USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 10
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and three in 1898. The apparently large commercial deposits in 1890, 1895 and 1898, are swelled by deposit certificates, $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 in each case.
Comparative figures for the years given are as follows, omitting the centals :
Year.
BANKS.
No. of Bks.
Capital.
Com. Deposits.
Savings Deposits.
1873
State banks
The first National Bank Act went into operation in February, 1863. But one bank was organized in Michigan and found a place in the report for that year. The progress of the national banking interest in the State is shown by the leading items in their transac- tions for the years given in the table below. The figures are given in thousands, thus- $32. for $32,000; $38,463. for $38,463,000;
Year.
No. of Banks.
| Loans and
Discounts.
Capital.
Surplus.
Undivided
Outstanding
Circulation.
Deposits. Individual
1863
1
$ 32
$ 75
$ 1
$ 52
1865
35
3,681
4,148
$ 160
241
$3,765
4.370
1870
41
9.655
5,585
1,520
502
3,897
6,282
1875
81
19,101
10,447
2,815
1,282
6,615
11,381
1880
79
19.938
9,335
2.591
1,358
6,108
18.205
1885
102
29,979
13,095
2.194
1,319
3,851
25,889
1890
410
48 856
15,515
3,356
2.268
2,732
38.659
1895
94
46,146
13.434
3,026
1,628
4.191
37.570
1899
80
43.504
11,530
3,153
1,303
4.142
50,765
13
$ 1,184,897 $ 2,266,477
1873
Savings banks.
10
681,800
$ 4,102,401
1875
State banks .
15
1,337,825
2,890,514
1875 |Savings banks.
11
805,660
4,828,968
1880 State banks
13
874,750
2,533,833
8.236,094
1890
State banks
108
8,460,835
15,355,117
27,779,136
1895
State banks
173
12,518,117 24,927,315
41,192 483
1899
State banks
187
12,262,100 24 522,326
62,659,912
1880 Savings banks
15
1,160,000
114,926
Profits.
RAILROADS.
First Railway in New York-Western New York Immigrants and Nomenclateur-First Railway Charter in Michigan-"Success to the Railroad" --- The Trunk Lines-Sale of the Roads by the State -Wonderful Development of the Railway System -Methods in Early Construction-Land Grants in Aid of Railways-Local Aid to Railways-Rail- way Statistics.
The history of railroads in Michigan is coeval almost with the history of like enter- prises in other parts of the country. The first railroad built in the State of New York (the Albany and Schenectady), was put in opera- tion about the beginning of the 1830 decade.
A large influx of population was then just be- gining to pour into Michigan, mainly from Western New York. The local nomenclature of Oakland and Macomb Counties tells very clearly where much of the immigration to those sections came from. Rochester, Au- burn, Avon, Troy, Utica, etc., at once sug- gest that the people who bestowed those names upon given localities came from the vicinity of places bearing like names else- where. These immigrants came, bearing with them the impulses that acuated the peo- ple of the regions from whence they came.
53
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
It requires no stretch of the imagination to connect the active thought of those people with a new enterprise then freshly inaugurat- ed, namely, the railway first mentioned. What the people of the Empire State had, the peo- ple who came from thence might have and ought to have; why not? They had brought with them the intelligence of the East. They had brought with them the spirit of the towns they had left-at least they had brought their names, and hoped in time to build the towns that should equal or surpass their patro- nymics. They had brought with them the enterprise of the East. Why should they not also bring its newest achievement, the rail- road ? That they desired and songht to do so may be read in the fact of the incorpora- tion, in 1830, of the "Pontiac & Detroit Railroad Company," by the Legislative Coun- eil of the Territory of Michigan. No prog- ress was made under the first organization, and in 1834 the corporation was sneceeded by the Detroit & Pontiac Company, with author- ity to build a branch to Rochester. A track was extended toward, and perhaps reached the latter place, leaving the main line a little east of Royal Oak. There was some traffic by means of horse cars on the branch, but it was never honored by a locomotive, and fell into disuse and final abandonment. Among the incidents of the early railroad enthusiasm, the writer reealls having seen, when a small boy, a glass half-pint flask, with the inscrip- tion, "Snecess to the railroad." The use to which the flask was designed was nnmistak- able, and it may be supposed that every one who took a drink from it voiced (without the trouble of expressing) the sentiment. It might be reasonably supposed that with the moral leverage of so many persons drinking "Success to the railroad," it should have been a success, but it did not prove snch to the fullest extent. It was opened to Royal Oak in the summer of 1838 and a year later to Birmingham, where it made a long halt, not reaching Pontiac until 1843. The subse- quent history of this road merges it with the great railway systems of the country. The
Oakland & Ottawa Railroad Company was chartered to build a road from Pontiac to Lake Michigan, and the two were eventually merged as the Detroit & Milwaukee, subse- quently being reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee. Its manage- ment fell into the hands of British capitalists who furnished the necessary means for its building and equipment, and it now forms a part of the Grand Trunk railyway system.
The next railway enterprise born in the State was the Detroit and St. Joseph, pro- jecting a line from Detroit to the mouth of the St. Joseph River on Lake Michigan, a company for the purpose having been char- tered in 1832. Some work in the way of surveys and grading was done as far as Ypsi- lanti, and possibly some track may have been laid on the eastern end, when the properties passed into the hands of the State under the internal improvement Act of 1837, the State paying the company for the work already done, the enterprise thereupon becoming the initial section of the Michigan Central line. A brief sketch of the progress of the road nn- der State auspices is given under the head of "Internal Improvements." Its history since passing into the hands of the company is the history of the progress and development of Central and Western Michigan and of the Northwest. As a State work it could not be carried beyond the limits of the State, and its western terminns was to have been either St. Joseph or New Buffalo, whence further prog- ress for those westward bound must have been by boat across Lake Michigan or by such land transportation as they might find. But in the hands of a company no limit could be put to the extent of the line or its connections. It was nrged by those who were negotiating for the purchase of the line from the State that it was designed to form part of a western sys- tem especially in Illinois. Northern Illinois was then bnt sparsely settled, and railway en- . terprises there were of doubtful utility so far as immediate returns might be concerned. It was argued that while the Michigan section might be remunerative, its returns would be
54
MEN OF PROGRESS.
expected to help make good deficiencies which were looked for for a time from lines farther west. As the Central passed into the hands of the company chartered for the purpose, the work of construction westward was pushed with all possible energy. Its objective point was Chieago. In this it had a competitor in the Southern, both roads reaching the Gar- den City about the same time in 1852.
The Southern road had its initiative as the Erie & Kalamazoo railroad, a charter for which was granted by the Legislative Council in 1833. The project was, however, absorbed by the State in its general plan of internal improvements, the work under the State aus- pices taking the name of the Michigan South- ern. In its corporate character it was known as the Michigan Southern & Northern In- diana, and through its eastern conneetion it is known as the Lake Shore & Michigan South- ern.
Previous to the opening of railway com- munication with the cast, Michigan was effectually isolated during the winter months. The only routes eastward were through Can- ada or the more tedious one by the south shore, both by land carriage. The comple- tion of the Great Western through Canada in January, 1854, opened the first direct rail- way route to the east. The Southern road had, however, some time previously, formed an eastern connection.
The route originally projected for the Northern railway from Port Huron to Grand Rapids, remained unoccupied for over thirty years. The section from Port Huron to Flint was eventually covered by the Chicago & Grand Trunk, opened in 1871. The present trunk line known as the Chicago & Grand Trunk was first built in four or five sections by as many different companies-the eastern seetion as noted, the section from Flint to Lansing by a company in the Vanderbilt in- terest, the section between Lansing and Bat- tle Creek by a local company, and west of Battle Creek by other companies. The con- solidation of the whole was effected in 1880.
Any detailed history of railways is, of
course, out of the question in this connec- tion. But those who care to take a backward glanee may profitably indulge a thought as to the marvelous development of the railway system. How many are there who know or think that it is less than fifty years since Michigan was brought in social and commer- cial touch with the east during the winter season? Let the reader concentrate his mind on the railway system of the country. Let him view in imagination the moving trains crossing the continent in all directions. Let him enter the depots and yards in half a thousand eities and study the equipment and interlacing trackage. Let him enter the pas- senger trains and find them equipped with every comfort and luxury required for rest and refreshment. If one can conceive the whole panorama in fanciful view, there comes with the vision the thought as a verity that it is all the product of seventy years of time. There are those now living who had reached adult life before there was a single rail laid on the continent. But it is not within the prov- ince to dwell upon the wonderful or marvel- ous. The electric light has flashed upon the world, and maybe the next seventy years will throw the last in the shade, and hold him who should write of the past with wonderment, as a simpleton.
In some of the earlier experiences in rail- roading the cars were drawn by horses on a wooden rail. This was only provisional, how- ever. The strap rail was looked forward to as the ultimate and the perfeet in railroad building. The strap rail was a wrought iron strap or plate of convenient length for hand- ling, about half an inch thiek and two inches or more in width. The ties were placed on the roadbed, on which wooden rails were placed, and on these the iron or strap rail was fastened by spikes. Early passenger ears were modeled mueh after the stage coach, the resemblance being strietly in accordance with the law of evolution. Up to within a few years it was the custom to designate each locomotive by some name, but there came to be so many locomotives that there were not
55
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
names enough to go around, and they are now known, like the eonviets in a prison, by their numbers only.
Three of the important railways of the State owe their construction largely to gov- ernment land grants; wholly so, it may be said, because without the land grants the roads would probably not have been built. The Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad, run- ning from Fort Wayne, Ind., to the Straits of Mackinac, a distance of 368 miles, like many other trunk lines, is the fruit of consolidations with several shorter lines. It received land grants from Congress aggregating 1,160,382 aeres. The Flint & Pere Marquette Railway was originally projected from Flint to Pere Marquette on Lake Michigan, in aid of which a liberal grant of land was made by Congress. The Flint & Holly, extending from Flint to Holly, a distance of 17 miles, was built by the late Governor Crapo as a means of transporta- tion for the lumber produet eentering at I'lint, of which he was the largest manufac- turer. It was absorbed in 1868 by the F. & P. M., under a hundred year lease. The Holly, Wayne & Monroe road, running from Holly to Monroe and Toledo, was also consoli- dated with the F. & P. M. in 1871, giving a continuous line from Ludington to Monroe, 253 miles, and to Toledo, 273 miles, with a branch from Plymouth to Detroit, 25 miles, and other branches. The Detroit connection is, however, essentially a part of the main line. The Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw road extends from Jackson to the Straits of Maek- inac, a distance of 295 miles. It was largely constructed upon the strength of a land grant made to the Amboy, Lansing and Traverse Bay Railroads, of whose franchises it beeame possessed.
The Mackinae & Marquette Railroad, which connects the Straits of Mackinac with the city of Marquette, and the Lower with the Upper Peninsula through connecting lines sonthward, owes its construction to a State land grant. In the later sixties, the city of Chieago enjoyed direet railway connection with the iron and eopper districts of the
Upper Peninsula, while the Lower Peninsula was entirely ent off from such communication during the winter months. The business in- terests of the Lower Peninsula felt themselves at a serious disadvantage by reason of this condition of things, and the necessity for a railway connection was apparent. The State had at its disposal a considerable portion of the lands originally eeded by Congress to the State as swamp lands, but most of which were excellent agricultural lands as well as being valuable for their timber and mineral depos- its. At the Legislative session of 1873, par- ties proposed the construction of a railroad from Maekinae to Marquette on condition of a grant of these lands. A grant of ten sections per mile of road to be built was made in 1873, which was increased in 1875 to sixteen sec- tions. The construction of the road was, how- ever, not begun until 1879, it being eom- pleted to Marquette in December, 1881.
It should be stated in farther explanation that the land grants by Congress were to the State, but for the purposes more or less specif- ically set forth. And in so far treating of the several grants, the effort has been to touel as lightly as possible upon the history of the roads, that the work may not seem invidious toward other roads whose history cannot be given for obvious reasons.
The flush times, growing out of a re- dudant curreney during the 1860 decade, as a fruit of the war, greatly stimulated railway enterprises in the State. There was a press- ing demand for municipal or loeal aid to these enterprises. Their promoters desired author- ity on the part of townships and municipali- ties to vote such aid, to be represented by cor- porate bonds, and there was a marked willing- ness on the part of the people to respond to the demand. At the special Legislative ses- sion in 1864 and the regular session of 1865 à seore or more of aets were passed authoriz- ing the extension of such aid, which was in most eases willingly voted by the people. The plan was one which grew by what it fed on, and at the session of 1867 many additional measures were proposed on the same line, and
56
MEN OF PROGRESS.
a number of enabling aets passed both houses of the Legislature. Gov. Crapo, however, in- terposed his veto to cheek what he regarded as an unwise and dangerous course of legislation. There was a determined, though unsuceess- ful, effort to pass the bills over the veto, and legislation on the subjeet was brought to a standstill. The constitutionality of the acts that had been passed at previous sessions was called in question, and the Supreme Court of the State (20 Mich. 452), declared them un- constitutional, and the bonds that had been voted and issued in pursurance of such acts, null and void. Gov. Baldwin felt that the good name and credit of the State were in- volved, and he called a special session of the Legislature, which met July 27, 1870, at which he recommended the submission of an amendment to the constitution authorizing the payment of the bonds that had been nego- tiated in good faith. The amendment was aeeordingly submitted by the Legislature, but was defeated by popular vote at the Novem- ber election in that year. The matter went to the United States courts, however, and it was there held that bonds negotiated in good faith before the adverse decision of the State Court, were valid, and must be paid.
In the winter of 1873, the office of Com- missioner of Railroads was established by the Legislature, and the value of that office in systematising railway management, as an agent between the corporations and the peo- ple, and in the collection of facts and statis- ties, is shown by the work of the department. The progress of railway construction in Mich- igan is practically shown by the following figures, The figures are approximations only up to the year 1873, since which time they are official through the office of the Com- missioner of Railroads, and are designed to show the number of miles in operation at the beginning of each year given, namely: 1841, 138 miles; 1850, 342; 1855, 474; 1860, 779; 1865, 941; 1866, 1,039; 1867, 1,163; 1868, 1,199; 1869, 1,325; 1870, 1,638; 1871,
2,116; 1872, 2,214; 1873, 2,975; 1874, 3,253; 1875, 3,315; 1880, 3,823.95; 1885, 5,247.48; 1890, 6,957.27; 1895, 7,608.61.
By the report of the commissioner for the year 1874, thirty-four railway corporations were doing business in the State, representing 5,278.36 miles of traek, of which 3,314.98 miles were within the State. By the reports for 1896 there were eighty-nine roads doing business in the State, including eight ore and forest roads, with a total mileage in the State of 9,958.15, of which 2,165.86 miles were sidings and spurs. During the year 1897 six new companies were formed, with a proposed traek construction of 217 miles. The greatest track construetion on record in any one year was in 1872, being 901 miles. The least, since authentic reports were made, was 44.53 miles in 1877. The desparity between the two years forcibly impresses the effect of the financial depression beginning in 1873.
As part of the railway system of the State, the transfer ferries, by which entire trains are carried across Detroit river and the Straits of Maekinac, the tunnel at Port Huron, and the international bridge at Sault Ste. Marie, deserve mention.
The following statisties are taken from tables accompanying the report of the Com- missioner of Railroads for 1898:
According to the report of the Railroad Commissioner for 1898 there were 7,816 miles of railroad in the State or 10,018 reck- oned as single track. This was an increase of 57 miles over the previous year.
The paid in eapital stock of these roads amounted to $439,076,478, of which $10,- 811,799 was owned in Michigan. The total debt of these roads amounted to $664,861, 718.
During the year 43,401,571 passengers were carried and the passenger revenue amounted to nearly $1 per passenger earried. In the same year 88,987,235 tons of freight were carried and the revenue aggregated $61,453,120.
57
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
GOVERNMENT LAND GRANTS.
The University Lands-Primary School Lands- Agricultural College Lands-Salt Spring Lands- Sault Ste. Marie Canal Lands-Swamp Lands Railway Land Grants.
Michigan has not been overlooked in the matter of bounties by the general government in the way of land grants. The government beeame an extensive land owner by the ees- sion to it of the Northwest territory. A eon- troling motive in making this eession was to plaee the government in possession of a do- main from which it might discharge in part its obligations incurred in the war of inde- pendenee. In saying that Michigan has been liberally dealt by in the way of land grants does not imply that she has fared any bet- ter than other new States.
By Aet of Congress of 1804 an entire township of land was set apart in each of the territories of the northwest "for seminaries of learning."* This land was to be in one body, and the original intent was that it was to be leased, but not sold. No location of the see- tion had been made up to 1819. Gov. Wood- bridge, who then represented the territory in Congress, fearing that by reason of the rapid settlement of the territory an entire town- ship of desirable land could not well be se- cured, agitated the plan of having the terms of the grant so changed that the land might be seleeted in detached traets. The effort was successful in 1826, at which time land to the extent of an additional township was also granted. These two grants, with three addi- tional seetions of land seeured by means of an Indian treaty negotiated at Fort Meigs in 1817, constitute the original endowment of the University of Michigan. The lands have been sold, and the proceeds have gone into the State treasury, forming one of the "trust funds," on which the State pays interest at the rate of 7 per eent. to the University, equal to about $37,500 per ammmmun. Only forty acres of the University lands remain unsold. The University lands were of the choieest farming lands in the State. The minimum
price at which they were to be sold, as by Act of March 21, 1837, was $20 per aere. The earlier sales averaged $22.85 per aere. A payment was required to be made at. the time of purehase, but the greater part of the purchase price was allowed to remain for a term of years upon payment of interest. The financial stringeney and industrial depression of the period came on, and in a number of cases easier terms were granted to some of the settlers. The minimum price of the un- sold lands was finally reduced to $12 per acre. In brief, while an endowment fund of $1,000,000 had been looked for, only a lit- tle more than half that sum was realized. Prof. Ten Brook, in his work, analyzes the situation quite fully, with an implication of bad faith (or at least a want of prudent eare), on the part of the Legislature, in administer- ing the trust. The problem seems hardly worth considering. Had the expected sum been realized it would have brought $70,000 per annum, at seven per eent., as against $38,500, which the fund now receives. If, by the derelietion of the State, the annual ineome from the interest fund is $31,500 less than it should be, the difference is repaid more than six fold by present State appro- priations.
The first formal dedieation of land to edu- cational uses was by ordinanee of the Con- gress of the Confederation, May, 1785. By this ordinance Section 16 of each surveyed township was dedicated to the support of eom- mon sehools. It would seem a little puzzling how Congress could make this dedieation when it had no land to dedieate. The publie lands at that time all belonged to the States in which situated. Congress became the dis- penser of the publie domain only by virtue of the ordinance of 1787, and it was perhaps in anticipation of what was to be that the aetion of 1785 was taken. Passing this query, how- ever, the dedication or conseeration of one- thirty-sixth of the public domain in the States of the west for the support of common sehools, is a feature of their history as ineradicable as
*Public Instruction and School Law, 1852, p. 3.
A
58
MEN OF PROGRESS.
are their rocks from their geological structure. The Act of 1785 has been confirmed by vari- ous Acts of Congress under the constitution, and specifically as to Michigan in the Act providing for her admission into the Union June 23, 1836. About 1,070,016 acres of land accrued to the State by virtue of these Acts, of which some 190,000 acres remain unsold. The school lands are held at the minimum price of $4 per acre.
Congress, by an Act approved July 2, 1862, granted to the several States and Terri- tories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and mechanic arts, an amount of public lands equal to 30,000 acres for each Senator and Representative in Con- gress to which such State was entitled under the census of 1860. Under this grant Michi- gan received about 240,000 acres, of which about 80,000 acres remain unsold. The Leg- islature, by Act 221, 1875, granted to the Agricultural College all of the unsold swamp land in the townships of Lansing and Meri- dian, in Ingham County, and in the town- ships of Dewitt and Bath, in Clinton county.
Congress, by Act June 23, 1836, granted to the State of Michigan all salt springs within the State, not exceeding twelve in number, with six sections of land adjoining or as con- tignous as may be to each, for its use, the same to be selected to be used on such terms, conditions and regulations as the Legislature might direct. This would be equal to sev- enty-two sections, or two entire townships. March 3, 1847, Congress gave consent to the sale of the salt spring lands by the State. March 28, 1849, the Legislature appropriated ten sections of salt spring lands for the pur- pose of defraying cost of the erection and completion of the buildings for a Normal School and for the purchase of necessary ap- paratus and books, and for various other in- cidental expenses of the institution. By the same Act fifteen sections of salt spring lands were appropriated for an endowment fund for the Normal School. By Act 187, Laws of 1848, eight sections of salt spring lands were appropriated for the erection of suitable
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