Dec. 1 marks 150 years of railroad service in Mason County

Scottville depot

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief

In 2023, the City of Ludington celebrated its sesquicentennial. The 150th anniversary of Ludington’s 1873 incorporation as a city was worthy of celebration. An event that took place the next year, Dec. 1, 1874, has received far less fanfare, but was arguably more impactful on the entire region. That event was the completion of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway, terminating in Ludington, and the arrival of the first train on Dec. 6, 1874. The arrival of the railroad not only defined the next 150 years of Ludington, but all of Mason County. Its development was the reason that towns such as Scottville, Custer, Fountain, and Free Soil exist. Its impact resulted in the creation of cross-lake freight service from Ludington to Wisconsin, which began in 1875 and then, in 1897, the first Ludington-based railroad car ferry began service.

It’s rare to come across a Mason County family that has been here for at least three generations that doesn’t have some sort of connection to the railroad or car ferries.

George Dewey

The Flint & Pere Marquette Railway was incorporated on Jan. 21, 1857 and ultimately owned 712 miles of railroad tracks by 1899, with its main route being 170 miles from Flint to Ludington. The creation of the railroad was the result of $3,775,000 land grant from the United States signed by President Franklin Pierce in 1856 designed to help build several railroads in the Upper Peninsula and four in the Lower Peninsula. As part of the land grant, the railroad was expected to complete 20 miles of track each year. George M. Dewey was the first president of the F&PM.

William B. Sears, who later became the F&PM’s chief engineer, led the survey party that laid out the route of the railroad. The location map was filed with the state and the federal General Land Office in August 1857.

Though the F&PM was based in Flint, the founders found it convenient to start building the railroad in Saginaw (which at that time consisted of Saginaw City and East Saginaw). Construction began in 1859 with the initial tracks between East Saginaw and Flint.

The founding of Mason County

While the area now known as Mason County had been occupied by bands of Native Americans for centuries, the first documented visit by a European was in May 1675 when Father (Pere in French) Jacques Marquette died on the shores of Lake Michigan near what would later become a river, lake and town named after him.

Pere Marquette Memorial on Buttersville Peninsula

In 1673, Marquette and French-Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet, left St. Ignace and followed Lake Michigan to Green Bay, up the Fox River to its headwaters. They eventually entered the Mississippi River and traveled within 435 miles of the Gulf of Mexico, turning back at the mouth of the Arkansas River. They followed the Mississippi back to the Illinois River and reached what is now Chicago. In the spring of 1675 Marquette began his journey back to St. Ignace on the east side of Lake Michigan. He died of dysentery at the age of 37. He was buried on the site. A year later, a group of Ottawa disinterred his body and placed the remains in a birch box. They then returned his remains to St. Ignace.

The next record of a non-Native American person coming to what is now Mason County took place in 1835, when William Quivillon, who was working for Louis Campeau and Sen. William T. Ferry, came to the area to trade with Native Americans. Quivillon left the area but returned with his family in 1850 and established a farm on the property that is now Summit Park in Summit Township.

On Jan. 26, 1837, Michigan became a state. Initially, Mason County was part of Ottawa County. Notipekago County was established in 1840 and was attached to Ottawa County. The named derived from what the Ottawa called the river that would eventually be named the Pere Marquette River and was translated as “heads on sticks,” named after a Native American battle that took place on the river in the 1700s near what is now the Custer Road bridge. (Read more here).

The more common spelling is Not-a-pe-ka-gon, but it also has appeared as Niindibekagoning. The Ottawa village located on what is now the Buttersville Peninsula was also referred to as Notipekago.

The county was renamed Mason in 1843, after Stevens T. Mason, the first governor of Michigan. In 1855, Mason County was separated from Ottawa County and established its own government.

Historical records show that Joseph L. Wheeler purchased land around Pere Marquette Lake in 1840 and in 1845, John H. Harris acquired 37 acres of land in what became known as Free Soils Mills near the mouth of Gurney Creek in Section 6 of what is now Grant Township.

Village of Pere Marquette

Charles Mears, 1856

The first Ludington sawmill was established in 1849 in the area where the Ludington Municipal Marina is now located. It was a steam-powered mill owned by two Manistee men, Bean and Baird. The village, mostly made up of shanties, soon became known as Pere Marquette, but the village was never chartered. With the addition of more sawmills, more housing and commerce eventually came to the area.

The sawmill in Pere Marquette, however, was not the first in the area. That honor goes to the sawmill established at Free Soil Mills in what is now Grant Township.

In 1847, Charles Mears built a mill at Black Creek, later known as Lincoln (near modern day Lincoln Hills Golf Club on Lincoln Lake in Hamlin Township). A log house and blacksmith shop were first built. Mears changed the name in 1861 after Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as president.

Baird and Bean sold their sawmill to George Farnsworth in 1849 who shortly afterwards sold the mill to George W. Ford, a Manistee lumberman. Ford’s financial troubles cost him his mill to James Ludington.

In October 1854, Ford had been introduced to James Ludington and his associate, attorney James Mason Loomis. Ludington and Loomis agreed to lend Ford $6,000. In return, they were to supply Ford with the means necessary for him to expand his mill and hire sufficient loggers and mill hands. As part of the deal, Ludington also advanced Ford money to buy certain other lands in his and Loomis’ name. As security, Ford put up his mill, his boarding house, and land. Included as collateral were 400 acres near the mill. Terms of the contact called for Ford to repay $2,000 by January, 1855, three months after the contract had been signed and the remaining $4,000 over the next five years.

EB Ward South Mill Fourth Ward 1893 Ludington

Ford apparently had other debts with Ludington and Loomis, along with others. In 1857,  during the presidency of Franklin Pierce, the nation underwent an economic downturn known as “The Panic of 1857” in which many banks and businesses closed and thousands of people lost their jobs. Ford was one of the victims.

Loomis and Ludington sued Ford. The case was one of the most contentious cases in Mason County history. The court ordered Ford to pay $69,849, which included the original loan and others that Ludington and Loomis had lent Ford, plus 10 percent interest and the 400 acres of land. The court also awarded Ludington possession of the mill. The two sides reached a settlement. However, 10 years later, Ford sued Ludington, claiming that 40 acres, which were to have been set aside as a homestead for Ford, had been erroneously included in the 400 acres. Ludington’s attorneys eventually acknowledged the error.

The 40 acres were the best land out of the 400 and apparently Ford had already sold the land to another person. It was equivalent to 12 blocks or 120 city lots. bounded by what is now Ludington Avenue on the north, a parallel line between Foster and Danaher streets on the south, on the west by Rath Avenue and on the east by a line running through the middle of the courthouse. It comprised most of the modern Third Ward.

According to a newspaper report in 1920, Ford died a pauper and was buried in an unmarked grave in Lakeview Cemetery.

Ludington depot

James Ludington

James Ludington was a successful Milwaukee businessman who was born in Carmel, Putnam County, NY on April 18, 1827. His family tree dates back to the time of the Third Crusade in the 12th century. He was the nephew of Revolutionary War hero Sybil Ludington, who is often compared to Paul Revere.

James Ludington

When he was 11-years-old, his father, Lewis, bought large tracts of timber in Wisconsin. Lewis Ludington later founded Columbus, Wis., located northeast of Madison. James moved to Milwaukee in 1845, when he was 18, to help run his father’s business, Ludington & Co. His success grew from there. He was the treasurer of La Crosse Railroad for two years; president of the Bank of the West in Madison and vice president of the Juneau Bank, according to the book “The History of Manistee, Mason, and Oceana counties,” published in the late 1800s. Ludington also served three terms as a Milwaukee alderman.

In 1864, Ludington opened a post office in Pere Marquette village and called it Ludington. David A. Melendy, who had been James Ludington’s bookkeeper, became the city’s first postmaster.

In 1867, Ludington platted 360 acres of land around Pere Marquette village and sold lots to individuals, developing the town. He named Ludington Avenue and James Street after himself. He also named several streets after family members: Lewis (father); siblings William, Robert, Charles, Harrison, Emily, Lavinia, and Delia. An online family tree also lists the streets Charles and Amelia.

That same year, he built a large commercial building called The Big Store, which sold a variety of goods. He also founded the first newspaper in the village, the Mason County Record.

The sawmill that Ludington acquired developed into an independent entity, called the Pere Marquette Lumber Company, which operated and managed the sawmill and The Big Store.  On July 24, 1869, Ludington sold his interests to the company for $500,000. He used a portion of the proceeds to develop the village.

Ludington never married, nor did he ever live in the city of Ludington. History records that his visits to the town were brief and he spent most of his adult life living in hotel rooms in Milwaukee. He died on April 1, 1891 in his residence at Plankinton House Hotel in Milwaukee. He was 63. Ludington is buried in a cemetery in Carmel, NY.

Eber Brock Ward

Eber Ward

Eber Brock Ward was born in 1811, the son of a lighthouse keeper. At a young age, he began working as a cabin boy on sailing vessels owned by his uncle Samuel Ward. Eventually he became business partner with his uncle. The two developed a large, possibly the largest, fleet of passenger steamers on the Great Lakes.

Ward eventually founded iron and steel operations in Wyandotte, just outside of Detroit, as well as in Chicago and Milwaukee. He focused on diversification and took over the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway in 1860, serving as its president until his death in 1875.

Much more about Eber Brock Ward can be found in the book “The Forgotten Iron King of the Great Lakes: Eber Brock Ward, 1811-1875” written by West Shore Community College history professor Michael Nagle.

Locomotive at Ludington roundhouse

Rivals

Eber Ward and James Ludington were staunch business rivals. In 1868, Ward began negotiating with James Ludington for a terminal site in Pere Marquette with frontage on Pere Marquette Lake. The F&PM had been considering a cross-lake route to Manitowoc, Wis. since 1859 because the trip around Lake Michigan was costly, mostly due to heavy rail traffic through Chicago. At the time, the railroad had also considered placing the west terminus of the railroad in Pentwater.

Ludington favored the completion of the railroad but he played hard ball in negotiating the terms, knowing that Ward intended to build mills to tap the lumber along the Pere Marquette River. Ludington feared the move would make Ward too big so he refused to sell a terminal site or mill sites at any price, hoping to convince Ward into selling some of his 70,000 acres of timber along the Pere Marquette River. Ward would not budge.

In 1869, Ward had learned that Ludington’s logging crews had cut pine from his land, an act that may have been unintentional. He kept quiet until Ludington went to Detroit on business and then had him arrested and lodged in the Wayne County Jail on charges of trespassing and timber theft. He secured a judgement of $65,000 against Ludington, who was financially ruined. Ludington suffered a stroke and was forced to quit business.

Ludington’s associates then formed the Pere Marquette Lumber Company and reached an amicable agreement with Ward in August 1869 for both the railway terminal and the mill sites.

Ward died suddenly on Jan. 2, 1875, just one month after the railroad was completed. Ward’s mills and land were eventually purchased by his brother-in-law Justus Stearns.

Eber Ward deserves much of the credit for the F&PM terminating in Ludington. But, Robert Arnott, Sr. was instrumental in the development of the railroad and car ferries.

Robert Arnott, Sr.

Robert Arnott, Sr.

The man responsible for building the train stations along the F&PM’s route from Saginaw was Robert Arnott, Sr., who ultimately settled in Ludington.

Arnott was born April 20, 1830 in Kirkcudbright, Scotland.

On Sept. 26, 1853, he married Margaret McFarlane (1830-1914) in Guilford, England. In March, 1854, the newlyweds immigrated to Canada where he became employed by the Great Western Railway of Canada. After being employed by the railroad at several places, he was appointed agent at Clarkston, Mich. by Great Western’s American subsidiary, the Detroit & Milwaukee Railway.

Arnott then moved to Holly, Mich. where he continued to serve the D&M but was also hired as an agent by the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway. They moved again to Saginaw and he was tasked with opening stations along the newly formed F&PM Railway from Saginaw to Ludington, which included being appointed as the Baldwin agent in 1873.

Arnott rode the first train into Ludington on Dec. 6, 1874, and as agent, supervised the construction of the first depot in 1875, the first grain elevator in 1877 and the freight shed in 1879. The freight shed continued to be used until 1947. 

The Arnotts lived at 107 E. Melendy St. in Ludington and had eight children: Robert, Jr., George, Jessie, Emma, Etta, Maggie (who married Marhsall Butters), Eva, and Ella.

Arnottt served as the Ludington station agent for 10 years. In 1885 he resigned from the F&PM and became bookkeeper for Butters, Peters & Co. Salt and Lumber Co. in Tallman where he worked for five years. After the Tallman mill burned in 1885, he held the same position in the firm’s office at Buttersville until 1889.

On May 22, 1889, Arnott opened the Arnott Insurance Agency at 427 S. James St.

In 1910, failing eyesight forced Arnott to give up his day-to-day office work. He retained ownership but his daughter, Etta, attended to the business.

Robert Arnott, Sr., died on Sept. 13, 1921 at the age of 91 (he and Margaret are buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington). Etta continued to run the business until her death in 1930. The building sat vacant for several years and after the death of Emma Arnott, the last local family member, it was sold and demolished in 1950.

Also in 1950, Ludington State Bank took possession of the Arnott home. Local historian Rose Hawley, a member of the Mason County Historical Society, was invited to sort through the house’s contents to add to the historical society’s collection. The items acquired from the house were the inspiration of the society’s first museum.

Anticipating the railroad

The village of Pere Marquette, which became Ludington, was developed because of Pere Marquette Lake and the proximity to Lake Michigan. The railroad was a bonus to development that surely helped Ludington become what it is today. Ludington grew because of the railroad while the village of Lincoln eventually faded away, as did the settlement of Hamlin along the Big Sable River in the modern Ludington State Park.

Towns such as Scottville and Custer also grew because of their proximity to the railroad and the Pere Marquette River. Other towns such as Walhalla, Jordan and Amber also were developed because of the railroad, but did not last as official villages. Each started out with a flag stop, an informal stop along the route when a flagman would signal the train to stop. Eventually, depots were built in Ludington, Amber, Scottville, Custer, and Walhalla.

The Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed citizens to claim 160 acres of public land in exchange for a small fee and five years of continuous residence, contributed to people moving to cleared lands as well. The end of the Civil War saw an influx of veterans taking advantage of the Homestead Act in places like Mason County.

Custer train depot, 1915

Custer

Historical accounts of Custer village often discuss Native American settlements that existed in that area prior to the mid-19th century with the first non-native settlers arriving in 1847.

An Ottawa chief named An-saw-may-key-kick had been granted land on the present-day Howe farm just north of the intersection of US 10 and Main Street (Custer Road). Part of the land deeded to him had been used as a Native American burial ground causing him to eventually move to a new location, ironically the present site of Custer Township’s Riverside Cemetery.

In 1848, many of the Native Americans, mostly Ottawa, abandoned their encampments and moved farther away.

A settlement named Black Creek, named after Mr. Black, was the first settlement of non-native people in that area. It existed closer to the Pere Marquette River south of the present-day village. It’s likely the residents of that site moved further north with the arrival of the railroad.

The village was initially called Ferryville with the first post office opening in September, 1875, a year after the railroad was completed to Ludington. Edwin Milton Comstock was the first postmaster. The post office was located on what is now Madison Street just north of the railroad tracks. Also that year, William Metcalf opened the village’s first hotel.

Scottville depot

Scottville

About 1860, the first non-native people began settling in an area near the center of Mason County which would later become Scottville.

There were two other settlements that were also established nearby along the route of the anticipated railroad, Jordan and Amber. Jordan was located in Section 13 of Amber Township, just west of the current Scottville city limits on the south end of property that is now the local offices of Great Lakes Energy. Amber, also known as Amber Station, was located on what is now Amber Road just south of US 10-31. Both settlements were established in the path of the railroad. It is likely Scottville became the more dominant community due to it being closer to the river (and eventually had a river crossing) and also because a north-south road was established in 1875, along the Amber-Custer townships line. This road was surveyed and improved in 1880 and it eventually lead up to Manistee.

Amber Station train depot

In the book “Back Home With Ruth,” written by June Newkirk and published in 1976, Ruth Bishop Falconer (1876-1976) spoke about coming to Scottville at age 4 in 1880, with her widowed mother, Emma Bishop. Falconer said the area around Scottville consisted of 10 families in 1864, with many of the men gone, fighting in the Civil War.

In 1871, railroad ties were being laid and the final stretch of the F&PM Railway was being built from Reed City to Ludington.

The first land grants were established in the settlement that became Scottville in 1870, and 1871 and went to Native Americans Key-way-quarn-m-quay (1870), O-taw-pa-taw (1870), and Naw-qua-naey-she (1871).

Hiram Scott

In 1875, land grants were granted to John Murphy and Harry Melsom. Melsom built the first general store in the town. In 1876, James Sweetland (1839-1911) and Josephus C. Mustard (1833-1913) moved their families from Victory Township. Between 1875 and 1879, Sweetland, Mustard, and John Winters (1833-1902) established a sawmill and the town soon was being called Sweetland (it was also often referred to as Mason Center).

George H. Reader

Hiram Scott (1849-1924) arrived in Scottville in 1877 and James Crowley (1842-1890) arrived in 1879. Falconer described them as lumber scalers from Ludington. In 1879, they established a general store in a recently built two-story building just south of the railroad tracks on the southwest corner of modern Main and First streets. It’s likely that this store was purchased from Melsom or replaced Melsom’s store. Scott operated the store and Crowley served as a silent partner. They hired George H. Reader (1853-1912) as a clerk and assistant manager.

The name of the town was changed from Sweetland to Scottville sometime between 1880 and 1882. James Sweetland had left his wife, Annett (1845-1919) who had given birth in 1879 to twin daughters, their sixth and seventh children. Though the town was never officially named Sweetland, the townsfolk decided it was time it had a different name. Hiram Scott and George Reader flipped a coin, as the story goes, and Scott won the coin toss.

George Reader was elected to the Michigan legislature in 1887 as a Republican. As state representative, Reader was responsible for Scottville’s incorporation as a village in 1889. In 1907, the town was incorporated as a city.

The John Sherman was the first break bulk freighter to service the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway from Ludington to Sheboygan, Wis.

Cross-lake freighters

The railroad was built mostly to transport lumber, an industry that eventually faded. But, the cross-lake freighters, and later the car ferries, were the key to Ludington’s growth and continued sustainability that lasted for over 100 years. To this day, the car ferry legacy continues.

Within a year of the railroad reaching Ludington, the F&PM was interested in break-bulk steamer service across Lake Michigan. Break-bulk steamers carried railway freight from shore to shore. Railcars at that time did not travel across the lake, so the contents of the cars were removed, loaded onto the break-bulk steamer, shipped across Lake Michigan, then re-loaded onto railcars waiting on the other shore.

Ludington Round House 2

Name changes to Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad

On July 1, 1879, the F&PM went into receivership, 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. Henry C. Potter, general manager, was named receiver to the reorganize the company. The company remained in receivership until September 30, 1880, when it was reorganized as the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad.

Potter’s reorganization eliminated nearly $4 million of debt and replaced it with $6.5 million of preferred stock. Under the Potter’s 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 percent 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 percent dividend was declared on preferred stock.

The advantage to the company was that the interest on the preferred stock was payable only when earned.

Railroad crew in Free Soil

Manistee Branch

With the increase of lumber traffic, Potter decided to build a branch of the railroad to Manistee to gather freight traffic from its sawmills. On May 31, 1880, the F&PM incorporated a new subsidiary, the Manistee Railroad Company. The company’s line was to be 22 miles from Branch Township in Mason County to the Manistee River. The road was wholly owned by the F&PM. On Dec. 31, 1881, 23.96 miles of railroad was completed between Tallman and Manistee.

Prior to starting work on the Manistee Branch in 1880, the F&PM had completed the 3.18 miles-long Butters Branch that was started in 1879 and finished in 1880. The connection was made from the main line just east of Walhalla north to the Butters sawmill located on the west shore of Tallman Lake near the end of Decker Road. This branch is still marked today by Butters Road.

The line was located a short distance east of and parallel to the present line to Manistee. By the end of 1882, the 26.8-miles of the Manistee Branch was in service. The F&PM depot in Manistee was located just north of Harrison Street.

About 1882, the F&PM built a short spur from the Manistee line to the sawmill at Tallman Lake. That same year it also built a short logging spur to Gun Lake. The Gun Lake Spur may have been about 3 miles in length, left the Mantises Branch 2.3 miles north of Fountain, at Mile Post 10.4 and curved around the east side of Gun Lake to its north end. Some of the spur’s grade appears to be on Town Line Road.

Just like the east-west main line, the Manistee Branch resulted in the formation of the towns Tallman, Fountain and Free Soil.

Editor’s Note: The road is spelled out Town Line from Stephens Road to Reek Road, as it curves around the south side of Gun Lake, likely the path of the railroad. The remainder of the road, as it travels west from Stephens Road to Dennis Road is spelled Townline, one word.  

Tallman

Tallman was a planned community, developed by lumberman Horace U. Butters (1833-1905) when he and partner, Richard G. Peters of Manistee, started a sawmill on Tallman Lake.

Butters had 40 acres surveyed and platted to the south and east of his store. It was platted into 16 blocks with eight lots in each. The streets were then named. The east-west streets were Butters Avenue, Annis Street, Marshall Street, Eveline Street, and Bockstanz Avenue. The north-south streets were Belle Street, Flora Street, Peters Street, Maggie Street and Goff Avenue.

Butters hired Nickolas Bockstanz (1854-1940) as a guide to help him follow direct lines and know the stand of trees in a given area.

Tallman was named after H.C. Tallman, a cousin of Butters, who was an attorney who invested $10,000 in the Butters, Peters & Co. sawmill operation. Out of appreciation, Butters named the village after him.

The sawmill in Tallman had a capacity of 15 million feet of lumber per year and the shingle mill had a possible output of 80 million shingles annually.

The mill in Tallman was destroyed by fire in 1884. Instead of rebuilding, Butters, Peters & Co. enlarged the mill at Buttersville.

Bachelor depot in 1907 after other building was moved to Fountain

Bachelor

The village of Bachelor was located along modern Sugar Grove Road between Larsen and Morse roads near Bachelor and Round lakes. Mr. Batcheller owned a sawmill near Turtle Lake (Bachelor Lake). Other lumbermen who came to the area included John Perry, John Ford, C.O. Holmes and Sherman Shaddock. At one time the town contained three stores and a depot. The stores were owned by Robert Rogers, William Lawrence, and Bert Steele.

The Bachelor train depot was originally located in Tallman. When the sawmill there burned, it was moved to Bachelor. Then, in 1897, it was moved to Fountain.

The fate of Bachelor was similar to that of Tallman. On July 27, 1891, fire struck the thriving town destroying a boarding house, two stores and all the houses on the east side of the village.

Fountain

Fountain

The Village of Fountain was established along the North Branch Lincoln River and the anticipated Manistee Branch of the F&PM Railway. The railroad reached the North Branch Lincoln River in 1881. Frank Young set up a sawmill about 1/4 mile west of the railroad’s prospective crossing of the river.

Nickolas J. Bockstanz, profiled above, built a store on the east side of the tracks and was the instigator of a petition, bearing 17 names, that was sent to Washington, D.C., requesting a post office for the vicinity. A name had to be presented with the petition and Fountain was chosen because of a bubbling spring, locally called the Fountain Head, where the residents got their fresh water. On Oct. 3, 1882, Bockstanz was appointed as Fountain postmaster.

William and Hannah Rogers received title of the north half of the northeast quarter of section 24 in Sherman Township, located half mile southeast of the railroad’s crossing of the river and south of present day Millerton Road. The land was cleared by 1882 and became the community of Fountain. William Rogers opened a store and became the postmaster on Aug. 3, 1883. A portion of the Rogers land was then sold to the township for a school in November 1883.

On Feb. 6, 1884, Thomas P. Wilson of Tallman purchased the village site from Rogers for $1,600 and was appointed postmaster. A few people purchased small parcels of land but the area did not see much more success.

Samuel Dodge Squire came from Strathroy, Ontario to work with the railroad in 1881. He operated the pump house by the river, purchasing land on Nov. 14, 1882 near the railroad tracks and building a house.

The Foster brothers, Martin, William, and Fidello, brought their sawmill from Amber about 1885 and set up east of the railroad near the river. At that point, many newcomers began to build homes in that area.

By 1893, both the post office and school were moved to the populous area by the river, the site of modern day Fountain.

The first community was later referred to as Poff’s Crossing and later Paxton’s Crossing.

On March 10, 1913, Fountain was chartered as a village.

Much of the above account of Fountain’s history was written by Glee Mackey for the Mason County Historical Society’s “Historic Mason County” published in 1980.

Free Soil depot

Free Soil

Free Soil Township was established in 1848, named after the Free Soil anti-slavery political party. The original township consisted of modern-day Grant, Free Soil, and Meade townships.

Free Soil village began in the early 1860s when Philip Riter and his family settled east of what became Riter Swamp. Many of the settlers that followed were loggers from Manistee.

In 1879, Henry Smith divided his land in Sections 21 and 22 into 60 acre plots and sold them to new residents. Starry Thompson and his brother Henry Thompson, both of Manistee, built a water mill on the Big Sable River that same year, just north of the village. The mill was later sold to H.C. Tallman (mentioned above in the section on Tallman village).

In 1880, the Methodist Church was built and in 1881 Free Soil Hall was built. Free Soil was incorporated between 1912 and 1914.

Flint & Pere Marquette No. 4.

F&PM enters car ferry service

In December, 1895, the F&PM ordered a steel car ferry, designed by Robert Logan (1861-1918), a prominent naval architect of Cleveland who had immigrated to the U.S. from Scotland.The Pere Marquette was launched on Dec. 30, 1896 and arrived in Ludington on Feb. 13, 1897. It was then sent to Milwaukee for inspection. The ship had twin screws, steel hull, two stacks placed fore and aft and a single deck of cabins.

The Pere Marquette made its maiden voyage from Ludington to Manitowoc the evening of Feb. 16-17, 1897. It carried 22 freight cars and the private car of S.T. Crapo, general manager of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway.

Pere Marquette Locomotive No. 63 in Custer

The Pere Marquette Railway

As early as 1886 the Chicago and West Michigan Railway 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.

By Jan. 1, 1899, the F&PM had sold 468,690 acres of the 513,000 acres 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 percent dividend out of assets as part of the consolidation plan. The Pere Marquette Railroad was incorporated Nov. 1, 1899, and took over on Jan. 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. Stanford T. Crapo, son of William Crapo, was named general manager.

Operations of the railroad began Jan. 1, 1900.

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.

The company was reincorporated in 1917 as the Pere Marquette Railway.

PM 17 entering Ludington harbor

The Pere Marquette car ferries

When the new company was formed, it also obtained the former F&PM fleet consisting of the car ferry Pere Marquette and the passenger and break-bulk freight-carriers F&PM Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5. Additionally, it acquired a car ferry that had been owned by the Detroit Grand Rapids & Western.

In 1897, the DGR&W had leased the Shenango No. 2 from the United States & Ontario Steam Navigation Company. The 282-foot-long ship was built in 1895 by Craig Ship Building Co. in Toledo and served on Lake Erie until it was put in service between a new slip on the Chicago & West Michigan at Port Sherman on the south bank of the harbor mouth in Muskegon and another on the Milwaukee Road at Maple Street in Milwaukee. It began its Lake Michigan service on Dec. 27, 1897. The DGR&W purchased the ferry in 1898 and renamed it Muskegon. In 1900, Pere Marquette Railway relocated the Muskegon to serve a Ludington-to-Milwaukee route.

Pere Marquette (later Pere Marquette 15).

The move was part of the PMRR’s consolidation of services, moving its entire eastern Lake Michigan ferry service to Ludington. This was done with the philosophy that when more ships move in and out of a harbor in winter months, it is easier to maintain a channel through the ice. A single terminus on the east side of the lake was preferable to two. Pack ice formation is more severe on the east side of the lake than the west side, which meant having several western ports did not pose as much of an issue. Additionally, dispatching out of a single eastern terminus offered the railroad a higher degree of flexibility than is possible with two terminals.

In 1901, the Pere Marquette Railway changed the names of its entire car ferry fleet, including its Detroit River ferries. Break-bulk freighters were to be numbered 1 and up. The river ferries were to be numbered from 14 downward and the Lake Michigan ferries were to be numbered 15 and above.

The break-bulk freighters were renamed Pere Marquette 2, 3, 4, and 5. The Pere Marquette was renamed Pere Marquette 15 and the Muskegon was renamed Pere Marquette 16. To this day, the ferries are normally referred to using the abbreviation PM rather than the entire name Pere Marquette.

Editor’s Note: There is much more history that can be told about the former F&PM Railway in Mason County. Today, freight service continues under the management of Marquette Rail. The railroad no longer travels east to Saginaw, as it once did, and the route at Baldwin was abandoned many years ago. Trains continue to still make several trips a day through Mason County, however.

Many of the photographs and much of the information in this article come from the Mason County Historical Society’s Rose Hawley Archives.

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