the experiment of having politicians build railroads at their expense. Ac- cordingly, an act was passed by the Legislature, approved March 28, 1846, which, so far as the Central road was con- cerned, provided for an entire change in the existing system. By that act, William Sturgess, John Elliot Thayer, Alex- ander Duncan, William F. Weld, Josiah Quincy, Jr., David A. Neal, John Bryant, James K. M. Mills, Erastus Corn- ing, Thomas H. Perkins, John P. Cushing, George Gris- wold, John M. Forbes, R. B. Forbes, Dudley S. Pickman, John W. Brooks, Cyrus Butler, Moses B. Ives, Robert H. Ives, Edward King, John Carter Brown, Thomas H. Per- kins, Jr., Marcus T. Reynolds, Garrett Y. Lansing, John Townsend, Rufus H. King, and their associates, were con- stituted a body corporate, by the name of the Michigan Central Railroad Company.
It was authorized to purchase, and the State agreed to sell to it, all of the interest of the State in the Central Railroad and its appurtenances for two million dollars,-half a million within six months from the passage of the act, and the remaining amount within a year later. On making the first payment the company was authorized to go into possession of the road and to proceed to its completion. But, while it was required to substantially follow the old line to Kalamazoo, it was not compelled to build the road from the latter point to the mouth of the St. Joseph River, but " to some point in the State of Michigan, on or near Lake Michigan, which shall be accessible to steamboats on said lake, and thence to some point on the southern bound- ary line of the State of Michigan."+
t It is said that the men of whom the company was expected to con- sist insisted on having this provision in the act, in order that they
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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
It was likewise enacted that the franchises of the com- pany should be forfeited if the payments were not made as before provided, that it should not charge over three cents per mile for the carriage of each passenger, and that no more should be charged on the principal articles than the average price on the chief New England railroads, the average to be obtained by a commission. The corporate stock of the company was fixed at five million dollars, with the privilege of increasing it to eight millions, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each.
The State reserved the right to alter or repeal the act at any time after thirty years by a vote of two-thirds of both houses of the Legislature.
As soon as the company had made its payment and taken possession of the road, it determined to take the nearest route by which it could obtain all communication with Chicago, and began surveying a route from Kalamazoo to New Buffalo, running through the southeast part of Van Buren County, the northwest part of Cass, and the whole south part of Berrien County. This route was adopted, engineers and laborers were employed, and the work was pushed forward with what was then considered remarkable speed. The road was finished to Niles, Oct. 7, 1848, and to New Buffalo in the spring of 1849, where the steamer " Pa- cific" was waiting to receive the passengers on the first train.
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