Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad
Encyclopedia
The Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the U.S. state
of Michigan
between 1857 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway
.
was offered, from Flint, Michigan
to Lake Michigan
at Pere Marquette (now Ludington, Michigan
). The early promoters of the road were George M. Dewey and E.H. Hazelton of Flint, with Dewey serving as the first president of the F&PM. Construction started in 1859 in East Saginaw
. A more energetic management took charge in 1860 when Captain Eber Brock Ward
of Detroit, a prominent lumberman, vessel owner, and steel manufacturer, was elected to the presidency of the F&PM. Service began on January 20, 1862, on the 26.1 miles (42 km) section from East Saginaw south to Mount Morris. In December 1864 the F&PM gained access to Detroit
via trackage rights over the Flint and Holly Railroad
and the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad.
Construction westward from Saginaw commenced in 1866 with the first section of 20 miles (32.2 km), to Midland, opened December 1, 1867. In the Annual Report to the Stockholders of December 31, 1867, the secretary of the F&PM, Henry C. Potter, called for the continued building of the line toward Lake Michigan: "The importance and magnitude of the lumber traffic on the Muskegon and Manistee Rivers urge this company to speedy construction on its road west."
On September 2, 1868, the F&PM was consolidated with the Flint and Holly Railroad. Besides adding a key segment of trackage to the growing F&PM system, the merger brought into the F&PM the Crapo family - Henry H. Crapo
, Governor of Michigan in 1865-69, and his son, William W. Crapo
, later president of the F&PM. An extension of 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from Midland to Averill was completed on October 25, 1868, giving the F&PM 60 miles (96.6 km) of route west from Flint and entitling the company to 76300 acres (308.8 km²) in land grants; since 1862 the company had received a total of 307200 acres (1,243.2 km²).
Slowly the railroad snaked its way through the forests of central Michigan. It was completed to Clare, 24.4 miles (39.3 km) west of Averill, in November 1870; another 15.6 miles (25.1 km) was finished in March 1871. With the completion of 22 miles (35.4 km) to Reed City in December 1871, the F&PM made a connection with the north-south main line of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway. The line was now 48.4 miles (77.9 km) from its goal of Ludington.
On June 4, 1872, the F&PM was consolidated with the Holly, Wayne and Monroe Railroad (opened for service the same day); the Bay City and East Saginaw Railroad (a feeder line leased since 1867); the Flint River Railroad
(Flint to Otter Lake); and the Cass River Railroad
(East Saginaw to Vassar).
for a terminal site at his namesake town with frontage of Pere Marquette Lake. James Ludington was the owner of the only mill then at Ludington. He attempted to spin out the talks; though he favored completion of the F&PM, Ludington knew Ward intended to build mills to tap the timber along the Pere Marquette River
. Fearing this would make Ward too big, Ludington refused to sell a terminal site or mill sites at any price, hoping to squeeze Ward into selling some of his 70000 acres (283.3 km²) of timber at a bargain price. Ludington found that Ward would not sell and, more importantly, that Ward was not a man to be trifled with.
Ward learned early in 1869 that Ludington's logging crews had, accidentally or otherwise, cut pine from part of his land. He kept quiet until Ludington went to Detroit on business, then had him arrested and lodged in the Wayne County Jail on charges of trespassing and timber theft. He secured a court judgment of $650,000 against Ludington, who was ruined; he suffered a stroke and was forced to quit business. His successor in business, the Pere Marquette Lumber Company, reached an amicable agreement with Ward in August 1869 for both the railway terminal and the mill sites.
"In November 1874," recalled editor Charles G. Wing of the Ludington Daily News in 1920, "when the F&PM railroad was nearly completed to Ludington, Governor John J. Bagley
came over the line on a tour of inspection ... [and] received the most distinguished mark of attention Ludington could show. He rode to and from his railroad car in the only covered carriage up to that time ever owned within the borders of Mason County."
The road was completed to Ludington on December 1, 1874, giving the F&PM 253 miles (407.2 km) of main line. By 1877 the company had received 511520.2 acres (2,070.1 km²) of federal land grants, of which over half - 275741.69 acres (1,115.9 km²) - had been sold, contributing $2,369,729.21 to the railroad's revenues.
Ward died suddenly while walking in Detroit on January 2, 1875. Elected to succeed him as president of the F&PM was Jesse Hoyt
of New York, who had extensive lumber and salt interests in East Saginaw.
Cross-lake steamship service between Ludington and Sheboygan, Wisconsin
was inaugurated May 31, 1875, with a leased steamer, the sidewheeler John Sherman, John W. Stewart, master. At Sheboygan the line interchanged freight with the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Railway. Quickly outgrowing both the John Sherman and the terminal at Sheboygan, the line was shifted to Milwaukee in 1876. The Goodrich Transportation Company
provided service under contract to the railroad from 1876 to 1883. Ships assigned to the route by Goodrich included the De Pere, Corona, Oconto, Alpena and, best-known of all, the City of Ludington. The F&PM terminated its contract with Goodrich on April 1, 1883.
A grain elevator was built in 1877 on the Ludington waterfront by a group of investors associated with the railroad. In 1879 a freight warehouse was built just south of the grain elevator.
, owing $1,200,000 in unpaid interest on bonds with bonded interest accumulating at a rate of $385,000 a year. Gross revenues had declined every year since the Panic of 1873
, a situation exacerbated by the crash of the lumber market in July 1877. The company remained in receivership until September 30, 1880, when it was reorganized as the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad. Under the reorganization plan the F&PM issued $6,500,000 in preferred stock
. No common stock was to be issued to holders of certificates of old common stock until five consecutive dividends of 7 per cent had been paid on preferred stock. In the event, this never occurred, as there were only two consecutive years (1883 and 1884) in which a 7 per cent dividend was declared on preferred stock.
While in receivership the company built two new lines in 1879: a narrow gauge branch from Cole to Mount Pleasant, 14.5 miles (23.3 km), as the Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad
(converted to standard gauge in 1884), and a standard gauge branch from Clare to Harrison, 16.8 miles (27 km), as the Saginaw and Clare County Railroad
.
had boasted of being the largest American city not served by a railroad. This changed after the incorporation on June 19, 1880, of an F&PM subsidiary, the Manistee Railroad, to build a 26.53 miles (42.7 km) branch line from Manistee Junction (today Walhalla), east of Ludington, to Manistee. The villages of Bachelor, Fountain and Free Soil quickly sprang up on this line. Upon its opening on December 5, 1881, the branch gave the F&PM access to Manistee lumbering and salt manufacturing resources.
As business grew, two similar but larger propellers were built at Detroit, the 924-ton F&PM No. 3 in 1887 and the 941-ton F&PM No. 4 in 1888. The 1,723-ton F&PM No. 5, built at West Bay City in 1890, differed in originally being configured as a straight package freighter with no passenger accommodations. Sailings between Ludington and Manitowoc, Wisconsin
, were inaugurated in 1890 by the F&PM No. 1.
, a director since 1868, was elected president of the F&PM. Under his presidency the F&PM was run very much like a New England
railroad rather than a Western logging line, as heretofore.
After 1887 the transportation of logs by the F&PM began to fall off rapidly. This was offset somewhat by the growing freight traffic of the company's steamship line. In 1888 the decline in logs transported amounted to 193,790 tons ($153,308 in gross earnings), while earning of the Black Boats totaled $40,556 and rapidly increased as the F&PM attracted movements of wood products, flour, and grain.
On January 31, 1889, the F&PM was consolidated with the East Saginaw and St. Clair Railroad
, the Saginaw and Clare County Railroad
, the Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad
, and the Manistee Railroad
. The F&PM bought the Port Huron and Northwestern Railway
on April 1, 1889, converted it to standard gauge, and constructed a new line east from Yale
to Port Huron
. It also converted to standard gauge its existing branch line between East Saginaw and Yale. This gave the F&PM a standard gauge line across the breadth of Michigan, from Lake Michigan
to Lake Huron
.
The F&PM was a part-owner of the Fort Street Union Depot Company in association with the Wabash Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway
, and Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad
. Construction of this Detroit station commenced in 1890 and it was opened for service on January 22, 1893.
Until 1897 the F&PM reached the important railroad center of Toledo, Ohio
, over the rails of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway
. An extension of the F&PM, 15.2 miles (24.5 km) from Monroe to Alexis (an unincorporated place just across the state line in Ohio
and just outside the city limits of Toledo), was constructed by the Monroe and Toledo Railway
. Soon after the line's completion, the M&T was purchased outright by the F&PM on August 27, 1897. Entry into Toledo from Alexis, 6.6 miles (10.6 km), was secured in 1897 through a 99-year lease of trackage from the Ann Arbor Railroad.
Movements of grain in bulk had become so important to the economics of the railroad that when the elevator at Ludington was destroyed by fire on July 7, 1899, it was immediately rebuilt. The new, larger grain elevator was ready for operation by November 20, 1899.
to establish a cross-lake railway car ferry line between Ludington and Manitowoc. A steel car ferry of 2,443 tons, the Pere Marquette, was built at West Bay City, where she was launched on December 30, 1896. With Joseph Russell as master, the Pere Marquette arrived at Manitowoc on her maiden voyage from Ludington on the morning of February 17, 1897, interchanging freight with both the Wisconsin Central and the Chicago and North Western Railway
. The car ferry operation was so successful that it soon became obvious that service would have to be expanded; in 1900 the Pere Marquette transported 27,000 railroad cars across Lake Michigan.
shared common directors with the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad
, which was reorganized a decade later, in 1896, as the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad. On December 27, 1897, the DGR&W inaugurated car ferry service between Muskegon and Milwaukee with the wooden car ferry Muskegon
(later renamed Pere Marquette 16).
By January 1, 1899, the F&PM had sold 468690 acres (1,896.7 km²) of the 513000 acres (2,076 km²) granted the company by the federal government. Sales amounted to $4,847,007 - an average of $10.34 an acres.
An agreement was reached in 1899 for the consolidation of the F&PM with the Chicago and West Michigan and the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western with securities of the newly organized exchanged for those of the constituent companies. The F&PM declared a special 2% dividend out of assets as part of the consolidation plan. The Pere Marquette Railroad was incorporated November 1, 1899, and took over the properties on January 1, 1900.
Charles M. Heald of the C&WM and DGR&W was president of the Pere Marquette with William W. Crapo of the F&PM as chairman of the board of directors. On February 1, 1900, the new company acquired the Saginaw, Tuscola and Huron Railroad, which had been built in 1881-86 by investors associated with the F&PM.
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
between 1857 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway
Pere Marquette Railway
The Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. The railroad had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago.The company was...
.
Early history
The F&PM was chartered on January 22, 1857 as the Flint and Pere Marquette Railway for the purpose of constructing an east-west railway line on a route, for which a federal land grantLand grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate – land or its privileges – made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service...
was offered, from Flint, Michigan
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
to Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
at Pere Marquette (now Ludington, Michigan
Ludington, Michigan
Ludington is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 8,357. It is the county seat of Mason County.Ludington is a harbor town located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Pere Marquette River...
). The early promoters of the road were George M. Dewey and E.H. Hazelton of Flint, with Dewey serving as the first president of the F&PM. Construction started in 1859 in East Saginaw
East Saginaw, Michigan
East Saginaw is a defunct city in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan.East Saginaw was founded in 1850, and was incorporated as a village in 1855 and as a city in 1857...
. A more energetic management took charge in 1860 when Captain Eber Brock Ward
Eber Brock Ward
Eber Brock Ward was an iron and steel manufacturer and shipbuilder. He was known as the "steamship king of the Great Lakes" and as the "first of the iron kings." Ward became Detroit's first millionaire. He was the wealthiest man in the Midwest, in his time, due his steel factories.Ward was into...
of Detroit, a prominent lumberman, vessel owner, and steel manufacturer, was elected to the presidency of the F&PM. Service began on January 20, 1862, on the 26.1 miles (42 km) section from East Saginaw south to Mount Morris. In December 1864 the F&PM gained access to Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
via trackage rights over the Flint and Holly Railroad
Flint and Holly Railroad
The Flint and Holly Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in eastern Michigan from 1863 to 1868. It was founded by Henry H. Crapo, a Massachusetts-born lumber merchant who served as Governor of Michigan . The line was originally chartered as the Flint and Fentonville Railroad on January 3,...
and the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad.
Construction westward from Saginaw commenced in 1866 with the first section of 20 miles (32.2 km), to Midland, opened December 1, 1867. In the Annual Report to the Stockholders of December 31, 1867, the secretary of the F&PM, Henry C. Potter, called for the continued building of the line toward Lake Michigan: "The importance and magnitude of the lumber traffic on the Muskegon and Manistee Rivers urge this company to speedy construction on its road west."
On September 2, 1868, the F&PM was consolidated with the Flint and Holly Railroad. Besides adding a key segment of trackage to the growing F&PM system, the merger brought into the F&PM the Crapo family - Henry H. Crapo
Henry H. Crapo
Henry Howland Crapo was the 14th Governor of Michigan during the end of the American Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction.-Early life in Massachusetts:...
, Governor of Michigan in 1865-69, and his son, William W. Crapo
William W. Crapo
William Wallace Crapo was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. He was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James Buffinton. He served slightly more than three terms in congress from November 2, 1875 to March 3, 1883Born in Dartmouth,...
, later president of the F&PM. An extension of 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from Midland to Averill was completed on October 25, 1868, giving the F&PM 60 miles (96.6 km) of route west from Flint and entitling the company to 76300 acres (308.8 km²) in land grants; since 1862 the company had received a total of 307200 acres (1,243.2 km²).
Slowly the railroad snaked its way through the forests of central Michigan. It was completed to Clare, 24.4 miles (39.3 km) west of Averill, in November 1870; another 15.6 miles (25.1 km) was finished in March 1871. With the completion of 22 miles (35.4 km) to Reed City in December 1871, the F&PM made a connection with the north-south main line of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway. The line was now 48.4 miles (77.9 km) from its goal of Ludington.
On June 4, 1872, the F&PM was consolidated with the Holly, Wayne and Monroe Railroad (opened for service the same day); the Bay City and East Saginaw Railroad (a feeder line leased since 1867); the Flint River Railroad
Flint River Railroad
The Flint River Railroad is a defunct railroad. It was established on December 6, 1871 to construct a branch from Horton to Otter Lake to support the logging industry in the Flint River area. This line was opened on October 8, 1872, and the company was consolidated with the Flint and Pere...
(Flint to Otter Lake); and the Cass River Railroad
Cass River Railroad
The Cass River Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in Michigan during the early 1870s. The company was chartered on December 12, 1871. In 1872 it completed a line from East Saginaw to Vassar. The line was intended to exploit the timber resources in the Cass River area. On June 4, 1872,...
(East Saginaw to Vassar).
The Ludington terminal
In 1868 President Ward of the F&PM opened negotiations with James LudingtonJames Ludington
James Ludington was an American entrepreneur.-Biography:When Ludington was sixteen in 1843, the family moved from New York to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With his father, Lewis Ludington, they founded Columbus, Wisconsin in 1845.On October 11, 1854 Ludington loaned funds to George W...
for a terminal site at his namesake town with frontage of Pere Marquette Lake. James Ludington was the owner of the only mill then at Ludington. He attempted to spin out the talks; though he favored completion of the F&PM, Ludington knew Ward intended to build mills to tap the timber along the Pere Marquette River
Pere Marquette River
The Pere Marquette River is a river in the State of Michigan. The main stream of this river is about long, running from Lake County, Michigan just west of Reed City into the Pere Marquette Lake, and from there into Lake Michigan....
. Fearing this would make Ward too big, Ludington refused to sell a terminal site or mill sites at any price, hoping to squeeze Ward into selling some of his 70000 acres (283.3 km²) of timber at a bargain price. Ludington found that Ward would not sell and, more importantly, that Ward was not a man to be trifled with.
Ward learned early in 1869 that Ludington's logging crews had, accidentally or otherwise, cut pine from part of his land. He kept quiet until Ludington went to Detroit on business, then had him arrested and lodged in the Wayne County Jail on charges of trespassing and timber theft. He secured a court judgment of $650,000 against Ludington, who was ruined; he suffered a stroke and was forced to quit business. His successor in business, the Pere Marquette Lumber Company, reached an amicable agreement with Ward in August 1869 for both the railway terminal and the mill sites.
"In November 1874," recalled editor Charles G. Wing of the Ludington Daily News in 1920, "when the F&PM railroad was nearly completed to Ludington, Governor John J. Bagley
John J. Bagley
John Judson Bagley was a politician from the US state of Michigan, as well as its 16th Governor.-Early life in New York and Michigan:...
came over the line on a tour of inspection ... [and] received the most distinguished mark of attention Ludington could show. He rode to and from his railroad car in the only covered carriage up to that time ever owned within the borders of Mason County."
The road was completed to Ludington on December 1, 1874, giving the F&PM 253 miles (407.2 km) of main line. By 1877 the company had received 511520.2 acres (2,070.1 km²) of federal land grants, of which over half - 275741.69 acres (1,115.9 km²) - had been sold, contributing $2,369,729.21 to the railroad's revenues.
Ward died suddenly while walking in Detroit on January 2, 1875. Elected to succeed him as president of the F&PM was Jesse Hoyt
Jesse Hoyt
Jesse Hoyt was an American lawyer and politician from New York.-Life:...
of New York, who had extensive lumber and salt interests in East Saginaw.
Cross-lake steamship service between Ludington and Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
-Airport:Sheboygan is served by the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport, which is located several miles from the city.-Roads:Interstate 43 is the primary north-south transportation route into Sheboygan, and forms the west boundary of the city. U.S...
was inaugurated May 31, 1875, with a leased steamer, the sidewheeler John Sherman, John W. Stewart, master. At Sheboygan the line interchanged freight with the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Railway. Quickly outgrowing both the John Sherman and the terminal at Sheboygan, the line was shifted to Milwaukee in 1876. The Goodrich Transportation Company
Goodrich Transportation Company
Goodrich Transit Line or Goodrich Steamship Line or Goodrich Transportation Company or Goodrich Transit Company was a passenger steamship line operating in the Great Lakes region, principally in Lake Michigan in the 19th and early 20th century.-History:The line was founded in 1868 by Albert Edgar...
provided service under contract to the railroad from 1876 to 1883. Ships assigned to the route by Goodrich included the De Pere, Corona, Oconto, Alpena and, best-known of all, the City of Ludington. The F&PM terminated its contract with Goodrich on April 1, 1883.
A grain elevator was built in 1877 on the Ludington waterfront by a group of investors associated with the railroad. In 1879 a freight warehouse was built just south of the grain elevator.
Receivership
On July 1, 1879, the F&PM went into receivershipReceivership
In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...
, owing $1,200,000 in unpaid interest on bonds with bonded interest accumulating at a rate of $385,000 a year. Gross revenues had declined every year since the Panic of 1873
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 triggered a severe international economic depression in both Europe and the United States that lasted until 1879, and even longer in some countries. The depression was known as the Great Depression until the 1930s, but is now known as the Long Depression...
, a situation exacerbated by the crash of the lumber market in July 1877. The company remained in receivership until September 30, 1880, when it was reorganized as the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad. Under the reorganization plan the F&PM issued $6,500,000 in preferred stock
Preferred stock
Preferred stock, also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds, is a special equity security that has properties of both an equity and a debt instrument and is generally considered a hybrid instrument...
. No common stock was to be issued to holders of certificates of old common stock until five consecutive dividends of 7 per cent had been paid on preferred stock. In the event, this never occurred, as there were only two consecutive years (1883 and 1884) in which a 7 per cent dividend was declared on preferred stock.
While in receivership the company built two new lines in 1879: a narrow gauge branch from Cole to Mount Pleasant, 14.5 miles (23.3 km), as the Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad
Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad
The Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad , established by the latter to construct a railway line between Mount Pleasant, Michigan and Coleman, Michigan. The line opened on December 15, 1879, as a narrow gauge line. In mid-1884...
(converted to standard gauge in 1884), and a standard gauge branch from Clare to Harrison, 16.8 miles (27 km), as the Saginaw and Clare County Railroad
Saginaw and Clare County Railroad
The Saginaw and Clare County Railroad was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad . It was chartered on September 4, 1877, to construct a branch line to Lake George, Michigan. On September 30, 1880, the company completed a branch line from Harrison Junction to Harrison....
.
The Manistee Railroad
For some years, ManisteeManistee, Michigan
Manistee is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,586. It is the county seat of Manistee County. The name "Manistee" is from an Ojibwe word first applied to the principal river of the county. The derivation is not certain, but it may be from...
had boasted of being the largest American city not served by a railroad. This changed after the incorporation on June 19, 1880, of an F&PM subsidiary, the Manistee Railroad, to build a 26.53 miles (42.7 km) branch line from Manistee Junction (today Walhalla), east of Ludington, to Manistee. The villages of Bachelor, Fountain and Free Soil quickly sprang up on this line. Upon its opening on December 5, 1881, the branch gave the F&PM access to Manistee lumbering and salt manufacturing resources.
The Black Boats
In September 1882 the F&PM began operating their own propeller steamers between Ludington and Milwaukee. The first two were the F&PM No. 1 and F&PM No. 2, wooden propellers of 553 and 537 gross tons respectively. Built at Detroit in 1882, they were outfitted to carry passengers, package freight and bulk grain. At a time when most Lake Michigan passenger steamers were painted white, they quickly became known as the "Black Boats" for their black hulls. Each was lengthened 36 feet (11 m) in 1883, and steamship service was extended to Manistee in 1884.As business grew, two similar but larger propellers were built at Detroit, the 924-ton F&PM No. 3 in 1887 and the 941-ton F&PM No. 4 in 1888. The 1,723-ton F&PM No. 5, built at West Bay City in 1890, differed in originally being configured as a straight package freighter with no passenger accommodations. Sailings between Ludington and Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Manitowoc is a city in and the county seat of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States. The city is located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Manitowoc River. According to the 2000 census, Manitowoc had a population of 34,053, with over 50,000 residents in the surrounding communities...
, were inaugurated in 1890 by the F&PM No. 1.
Decline of lumbering
Since Jesse Hoyt lived in New York City and did not visit Michigan after 1877, he was represented on the F&PM board by his attorney, William L. Webber of East Saginaw, who also served as the company's general counsel and land commissioner. Upon the death of Hoyt on August 14, 1882, William W. Crapo of New Bedford, MassachusettsNew Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...
, a director since 1868, was elected president of the F&PM. Under his presidency the F&PM was run very much like a New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
railroad rather than a Western logging line, as heretofore.
After 1887 the transportation of logs by the F&PM began to fall off rapidly. This was offset somewhat by the growing freight traffic of the company's steamship line. In 1888 the decline in logs transported amounted to 193,790 tons ($153,308 in gross earnings), while earning of the Black Boats totaled $40,556 and rapidly increased as the F&PM attracted movements of wood products, flour, and grain.
On January 31, 1889, the F&PM was consolidated with the East Saginaw and St. Clair Railroad
East Saginaw and St. Clair Railroad
The East Saginaw and St. Clair Railroad was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad . It was established in 1872 to construct a branch from the company's main line in East Saginaw, Michigan through The Thumb to Port Huron. In 1889 it was consolidated with the F&PM and...
, the Saginaw and Clare County Railroad
Saginaw and Clare County Railroad
The Saginaw and Clare County Railroad was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad . It was chartered on September 4, 1877, to construct a branch line to Lake George, Michigan. On September 30, 1880, the company completed a branch line from Harrison Junction to Harrison....
, the Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad
Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad
The Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad , established by the latter to construct a railway line between Mount Pleasant, Michigan and Coleman, Michigan. The line opened on December 15, 1879, as a narrow gauge line. In mid-1884...
, and the Manistee Railroad
Manistee Railroad
The Manistee Railroad was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad . It was established on June 19, 1880, to construct a branch line from the F&PM's main line at Walhalla to Manistee. The completion of this line in 1883 gave the F&PM access to Manistee's lake trade and...
. The F&PM bought the Port Huron and Northwestern Railway
Port Huron and Northwestern Railway
The Port Huron and Northwestern Railway is a defunct railroad which operated in the Thumb area of Michigan during the 1880s. The company was chartered by a group of Port Huron, Michigan businessmen on March 23, 1878, and opened its first line, Port Huron to Croswell, on May 12, 1879...
on April 1, 1889, converted it to standard gauge, and constructed a new line east from Yale
Yale, Michigan
Yale is a city in St. Clair County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,063 at the 2000 census. Yale is considered unofficially as the Bologna Capital of the world, in part due to its . Yale bologna is sold in grocery stores throughout the area. Yale is also home to the Yale...
to Port Huron
Port Huron, Michigan
Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administratively autonomous. It is joined by the Blue Water Bridge over the St. Clair River to Sarnia,...
. It also converted to standard gauge its existing branch line between East Saginaw and Yale. This gave the F&PM a standard gauge line across the breadth of Michigan, from Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
to Lake Huron
Lake Huron
Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...
.
The F&PM was a part-owner of the Fort Street Union Depot Company in association with the Wabash Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
, and Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad
Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad
The Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad is a defunct railroad which was formed on December 27, 1876 as a reorganization of the foreclosed Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Rail Road...
. Construction of this Detroit station commenced in 1890 and it was opened for service on January 22, 1893.
Until 1897 the F&PM reached the important railroad center of Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, over the rails of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, NY to Chicago, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana...
. An extension of the F&PM, 15.2 miles (24.5 km) from Monroe to Alexis (an unincorporated place just across the state line in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
and just outside the city limits of Toledo), was constructed by the Monroe and Toledo Railway
Monroe and Toledo Railway
The Monroe and Toledo Railway is a defunct railroad which operated in southeast Michigan during the mid-1890s. The company was chartered on March 29, 1893, with the proposed object of constructing a line from the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad's Monroe terminal to the Ohio border, just north of...
. Soon after the line's completion, the M&T was purchased outright by the F&PM on August 27, 1897. Entry into Toledo from Alexis, 6.6 miles (10.6 km), was secured in 1897 through a 99-year lease of trackage from the Ann Arbor Railroad.
Movements of grain in bulk had become so important to the economics of the railroad that when the elevator at Ludington was destroyed by fire on July 7, 1899, it was immediately rebuilt. The new, larger grain elevator was ready for operation by November 20, 1899.
Car ferry service
In 1895 the F&PM reached an agreement with the Wisconsin Central RailwayWisconsin Central Railway
The original Wisconsin Central Railroad Company was established by an act of the Wisconsin State Legislature and incorporated in February 1871. It built track throughout Wisconsin, connecting to neighboring states, before being leased to Northern Pacific Railway between 1889–1893...
to establish a cross-lake railway car ferry line between Ludington and Manitowoc. A steel car ferry of 2,443 tons, the Pere Marquette, was built at West Bay City, where she was launched on December 30, 1896. With Joseph Russell as master, the Pere Marquette arrived at Manitowoc on her maiden voyage from Ludington on the morning of February 17, 1897, interchanging freight with both the Wisconsin Central and the Chicago and North Western Railway
Chicago and North Western Railway
The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwest United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s...
. The car ferry operation was so successful that it soon became obvious that service would have to be expanded; in 1900 the Pere Marquette transported 27,000 railroad cars across Lake Michigan.
Consolidation
As early as 1886 the Chicago and West Michigan RailwayChicago and West Michigan Railway
The Chicago and West Michigan Railway is a defunct railroad which operated in the state of Michigan between 1881 and 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway....
shared common directors with the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad
Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad
The Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad is a defunct railroad which was formed on December 27, 1876 as a reorganization of the foreclosed Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Rail Road...
, which was reorganized a decade later, in 1896, as the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad. On December 27, 1897, the DGR&W inaugurated car ferry service between Muskegon and Milwaukee with the wooden car ferry Muskegon
(later renamed Pere Marquette 16).
By January 1, 1899, the F&PM had sold 468690 acres (1,896.7 km²) of the 513000 acres (2,076 km²) granted the company by the federal government. Sales amounted to $4,847,007 - an average of $10.34 an acres.
An agreement was reached in 1899 for the consolidation of the F&PM with the Chicago and West Michigan and the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western with securities of the newly organized exchanged for those of the constituent companies. The F&PM declared a special 2% dividend out of assets as part of the consolidation plan. The Pere Marquette Railroad was incorporated November 1, 1899, and took over the properties on January 1, 1900.
Charles M. Heald of the C&WM and DGR&W was president of the Pere Marquette with William W. Crapo of the F&PM as chairman of the board of directors. On February 1, 1900, the new company acquired the Saginaw, Tuscola and Huron Railroad, which had been built in 1881-86 by investors associated with the F&PM.
Presidents of the F&PM
- George M. Dewey 1857-1860
- Eber Brock WardEber Brock WardEber Brock Ward was an iron and steel manufacturer and shipbuilder. He was known as the "steamship king of the Great Lakes" and as the "first of the iron kings." Ward became Detroit's first millionaire. He was the wealthiest man in the Midwest, in his time, due his steel factories.Ward was into...
1860-1875 - Jesse HoytJesse HoytJesse Hoyt was an American lawyer and politician from New York.-Life:...
1875-1882 - William W. CrapoWilliam W. CrapoWilliam Wallace Crapo was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. He was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James Buffinton. He served slightly more than three terms in congress from November 2, 1875 to March 3, 1883Born in Dartmouth,...
1882-1899