Suzette Bromley's Research Paper
History 301: Capstone Seminar
University of Michigan - Flint
December 2005

Port Huron, Michigan

"A Port City Built by the Railroad"

To many Michiganders, the name Port Huron evokes images of majestic yachts and sailboat races. Nestled on the St. Clair River, just a stone's throw from the mouth of Lake Huron, it is ideally located to host sailors from distant ports. The location of the city and its destination for sailors has not changed over the years. For some, it may be difficult to imagine this city in the early 1800s, on the dawn of its development. Port Huron became officially recognized as a city in 1857, just twenty years after Michigan became a state. As a port on the Great Lakes, one may easily infer that it must have been the maritime trade that lured people to settle this area. The soldiers at Fort Gratiot came and went. The farmers came seeking fertile soil and the lumbermen felled the timber that built cities. Ships drifted by and sailors disembarked. These things are true, yet it was the whistle, faint in the distant wind, that brought its tracks to this fair shore and threw the door open to prosperity and progress for the City of Port Huron.

Hallmarks of Progress

In this paper, I submit that the development of Port Huron is marked by the growth of many factors: population increase, status of wealth, influence on infrastructure, and political prominence; and I argue that this growth is more attributed to the railroad than to maritime trade. Port Huron's population increase is most telling in comparisons with other prominent local municipalities, such as the City of St. Clair, and when factoring in the economic interests of agriculture, lumber, navigation, and the railroad. The wealth of Port Huron's residents, when linked to these interests, speaks to their relative levels of importance, as does the residents' pattern of investing in the community. The manner in which Port Huron's infrastructure grew, facilitating its access and support, also reveals the significance of these particular interests. It is in combining all these elements, and factoring in potential continued growth, that Port Huron's political prominence was recognized and rewarded with the county seat in 1870. The progress experienced by Port Huron during the nineteenth century owed more to the tracks that stretched in every direction from this port than to the water that lapped its shores.

Before the Railroad

The missing element for early progress was adequate transportation. With the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, Michigan's waterways gained access to the populated markets of New York and the people of the east gained access to the riches of Michigan's landscape [1]. The federal census records of 1810 and 1820 show the Territory of Michigan's population doubled in a decade [2]. In the years between 1820 and 1830, dates before and after the introduction of the Erie Canal, the census records show an increase of 22,591 people, the population more than tripling [3]. Over the next ten years, the population rose by 600% [4].

It is not difficult to credit the Erie Canal as the principal reason for this significant rise in settlement. Previous political advancements concerning the Territory of Michigan appear ineffectual in encouraging mass migration and widespread settlement. The Land Ordinance of 1787 claimed the lands northwest of the Ohio River for the new American republic, but there was no new rush to settle the area as the forts remained in British hands until 1796 [5]. In 1805, the Territory of Michigan was established, but in the first five years the numbers of settlers increased by only fifteen hundred or so and remained clustered around the military fort of Detroit [6]. Michigan's land lay open, however the people were slow to claim it for their own.

Published travel logs and emigrant guides, published before 1820, hawked the soil and timber inherent of this region in an effort to encourage others to partakpartake of this bounty, but travel to Michigan was challenging in these early days [7]. Turnpike roads, when available, were often rutted by the elements or, worse yet, reduced to mud [8]. The same difficulties faced in traveling to Michigan hampered any of its export trade. Cognizant of this, when Michigan became a state in 1837, strong sentiment called for widespread improvements. Plans were drawn to build canals and railroads [9]. It stood to reason that if New York could so greatly benefit from the Erie Canal, a substantial increase in maritime trade through their ability to offer freight shipping for a tenth the price of overland shipping and the ability to concentrate commerce at the seaport of New York City, so too could Michigan benefit [10]. As Michigan plotted its course, it bore witness to New York, who through its efforts to shape the path of commerce, supplanted itself as the premier port of trade over Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New Orleans within fifteen years of launching the Erie Canal [11].

Fort Gratiot

The military outpost of Fort Gratiot, established in 1814 at the base of Lake Huron, did little to attract pioneers as the area selected was already inhabited, a fact General Alexander Macomb tried to supersede in 1828 with his petition for a large military reservation [12]. The permanence of the fort and its inhabitants was questionable as it was abandoned in 1822, lent as a mission to Christianize and educate Native Americans in 1823, in ruins by 1826, rebuilt in 1829, only then to be abandoned once again in 1837 [13]. This military installation may not have brought prosperity, but it did assist in developing Port Huron. The fort was the reason a military road was built between Fort Gratiot and Detroit. The United States Congress authorized the building of this military road on March 2, 1827 [14]. Construction began three months later and was completed in 1833 [15]. This road, Gratiot Turnpike, is still in use today though not referred to as a turnpike. Eventually, a settlement did develop outside the military fort that was organized as the Village of Fort Gratiot in 1838 [16].

Early Port Huron

Amidst the early endeavors for state improvements, the future home of the City of Port Huron grew. In 1837, there were five villages that would eventually be claimed by the city. The villages of Desmond and Peru were established in 1835 [17]. The northern boundary for both was the Black River and to the south, Griswold Street. Peru lay between the St. Clair River and 3rd Street; Desmond extended from 3rd Street and west to 7th Street. To the north of Black River were the villages of Huron and Gratiot, both established in 1837 [19].  Gratiot was set as east of Fort Street to the St. Clair River and north to today's McMorran Boulevard. Huron, also known as the Butler Plat, was located west of Fort Street to just west of 10th Street and north to Glenwood Avenue. The other locality delineated in 1837 was the Town of Huron [20]. Borded by the Black and St. Clair rivers, the town covered the area south of Holland Avenue to a line extending west from State Street. This parcel was reduced in 1838, to that between Lake Huron and Stone Street, and renamed the Village of Fort Gratiot [21]. In the 1840 census, the information for residents of these villages can be found under the name of Port Huron, as well as additional areas not otherwise included in Lexington, the only division given north of Port Huron in Michigan's Thumb [22]. One must accept the ambiguity in using these population figures in trying to focus on a specific area. However, this data is still useful in that it offers some basis to compare employment in the fields of agriculture, navigation, commerce and manufacturing.

In this census, the total population for Port Huronwas 1,114 [23]. Of these persons, there were 696 of relative working age, referred to here as whites, aged fifteen years old or older, and free-colored, aged ten years or older. Of this figure, 691 were white (463 males, 228 females), and five were free-colored (3 males, 2 females). Of the county residents, 325 people were employed. If one considers only those people of relative working age as indicated above, 46.7% of the concerned population were employed. The largest group of workers were involved in agriculture (45.5%), followed closely by that of manufacturing (39.7%). The last three groups of employment were commerce (9.2%), navigation of lakes and rivers (4.3%), and the learned professions and engineers (1.2%). It is no surprise that in the infancy of Michigan's statehood, more people were involved in agriculture than any other field. These figures cause one to ponder two points. Not only might one be surprised at the level of development indicated by the comparable numbers of manufacturing to agriculture, but also the very small percentage involved in navigation.

Agriculture

In 1840, the State of Michigan ranked tenth in the wheat states of the United States [24]. In 1849, the average yield of wheat per acre was ten bushels [25].By 1877, that average had increased to eighteen [26]. By 1883, the lower peninsula of Michigan had outpaced all of the wheat states, area for area, except for Indiana [27]. However, as Port Huron's Circuit Judge William T. Mitchell explained in his address to the Pioneer Society of St. Clair County on November 16, 1875, St. Clair County did not contribute overly much to Michigan's early agricultural production:

The body of the population was confined to Clay, Cottrelville, China, St. Clair, and Port Huron. All west and north of the river towns was a comparative wilderness. Supplies for the lumber woods and even those for the villages were imported from Detroit or the older portions of the state. Every barrel of flour and bushel of corn had to be brought from abroad to supply the wants of the entire people except the more favored residents of the southern part of the county lying south of St. Clair. Lumber was the ruling interest, and wherever that interest prevails, the people are poor. So long as there is a pine tree on a settler's land capable of making a thousand shingles, he will not raise corn nor wheat, although he could earn twice the money with half the labor. At that time there were so many pine trees that there was no agriculture, and while a few reaped large profits from labor expended in the pine woods, the great mass of the people remained poor [28].

A detailed explanation of the lumbering experience was given by Dorothy M. Mitts, a local historian, in her newspaper series, "St. Clair County From Pioneer Days" [38]. The lumber season did not start with the river log drive. It began with the lumberjack, equipped with an ax before the 1870s when saws came into general use. Roused about four o'clock in the morning by a chore boy, after a hearty breakfast the men would start in the woods by daybreak. Tree selection hinged on proximity to the outgoing path. The lumberjack notched the tree deep enough that the sawyer could then take over with his saw.

Once felled, thetree was stripped of its branches by the "swampers." Cut into measured lengths, the teamsters and skidders chained the logs and dragged them to the sleds that carried them to skidways, strategically placed piles of lumber. The scaler measured the logs' diameters in order to compute the amount of board feet and then branded the log with a sledge hammer, its face engraved with a distinguishing mark. The log was then removed to the banking grounds, such as the area above a river, to await the spring and the thawing of the river. Once spring arrived, witnesses along the river watched riverjacks, or "river-hogs," riding the logs upon the river, alert to thwart any jamming along the way. Once the timber reached the intended collection area, it was then sorted into its owner's boom.

As the Northwest Territory grew, the demand for St. Clair County's lumber increased. After the Detroit fire of 1805, St. Clair County was the closest producer of pine available to deliver on the order from Acting Governor Stanley Griswold to supply material to rebuild the city [39]. Another distant city to benefit from county lumber was Milwaukee when, in the 1830s, the Beard Mill in Clyde Township shipped a sizeable amount of lumber for its construction [40]. In 1854, the counties of St. Clair and Sanilac produced 145 million feet of lumber with a market value of $1,450,000 [41]. St. Clair County produced three billion feet of white pine, as well as a sizeable amount of hardwood, for the period between 1870 and 1890 [42].

On the Michigan frontier, wood products were used as forms of currency. Shingles, easily shaped by hand, and cordwood, chopped wood in four-foot lengths, could be exchanged for merchandise at the local general store and even in Detroit [43]. In 1836, the price given for shingles at the Alfred and Joseph Comstock store was $1.50 per thousand [44]. A cord of wood would usually bring the customer a credit of $1.00 to $1.50 [45]. Riverside general stores would then either exchange the wood in return for supplies brought by steamers or sell it for cash to passing vessels [46]. In 1877, cordwood prices garnered in Detroit were: hickory ($4.00), beech ($3.50), and inferior pieces ($2.25) [47].

The full extent of the damage from the Thumb Fire of 1881 is unknown. The American Red Cross, primarily due to the appeals from the Port Huron Relief Committee, undertook this as their first disaster relief mission, sending $3,000, and reported the death toll as one hundred and twenty-five [64]. Port Huron's Relief Committee included in its representatives: William Bancroft, Port Huron's Mayor Ezra Carleton, and United States Senator Omar D. Conger [65]. Nearly a half a million dollars in contributions sailed into Port Huron and was unloaded by its townspeople [66]. The State of Michigan's Department of Natural Resources offers the figures of 282 deaths and the loss of over one million acres [67].

The respiratory diseases that befell the survivors foreshadowed the last gasps of the Thumb's lumber heyday. The consequences for Port Huron from the destruction wrought in 1871, combined with the effects of the financial panic of 1873 and the subsequent depression in marine and shipbuilding interests, marked the years between 1873 and 1879 as a time of no actual growth for the city [68]. In the dawn of the city's recovery from the financial strain of the 1870s, the Fire of 1881 was ill-timed at best as the consequences of lost resources and revenue would have had a widespread effect on a city that so benefited from the timber of the north.

Navigation

There is no denying the importance of the surrounding waterways to the growth of Port Huron. It was the easiest means to reach these shores as the countryside was dense with trees and undergrowth. The year of 1819 brought the first steamboat past Port Huron. The Walk-in-the- Water, built the previous year, had left Detroit and was on its way to Mackinac and Green Bay [69]. Built in 1827, the Argo out of Detroit, was the first steamboat to serve the ports along Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River [70]. This vessel was replaced by the steamer, General Gratiot. Francis P. Browning, who had ordered its construction, was also responsible for not only building the first schoolhouse within the future city limits of Port Huron, but also the first steam sawmill in the Northwest Territory, afterwards known as the Black River Steam Mill [71]. This sawmill was the first in Michigan to use sawdust as fuel, with the leftover sawdust being used to build up the Black River's north bank near the streets of Quay, River, and Huron Avenue [72]. Between the Erie and Browning's General Gratiot, regular water traffic was established between Port Huron and Detroit in 1837 [73].

This promising start to Port Huron's navigation of the St. Clair River was interrupted by the Wards from Marine City, who commenced building what would become a strongly defended monopoly. Samuel Ward and his nephew, Eber Brock Ward, became the largest shipowners on the Great Lakes after 1843 [74]. It was upon one of the Wards' boats, the steamer Ruby, that the Edison family reached Port Huron in 1854:

Little Thomas Alva, aged seven, joined with the other children in the active boisterous delights of the day, running up and down the decks and through the salon, delighting in the meeting of canoes containing Indians and the heavier white-winged craft that dotted the waters in all directions, freighted with lumber or cordwood [75].

Records reveal rate wars, free dinners to passengers, and outright strong-arm tactics, all in the effort to maintain the Wards' maritime supremacy. An account of Wesley Truesdail, a St. Clair banker who dared to charter a boat to service St. Clair River traffic, and Samuel Ward's maneuvers to undermine confidence in Truesdail's bank by withdrawing large amounts of specie, warned anyone against similar aspirations [76].

Another issue that causes interruption in travel is the commencement of winter and the buildup of ice. The Great Lakes' season of navigation is largely influenced by the status of the Straits of Mackinac and the canal systems. Historically, the season began when the straits opened, generally around the third week of April, and ended when the canals closed in early December, such as those at St. Mary's Falls which link Lake Superior to Lake Huron [83]. The earliest steamboats suffered slow voyages, frequent refueling stops, and a limited season of navigation, all of which conspired against vessel owners in their bids for profit. The improvement of using coal quickened maritime travel and increased available cargo space for trade. However, the season of navigation continued to be decided by Mother Nature and the ice levels on the Great Lakes.

Port Huron maritime interests involved more than just the passing traffic. Steamers connected Port Huron to Detroit but ferries bridged the gaps between the villages along Black River and between Port Huron and Canada. As early as 1824, Jean B. Desnoyer held a county court license for his ferry service across the Black River [84]. The first ferry connecting Port Huron to Canada over the St. Clair River started about 1833 by William Eveland of Canada, though the first to be licensed was by Norman Nash and Nicholas Ayrault, established in March 1837 [85].

James Moffat, ferry service owner and a tug and ferry builder, made quite a name for himself on the local waters. Along with Daniel D. Runnels, he operated the Port Huron and Sarnia Ferry Line that docked at the foot of Butler Street, today's Grand River Avenue, and at Huron Avenue [87]. Moffat was also known not only for building the first tug especially built for towing large rafts of timber down the St. Clair River with the Kate Moffat in 1864, but also for his wrecking company, believed to be the most powerful at that time on the Great Lakes [88]. Wrecking, or more accurately salvaging, is the rescuing of crew, ship, and cargo, in return for a portion of the cargo's proceeds [89]. These men undoubtedly contributed to Port Huron's progress as Moffat served as a City Alderman and Runnels was elected twice as mayor and later served as City Treasurer [90].

The same ideal location of Port Huron that brought such benefit from the lumber industry also put it in good stead as a shipbuilding center with its dependency on timber. The first ship reportedly built in Port Huron was the sloop Temperance in 1838 [91]. The Jenks Shipbuilding Company, located at the foot of Kearney Street where the Grand Trunk Railroad bridge crossed over the Black River at Water Street, built the first four-deck, all-steel passenger steamer on the Great Lakes in 1903 [93]. By 1907, Jenks Shipbuilding had built fourteen steel ships and Port Huron ranked second only to Marine City in shipbuilding [94]. Though Jenks Shipbuilding made the transition to steel, as wooden ships passed out of favor, so too did the shipbuilders of Port Huron [95].

As a maritime trade port, Port Huron provided support in the manner of dry docks and storage elevators. The dry dock of Dunford and Alverson offered repair service, the need for which must have been great as they were able to employ 150-200 men during the winters of 1880 to 1883 [96]. This firm also engaged in shipbuilding as attested to by records for the schooner Fred J. Dunford, launched on May 15, 1873 [97]. The company's dock, built in 1891, measured 412' and was credited as the largest on the Great Lakes [98]. Other local dry docks and shipbuilders included Fitzgerald & Leighton; Muir, Livingstone & Company; and Wolverine Dry Dock [99].

A United States Congressional Act created the Customs District of Port Huron on April 13, 1866 [105]. The jurisdiction of the new district, the name shortened to the District of Huron in 1868, covered the coastline from the Straits of Mackinac to Lake St. Clair [106]. Approval granted in June of 1872, construction of a building to house the offices of the customs house and post office began in 1873 [107]. Customs were collected on: ships entering or leaving the district; ships with cargo from within the district, traveling to other districts, or from foreign ports; and on registering ships, cargoes, and passengers [109]. Though the City of Port Huron gained a stately edifice, the numerous customs collected therein were forwarded out of the city to the United States Treasury Department [110].

The Coming of the Railroad

The year of 1859 was an important year for Port Huronand its environs. East of the St. Clair River, the Grand Trunk Railroad completed its 800-mile route from Portland, Maine to Sarnia, Ontario [115]. Under the name of the Chicago, Detroit, and Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railway, a fifty-seven-mile track was completed that connected Port Huron to Detroit [116]. A car ferry was introduced that eliminated the need to unload and reload cargo as the new ferry could transport the railway cars themselves across the river [117]. This ferry, known as the "Swing Ferry," extended from a cable anchored at Fort Gratiot and used the strong water current to propel it across the river [119]. The vessel, the first of its kind, and the only one in the world for twenty years, was used constantly until 1867 when its cable was severed in a collision with an up-bound steamer [120]. Subsequent train ferries could transport up to twenty-two loaded cars at one time (1872), and in 1888, there were 332,000 cars carried across the St. Clair River [121].

Having acquired various Peninsular railroad companies, the Grand Trunk Railway reached Chicago in 1879 [122]. An 1891 map of this route can be found in Appendix A. The company built car and locomotive shops and a roundhouse in Fort Gratiot Village's Block I in 1882 [124]. The new machine and locomotive shops witnessed the first electric lights in the city within their first year [125]. Vestibuled passenger cars were built in these shops from 1890 to 1899 [126]. The large amount of railroad industry undertaken in the Village of Fort Gratiot likely contributed to the City of Port Huron's annexation of the location in 1893 [127]. In 1891, Grand Trunk opened the world's first international submarine railway tunnel under the St. Clair River, which was also credited as the world's longest train tunnel at that time [128]. The tunnel switched to electric locomotives in May of 1908, a measure that removed the dangerous gas fumes responsible for a number of deaths [129].

The prosperity brought to Port Huron by Grand Trunk was interrupted by the November 1913 disasters that assaulted the Block I car shops [130]. On November 9th, the shops suffered extensive damage from the storm that ravaged the Great Lakes [131]. November 26th saw to the final destruction as fire swept through the ten acres of buildings [132]. Anxious over the loss of such a large employer, 500 directly employed with another 500 affected, overtures were made to the company to ascertain the necessary measures to entice the company to rebuild [133]. After lengthy negotiations, a community drive began to raise funds to purchase a replacement site and $112,000 was pledged within the drive's first ten days [135]. The new car shops, which opened in 1918, were relocated to thirty-five acres in the vicinity of the Port Huron approach to the St. Clair International Tunnel [136].

The community's effort was repaid by substantial employment: ten yard crews, three yardmasters, twenty clerks, fifteen station staff, nine telegraph operators, four section foremen overseeing twenty men each, four plumbers, and about eight carpenters, bridge and building men [137]. Additional freight sheds were built between 1924 and 1925 at 24th Street and Bancroft [138]. By 1938, Grand Trunk employment reached approximately 1,200, with an annual payroll of about $2,000,000 [139]. Not only were the Port Huron employees paid with outside money from divisional headquarters, but the city also received $600,000 in annual taxes [140].

There were a number of facilities built to support the industry of Grand Trunk. An apprentice school trained young men aged eighteen to twenty-four to become mechanics [141]. A plant hospital was built to care for the railway terminal's workers [142]. Beginning in 1899, an auxiliary branch of the Young Men's Christian Association was maintained to house out-of-town railroad workers during their layovers [143]. The Grand Trunk Y.M.C.A. on 32nd Streetoffered twenty-six bedrooms, a meeting room, a lounge and a restaurant, and employed a staff of eleven [144]. In 1905, this Y.M.C.A. saw a daily average of sixty-eight railroad men [145]. The freight office and sheds at 24th Street utilized a two-way loud speaker to facilitate communication [146]. To supply its refrigerator cars, an ice manufacturing and storage plant produced 142 tons each day, 20,000 tons a year, and could store up to 7,000 pounds [147].

The second railroad from Port Huron was the Port Huron and Lake Michigan Railroad that reached Flint on December 12, 1871 [148]. Its tentative beginnings can be traced back to the Michigan Northern Railroad, one of the three railroads proposed in the state's early charter of 1837. This northern route was originally surveyed from the town of St. Clair to Lake Michigan at Grand Haven, though the actual clearing work of 1838-1839 brought the eastern terminus to Port Huron [149]. Though having spent $70,000 in surveying these lands, the railroad project was abandoned [150]. In 1847, the railroad issue was revived by the incorporation of the Port Huron and Lake Michigan Railroad, though the company failed to gain sufficient stock subscriptions [151]. As the Chicago and Northeastern Railroad, established in 1874, and under the direction of Port Huron's William L. Bancroft, the connection between Flint and Lansing was opened on January 1, 1877 [152]. This section later played an important part of the Grand Trunk trade with Valparaiso, Indiana, and Chicago [153].

The Port Huron and Northwestern Railway Company was formed in 1878 and built by local investors [154]. This railway, known as the Narrow Gauge railroad, was eventually consolidated with the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad in 1889 [155]. Its construction reached: Croswell (1879); Carsonville, Deckerville, Minden City, and Harbor Beach(1880); Marlette, Mayville, and Vassar (1881); and Ubly, Bad Axe, Kinde, Port Austin, Almont, and Saginaw(1882); opening Michigan's Thumb to railway traffic [156]. These tracks put the Port Huron and Northwestern Railroad in a position to help the victims of the Thumb Fire of 1881 by transporting passengers and relief supplies, all of which it did at no charge [157]. Contributions brought by this railroad to the City of Port Huron included: a railroad bridge at the mouth of the Black River(1881), and improvements to the wetlands between Pine Street and Griswold Street at the St. Clair River in order to build an impressive passenger depot, a freight depot, a machine shop, and an eleven-locomotive roundhouse [159].

Connecting with both the Grand Trunk and Pere Marquette railroads at the Tappan junction, located on Michigan Road at Griswold, the Port Huron Southern Railroad was responsible for transporting goods from the Port Huron Salt Company (1900) [160]. The Port Huron Salt Company became the Morton Salt Company and in 1920, the Port Huron Southern, stretching to Marine City, became part of the Port Huron and Detroit Railway Company [161]. The Handy Brothers, who had bought the Port Huron Southern in 1917, used the rails for their sugar factory [162]. The Handy Brothers also owned the Detroit, Bay City and Western Railroad that ran between Port Huron and Bay City [163]. In 1945, the Port Huron and Detroit Railway became Michigan's first railroad to be completely converted to diesel engines [164].

Aside from these railroads, there were a couple of smaller entities related to rail traffic. William Pitt Edison, as owner and proprietor, along with fellow stockholder, his brother Thomas Edison, offered a horse-car shuttle between the depots of the Grand Trunk and the Port Huron and Northwestern [165]. Approved by the Port Huron City Council on November 21, 1865, the Port Huron and Gratiot Railway was organized in 1866 after attaining Congressional consent for use of land on the military reservation [166]. A competing company, the City Railway, was established in 1873 [167].

Fig. 11. Port Huron & Gratiot Railway [168]

The territorial conflict between the two was rectified in 1877 by the formation of a new company, the Port Huron Railway [169]. This service was electrified, the first car put in service on October 15, 1886, and the business became known as the Port Huron Electric Street Railway, or simply the City Electric Street Railway [170]. This venture has the privilege of claiming to be the first in the world to illuminate its cars using electric lights, the first to traverse a moveable bridge, and to have the foresight to request permission in its franchise to use electric power at a time when there was no commercial electric railway in the world (1883) [171]. The City Electric Railway was connected in 1900 to the Rapid Railway that ran between Detroit and Mount Clemens by the Port Huron, St. Clair and Marine City Railway Company [172]. The name of this line changed to the Detroit and Port Huron Shoreline Railway (1899) before it was taken over by the Detroit United Railway (1901) [173]. As a side note and to satisfy some of the Edison mystique, the mother of "Pitt" and Thomas made curtains, cushions, and floor coverings for the new cars. However the Edison patriarch, contrary to Thomas' forward thinking, complained that the electric car went "too fast" and he reportedly never rode streetcars again [174].

The City of Port Huron was established in 1857 and the additional property combined at that time doubled the city's area from the original four Black River villages [176]. Within two years, the city limits had been expanded with another portion of similar size until it reached the edge of Fort Gratiot [177].  In 1893, the five early villages were finally all under the auspices of the City of Port Huron upon the annexation of the Village of Fort Gratiot. It is a reasonable viewpoint that the development of the areas, eventually found to be within Port Huron's 1893 city limits, contributed to the city's overall growth. It is for that reason that a broadly defined boundary was adopted in dealing with the census reports for this project. Tracking the populace through these records has been challenging but even a broad definition provides compelling data to indicate the railroad's influence outpaced that of navigation.

Four-Industry Employment and Wealth

Table 1 presents the employment numbers as given in the various census records. The four industries shown are the most prominent and most closely linked to Port Huron's prosperity; the other occupational fields have been disregarded as inconsequential to this study. As one can see, the largest discrepancy for one field, due to broad versus strict defining, exists in Agriculture. The most obvious reason hinges upon the large rural areas covered when including the townships. As the city progressed, and as more people moved into the city, urban development encroached on farmland and farmers were forced to move further into the country or seek alternate employment.

The extreme decline in Lumber involvement as shown in Table 1, between 1870 and 1880, lends solid numerical data to the end of the lumber era, a depression that could have proven disastrous to Port Huron had not the lumber barons turned their attention to more promising endeavors. Many embraced the railroad as a worthy business venture as can be seen in the stock subscriptions of 1872 for the Port Huron and Northwestern Railroad. Local businessmen and residents pledged $91,200 towards its construction and of this amount, $50,550 can be connected to those in the lumber business [178]. That the lumbermen had the lion's share of the city's wealth is proven by the total assets claimed in 1870, as provided by Table 2. The subscription list shows broad representation from local businessmen and residents. The contributors likely shared the conviction that the railroad would widely benefit the city as it would transport its products to outside markets and, in turn, drive prosperity to the city.

Before deliberating on Navigation and Railroad, one should note that after the 1880 data, the amounts discussed below refer to those found in the "strictly defined" column as the city had reached its generally accepted boundaries. In considering Navigation, one sees moderately steady involvement over the years. Numbers for the Railroad reflect the slow growth in the early years of Grand Trunk's activities but a large increase after the introduction of subsequent rail lines. There are a few factors one must ponder in comparing the involvement in these two fields. Table 1 states that Navigation peaked in 1880, though Railroad continued to grow into 1900. Navigation peaked at 43.8% of the selected employees (1894); Railroad met and exceeded this rate the same year as well as the one prior.

Another factor one should not discount is the rate of increased employment over the time period being discussed. Between 1850 and 1900, Navigation's overall increase was 15.9%, with its largest increase at 9.5% (1860-1870). If one disregards the 1850 starting point, due to the non-involvement in Railroad at that time, and begins with the data from 1860, Navigation's overall increase rises to 22.1%. With regard to Railroad, the first year of Grand Trunk business only occupied 6.1% of those employed. The largest jump between enumerations occurred in the 1870-1880 interval, a 35.0% increase, and corresponds with the 32.4% reduction in Lumber workers. As early as 1880, nearly half of the employees worked in Railroad, a level relatively maintained as late as 1900.

Railroads' Consequence

St. Clair County, with the county seat located at St. Clair, was set off from Macomb County on March 28, 1820 [179]. Overtures were made early on to remove the county seat to Port Huron. Seven proposals were introduced between 1824 and 1870 [180]. Port Huron's rising prominence in the county can be seen in the growth of its population and industry. In 1860, the City of St. Clair had a population of 1,572, whereas the four wards of the City of Port Huron had 4,366 [181]. By a difference of four, Port Huron had more people employed than St. Clair had residents [182]. The wealth of these cities, in 1860, amounted to: St. Clair ($839,780) and Port Huron ($2,573,899) [183]. A comparison of the largest industries of these cities shows St. Clair gained the most, according to reported values of real and personal estates, from Agriculture ($270,650), and Manufacture ($243,294), and Port Huron from Manufacture ($1,184,286), and Trade ($793,260) [184]. In dividing the occupations into the four primary interests: Agriculture, Lumber, Navigation, and Railroad, one sees the largest gain is brought to St. Clair by Agriculture ($270,650) and to Port Huron by Lumber ($690,239) [185]. At this early date, there was little involvement in railroads by either city. St. Clair showed no residents employed by the railroad; Port Huron had only twenty-five with a wealth of $29,035 [186].

The development of Port Huron owes its evolution to a combination of economic interests. There was no single, specific factor responsible for the city's prosperity, but rather, they all shared to create and enhance its economy. The extraordinary location Port Huron found itself therein, traversed by the Black River, abutted by the St. Clair River, fed by the waters of Lake Huron, and less than a thousand feet from Canada, placed it in an enviable position of limitless access. The immense wealth brought to this area by the lumber concern lent the clout necessary to gain attention and fund improvements. The waterways did much to attract the early business of Port Huron. However, it was the railroad that superseded maritime traffic with its ability to stretch across land and water to distant markets, at a fraction of the time and cost, and opened Port Huron to prosperity and progress.

Appendix A

Port Huron's Place on a Wider Scale

As a Great Lakes port, Port Huron would be just like any other except for its close proximity to Canada. There are only four American cities on the St. Clair River with Canadian sister ports: Port Huron to Sarnia, St. Clair to Courtright, Marine City to Sombra, and Robert's Landing to Port Lambton. The only other city with a similar status is Detroit as it is opposite Windsor along the Detroit River. The factor that made Port Huron more favorable to the railroad is the placement of Canadian rails traveling west from Toronto. The 1891 Grain Dealers and Shippers Gazetteer map shows a practically straight route from Toronto to Wellsboro, Indiana, which is nearly straight east from the railroad hub of Chicago.

Port Huron's relationship to these railroad cities is that it is barely shy of being the midway point. Detroit, although the more populated and wealthier city, was a less direct route from Toronto for the Chicago and Grand Trunk Railway. As the Grand Trunk built the tracks heading from Port Huron, Detroit's ability to provide better funding was inconsequential to the Canadian company that was prepared to spend its own capital. Indeed, as Detroit was already so widely settled, the openness around Port Huron would have allowed Grand Trunk more leeway as they planned their route. It was not the industry of Port Huron that necessarily lured the Grand Trunk Railroad Company to target it as a station. As previously presented in this paper, the unique position of Port Huron at the confluence of the Black River, the St. Clair River, and Lake Huron influence.

Appendix B

St. Clair County Map*

[*] George A. Ogle, Standard Atlas of St. Clair County, Michigan: including a Plat Book of the Villages, Cities and Townships of the County. (Chicago: Geo. A. Ogle, 1897), 7.

Appendix C

Regional Map[**]

[**] Chicago and Grand Trunk Railroad, 1891 Grain Dealers and Shippers Gazetteer, www.memoriallibrary.com/Trans/RRGaz/CGT/map.htm

Appendix D

Chronology of Railroad Development in Port Huron[***]

[****] Notes taken from numerous sources. Please contact for specifics.

Appendix E

A Chronology of the City of Port Huron[****]

[****] Notes taken from numerous sources. Please contact for specifics.

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1    New York State Canal Corporation, "The Erie Canal: A Brief History," www.canals.state.ny.us/cculture/history/index.html. (accessed November 4, 2005).

3    Ibid., 6.

4    Ibid., 7.

5    Ibid., 4.

6    Ibid., 4-5.

7    Jenks, St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History, 6.

8    New York State Canal Corporation, "The Erie Canal."

9    Jenks, St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History, 7.

10    New York State Canal Corporation, "The Erie Canal."

11    Ibid.

12    Jenks, St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History, 95-97.

13    Helen Endlich, A Story of Port Huron (Port Huron: Helen Endlich, 1981), 19 and 27; History of St. Clair County, Michigan, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources, its war record, biographical sketches, the whole preceded by a history of Michigan (Chicago: A.T. Andreas & Co., 1883), 256 and 534; Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 22, s.v. "Port Huron," (1911), 118, quoted in Online Encyclopedia, Net Industries, http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/POL_PRE/PORT_HURON.html. (accessed September 2005).

14    Jenks, St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History, 384.

15    Ibid., 385.

16    Allan Carlisle, Map of Port Huron, February 6, 1929.

17    Ibid.

18    Ibid.

19    Ibid.

20    Ibid.

21    Ibid.

22    United States Census Bureau, 1840 Federal Census: St. Clair County, Michigan, 201-5.

23    Ibid.

24    History of St. Clair County, 132.

25    Ibid.

26    Ibid.

27    Ibid.

28    George N. Fuller, Historic Michigan, Land of the Great Lakes; Its Life, Resources, Industries, People, Politics, Government, Wars, Institutions, Achievements, the Press, Schools and Churches, Legendary and Prehistoric Lore, vol. 3, Local History and Personal Sketches of St. Clair and Shiawassee Counties (Dayton, Ohio: National Historical Association, Inc., 1924), 29.

29    History of St. Clair County, 264 and 271; Jenks, St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History, 143.

30    History of St. Clair County, 264 and 271.

31    Ibid., 304.

32    Ibid., 297, 304, 305, 312, 316, and 317.

33    Ibid., 306-7.

34    Dorothy M. Mitts, "St. Clair County From Pioneer Days: Sawmills Lined Black River in Heydey of Lumber Boom Here," Port Huron Times Herald, February 2, 1947; idem, That Noble Country: The Romance of the St. Clair River Region, (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, 1968), 81.

35    Mapquest, www.mapquest.com. (accessed November 11, 2005). Driving directions from Palms to Port Huron.

36    Dorothy M. Mitts, "St. Clair County From Pioneer Days: Logs, Logs, Logs," Port Huron Times Herald, circa 1947. Clipped article in "Lumbering" file, Michigan Room, St. Clair County Public Library.

37    American Automobile Association, Road Atlas: Michigan, (1997).

38    Ibid.; idem, "St. Clair County From Pioneer Days: The Lumberjack's Day," Port Huron Times Herald, March 5, 1947; idem, "Sawmills Lined Black River."

39    Jenks, St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History, 365.

40    Ibid., 365-6.

41    "Profits From Forest Primeval: Lumber Industry Boomed Here in Nineteenth Century," Clipped article in "Lumbering" file, Michigan Room, St. Clair County Public Library.

42    Ibid.

43    Victor Lauriston, Lambton's Hundred Years: 1849-1949 (Sarnia: Raines Frontier Printing Co., 1949), 204-5.

44    Jenks, St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History, 144.

45    Lauriston, Lambton's Hundred Years, 205.

46    Ibid.

47    Ibid.

48    Ibid., 297, 304, 305, 312, 316, and 317.

49    Ibid., 307, 311, and 313-5.

50    Ibid., 317.

51    Ibid., 315.

52    Mitts, That Noble Country,  94.

53    Jenks, St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History, 237; Mitts, That Noble Country, 96-7.

54    David Ward, The Autobiography of David Ward, (New York: Private Printing, 1912), 94. Transcription hosted by Ancestry.com at www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=4101&o_xid=9872&o_lid=9872. (accessed November 16, 2005).

55    Carlisle, Map of Port Huron.

56    Ibid.

57    Ibid.

58    William Hosea Ballou, "The Last of the Pines," 677-8. Clipped article in "Lumbering" file, Michigan Room, St. Clair County Public Library; Michigan History Magazine: The Mitten, "Michigan's White Pine Era," January 2003, www.michiganhistorymagazine.com/kids/pdfs/mittenjan03.pdf, (accessed November 16, 2005).

59    Michigan History Magazine, "Michigan's White Pine Era."

60    Department of Natural Resources, "History & Ecology of Fire in Michigan," State of Michigan, www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-30301_30505_30816-24038--,00.html, (accessed November 11, 2005).