History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 37

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882

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This road had a stormy existence for some twelve years. During its early days it earned from fifteen to twenty per cent upon its capital, but in 1840 the competition with the Michigan Southern began, which will be noticed in con- nection with the story of that road, and though it adopted the modern expedient of " feeders " by starting a branch road from Palmyra to Jacksonburgh (now Jackson, but which never was built beyond Tecumseh till 1857), and not- withstanding it was aided by the State of Michigan in this latter project, it soon became embarrassed ; was run a portion of the time by a board of directors, sometimes by trustees ap- pointed by the board, and part of the time by a receiver at the Toledo end and a commis- sioner in Adrian ; was a perpetual defendant in the courts; was sold under numerous legal judgments in 1848 to Washington Hunt, of Lockport, N. Y., and George Bliss of Massa- chusetts, and was by them in 1849 leased per- petnally to its quondam rival, the Michigan Southern, the successor of which still operates it as a portion of its main line. But its stormy childhood and youth have been succeeded by an age of peace and prosperity, for the " Eric and Kalamazoo Railroad Company " still exists, and draws from the treasury of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company the annual rental of $30,000.

One who stands by the side of the railroad to-day and sces magnificent trains of baggage, smoking, passenger and sleeping cars go thun- dering by, can have but a faint conception of the railroading of fifty years ago. Mr. C. P. Leland, the auditor of the present Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company, has been for years an enthusiastic student of its history ; and after much trouble and inquiry succeeded in obtaining so complete a descrip- tion of the celebrated " pleasure car " of the old Eric and Kalamazoo, that he had a drawing of it made, together with the engine, " Adrian No. 1," thus forming an accurate picture of the passenger train of 1837, to enjoy the privileges of which the intending passenger was com- pelled to deliver up " twelve shillings." The drawing was submitted to the inspection of old people who had both seen the car and ridden in it, and is vouched for as correct.

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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

E.& K.R.R.

FIRST LOCOMOTIVE ON THE ERIE & KALAMAZOO RAILROAD.

This car was divided into compartments, after the manner still pursued on English and Continental railways, and had three compart- ments, each when full holding eight passengers - twenty-four in all. The floor of the middle compartment was somewhat higher than the end ones, and there was a projecting box be- low the general level of the car floor. This left a box-like space between the end compart- ments and beneath the middle one, and in this the baggage of the passengers was stowed. The road advertised (with numerous exclama- tion marks), "Toledo to Adrian - thirty-three miles -- and return the same day ! !! ! "

Of the "delights of travel " in those early days, Mr. Leland has a graphic description from an old Erie and Kalamazoo employe, who writes :

" During most of the year 1841 I was em- ployed as repairing agent of the Erie and Kala- mazoo Railroad, then in operation between Toledo and Adrian. According to schedule time, a passenger train with one coach would leave Toledo in the morning, make the run to Adrian, and return to Toledo in the afternoon, arriving about 6 P. M. The passenger car then used was about the size now in use upon street railroads, and was divided into three compart- ments, each having a front and rear seat facing each other and running from side to side of the car, with a side entrance to cach compart- ment. The track was ironed with the flat bar ' strap rail,' as it was called. As my home was in Toledo I found it necessary to go on each Monday morning over the road, spend- ing the week in making such repairs as were

necessary, and returning home on Saturday evening.

"In December, 1841, one Saturday the train left Toledo on time for Adrian. I was then at Palmyra, intending to take the train for Adrian and return to Toledo that evening. Owing to a severe storm of rain, freezing as it fell, the track became covered with ice. The train reached Palmyra about 4 P. M. I entered the middle compartment of the car as the train started for Adrian, and met in the car J. Baron Davis and wife, of Toledo, sitting in the for- ward seat. Being acquainted with them, I thought I would take a seat with them, but seeing the cushion upon the seat out of place, 1 took the rear seat, facing the one I had rejected. We had not gone more than half a mile from Palmyra when a 'snake head,' as they were called (the loosened end of one of the flat bars, or strap rails, which, caught by the wheel which should pass over it, was torn from the stringer and forced upward), came crashing through the floor of the car, passing diagonally through the seat I had left vacant, the end of the bar striking me in my neck under the chin, and pushing me backward with such force as to break through the panel work par- tition which divided the compartments of the car. Just at this moment the other end of the bar was torn from the track and carried along with the car. Recovering my consciousness a little, I found myself with head and shoulders protruding through the broken partition, while I held the assaulting 'snake head' firmly grasped in both my hands. Being a stormy day I had an extra amount of clothing about

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my neck, which the bar did not penetrate, so that my injuries were not serious. The train was stopped. Frederick Bissell, the conductor, was much frightened. Before leaving the spot, the guilty 'snake head' was once more spiked down and we moved on, reaching Adrian at 6 P. M., having made the run of thirty-three miles in ten hours.

" The train left Adrian for Toledo at 7 P. M., and worked its way along over the ice covered track until we got out of wood and water, when we picked up sticks in the woods and replenished the fire, and with pails dipped up water from the ditches and fed the boiler, and made another run toward Toledo. Passing Sylvania we got the train to a point four miles from Toledo, when being again out of steam, wood and water, we came to the conclusion that it would be easier to foot it the rest of the way, than to try to get the train along any farther. So we left the locomotive and cars standing upon the track and walked into the city, reaching there at. about 2:30 A. M. I was rather lame and sore from contact with the 'snake head,' but gratified that we were en- joying the 'modern improvement'- railway travel."

Between the date of the territorial charter to the Erie and Kalamazoo, and the journey narrated above, several changes had taken place. The valiant but bloodless "Toledo War" had been fought; that conflict in which the gallant troops

-"marched up the hill, And then marched down again,"

and returned to the " Peninsula" covered with dust and glory ; the Territory of Michigan had been received into the sisterhood of States, not exactly with the boundaries she coveted, for she had been compelled to exchange the

-" long, low level of lonesome land "

for the rugged shores and pathless forests of the Upper Peninsula, and was inclined to grumble about it, as mankind are generally prone to do at blessings in disguise ; the strip of territory invaded by the heroes of the Toledo war had been set as a jewel in the crown of Ohio; prosaic Port Lawrence no longer ex- isted, but romantic Toledo occupied its former site ; another railway had been put into opera- tion from the city of Monroe westward, whose tale is soon to be told; a vigorous rivalry ex-

isted between the new Toledo and the new Monroe, destined to last for eight years from the date of the adventurous journey narrated above; several new railroads had been pro- jected and partially built, as will be noted far- ther on, and the fever of " internal improve . ments" had taken fast hold of the State of Michigan and was fiercely raging.

Among the projected railroads but one par- tienlarly, and two incidentally, concern the present history. The one of particular in- terest was the " River Raisin and Lake Erie." It may be remarked en passant that the pro- jeetors of this line must have been remark- ably modest men. They might have christened it the " Atlantic and Pacific," or the " Trans- continental," after the usual custom, but they were contented to give it an appellation which even fell short of its plans, though, strangely enough, it exactly described its termini. It was projected to extend from some point on/ Lake Erie at or near LaPlaisance Bay, through the village of Monroe to Dundee, thence to Blissfield, and thence to some connecting point on the Lake Erie and Kalamazoo, presumably Tecumseh, which was located upon the " Pal- myra and Jacksonburgh " feeder of the Erie and Kalamazoo. The River Raisin and Lake Erie as built, however, was two and a half miles long, was later sold to the State for $32,500, about its cost, and its termini were respectively the city of Monroe and Lake Eric. In its short career as an individual railroad it never arrived at the dignity of owning a locomotive, but its trains were drawn by horses. The pro- jected roads, which are only incidentally con- nected with this history, were the Detroit and Pontiac (later a portion of the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee), and the Detroit and St. Joseph, the original germ of the Michigan Central. The River Raisin and Lake Erie was chartered by the legislature March 26, 1836; but a few days less than a year thereafter (March 20 and 21, 1837) two acts were passed which materially affected the status of these roads, as well as of the Erie and Kalamazoo.

In its later years as a Territory, and its carly years as a State, Michigan had been advancing in population with rapid strides. By steamer and sailing vessel, by wagon, on horseback and on foot, a continuous stream of people was flowing into her borders, coming to " spy out the land." The heavily timbered lands of

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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Monroe county, while giving evidence of a rich and almost exhaustless soil, deterred set- tlement on account of the labor requisite to clear the land, and the tide of humanity swept through it and around it. The report of the observers was generally a favorable one, and families followed the men who had " come to

Michigan." Through what is now the southern tiers of counties, numerous hamlets sprang up in the wilderness, clear to the borders of Lake Michigan on the west. The great concomitant of prosperity -cheap land - was abundant. The country, which an early explorer charac- terized as " nufit for human habitation, swampy and unhealthy, and which probably never would sustain a large number of inhabitants," was rapidly being cleared up by the sturdy strokes of the pioneer, and made to yield gen- erous harvests by the aid of his oxen. It was a season of prosperity which would have ripened into a sturdy, healthful and vigorous growth had legislative hands been kept off it. But they were not.

The reader of the story of "Law's Missis- sippi Bubble," will wonder at the credulity of human kind. But each generation, almost, sees a financial craze of a similar character, though the particular details of its development differ. The era of prosperity in the State only stimulated its inhabitants with a desire for a still greater prosperity, and induced a specula- tive fever which began to formulate itself into a demand that the State undertake a system of internal improvements.

To swell this rising tide came the sudden and marvelous growth of Chicago. Originally a few houses clustered on the marshy banks of the Chicago River around Fort Dearborn, it had rapidly become, through speculations in lands, a city of several thousand inhabitants. Ford, in his History of Illinois, says: "The story of the sudden fortunes made there ex- cited at first wonder and amazement; next, a gambling spirit of adventure; and lastly, an all-absorbing desire for sudden and splendid wealth. The eastern people caught the mania. Every vessel coming west was loaded with them, their money and means, bound for Chicago, the great fairyland of for- tunes." From every hamlet and settlement in Illinois the cry went to the legislature, " Internal Improvements !" Candidates for legislative honors vied with each other in ex-

travagant promises ; nor were they allowed to forget them when the legislature was in session, for demands, petitions and memorials were poured upon them by their constituents. The reasoning of these statesmen was terse and apparently unanswerable. " If we have rail- roads," they said, " emigration will come to us; emigration will develop a demand for our lands ; a demand for our lands will increase their value; increased value will so increase the taxes that we can afford to pay interest on the bonds necessary to build the railroads ; and the carnings of the railroads themselves will eventually pay the bonds." Everybody was to be benefited at nobody's expense. It was the old plan of running a pump by a waterwheel, which, in turn, was to be operated by the water which the pump would raise. It was perfect in theory ; the only trouble was, that when it was tried, someway it did not work. Illinois began railroads, canals and water im- provements, and appropriated $12,000,000.

The same influences which wrought in Illi- nois prevailed in Michigan,, and urged by popular clamor, the legislature of 1837 took the bull of "Internal Improvements" by the horns. It chartered "Spring Arbor Semi- nary," the germ of the present Hillsdale Col . lege. It provided for the incorporation of the University of Michigan by one act, and located it at the village of Ann Arbor by another. It foreshadowed, by a charter, the present rail- road from Detroit to Toledo, which, however, was not built till nearly a score of years after- ward. It authorized numerous " State Roads." It provided for the construction of a ship canal around the rapids of St. Mary's. It provided for a common school system. It passed a " Banking Act."

On March 20th, Act No. LXVII. provided " That the Board of Commissioners of Internal Improvements in this State be, and they are hereby, authorized and directed, as soon as may be, to cause surveys to be made for three several railroad routes across the peninsula of Michigan ; the first of said routes to commence at Detroit, in the county of Wayne, and to ter- minate at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, in the county of Berrien, to be denominated the Central Railroad. The second of said routes to commence at the navigable waters of the River Raisin, passing through the village of Monroe, in the county of Monroe, to termi-

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nate at New Buffalo, in Berrien county, and to be denominated the Southern Railroad. The third of said rontes to commence at Palmer, or at or near the mouth of Black River, in the county of St. Clair, and to terminate at the navigable waters of the Grand River, in the county of Kent, or on Lake Michigan, in the county of Ottawa, to be denominated the Northern Railroad; which roads shall be located on the most direct and eligible routes between the termini above mentioned."

Act No. LXXVII., approved the next day (March 21, 1837), authorized the governor, in the name and behalf of the people of the State, to negotiate a loan or loans, not exceeding on the whole five millions of dollars, redeemable at the pleasure of the State at any time after the expiration of twenty-five years from Janu- ary 1, 1838, on the best and most favorable terms that, in his judgment, could be obtained, at an interest not to exceed five and one-half per centum, interest payable half yearly, to be expended for internal improvements within the State, according to the provisions of law. The second section provided for the issuance of bonds and their proper execution, and arranged for their sale (which was not to be below par), and the transmission of the proceeds. Section three pledged the faith of the State for the pay- ment of the loans as made by the governor, and empowered him to negotiate these bonds in the United States or in Europe, as he might deem most advisable for the public interest. The fourth section provided for the governor's contingent expenses out of the fund, and the fifth section enacted that the proceeds of all railroads and canals constructed by the State, the interest on all loans made from the internal improvement fund, and the dividends on all bank stock owned or thereafter to be owned by the State, so far as the same might be neces- sary, should be set apart, under the direction of the legislature, as a sinking fund to pay the principal and interest on the loan authorized by the act.

Act No. XCVII., approved the same day (March 21, 1837), provided for the regulation of internal improvements and the appointment of a Board of Commissioners. This act pro- vided that the governor of the State should be, ex officio, president of such board, but by Act CI., approved the same day, this provision was

repealed, and it was enacted that one of the members should be its president.

Act No. LXVII. provided that the commis- sioners should purchase the Detroit and St. Joseph Railway, and incorporate it in the line denominated the Central. This they proceeded to do; and this gave the Central an appreci- able start, as some small portion of the line had already been constructed, it being virtually complete so far as the roadbed was concerned from Detroit to Ypsilanti. The company had expended about $117,000; this the State paid, taking the road.

The appropriation of 1837 for the Southern road was $100,000; but there was only ex- pended during the year $12,605.07. The ap- priation for 1838 was $350,000; expended, $236,- 105.51. This put the first division, Monroe to Adrian, well under way, though it was not completed till the next year. The stringency following the financial depression of 1837 had by this time begun to be felt, and the appropri- ation for 1839 was $100,000. There was ex- pended, however, $227,171.38. This completed the road Monroe to Petersburgh, eighteen miles, leaving considerable yet to be done on the fifteen miles from Petersburgh to Adrian. Dur- ing this same year, 1839, the second division, Adrian to Hillsdale, was located and put under contract; and the third division, Adrian to Coldwater, was surveyed. Out of a total ap- propriation of $550,000 there had been ex- pended about $475,000, leaving a balance of about $75,000 to the credit of the road from the amount appropriated to it. An attempt was made this year to procure two locomotives of the Baldwins in Philadelphia, but it was found impossible to get them to Michigan before the close of navigation. On October 4, 1838, this firm bad shipped from Philadelphia, consigned to the State of Michigan, the locomotive " Ypsilanti," and this was the only motive power used in 1839. It ran " semi-occasion- ally " between Monroe and Petersburgh, acting as a construction train engine principally.

In January, 1840, all contracts were ordered stopped. The State had expended about half a million dollars and there were no returns. The road was operated by the Commissioners of Internal Improvement, but it had a ditti- cult task. The Central on the north was in operation from Detroit to Ann Arbor, with

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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

arrangements for passengers and freight be- yond ; on the south the Erie and Kalamazoo, which, spurred on by the Michigan acts of 1837, had hastened to get its road into opera- tion during that same year, was carrying pas- sengers and freight to Adrian, where it deliv- ered them to the Western Stage Company ; there was access to the wharves at both Detroit and Toledo, while passengers for the Southern were drawn from LaPlaisance Bay to Monroe by horses over the River Raisin and Lake Erie Railroad, which required pay for the service, and both the Central and the Erie and Kalama- zoo were making strenuous efforts to build up the respective ports of Detroit and Toledo, and break down the port of Monroe .*

Two other circumstances tended to militate against the Southern at this time. The first was the fact that prior to 1839 the county was de- pendent upon Canada, Ohio and New York for its supplies of beef, flour and pork, not raising enough for home consumption. Thus it offered but meager freight earnings to the new road. The second was the fact that it had become painfully apparent the $5,000,000 improvement fund would not be realized, and that the South- ern and the Central would not both be able to reach the shores of Lake Michigan. With this. too, came rumors of a change of commissioners, and the appointment of one covertly hostile to the Southern and in favor of the Central route.

* During the summer of 1837 the Lake Erie and River Raisin Railroad Company, by its president, James Q. Adams, purchased at a manufactory in Troy, N. Y., two splendid passenger cars, which were made to his order. They were given into his possession, their freightage paid and receipts passed between him and the makers. A short time after this one of the company being at Troy placed a pri- vate mark upon them. Subsequent to this period one of the agents for the Detroit and St. Joseph Rail- road by some means succeeded in purchasing of the manufacturers these same cars for that road. They were accordingly forwarded to Detroit to the Detroit and St. Joseph Railroad Company. The president of the River Raisin and Lake Erie Railroad Company being informed of the fact went to Detroit and re- plevined and took the cars. While in the act of moving one of them to the boat, the sled on which it was placed was stuck in the mire - the horses balked, and he was obliged to leave it until the next morning. On coming to the spot at that time a multitude surrounded the sled, removed it, and left the car standing on blocks in the mire. A new sled was procured, and after some resistance the car

The fiscal year of the railroads ended on the 30th of November. During the year 1840, the construction of the Southern progressed but slowly. There was expended during this year up to November 30th the sum of $112,114, and on the last day of the fiscal year the first train ran triumphantly into Adrian amid great re- joicings. Adrian at last had that great desider- atum of the modern age -a " competing line." During the year the River Raisin and Lake Erie had been purchased by the State for the Southern for $32,500, thus enabling it to reach Lake Erie.

The modern machinery of general managers and general superintendents was unknown in those primitive days. The commissioner man- aged the road, made tariffs, kept the accounts and made the disbursements. The work upon the Southern thus far had been done under the control of General Levi S. Humphrey, then commissioner, who lies in an unmarked grave in our cemetery. He was succeeded by John Van Fossen. With his incumbency arose the fear that the Southern would suffer, a fear that speedily became a certainty. He was a resi- dent of Ypsilanti, on the line of the Central, and his interests were identified with its ex- tension. It had become a matter of certainty that in the then condition of the money mar- ket the $5,000,000 authorized could not be realized, and the probabilities were that the commissioners would be compelled to suspend

was drawn on one of the wharves. After the car was on the wharf a writ of replevin was issued in the name of the Detroit and St. Joseph Railroad Com- pany, which, in consequence of a wrong direction, proved ineffectual. Meantime the car was put on board of a schooner and removed to the Canada side of the river. After this an arrangement between the president of the railroad company and the superin- tendent of the Detroit road was entered into, by which the latter was allowed to retain for a while the use of the other car. The schooner came over on the American side towards evening, and forgetful of their settlement and arrangement, a rally was made by the Detroit Railroad Company to get the car again into their possession. By the timely assistance of the Monroe party, the rope which fastened the schooner was cut, and again the schooner sought the Canada side of the river. A row being about to ensue, she sailed to the middle of the river and lay there until Friday morning. At that time the steamer "Erie" took the car on board. Three cheers loud and long for Monroe were given by the crew, and away she glided for Monroe. The car was landed on the LaPlaisance Bay pier about noon.

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work with two railroads, each completed from navigable waters on the castern boundaries of the State to points in its interior, and neither would be able to reach Lake Michigan. It is alleged that Van Fossen, seeing this state of affairs, conceived the idea of abandoning one line and pushing the other through to comple- tion. Of course the Central was the one he decided to finish, and the rumor gained cre- dence that he proposed to rob the Southern to do this. There was then lying at the docks at Monroe City a consignment of strap rail, des- tined for the extension of the road. Van Fos- sen designed to take this iron, remove that already spiked down, and carry the whole to the Central.

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History of Monroe County, Michigan, Part 37

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York, Munsell & company Number of Pages: 882

Author: Wing, Talcott Enoch, 1819-1890, ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York, Munsell & company
Number of Pages: 882