Allegan County, Michigan - Chapter 4: The Railroad Era (1868-1906), 1907

Transportation being the key to population, it is natural to ascribe great importance to the period beginning with the building of the first railroad into Allegan county in the sixties. Up to that time, the methods of transportation were by the river and the overland traffic which had been greatly accelerated by the building of the plank road in 1854.

In the thirties a Clinton and Kalamazoo River Canal had been proposed under the agitation for internal improvements. F. J. Littlejohn made the survey in this county, Allegan village being the western terminus and head of river navigation. Only a few miles of the eastern end of the canal were constructed, and before the movement toward construction of great commercial highways had been resumed after the panic, canals had fallen into disfavor as compared with railroads.

About the same time a railroad had been planned for Allegan county. Its early construction had been expectantly referred to in the "Plan of Allegan" elsewhere quoted. The Allegan and Marshall Railroad was incorporated March 4, 1836, two of the directors being John R, Kellogg and Alex. L. Ely. No part of the road was ever graded.

After the Michigan Central was completed across the southwest corner of the state in 1848, various plans were formed to tap this line by a road running north into the developing country, north of Kalamazoo. One line was projected from Lawton, passing through Allegan to Grand Rapids, and another from Kalamazoo via Allegan to Grand Rapids. The time was not yet ripe for these lines.

The first railroad to penetrate Allegan county was the Kalamazoo and Allegan R. R. Joseph Fisk of Allegan and W. C. Edsell of Otsego were directors in the company. Before the road had been completed to Allegan the name was changed to tlie Kalamazoo, Allegan & Grand Rapids R. R., the incorporation being amended so as to allow the road to be extended to Grand Rapids. The first division of the Hne was completed to Allegan and the first train came into the village November 23, 1868, Thanksgiving day. Work was at once begun on the northern division, and trains began running to Grand Rapids in March, 1869. The road was leased in that year to the Michigan Southern R. R. Co., and has been operated as a part of the L. S. & M. S. system ever since.

The next complete section of railroad in the county was the line from Allegan to Holland, now a part of the Pere Marquette. This piece of railroad has had a varied career. It was built by the Michigan Lake Shore R. R. Co., which was a consolidation of three other companies, effected in

1869. Though the survey from Allegan to Muskegon was not adopted till August, 1869, the work was pushed with such vigor that the road between these points - a distance of 57 miles - was opened July i, 1870. The road went into the hands of a receiver in 1874, and in 1878 a reorganization was effected under the name of Grand Haven R. R.

This branch is now a feeder of the Pere Marquette system, the main line of which in this county was constructed about 1871, under the name of the Chicago & Michigan Lake Shore R. R. The company was organized at St. Joseph, Michigan, in May, 1869, to construct a railroad north along the lake shore. The line was completed as far as Pentwater by January, 1872. With the hard times of 1873 all large enterprises suffered, and this road was turned over to the bondholders in 1874, and the company was not reorganized until 1877, when the Chicago & West Michigan R. R. Co. came into existence. This name was retained by the railroad until it passed under the Pere Marquette, which extended the system by completing a line to Chicago.

The Grand Rapids & Indiana R. R. was built along the general route planned during the forties. However, Allegan village was left to one side, and the line ran by a more direct route from Kalamazoo through Plainwell to Grand Rapids. This section of the road was first ptit in operation in October, 1870.

Only one other railroad line remains to be described - that extending from Allegan southeast to Battle Creek and now a part of the Michigan Central. Long known as the Allegan & Southeastern, the line from Allegan to Monteith was the only portion ever constructed of the Mansfield, Coldwater & Lake Michigan R, R., an ambitious project that failed disastrously in the main. The eleven miles from Allegan to &fonteith were constructed by Col. Joseph Fisk of Allegan, the local contractor, in ninety days, being completed in September, 1871. It was planned to build this road from Mansfield, Ohio, to Allegan, Michigan. In 1875 eleven and a half miles were in operation from Allegan to Monteith, and the official railroad map of 1875 shows it as a stump line projecting east of Monteith a few miles and under lease for operation purposes by the Grand Rapids & Indiana. August 28, 1877, the road was sold under foreclosure of mortgage, the name then changing to the Allegan & Southeastern R. R. Co.

It will be noted that for a few years from 1868, Allegan county was a center of phenomenal activity in railroad construction. All the steam lines now in the county were built at that time, and the only added line of transportation since then was the electric line from Holland to Saugatuck, built in 1896.

The directions of improvement and upbuilding since the beginning of the railroad era have been various. Many figures go to show that the county, rebounding from the disasters of the Civil war. entered upon an epoch of industrial expansion such as had not been eqiialled in the preceding quarter of a century. Having endured and maintained its integrity in the most desperate crisis any nation ever passed through, the people were fairly lifted beyond all previous standards by their new self-reliance and confidence in their ability to effect vast enterprises. Railroads were built in all parts of the United States, population flowed into new areas, and progress continued along broad lines until checked bv the panic of 1873.

A study of population statistics shows many changes wrought in Allegan during the era now under consideration. In i860 the population of the county was 16,087. ^y 1^7° ^^ l^^'' doubled - being 32,105. This remarkable increase had taken place in five years' time, for the state census of 1864 showed only 18,830 inhabitants. And during the four years from 1870 to 1874 population was almost stationary - being, respectively, 32,105 and 32,381. In 1880 population had increased to 37,815. and since then has been practically stationary, being, in 1890, 38,961, and in 1900, 38,812. From these figures it is evident that Allegan county's most rapid increase occurred at the beginning of the railroad era, and in five years' time attained a population that has since been subject to only moderate fluctuations. A more detailed study of population is presented in the following table :

This table of population will bear much study. It .shows that certain areas that received a large proportion of settlement in early years has fallen off in the past thirty years, while areas once thought unattractive and little

The transformation of the former timber country into a portion of the splendid Michigan fruit belt has effected a marked redistribution of population. A factor of similar power in rearranging the population was, of course, the railroad. To these two factors may be credited most of the changes indicated in the above table.

Using Casco township as an example, which was once a productive lumber region, but is now equally famous as a fruit center, it is seen that a population of 296 in i860 increased in ten years to 1,264, ^nd has shown a steady increase with each decade to the present, when Casco is one of the six townships with more than 2,000 inhabitants.

In the case of Allegan, Cheshire, Fillmore, Gun Plains, Heath, Hopkins, Leighton, Martin, Monterey, Saugatuck, Trowbridge, Valley, Watson and Wayland - fourteen townships in all - the figures for the last census show a falling ofl' from the highest figures.

With respect to nativity Allegan county shows some interesting facts. In 1870 out of a total popidation of over 32,000, 5,586 were of foreign birth and 8,983 were of foreign parentage. The following table shows the principal sources of the county's foreign population for the years 1870 and 1900 :

Much interest attaches to the following table as showing the from which the native American population of the county came, a: cated by the census of 1870, The total number of American born !iv the county that year was 26,519. Divided according to the slates, born they were :

During the past forty years the colored people have formed a considerable element of the population. In 1850 there, were only five colored persons in the county. In the course of the following decade a negro colony began forming in Cheshire township, which has remained the center of this population ever since. In i860 that township had 30 colored persons. There were 16 in Allegan and one each in Wayland and Dorr.

During and after the war many colored people came to Allegan county, so that the census of 1870 showed their numbers to be as follows in the different townships: Allegan, 42; Casco, i; Cheshire, 211; Clyde, 24; Gun Plains, 3 ; Lee, 8 ; Leighton, i ; Monterey, i ; Otsego, 15 ; Trowbridge, 31 ; Wayland, 8.

This chapter may be conchided with a comparative statement of equalized valuations of the townships for different periods during the last forty years :