History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. I, Part 140

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Detroit, Pub. by S. Farmer & co., for Munsell & co., New York
Number of Pages: 1094

USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. I > Part 140

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The corporation of 1834 intended to run into the city over the Gratiot Road to Woodward Ave- nue, and on March 31, 1838, the council gave the

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necessary permission. The company, however, did not avail itself of the privilege, but laid the track on Dequindre Street from the Gratiot Road to Jef- ferson Avenue, and the passenger depot was located on the avenue. In 1842 the line was extended down the Gratiot Road to Farmer Street. The property owners along Gratiot Street did not ap- prove of this proceeding, especially as the careless manner in which the road was constructed rendered the street almost impassable after a rain. The evil was apparent to everybody, and on July 11, 1843, the council decreed the track a public nuisance, and the marshal was ordered to remove the same unless the road was improved. Some trifling repairs were made, but the road was still objectionable, and on September 7, 1847, the council was petitioned to remove the track, but no action was taken. The

ETROITA MILWAUKEE And GREAT WESTERN RAILWAYS.

CH. SOU. V. NOR. IND R.R. CLEVELAND. CINCINNA

PETROITY MILWAUK

DETROIT & MILWAUKEE DEPOT BUILDING. BURNED IN 1866.

people continued to urge their objections, and year after year temporary improvements and promises in abundance were made by the officers of the road, the people, in the meantime, growing more and more impatient. Finally, on September 5, 1848, the company was ordered by the council to tear up the track inside of the city on all public squares or streets within six months, and if not then removed, the city marshal was instructed to tear it up.

Even after this action a year and more went by, and the track remained as before. At length the people themselves undertook its removal, and on the evening of December 12, 1849, after the train had left for Pontiac, a posse of men went to work near the head of Beaubien Street, and with crow-

bars, sledges, handspikes, and other instruments, tore up several rods of the track. When the next train arrived, as there was no place to turn the engine, it had to be backed to Royal Oak. Twelve men were arrested for tearing up the track, but the community had too much sympathy for them to allow them to be punished, and besides the law officers of the roads acknowledged that if the track was a nuisance they had an undoubted right to remove it.

For several weeks, the cars came in only as far as Dequindre Street. Finally the track was relaid, and on Saturday, February 9, 1850, the cars again came in to their old depot on the corner of Farmer and Gratiot Streets. Two days after, on Monday afternoon, February 11, after the cars had left, a party of men collected, and beginning at Randolph Street, the track was again torn up for a con- siderable distance, and again the cars were com- pelled to stop at De- quindre Street. The company, however, per- severed, and in July, 1850, asked permission to replace their track, and on July 30, the coun- cil, by resolution, gave the company permission to make use of any of the streets they had for- merly occupied for a period not longer than one year.

The road was now extended through to the Campus Martius, and the cars stopped on the site of the present Detroit Opera House. The de- pot buildings were in the rear, facing Farmer and Gratiot Streets, and occupying fully one quarter of the block.

On May 27, 1851, the company was granted per- mission to extend the track across Jefferson Avenue to the dock property which they had bought at the foot of Brush Street, and early in 1852 cars began to run in and out from the Brush Street Depot and for the first time on the T rails. While this extension was building, the cars stopped at Gratiot Street.

About 1841 the mortgage which had been given to the State to secure the $100,000, and the bonds given by the road as further security were sold to Messrs. White & Davis of Syracuse, N. Y. They leased the road to Alfred Williams for $10,000 a year. He operated it until 1849, and in that year

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the mortgage given to the State for the $100,000 loan was bought for $85,000 State scrip and $15,000 cash. Other claims were also cancelled, and at a total cost of about $80,000 cash Messrs. H. N. Walker, Dean Richmond, Alfred Williams, Horace Thurber, and others, became proprietors of the road.

Meanwhile, on April 3, 1848, the Oakland & Ottawa Railroad had been chartered to build a line from Pontiac to Lake Michigan, and by Act of February 13, 1855, that company and the Detroit & Pontiac Railroad were authorized to consolidate, under the name of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad. The consolidation was effected, and on April 19, 1855, a meeting of the stockholders was held, and directors chosen for the new road. The line was now pushed rapidly toward Grand Haven, and the road was opened to Fentonville on October 2, 1855 ; to Owosso on July 1, 1856; to St. John's on January 14, 1857 ; to Ionia on August 12, 1857 ; to Grand Rapids on July 4, 1858; and to Grand Haven on August 30, 1858. The first through train with passengers from Milwaukee arrived at Detroit on September 1, 1858.

On April 26, 1866, a fire occurred which burned the offices, freight and passenger depots, and the ferry Windsor, causing the loss of eighteen lives.

At the time the two roads consolidated, a mort- gage, under which $207,000 worth of bonds had been issued, was outstanding against the Oakland and Ottawa Companies, and three mortgages, aggregating $500,000, had been given by the Detroit & Pontiac Railroad. The consolidated company, in order to obtain funds to build the line, gave a further mortgage of $2,500,000, and then one for $1,000,000. Subsequently another mortgage for the sum of $750,000 was given for money obtained from the Great Western Railroad, and the influence of that company then became para- mount in the management of the corporation. After a time a second mortgage, for $500,000, was given to the same company. The Detroit & Grand Haven Railway Company failed to pay the interest on these last two mortgages, and on October 24, 1860, the Great Western Railroad foreclosed their mortgages and bought the road, subject of course to the other mortgages, and the company was reorganized under the same name, except that it was called a Railroad Company instead of a Rail- way Company.

After several years proceedings were taken to foreclose the mortgages given for two and one half million and one million dollars respectively. On April 11, 1875, the road was put into the hands of C. C. Trowbridge, as receiver, and under a decree of the court, on September 4, 1878, the Great West- ern Railroad became the purchaser of the road for

the nominal sum of $1,850,000, with the under- standing that the holders of all mortgages were to have new bonds or payment in money. The real effect of this sale was to cancel the previous mort- gages and include other indebtedness in one mort- gage.

The receivership of C. C. Trowbridge terminated on October 19, and on November 9, 1878, the com- pany was reorganized under the name of the Detroit, Grand Haven, & Milwaukee Railway Company.

Soon after the road reached Grand Haven two large steamships, the Detroit and the Milwaukee, were built to convey passengers across Lake Michi- gan. They were first used in August, 1859, and communication across the lake has been main- tained since that time.

The average number of men employed at De- troit in 1881 was four hundred and sixteen; adding train men, the company had five hundred and twenty-one employees at Detroit, and the pay-roll averaged $7,500 per month.

The chief officers have been: Presidents: 1845- 1850, G. O. Williams; 1852-1855, N. P. Stewart ; 1855-1858, H. N. Walker; 1858-1863, C. J. Brydges; 1863-1875, C. C. Trowbridge (also re- ceiver from 1875 to 1879); 1879-1880, Samuel Barker; 1880-1882, Francis D. Gray; 1882- ,

Joseph Hickson.

Superintendents : 1850 and 1851, G. O. Williams ; 1852, H. P. Thurber; 1853-1857, A. H. Rood; 1857-1866, W. K. Muir; 1866-1872, Thomas Bell; 1872-1875, Andrew Watson; 1875, W. K. Muir; 1876-1879, S. R Callaway; 1879-1885, W. J. Morgan : 1885- , A. B. Atwater.

Secretaries : 1854, J. V. Campbell ; 1855-1862, C. C. Trowbridge ; 1862-1865, W. C. Stephens ; 1865, Thomas Bell; 1866- , James H. Muir.

Freight Agents : 1855 and 1856, A. N. Rood ; 1857-1862, James A. Armstrong ; 1862-1867, John Crampton ; 1867-1880, Alfred White; 1880-1887, Thomas Tandy ; 1887- , J. W. Loud.

The Michigan Central Railroad.

The line of the Central Road was projected in 1830, but the corporation, which at first was known as the Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad, was not char- tered until June 29, 1832. In 1834 the War Depart- ment was petitioned to survey the proposed route, on the ground that the road would be a public benefit. The petition met with favor, and Colonel John M. Berrien was detailed for the service, and provided with assistants and instruments, the rail- road company paying their expenses only. Colonel Berrien completed the work, and estimated the cost of a single-strap rail to Ypsilanti at $3,200 per mile. The work of soliciting subscriptions in aid of the road began in 1835. Shares were fixed at $2.00

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each, and were rapidly taken. At Ypsilanti between $8,000 and $9,000 were subscribed in a single day, and five per cent was paid in. At this time the officers were John Biddle, president; D. G. Jones, O. Newberry, E. A. Brush, B. B. Kercheval, E. P. Hastings, J. Burdick, Mark Norris, David Page, and S. W. Dexter, directors. An Act of August 25, 1835, authorized the stockholders to establish a bank at Ypsilanti, with a capital of $100,000. Between October 13 and December 18, 1835, $55,000 were subscribed for the road in Detroit. On the day last-named a meeting was held to discuss means for procuring further subscriptions, and a committee of two was appointed to solicit. On December 20 the following notice appeared:

RAILROAD MEETING .- I would invite and solicit the attend- ance of every good citizen at an early hour, that the new and splendid City Hall may once be filled to overflowing.

LEVI COOK, Mayor.

By November, 1836, the road had been grubbed as far as Ypsilanti, and ten miles graded. Mean- time the projects of raising a loan of $5,000,000, and creating a Board of Internal Improvements were under discussion. The duties of the board were to include the constructing and operating of all the railroads in the State, and to this end the purchase of the St. Joseph Road was authorized by Act of March 20, 1837, and in May, after the company had expended $117,000, the purchase was made, and the name of the road changed to Michigan Central. The building of the road went on, and as early as January, 1838, the road was in operation to Dear- born. A fac-simile of the tickets then in use is here given. It will be noticed that it was originally in- tended for a stage ticket. The singular economy practiced by the State in the use of such tickets and the idea of inserting the name of each passenger in his ticket, as was then done, would now be thought

No.

Detroit, Jodan.

1838.

Ktreiber of AV. Packers Sig Fare ,

I want from Detroit to adcenter for Mait land

Baggage at your own risk.

FAC-SIMILE OF MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD TICKET OF 1838.

A subsequent meeting was held on January 2, 1836, and nearly $25,000 subscribed, which, with previous amounts, made over $100,000 invested by citizens of Detroit. At this meeting the Common Council was requested to subscribe $10,000 on behalf of the city. Contracts for grubbing and clearing the first forty miles were soon let, the work to be completed by May 20, and seven hundred and twenty tons of strap-iron, to cost about $60,000, were ordered. On August 5, 1836, the council authorized the mayor, on behalf of the city, to sub- scribe $10,000 towards the stock of the railroad, and the same day a warrant for $2,000, to apply on the amount, was drawn on the city treasurer, and on August 9 a meeting of citizens requested the coun- cil to subscribe $40,000 additional on behalf of the city. On August 11 the council so ordered, and on August 14 the subscription was made by the mayor, and a warrant for $8,000 of the amount drawn on the city treasurer.

preposterous. On February 3, 1838, the cars made their first trip to Ypsilanti. A new car, the Gover- nor Mason, seating sixty-six persons, built by John G. Hays, of Detroit, was provided, and an excur- sion party, consisting of the State and city officers. the Brady Guards, and other citizens, went over the road. A public dinner was served at Ypsilanti, and an address delivered by General Van Fossen. Arriving at Dearborn on the return trip, the engine . would not work, and horses were procured to draw engine and cars back to Detroit.

During this winter the track was frequently so obstructed by ice that trains were obliged to stop at Dearborn. The fare to Ypsilanti was $1.50, the time of the trip usually an hour and three quarters. The following item from the Journal and Courier of May 19, 1838, gives details of interest:

CENTRAL. RAILROAD .- The cars on this road now make two trips a day between Detroit and Ypsilanti. They leave the Depot on Campus Martius every morning at six o'clock and every

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afternoon at half past one o'clock ; Ypsilanti every morning at ten o'clock and every afternoon at half past four o'clock.

It is gratifying to know that the freight and travel on this State road are increasing rapidly. The average receipts for sev- eral days past have been upwards of three hundred dollars per day. On Monday they were $326, on Tuesday $431, on Wednes- day $310, and on Thursday $372.

There seems to have been no lack of cars, for on October 31 of this year, while Hiram Alden was acting commissioner, it was resolved to permit in- dividuals to place cars on the Central Railroad for the transportation of merchandise, agricultural pro- ducts, and other property, and the commissioner was authorized to sell persons such cars as were not needed. The receipts continued to increase, and the following statement was published on July 18, 1838 :

The receipts upon the road for the week ending July 17, 1838, were as follows: From Detroit to Ypsilanti and way, for the transportation of five hundred passengers, 242,638 pounds of mer- chandise, one barrel of flour, 5,000 feet of timber, and 6412 thou- sand shingles, $1, 129.93. From Ypsilanti to Detroit and way, for transportation of 423 passengers, 19,838 pounds of merchandise, and 325 barrels of flour, $1,827.59.

AMos T. HALL., Collector of Tolls, Detroit.

On October 17, 1839, the road was opened to Ann Arbor, and the City Council, Brady Guards, and about eight hundred citizens went on an excursion to that city. They left Detroit at 9 A. M., were received with a salute, entertained with a dinner, and returned at 3 P. M. During 1839 fifty-four persons were employed by the State in operating the road. On August 1, 1840, one train was taken off. On June 30 the road was opened to Dexter. At this time, A. H. Adams, who had served as collector of tolls, was weighmaster at Detroit. and T. G. Cole was superintendent of the road.

On October 21, 1842, two new locomotives were landed by schooner for the road, and a new passen- ger-car called the Kalamazoo was placed on the line. The road was opened to Jackson on Decen- ber 29, 1841, and The Detroit Gazette for May 22, 1843, contained the following :

For the purpose of meeting the wishes of travelers and increas- ing the revenue of the road, the Michigan Central Railroad has reduced the fare to $2.50 between Detroit and Jackson, and for way passengers in proportion. The road is in excellent order, the engines and cars of the best description, and they are run with great regularity. Regular lines of stages leave Jackson for Chi- cago on the arrival of the cars. Travelers taking this route reach Chicago in two days less time than by the route around the lakes.

On June 25, 1844, the road reached Albion, Mar- shall became a station on August 10, 1845, and on April 25, 1846, the following notice appeared :

CENTRAL RAILROAD .- The passenger train will, after the Ist of June next, leave Detroit for the west at 8 o'clock A. M., arrive at Marshall at 3.30 P. M. They leave Marshall at precisely 9.30 o'clock A. M., arriving at Detroit at 5 P. M. There is at the west- ern terminus a line of coaches always ready to carry passengers to St. Joseph,-ninety miles in twenty-two hours. From St. Joseph

to Chicago by steamboat, sixty-nine miles in six hours. Making thirty-six hours from Detroit to Chicago.

O. C. COMSTOCK, JR., Pres. of Board I. T.

Internal Improvement Office.

On November 25, 1845, the State completed the road to Battle Creek, and on February 2, 1846, to Kalamazoo. The fare to Chicago at this time was $6.50, including fifty-five miles of staging to New Buffalo and sixty miles of steamboating from there to the Garden City. About this time public opinion became decidedly opposed to the participation by the State in enterprises of this kind, especially as there was a constant struggle for the political patronage and influence which the party in power wielded through its control of this and other roads. An open letter from Marshall, dated October 6, 1845, said :

There is a great defect in the arrangements of the Central Rail- road in this State. It is disgraceful that so important a work should be so slovenly managed. In the first place it was shab- bily built at an enormous expense, and it is conducted in all its departments by mere partisans. They were appointed because they were noisy politicians.

In November, 1845, this statement was made :

Four years ago the road was completed to Jackson. After three years more it was completed to Marshall, where it now stops. It is in a miserable condition, unfit for heavy transporta- tion, and requires to be relaid and repaired. High charges for freight and fare are fast driving business into other channels.

In addition to these complaints the expenditures of the State for various improvements had reduced its credit to the lowest point. State bonds to the amount of $50,000 were sold at auction in New York for eighteen cents on the dollar; so straitened were the finances of the State that at a general meeting of the State officers it was determined to sell the rail- roads, and Henry N. Walker, then attorney-general, was appointed to go to New York, organize a com- pany, and negotiate a sale. Mr. Walker went; interviewed Erastus Corning, of Albany, who then held a large amount of State bonds, purchased for about thirty cents on the dollar. J. W. Brooks, then superintendent of a railroad between Rochester and Syracuse, was summoned, and a conference was held in the City Hotel at Albany, in regard to the proposed railroad company. A rough draft for a charter was agreed upon, and Mr. Brooks was to come to Detroit in January, 1846, and with Mr. Walker endeavor to secure its passage. The terms of the proposed pur- chase were ten per cent above the original cost of the road in cash, the balance in bonds or obligations of the State. Mr. Brooks came, and on March 28, 1846, largely through the efforts of George E. Hand, then a member of the Legislature, an Act was passed providing for the incorporation of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, and for the sale by the State of its interest in the road for the sum of $2,000,000.

Several persons who

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had originally agreed to become corporators failed to fulfil their agreements, and Messrs. H. N. Walker and George F. Porter, at the request of Governor Barry and the leading men of Detroit, went to New York and Boston and organized a new company, and on September 23, 1846, the sale was consummated. On September 17, 1846, a new locomotive, called Battle Creek, arrived at Detroit for the road and up to the date of the transfer, the State had expended $1,954,308.28. Of passenger depots there were then only four on the line, and neither of these at Detroit. The charter of the company relieved it of of all taxation except the payment to the State of one half of one per cent on its capital stock up to July 1, 1851, after which it was to be increased to three quarters of one per cent. It was also pro- vided that no railroad thereafter built west of Wayne County should approach within five miles of the road without consent of the company, and that no other railroad should approach within twenty miles of Detroit, or run to Lake Michigan, or the southern boundary of the State, the line of which on an average, was within twenty miles of the Central. The charter also pro- vided that the State might buy the road at any time after Janu- ary 1, 1867.

MICHIGAN CENTRAL FREIGHT DEPOT AND SEMINARY BUILDING, Southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Griswold Street.

There seems to have been no sound reason for the sale of the property by the State. The reports of the officers showed a profit, in 1838, of $37,283; in 1839, of $16,703; in 1840, of $20,637; in 1841, of $25,655; in 1842, of $63,075; in 1843, of $75,026; and in 1844, of $121,750. After its sale, the road was pushed westward, and on May 1, 1847, the following item appeared in a daily paper :

MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD,- This important work is being rapidly prosecuted. It is now within fifty miles of its western termination, if St. Joseph is fixed upon, and within seventy miles if it is to run to New Buffalo. Its engineers are locating the route west of Kalamazoo, and in a week or two its western ter- minus will be settled.

Up to this time the road had come into Detroit on Michigan Avenue, and its depot buildings occupied the site of the present City Hall. The council had granted the use of the Campus Martius and also of the Chicago Road on August 31, 1836. What would

now be deemed a most remarkable concession was granted on February 5, 1838. The State was then authorized to make a cut on Woodward Avenue fourteen feet wide and as deep as necessary, com- mencing near the crossing of Congress Street and terminating near Atwater Street, for the purpose of laying a railroad track, the cut to be walled up with stone or timber, and covered over, as far as practi- cable, with a rail on each side where not covered, with lamps at convenient distances, to be kept lit during the night. On March 24, 1838, the Com- missioners of Internal Improvements reported that it would be impracticable to light the cut, and the track was therefore laid on the ground. It extended down Woodward Avenue to Atwater Street, and a thousand feet each way from Woodward Avenue on Atwater. On April 28, 1838, the council gave the State permission to erect a car-house on Michigan Avenue in the rear of the old City Hall, but Messrs. Cooper and Jackson opposed and prevented the erec- tion of the building. On May 21, 1839, the council granted per- mission to owners of warehouses east of Woodward Avenue "to lay side tracks from their premises to the railroad now being laid in Atwater Street between Woodward Avenue and Brush Street." COPYRIGHT IBRO BY SILAS FARMIR The railroad track continued to occupy Woodward Avenue and Atwater Street until March, 1844, when, on account of the difficulty and expense of dragging the cars up hill, the rails were removed. Grounds for a depot west of Third Street were purchased in 1847, but passenger cars continued to come in on Michigan Avenue until May 30, 1848, on which date they arrived for the first time at the Third Street Depot. The shops were finished in June, 1848. Some of the old buildings were left on the Campus Martius, and on April 17, 1849, the company was ordered by the council to remove them forthwith.

In 1851 the company purchased additional river frontage to the amount of twenty-two hundred feet, with an average width of three hundred and ninety- one feet, and built a large freight-house on the river.

In 1864, 1865, and 1866, and at other times, addi- tional purchases have been made, and in 1880 the

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company had nearly forty acres on the river, ten acres for stockyards at Twentieth Street, and one hundred and thirty-four acres at the Junction.

On June 28, 1848, the road was completed to Paw Paw ; on October I, to Niles ; and on April 23, 1849, it was in operation to New Buffalo, and steamers ran in connection with the road to Chicago and Milwaukee. By this time the strap-rail had been nearly all replaced with the T rail. In June, 1849, the road began to run two through trains daily. From November 29 to April 26, 1850, only one train left each terminus daily, and then two daily trains were again put on.

The charter did not allow the route to be extended beyond Lake Michigan. Upon reaching this limit at New Buffalo, the company advanced money to build a portion of the New Albany & Salem Road through Indiana, and then leased that line, and

of all over fifty-eight per cent of the freight busi- ness of the Michigan Central Railroad and over forty-two per cent of the freight business of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad.

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History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. I, Part 140

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Detroit, Pub. by S. Farmer & co., for Munsell & co., New York Number of Pages: 1094

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Detroit, Pub. by S. Farmer & co., for Munsell & co., New York
Number of Pages: 1094