USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I > Part 70
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
THE MICHIGAN CENTRAL
When the state took possession of the Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad and named it the Michigan Central, it acquired a survey, a right of way, a very little completed road bed, and a lot of contracts. The line was established to a point two miles west of Ann Arbor, and work had been done in places be- tween Detroit and Ypsilanti. Construction in this section of the road was especially difficult, as it was through a dense forest growth, with frequent stretches of deep swamp. The estimated cost of the road, in addition to the $117,000 already expended was $1,381,000. The state assumed all the con- tracts and followed the method of the company in construction. The road bed consisted of an embankment about fourteen feet wide, drained on either side by ditches. The superstructure consisted of longitudinal sills, not less than five by twelve inches, bedded in two parallel trenches with connecting planks under the ends. Cross ties were placed on the sills. White oak rails, 5 by 7 inches, were keyed into these and the whole surmounted by iron plate rails. Partly because of the time required for the settling of the embankments, but more because of the low marshy surface of the country, a new foundation was advised and used where the nature of the country made it more suitable. Holes were dug to the solid ground, eight feet apart lengthwise, and five feet apart crosswise of the road. Blocks two feet in diameter cut to suit the grade were placed endwise in these pits, and were settled by ramming. On these blocks were placed heavy timbers, which formed two parallel strings five feet apart, and formed the foundation of the road. The superstructure was the same as given above. The embankments were then finished and carried up to within three inches of the iron. Where the surface was marshy, the road was built on piles. The work of construction was slow. The funds were not always available as fast as needed, and in some cases the contractors had to be coaxed along on credit. The contractor for the entire section between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti fell behind in his work, and an extra force was required under new contracts. The jealousy existing between partisans of the Central and Southern systems impeded legislation and sometimes occasioned more direct hindrances. One of the latter cases is thus described in the Joint Legislative Documents for 1841: "The Central road had been completed to within two and a half miles of Dexter. This portion was ready for the iron. The board, knowing that there was a quantity of iron at Monroe, which had not been appropriated, directed the superintendent at Monroe to forward it. After waiting for some time an agent was sent, but he returned without the iron. Finding that the feeling in Monroe was such that no assistance could be ob-
Burton Historical Society
MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD BUILDINGS IN 1861 Site of present City Hall
-
MICHIGAN CENTRAL TERMINAL
Vol. 1-44
691
CITY OF DETROIT
tained there, the commissioners gave David French authority to employ hands and remove the iron to the pier at La Plaisance Bay. He was defeated, as he reported, by such a demonstration of feeling on the part of the authorities and citizens of Monroe, as rendered it, in his judgment, impossible for him to carry into effect the orders of the board, without endangering the public peace, or putting in peril the safety of his party."
However, work progressed so that the road was opened to Dearborn in January, 1838, to Ypsilanti February 3d of the same year, to Ann Arbor October 17, 1839, to Dexter June 30, 1840, and to Jackson December 29, 1841. It reached Battle Creek in November, 1845, and Kalamazoo in February, 1846. Stages were run from the latter point to St. Joseph, where connection was made with the boats to Chicago.
Owing, doubtless, to different methods of bookkeeping, the statements of profits during the period of state ownership vary. In 1841 the net profits were reported at $63,076, or about six percent of the cost of the road up to that time. In 1842 they were given at $75,026, with the prediction that when the road was opened to Battle Creek they could be doubled. The report for 1845 was optimistic. The estimate for receipts was $275,000 and the cost of keep- ing the road in repair at $30,000. This was the last of the rosy views. The friends of the road were dismayed when they learned at the end of the year that the receipts had been overestimated by $72,000, and that almost the whole had been absorbed by running expenses, repairs and new material. There were no net proceeds for the payment of interest, the redemption of state scrip or providing a sinking fund. It was stated, moreover, that the physical con- dition of the road was bad, that it ought to be rebuilt, laid with T-rails and supplied with new equipment; in short that it was bankrupt in finances and breaking down in service. The people, discouraged, were about ready to throw off the burden and the chance to sell came very opportunely.
Among the earliest proceedings of the Legislature of 1846 was the adop- tion of a resolution, presented by Judge Hand, the sole representative from Detroit, for the appointment of a committee of seven to consider the expedi- ency of selling the public works. That committee had a bill ready to report, providing for the sale of the Central road, when J. W. Brooks, of Boston, made his appearance in Detroit as the representative of a number of eastern cap- italists, and made a tender for its purchase. The committee entered at once into negotiations, the result of which was that a charter for the Michigan Cen- tral Railroad was drawn up by Judge Hand and reported for the approval of the Legislature, conditioned upon the payment of $2,000,000 as purchase money, a sum sufficient to reimburse the state for all expenditures. After a prolonged struggle the required two-thirds of each house was obtained in sup- port of the bill. Among the prominent participators in the discussion upon this important measure were Gen. Isaac E. Crary, George W. Peck, Austin Blair, Judge Edmunds, David Noble, James P. Sanborn, Augustus C. Baldwin, John P. Cook, and other well known and influential men. Previous to this time, so large a sum as $100,000, it is said, had never been brought into the western country from the East for investment in any one enterprise. Yet this act of incorporation contemplated the expenditure of from $6,000,000 to $8,000,000, of which $500,000 had to be paid before the state would relin- quish possession. The bill passed in March, but it was not until the ensuing September that a company of sufficient strength could be organized to assume
692
CITY OF DETROIT
the obligations of the charter, at which date the Michigan Central Railroad Company paid in the $500,000 required, took possession of the road, and the charter took full effect.
While the charter had necessarily to be a favorable one for the corporators, in order to induce capitalists to venture their money in the West, the inter- ests of the public were also well protected. The charter included provision by which all freight was required to be forwarded in the same order of pre- cedence in which it was received at the stations, a provision which obviated a species of favoritism, about which great complaint had been made. By another provision the company were prohibited from making warehouse charges for shortage until they had given one day's notice in Detroit or four days' else- where in the state. Provision was also made limiting the charges for freight and passengers to the average rates of the Boston and Providence, Boston and Worcester, and Boston and Lowell roads. The company were required to complete the road to Lake Michigan with T-rail of not less than sixty pounds to the yard, and it was also stipulated that all the old road should be relaid with similar rail. The company were authorized to change the western ter- minus to any point in the state on Lake Michigan and they were subsequently allowed to extend the road to Chicago. There was a great strife between the Central and Lake Shore roads as to which should reach that eity first, but the Central came out a day ahead, running its first train into that city May 20, 1852.
John M. Forbes was the first president of the road and John W. Brooks, who came from Rochester, New York, was the first superintendent. Mr. Brooks brought with him from the Auburn and Rochester Railroad C. H. Hurd and Henry Hopper, and from Massachusetts Reuben N. Rice and F. W. War- ren. At the same time U. Tracy lowe came from Cincinnati and became a part of the new management; Mr. Hurd became freight agent, Mr. Warren cashier in freight department, Mr. Howe local treasurer and Mr. Rice secre- tary to Mr. Brooks. Among the new officials was John M. Berrien, construct- ing engineer, who had his office and corps of assistants at Kalamazoo, the then terminus of the road. Maj. George C. Hopper was roadmaster, and he after- wards gave interesting reminiscences of early railroading. He said: "The equipment consisted of six single-driver locomotives and one double-driver of very antiquated pattern. There were not more than eight or ten passenger and baggage cars, and the freight equipment consisted of four flats, four-wheel and eight-wheel box cars of very ancient type. A load for a single car, as the small ones were called, was thirty-four barrels of flour; for the larger ones, twice that amount. The flats were rigged with ridge poles lengthwise, over which a canvas was drawn when it was necessary to use them for freight. A load for the small engines was six eight-wheel or twelve four-wheel ears.
"The passenger train time was twelve hours to Kalamazoo, and they usu- ally ran close to time; there were no time schedules for the freight trains; their business was to keep out of the way of passenger trains and not run into each other. The dispatcher would be in the yard at Detroit in the morning and give verbal instructions to the freight engineers as to where they were to go, and at what points to meet and pass each other. There were no freight con- ductors and but two passenger conductors, who were called captains. There was a station a mile and a half west of Chelsea called Davison's, at which trains
693
CITY OF DETROIT
dined. When the road was completed to New Buffalo the dining rooms and shops were located at Marshall.
"When Mr. Brooks assumed control of the railroad, the passenger busi- ness was so mixed with the stage and steamboat traffic that the ticket seller at Detroit was empowered to sell tickets for the railroad and for the steamboats across Lake Michigan from St. Joseph to Chicago. The railroad tickets proper were colored cards sold to 'All Stations from Detroit.' They were taken by the conductor and returned to the agent to be resold. The second class tickets were similar in form and color to the first class tickets, but with one corner cut off. Conductors on taking up the tickets returned them to the ticket seller without any statement as to how many there were, but the agent made a state- ment to the local treasurer as to his sales from day to day. The conductors made written statements on their return trips from Kalamazoo of their col- lections out and return, and paid the cash to balance these reports.
The incorporators of the road were twenty-seven in number, all men of means, and almost all residents of New York, Albany or Boston. They had previously been interested in the operation of the pioneer railroads in the East. They were very fortunate in being able to associate with themselves at the very outset a young Detroit attorney, Mr. James F. Joy, who afterwards gave this account of the way it came about: "In the summer of 1845 Mr. John W. Brooks paid a visit to Detroit, bringing letters to me from friends in New Eng- land. He came to the office of Joy & Porter, and after several conversations upon the subject of the Michigan Central Railroad, I unfortunately took the step which led me away from the practice of the noble profession of the law to become a railroad man." This transfer of allegiance from law to trans- portation was a very fortunate thing for the railroad and for the City of De- troit, for in all his railroad building and terminal activities, extending over a period of fifty years, Mr. Joy always had the interests of Detroit in mind.
A detailed history of the Michigan Central would fill a volume. Its policy and general course of its development were fully determined by the men who were in at the start. J. M. Forbes was president from 1847 to 1856, J. W. Brooks from 1856 to 1867, and James F. Joy from 1867 to 1877. Throughout the thirty years of these successive administrations the importance of the road as a part of the through east and west trunk line system and the value of feed- ers within its own territory were both kept in view. Subsequent presidents were Samuel Sloan, 1877; William H. Vanderbilt of New York, 1878 to 1883; Henry B. Ledyard, successively president and chairman of the board from 1883 until his death on May 25, 1921. Mr. Ledyard, a native of Detroit, was al- ways solicitous for the interests of the city as well as those of the road. When Mr. Ledyard became chairman of the board he was succeeded by Alfred H. Smith of New York as president.
The first of the Central's outside enterprises was the promotion of a line across the Ontario peninsula. Two rival Canadian companies, the Great West- ern and the Detroit & Niagara River Railroad had been making very slow progress toward construction when in 1846 the men at the head of the Mich- igan Central took hold of the Great Western project. They also enlisted New York Central interests, and funds were provided for pushing the work, so that the road was opened from Niagara Falls to Hamilton November 10, 1853, and to Detroit January 17, 1854. The arrival of the first train at Detroit was the occasion of an enthusiastic celebration ending with a great supper in the freight
694
CITY OF DETROIT
house. Previous to this date the Buffalo connection with the Michigan Cen- tral was made by lake steamers. As soon, however, as connection was made with the Great Western, continuous night trains were put on. The first sleep- ing cars were operated by the Michigan Central in 1858. They were of the Woodworth pattern and were day coaches altered by the railroad company.
FEEDERS TO THE CENTRAL
One of the first railroads in central Michigan was that from Lansing to Owosso, called on account of its many curves the "ramshorn road," and one of the next was a road from Jackson to Lansing. The incorporators of the latter then acquired the Owosso line and extended it to Saginaw, under the title of the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw. It was afterwards acquired by the Michigan Central and extended to Mackinac. This is the longest of the Mich- igan Central divisions within the state, being 297 miles from Jackson to Mack- inac. As a feeder to the Central, the Detroit & Bay City was organized in 1871 and was speedily pushed to completion. About the same time the Can- ada Southern and the Chicago & Canada Southern companies were organ- ized. A road was built from Buffalo to Amherstburg. Trains were taken across Detroit River by ferry to Stony Island, thence by bridge to Grosse Ile and by another bridge to Trenton. The track was carried a short distance into Indiana and another track was run from Trenton to Detroit. Both roads fell into a bad way financially and structurally, and were acquired by the Mich- igan Central. By building a new line from Essex Center to Windsor, the Can- adian division became the Michigan Central's main line eastward, and the Trenton branch became part of its Toledo division. The Grand River Valley division from Jackson to Grand Rapids, the Air Line from Jackson to Niles. the Detroit, Hillsdale & Indiana, the Jackson & Fort Wayne and the Kala- mazoo & South Haven are other lines that were built or promoted by the Mich- igan Central interests. In addition to its main divisions, that company con- trols about twenty short branches, all tapping territory which is valuable for the additions which it gives to both freight and passenger traffic. In 1920 its various lines had a total of 1,862 miles of track.
The additions which the Central has made to its terminal facilities in De- troit in the last few years are many and of vast importance. As part of the general scheme of improvement was the construction of the immense new pas- senger station and office building at Michigan Avenue and Fifteenth Street, with many miles of new track and sidings. This terminal station, costing over $2,500,000, was opened in 1914. Preceding this by a few years was the tunnel under the Detroit River, completed in 1910. It consists of twin steel tubes each 262 feet long and 23 feet high. They were built at the shipyard in St. Clair, floated down the river, then sunk into position in trenches dug in the river bed and encased in cement. The length of the tunnel proper is 2.260 feet and of the approaches 5,340 feet, a total length of a mile and a half. It is well ventilated and lighted and cars are taken through it by electrically propelled locomotives. Its use not only expedites the transfer of cars in summer, but obviates the delays that ice formerly caused to the car ferries in winter. The cost of the tunnel and approaches was between nine and ten million dollars. The number of cars passing through the tubes in the first year of their opera- tion was 243,027, and this hardly represents one-tenth of their capacity. They are now used only by the Michigan Central, but under the terms of the charter
1110
MICHIGAN CENTRAL DEPOT, 1853-83
MICHIGAN CENTRAL DEPOT YARD ABOUT 1868
697
CITY OF DETROIT
under which the work was done, the company must grant the use of the tun- nel to other roads upon terms to be fixed by the Interstate Commerce Com- mission and the Canadian railroad commissioners.
THE PERE MARQUETTE SYSTEM
The second of the great railroad systems with headquarters in Detroit, the Pere Marquette, was of slow and piece-meal construction. Although it has vast interests in the western part of the state it is also one of the roads of peeu- liar value to this eity. It gives Detroit communication with a large proportion of the interior cities and villages of the state. The first link in the system was a road from Flint to Saginaw, completed in 1864. Two years later a continua- tion of the road was made westward through the woods to the crossing of the Tittabawassee River. A line from Flint to Holly was then picked up. About this time Capt. Eber B. Ward became interested in the road. He sought to enlist the aid of Detroit capital. Failing of success he aided in organizing the Holly, Wayne & Monroe road and told Detroiters in effect that his road would side track their town, and if they wanted to ride on it, they could come out to Wayne to take the cars, which they were obliged to do for several years. The different bits of construction were put together under the name of the Flint & Pere Marquette, and the road was extended straight through the wilder- ness and across the state to Ludington. It passed through 150 miles of pine woods and was the pioneer in developing a whole tier of counties. In the hands of a receiver the road was once reorganized as the Pere Marquette. By ab- sorption and construction it has acquired a larger mileage of track, 2,247 in all, than any other Michigan road. Its original line from Toledo to Ludington via Bay City covers 330 miles. From Pere Marquette, now Ludington, it runs car ferries to Milwaukee and Manitowoc. It has a line from Chicago along the Lake Michigan shore to Ludington; from Grand Rapids to Petoskey; from Detroit to Grand Rapids with a number of branches; from Saginaw to Muskegon and from Port Huron two lines through the Thumb district. In Canada it has one line from Sarnia to Rand Eau on Lake Erie, with ferry to Conneaut, Ohio, and another line from Detroit to Port Stanley with ferry to Conneaut.
One of the projects fostered by the Board of Trade and favored by Detroit people generally while it was in the making, was the road that connects the com- mereial metropolis with the capital of the state. Its first link was the Detroit & Howell and then the Detroit & Lansing Company was organized. The first attempts were based partly on aid voted by towns through which the road was to pass. After the Supreme Court declared the act authorizing such aid to be unconstitutional larger private subscriptions to stock were obtained. The road was completed to Lansing in 1876. It was then merged with the Lansing and Ionia, under the name of the Detroit, Lansing & Northern, and was pushed on to Howard City. It eventually became one of the most valuable portions of the Pere Marquette system.
THE BOARD OF TRADE AND THE WABASH
Through the whole period of railroad construction the Detroit Board of Trade was an earnest supporter of the new roads. It sympathized with the movement for city and county aid to new roads and advocated a considerable bonus from Detroit to the Lansing road. After the Supreme Court declared
698
CITY OF DETROIT
the railroad aid aet unconstitutional, the board promoted stock sales for both the Lansing road and the Detroit, Hillsdale & Indiana. Its pet project, however, was the bringing of the Wabash to Detroit. For this purpose it aided in the promotion of the Detroit, Butler & St. Louis Railroad, which was organized to build a road 113 miles in length from Detroit to Butler, Indiana, there to connect with the Wabash System. The board voted a bonus of $13,000 out of its own treasury and individual members aided in bringing the total bonus from the city up to $200,000. The survey for the road commeneed April 12, 1880. Fourteen months from that time, June 12, ISS1, Jay Gould, president of the Wabash, came into the city over the new line. The first through train arrived from St. Louis August 14 of that year. Passenger trains at first went around the city by the Grand Trunk tracks to the Brush Street depot. Tracks were afterwards laid along the river front, and a small passenger sta- tion was built at the foot of Twelfth Street. Freight and switching yards ex- tended several bloeks west of this, and a large elevator was built to accommodate the grain coming in over the line. The new road opened up a large amount of new territory to local trade and gave direct access to the eentral corn belt. The year before the road was built the receipts of corn at Detroit were only 428,000 bushels. They speedily ran up to a total of 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 annually. The Wabash is now one of Detroit's most valued lines. In 1920 the Wabash renewed for twenty-one years its lease from the Grand Trunk for the line from Windsor to Black Rock.
THE UNION DEPOT
Up to IS89 the Wabash and the Canadian Pacific occupied a small pas- senger station at the foot of Twelfth Street, while the Detroit, Lansing & North- ern and the Flint & Pere Marquette came in over leased tracks to the Mieh- igan Central. Mr. James F. Joy conceived the plan of providing a centrally located station for these and other roads and organized the Union Depot Com- pany. Property at the corner of Fort and Third was acquired for the sta- tion, and after protracted efforts and much litigation, the right of way was secured. This involved the occupancy of part of River Street, the closing of part of Fourth and Fifth streets and the building of an elevated approach. It was a very expensive undertaking. Owners of property along the line were very exacting in the price demanded for the property acquired and in damages caused by building the approaches. The cost of right of way alone exceeded $1,000,000. Opposition was also encountered from the Michigan Central and other interests, and hostility was encountered in the Legislature to grant- ing the authority needed for carrying out the plans of the company. All ob- stacles were at length overcome, and the first train ran into the station January 21, 1893. Both the Wabash and the Pere Marquette built a large amount of new track through the western part of the city in order to make direct con- nection with the new station. The station was used in 1920 for trains of the Wabash, Pere Marquette, Canadian Pacific and Pennsylvania lines.
TIIE PENNSYLVANIA ROAD
The latest addition to Detroit's railroads, and it is a very important one, is an extension of the Pennsylvania System from Toledo to this city. The new line avoids the congested section of Toledo and connects with the Pere Marquette, over which it has trackage rights, to Carleton, Michigan. From
699
CITY OF DETROIT
there to the River Rouge it comes over its own newly constructed road, and enters the Union Depot over the Pere Marquette tracks. It commenced run- ning its own through trains from Detroit to Philadelphia, New York and Washington in May, 1920, the first train leaving Detroit on the 23d. While this addition to Detroit's passenger facilities is of high value, the effeet upon the freight situation is of immensely greater importance. By sending its freight trains around the congested section of Toledo, it avoids the delays so common at that "neck of the bottle." For the handling of freight at this end of the line elaborate preparations have been made. One of the first pieces of new con- struction was a belt line from the Delray distriet to the Ford plant in Highland Park, thus giving connection with many existing factories, and opening up sites for new establishments. This belt line will eventually be extended to the Fairview manufacturing district.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.