332 



In 1830 there were but 41 miles of railroad in operation in the Uni- 

 ted Stati-s; in 1840, 2,10.7 miles; in 1850, 8,655 miles; and in 1854, 

 there were 480 railroads in operation, having an aggregate length of 

 20,619 miles — 4,000 miles of which are double track roads. And it 

 is estimated that there are about 13,000 miles more of railroads now 

 in various stages of construction. 



The project of a railroad across the Peninsula of Michigan, was agi- 

 tated as early as 1830, at which time the Legislature of the then Ter- 

 ritory of Michigan adopted a memorial to the general government in 

 favor of the establishment of a canal or railroad route from Detroit to 

 the mouth of St. Joseph river, on Lake Michigan. 



In 1832 the Legislature incorporated the " Detroit and St. Joseph 

 Railroad Company," In 1834 Lieut. J. M. Berrien, under the author- 

 ity of the War Department, surveyed the route of the road, and sub- 

 mitted his report to a convention of the friends of the measure, held 

 in Detroit in December of that year. The Directors and Officers of 

 the Company were as follows: Maj. John Diddle, President; Charles 

 0. Trowbridge, Oliver Newberry, Shubael Conant, E. A. Brush, Henry 

 Whiting, J. Burdick, H. H. Comstock, Mark Norris and C. N. Omsby, 

 Directors; John M. Berrien, Chief Engineer; A. J. Center, Assistant 

 Engineer; A. IL Adams, Secretary and Treasurer, The construction 

 of the road was commenced by this company in 1836, who surveyed 

 the road from Detroit to Jackson, and located it to Dexter. This com- 

 pany graded about ten miles of the road, in detached parts, between 

 Detroit and Ypsilanti, They expended for grading, iron, cars, bridges, 

 (fee, the sum of $139,702 79. Soon after Michigan was admitted into 

 the Union, the Legislature adopted a grand scheme of internal im- 

 provements, and effected a loan of five millions of dollars, for the pur- 

 pose of constructing public Avoiks — railroads and canals. Tl.ishad the 

 effect to check individual enterprise, and the Detroit and St. Joseph 

 Railroad Company transferred their iLtcrests to the State in the year 

 1837. The State completed and opened tho road to Ypsilanti in 1S3S, 

 to Ann Arbor in 1839, to Jackson in 1842, and to Kalamazoo in 1843. 

 The State constructed the road with the wood and flat bar superstruc- 

 ture as far as Kalamazoo, 143 miles from Detroit, when in 1846 it was 

 purchased from the State by capitalists from New York and New Eng- 

 land, for the sum of two millions of dollars, and a charter was granted 



