USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I > Part 69
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and which was placed on a route between Detroit and Houghton, Michigan, remaining in this service during the seasons of 1880-81-82. In 1883 the third vessel, the City of Mackinac, an iron steamer, costing $160,000, was completed, and in connection with the steamer City of Cleveland, whose name had been changed to the City of Alpena, the company inaugurated the service on the route between Detroit and St. Ignace, and known as the Lake Huron division. The fourth vessel to be built for the company marked a great advance in lake passenger steamers, being the first steel-hulled steamer constructed for pas- senger service on the Great Lakes and the first to be equipped with feathering wheels. This steamer was completed in 1886, at a cost of $300,000, was named the City of Cleveland, and replaced the Northwest, which was sold to the White Star Line, and by them rebuilt and renamed the Greyhound. In 1889, the fifth vessel was completed for the company, a steel steamer costing $350,000 and named the City of Detroit. This replaced the older vessel of that name on the Detroit-Cleveland route. The latter steamer was known as the City of Detroit No. 1, during the season of 1889, and was run on the route between Chicago and St. Joseph, Michigan.
On the expiration of the charter granted to the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Company in April, 1868, and running until April, 1898, the com- pany was reincorporated as the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company, with a capital of $1,500,000.
During its life the company had as executive chiefs the following: John Owen, who with David Carter was one of its most active organizers. Mr. Owen was its first president and treasurer and remained its executive head until he was succeeded by the late Senator James McMillan, who upon his death, in 1903, was in turn succeeded as president by his son, William C. Mc- Millan; upon the death of the latter, in 1907, his brother, Philip H. McMillan, was elected to the office, and after his death was succeeded, in 1919, by A. A. Schantz, who had been connected with the company for almost forty years. With the history of the company the name of David Carter is indissolubly linked.
The White Star Line was organized in 1896, in which year it was incorporated under the laws of the state of Michigan, receiving charter in February of that year and basing its operations on a capital stock of $85,000. In 1899 the capital was increased to $200,000, and the progressive policy and attendant success of the company was further shown in 1907, when the capital stock was further increased to $750,000. The representative citizens who effected the organiza- tion of the company were: Aaron A. Parker, Byron W. Parker, John Pridgeon, Jr., L. C. Waldo and Charles F. Bielman. The executive officers are to be designated as follows: A. A. Parker, president; L. C. Waldo, vice president; John Pridgeon, Jr., treasurer; C. F. Bielman, secretary and traffic manager; and B. W. Parker, general manager.
The first steamer put into commission by the company was the City of Toledo, and in 1899 the Greyhound, No. 1, was added to the line. In the fol- lowing year the company built the steamer Tashmoo, at a cost of $350,000, and in 1903 was built the Greyhound, No. 2, at a cost of $300,000. In 1904 was built and placed in commission the Owana, which represents an expendi- ture of $150,000.
The Ashley and Dustin organization had its inception in the 'SOs as the firm
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of Ashley & Mitchell. Edward A. Dustin succeeded Mitchell in 1894 and Oliver S. Dustin took Ashley's place on the latter's death in 1897. The firm title, which had become Ashley & Dustin, was retained. The firm was incor- porated in 1911 as the Ashley & Dustin Steamer Line Company. The boats Put-in-Bay and Frank E. Kirby are operated between Detroit and Put-in-Bay Island.
CHAPTER XXVI THE RAILROAD ERA
BY WILLIAM STOCKING
THE RAILROAD ERA-THE EARLY CHARTERS-PRIMITIVE METHODS OF CONSTRUC- TION-THE DETROIT & PONTIAC RAILROAD AND ITS SUCCESSORS-THE CEN- TRAL AND SOUTHERN ROADS-PURCHASE BY THE STATE-RESALE AND COM- PLETION OF THE MICHIGAN CENTRAL-ITS DEVELOPMENT INTO A GREAT SYSTEM-THIE PERE MARQUETTE AND ITS LINES-THE BOARD OF TRADE AND THE WABASHI-THE UNION DEPOT-ADVENT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA.
The Detroit & Pontiac Railroad, with its successors and extensions, passed through pretty much every range of experience that has fallen to the lot of pioneer enterprises, including raw experimentation, bankruptcy, reorganization and endless litigation. It was planned first to connect Detroit with the rich agricultural region of Oakland County, and the flouring mills which were already operating in that section. Its charter bore date of July 31, 1830, and this was the first railroad incorporated within the limits of the Northwest Territory. It was also the first to actually lay rails and to use a locomotive for the operating power. The charter stipulated that the road should be completed to Pontiac within five years, but the incorporators failed in some of their plans. The charter was abrogated, and in 1834 another was granted to the Detroit & Pontiac Railroad Company, an entirely new corporation, which was subsequently authorized to establish the Bank of Pontiac. The principal promoters and stockholders of both institutions were Sherman Stevens and Alfred Williams, the latter commonly known aslo as "Salt" Williams on account of his onee having broken a corner in that commodity. He and his associate seem to have had a genius for high finance. They not only sue- ceeded in borrowing $100,000 from the State of Michigan, but a like sum from the State of Indiana. That commonwealth happened to have idle money in the treasury, but it must have required an enticing persuasiveness to induce the officials to invest the funds in an unbuilt railroad backed only by a wildeat bank in another state.
Actual construction had to wait on finance, and even after work was com- meneed progress was slow. It was not until April, 1836, that the contract was let for grubbing the first fifteen miles, and then a swamp with a few deep sink holes near Royal Oak delayed progress. In 1837, while the internal improvement fever was on, the state was authorized to purchase what there was of the road, but no action was taken under this authority. Instead of that, the state loaned the company $100,000 and in the end had neither the money nor the road. In July, 1838, the road was opened to Royal Oak, and August 16, 1839, to Birmingham. Up to this time the ears had been drawn by horses, but now a locomotive was purchased. It was built by Baldwin
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of Philadelphia, founder of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, which to this day are the largest works of the kind in the country. The engine was first named the "Sherman Stevens" and afterwards the "Pontiac." It was evidently of superior workmanship, for it was in use as a switch engine nearly forty years later.
In IS40, parties in Syracuse having claims upon the road, procured its sale under an execution. It was bid in by the late Gurdon Williams, of this city, and Giles Williams and Dean Richmond, of Albany, New York, but soon after transferred to other parties in Syracuse. It was finally completed to Pontiac in 1843, and the event was duly celebrated on the 4th of July of that year, Governor Barry, Attorney-General Henry N. Walker and others participating. The road was soon after leased by the Syracuse owners for ten years to Gurdon Williams, who was to pay a graduated amount of rental, averaging about $10,000 a year.
The track and equipment of this pioneer road were very primitive. The track was a strap rail spiked to wooden stringers. Nothing was easier than for the spike, after a little wear, to come out of the end of the rail, which would then stick up from three inches to six feet. In one instance one of these rails pierced the car and came up through a barrel of flour, the end protruding 12 inches above the head of the barrel, the car coming into Detroit in that plight. Instead of the conductor carrying a machine with which to punch tickets, he was only equipped with a hammer for nailing down "snakeheads."
One afternoon, when only three or four passengers were on board, the train on the way out encountered a "snakehead" at a point where excavations had been made for the embankment of the water works. One of these obstructions came up through the car, struck a lady passenger in the breast and carried her from the center compartment of the car into the rear one. She was brought back and taken to the hotel, and Doctor Pitcher was sent for, who took her porte- monnaie out of the wound in her breast, where it had been actually driven out of sight by the iron. In view of the possibility of accidents of this kind, the company advertised in 1845 that it had "a new and elegant car, well warmed and sheathed with iron to guard against loose bars". The first passenger coaches were divided into three rooms, the passengers entered at the side and the seats were arranged lengthwise. The only brake was on the tender and was worked by the fireman. The maximum speed was fifteen miles an hour. The time between Detroit and Pontiac was indefinite. The train was very accommodating. It would stop anywhere to take on or drop a passenger. On one recorded occasion the engineer took his gun along, and after a good shot, stopped the train long enough to get off and pick up his game. "Salt" Williams himself, principal promoter of the road, usually, when on business, drove in from Pontiac, on the ground that he could make better time that way, and he "wouldn't ride on such a railroad as that, anyhow".
The legislature of the state in 1837, taking their cue from the British Par- liament in reference to "the safety of passengers conveyed by steam on roads partly constructed of iron," summoned a number of gentlemen connected with the different projected roads of the state, before a special committee. The questions propounded were eighty in number. One of the witnesses being no other than "Salt" Williams, was asked question No. 79, "How many (if any) accidents endangering life have occurred during the past year?" The witness, after carefully considering the importance of the question, and satis-
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fying himself that he duly comprehended its nature, replied that "no accidents of any consequence had occurred except one, and that was to a middle-aged couple who left Detroit for Birmingham, and died of old age before they reached that delightful rural village!"
The first line of the road in Detroit was down Dequindre Street at grade to Larned Street, where the depot was established. The company proposed to cross Jefferson Avenue and so reach the river, but could not obtain consent. It therefore, in 1843, with permission from the common council, turned down Gratiot to Farmer Street. This new roadway was laid in the mud on wooden stringers. The construction of the track showed a disregard for the rights of owners of wagons and other vehicles, and after a moderate rainfall the street could not be traversed by anything on wheels. The people became exasper- ated and the storekeepers and property owners were furious. The common council was bombarded with petitions, demanding a change, but the company did nothing to allay the storm. After some delay the common council pro- nounced this part of the track a nuisance and ordered its removal. The com- pany ignored the order and people along the line took the law into their own hands. On the evening of December 12, 1849, a party of citizens, reported to be "from sixty to one hundred in number", gathered on Gratiot Street near what was then the head of Beaubien Street, and proceeded to tear up the tracks. They pried off the strap rails with crowbars, sledge hammers and hand spikes, rooted out the stringers, and cast them on one side of the highway. In all about 400 feet of track was torn up. Arrests were made of a number of leading citizens for participation in this act, but no jury would convict them and they escaped penalty.
For several weeks the cars stopped at the corner of Gratiot and Dequindre; then the track was repaired, but it was again torn up. After some vicissitudes, permission was finally given the company to cross Jefferson Avenue, the Gratiot Street track was abandoned, and in 1852 cars commenced running into the Brush Street depot, and for the first time on T-rails.
EXTENSIONS AND TRANSFERS
While the Detroit & Pontiac was thus going on its tempestuous course, the Oakland & Ottawa Railroad Company was chartered, April 3, 1848, to continue the line from Pontiac to Lake Michigan. In 1855 the two companies were consolidated under the name of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad. Building then went on with reasonable expedition. The road was opened to Fenton- ville in 1855, to Owosso in 1856, to St. Johns and Ionia in 1857 and to Grand Rapids and Grand Haven in 1858. From the latter point regular steamer con- nections were made with Milwaukee, and the road became a favorite for travel to the Northwest. Though never profitable to the stockholders, the road was a very important factor in the development of the third tier of counties. Each of the constituent portions of the road was heavily mortgaged and additional encumbranees were taken after the consolidation. Under foreclosure of second mortgages the Great Western Railroad of Canada bought in the road in 1860, its ownership being subject, of course, to the first mortgage claims. After several years these were foreclosed and from 1875 to 1878 the road was in the hands of Charles C. Trowbridge as receiver. In 1878, under court decree, the Great Western became the purchaser and the road was reorganized under the name of The Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railroad. It still retains
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that name, though both it and the Great Western have been incorporated in the Grand Trunk System. No part of this system ever came under state ownership and it is the only one of the early roads of which this is true.
THE OTHER CHARTERED ROADS
Preliminary plans for a railroad from Detroit to Lake Michigan through the first and second tiers of counties were made in 1831 and took legal form the next year. The Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad was chartered June 29, 1832, but the work of taking subscriptions to the stock did not commence till 1835. The same year the incorporators were authorized to establish a bank at Ypsi- lanti. Citizens of Detroit subscribed for $100,000 of the stock of the road and the city itself took $50,000 worth. Residents of Ypsilanti who expected much from this improvement also subscribed quite liberally. The first con- tract for grubbing the roadway was let in May, 1836. Up to March, 1837, when the state was authorized to purchase the road, the stockholders had expended $117,000, but had not completed any section of the track. With the purchase by the state, the name was changed to the Michigan Central. As such it became the most important link in the state's railroad properties. Subsequently under private ownership it developed into Michigan's greatest railroad system. It was always most intimately associated with the business interests of Detroit.
The next road chartered was the Erie & Kalamazoo. It was authorized to run from Toledo, through Adrian, to Marshall, or some other point on the Kalamazoo River. It was completed to Adrian in October, 1836. It now forms a section of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad.
The fourth railway to be chartered was the Detroit & Shelby railroad, extending to Utica in Macomb County. It was twenty miles in length, con- structed with strap rail and operated by horses. It was completed in 1838. With the rotting out of the ties and stringers the road was abandoned, though its right of way is now occupied by the Bay City Division of the Michigan Central.
In 1836 the Allegan & Marshall Railroad was chartered, and $100,000 loaned to the company by the state. Its route was identical with that of the present Michigan Central between Marshall and Kalamazoo, some portion of which was graded, but no part completed. In the same year the River Raisin and Lake Erie Road was chartered to run from La Plaisance Bay on Lake Erie through Monroe to Blissfield on the Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad. It was partly completed and now forms the Monroe branch of the Lake Shore. Also in 1836 was chartered the Palmyra & Jacksonburg Railroad, extending from Palmyra on the Erie & Kalamazoo, through Tecumseh, Clinton and Manches- ter, to Jackson. It was immediately built between Palmyra and Tecumseh. It now forms the Jackson Branch of the Lake Shore.
Charters were granted to several other roads between 1833 and 1838, none of which were built. In the latter year the state entered upon its grand scheme of internal improvements, and all of the above roads were merged into its system.
A TURN TO STATE OWNERSHIP
The people of Michigan along in the '30s of the last century had very exalted notions of the future of the state. On the face of it there was some reason for
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this. They had seen the population increase from 8,896 in 1820 to 31,639 in 1830, about 85,000 in 1834 and 175,000 in 1837, and the rush, though somewhat abated, was still continuing in great volume, while the natural resources of the state were great and capable of indefinite expansion. The opinion very early began to prevail that the state should own the means of transportation and derive whatever benefits there were from their possession. The Constitution of 1835 echoed this sentiment in the following provision: "Internal improve- ments shall be encouraged by the government of this state; and it shall be the duty of the legislature, as soon as may be, to make provision by law for aseer- taining the proper objeets of improvement in relation to roads, canals and navigable waters; and it shall also be their duty to provide by law an equal, systematie, economical application of the funds which may be appropriated to these objects."
Governor Mason, who was an enthusiast, urged the subject of internal improvements upon the legislature in 1836 and 1837, and in the latter year urged that the state should take control of any railroads or canals that might be built. These avenues of transportation, he argued, would not only benefit the whole people, but the profits derived from them would probably pay the whole expense of the state government. At the session in 1837 a committee of the house made a report which surpassed all the governor's productions in its rhetorical flourishes and the optimism of its conclusions. The following is a part of the picture as it appeared in the House Journal of that year:
"Not many years since, the peninsula of Michigan was seareely known. A few military and trading posts were the sole traces of civilization upon the broad expanse of her magnificent solitudes. Shut out. apparently, by a wide waste of waters from the East, and almost destitute of internal communication with the West and South, she seemed to the careless eye doomed to a per- petual desolation. Within the memory of some of her living inhabitants, such was her condition. The contrast which her present state exhibits can find no parallel but in the annals of our own country. The progress of centuries in other lands, is here realized in as many years. The sound of the falling forest is everywhere heard. Farms, villages and cities spring up on every side, un- der the magieal hand of intelligent labor-the wide embracing arms of her surrounding seas bear to her indented shores a thousand keels, freighted with tribute to the enterprise and industry of her numerous and enlightened popu- lation. The romance of the past age is the reality of the present."
The committee advaneed many arguments to show that the "high road to national prosperity" was internal improvements, and gave reasons why Mich- igan should take advantage at onee of her position and resources. In the first place, they said internal improvement was no longer an experiment but had been tested all over the country; and a study of the improvements in each of the states showing extent, cost and results, "would have presented a safe guide to the judgment upon undertakings of this character." Again, internal im- provement would bring the immigrant to the state, and increase in population would inerease industry, the only source of wealth; the land would increase in value; railroads and canals would make it unnecessary to use horses for transportation of goods, and thus effect in the produets of the soil a saving calculated at about one-third of that now consumed in the support of these animals. Michigan, it was claimed, was in a position to supply the "missing link" in the line of communication between the Mississippi and the Atlantic.
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By building roads and canals, she gains the markets of the East and hecomes the "middle ground" for the exchange of products of the Northwest. The principal argument, however, and the one which had most influence was, that the money so applied was not an expenditure but an investment, and an esti- mate of the income to be derived from this investment was given. This re- markable mathematical calculation figured out in the next twenty years a sufficient profit to pay the loan of $5,000,000 required to construct the rail- roads and canals, and give a surplus of $2,925,000 "besides the possession of the works which have yielded this immense profit."
It was with such rosy anticipations that the state entered upon its grand scheme of internal improvements.
In March, 1837, the Legislature created a "board of commissioners on internal improvement," with authority to construct three railways across the state to be known respectively as the Southern, the Central and the Northern; also three canals. The Southern Railway was to extend from Monroe through the southern tier of counties to New Buffalo on Lake Michigan; the Central was to run from Detroit through Ypsilanti, Jackson, Marshall and Kalamazoo to St. Joseph, and the Northern, starting from Port Huron, was to pass through Lapeer, Flint, Owosso and Grand Rapids, terminating at Grand Haven. The board was authorized to purchase any existing roads whose interests might be antagonized by the state lines. The three canals were the St. Mary's Ship Canal, around the falls at the Soo; the Clinton & Kalamazoo Canal, extending to Mount Clemens on the Clinton River across the state to the mouth of the Kalamazoo River, and the Saginaw Canal, connecting the Saginaw River with the Grand, thus establishing water communication between Saginaw and Grand Haven. The entire cost of this ambitious system of internal improve- ments was estimated at $7,712,079.
The first commissioners were L. B. Mizner, of Wayne; Levi S. Humphrey, of Monroe; James B. Hunt, of Oakland; William A. Burt, of Macomb; Edwin H. Lothrop, of Kalamazoo; Hiram Alden, of Branch, and Rix Robinson, of Kent. The funds for the work were to be derived from any surplus of state revenue, five percent of the proceeds of sales of state lands, and a $5,000,000 loan run- ning twenty-five years at six percent. The profits of the public works were to constitute a sinking fund for the payment of the bonds.
Of the canals but little need be said here. The only one that was con- structed, that at the Soo, came at a much later date and under different aus- piees. The Clinton & Kalamazoo was completed from Mt. Clemens to Utica at a cost of $400,000, took in $90.32 in tolls, and was then abandoned. Upon the Saginaw Canal $42,098 was expended, but it never got far enough along to take any tolls.
The management of the $5,000,000 loan was a series of mishaps. The ne- gotiation of the bonds was entrusted to Governor Mason, who was not skilled in finance, and he was accompanied on his mission to New York by Theodore Romeyn of Detroit. They made an arrangement with the Morris Canal & Banking Company, which undertook the sale of the bonds at two and one- half percent commission, reserving the right to purchase on their own account. On this agreement the bonds were all delivered to the banking company, which afterwards failed, and the state realized only $2,841,063 for its investment. Owing to this unfortunate outcome the state did not proceed far with any of its grand schemes except the Southern and Central railroads. The former
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was located in 1837 under direction of the first board of commissioners. It was to commence at Monroe and passing through the southern tier of coun- ties, terminate at New Buffalo. It was completed to Adrian in 1840, it was opened to Hillsdale in 1843 and stopped there. Up to the end of 1845 it had cost $1,054,000, and the total receipts had footed up to $170,446, hardly enough to pay running expenses. The state was glad to unload the burden, which it did in 1846 by selling the whole property to the Michigan Southern Railroad Company for $500,000. It eventually became part of the Lake Shore & Mich- igan Southern Railroad System. This system has been of great benefit to De- troit, and especially useful in developing the Southern tier of counties, but its headquarters have never been in this state.
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