IRON?MOUNTAIN?- The fifteenth installment of Menominee Range Memories, a series of articles by William J. Cummings, Menominee Range Historical Foundation historian, now available on the Dickinson County Library’s website, is titled “The Beginnings of the Menominee Range Railroad from 1872 to 1877.”

The American Civil War was followed by a boom in railroad construction. Over 33,000 miles of new track were laid across the country between 1868 and 1873. Much of the craze in railroad investment was driven by government land grants and subsidies to the railroads. At that time, the railroad industry was the nation’s largest employer outside of agriculture, and it involved large amounts of money and risk. A large infusion of cash from speculators caused abnormal growth in the industry as well as overbuilding of docks, factories and ancillary facilities. At the same time, too much capital was involved in projects offering no immediate or early returns.

The third great burst in railroad activity in the state of Michigan was fueled by the institution of a land grant program by the federal government. Under an act of 1856 and successive acts Michigan had in its gift over 5,000,000 acres of land which could be given to railroads which would then re-sell these lands for a profit in exchange for constructing certain routes. The proposed lines would cover several gaps in Michigan’s growing railroad network.

Fully half the land grants would go to railroads in the Upper Peninsula, where substantial mineral resources had been discovered, while two routes in the Lower Peninsula would run north-south, bisecting the existing cross-state routes.

The Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company had contemplated extending its road to Lake Superior for many years, according to Eleazer S. Ingalls in his Centennial History of Menominee County, published in 1876. The United States government had made a grant of eight sections of land per mile and the State of Michigan gave six sections of land per mile to be used in its construction.

Work began between Fort Howard, Wisconsin, and Menominee, Michigan, in 1871 and was completed that same year. In 1872 the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company extended its line from Menominee to Escanaba in Delta County, where it connected with the Peninsula Division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company which terminated at Negaunee, where there was a connection with the Marquette, Houghton & Ontonagon Railroad which completed the line to Lake Superior.

Dr. Nelson Powell Hulst’s explorations for the Milwaukee Iron Company in 1872 and early 1873 had proved iron ore deposits of sufficient quantity and quality existed to justify petitioning the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company to deflect the railroad then under construction from Menominee to Escanaba to accommodate the new iron fields to the north.

James John Hagerman, the Milwaukee Iron Company’s general manager, and John H. Van Dyke, the Milwaukee Iron Company’s vice president, succeeded in convincing railway officials Albert Keep (1826-1907), president and director of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, and Marvin Hughitt (1837-1928), general superintendent, to do so.

Plans for the immediate construction of a branch railroad line to the Breen Mine were made in the fall of 1872, and six miles of right of way were soon cut from Powers Station, also known as “42,” westward. Lewis Whitehead noted that by Nov. 1 this right of way extended two-thirds of the way to the Breen Mine, and construction camps had been built.

Information from contemporary columns of The Escanaba Tribune and Marquette’s The Mining Journal provide a detailed account of the beginnings of railroad construction to the Menominee Iron Range. All excerpts below are from The Escanaba Tribune except when The Mining Journal is indicated.

February 22, 1873: “The contract for building the Extension to the Menominee iron range has been let by the C. & N.W.R.R. Co., to Featherly & Farnsworth of Green Bay. They are to commence work immediately.”

March 15, 1873: “P.M. Brown is clearing away a lot at section 42, or Power’s Station, for the purpose of erecting a hotel. The junction of the Menominee Range Road will be there.”

A final agreement between the railway company and the three companies investing in the iron mining explorations appeared to have been reached early in 1873. Captain Eber Brock Ward was president of two of these companies the Milwaukee Iron Company and the Wyandotte Mills Company and a substantial investor in the third, the North Chicago Rolling Mills Company, whose president, Captain Stephen Clement, was Ward’s brother-in-law.

At the last moment the railway company added a clause giving it the option to carry ore from the mines to Milwaukee and Chicago by all rail at the cost of lake and rail transportation. With the exception of the North Chicago Rolling Mills Company officials, the investors agreed to this clause, feeling it would save stockpiling ore mined during the winter. However, the Chicago company’s refusal to sign the agreement resulted in work on the branch road being suspended, delaying the opening of the Menominee Iron Range.

To date no records or accounts have been found regarding the work done on the Menominee Range Railroad in 1873. Unfortunately, the Panic of 1873, a nation-wide economic depression, occurred, resulting in the cessation of railroad building and exploring for iron ore until the economy began to recover several years later.

Although Hagerman had encouraged the Milwaukee Iron Company to build a Bessemer steel works to meet the growing demand for steel rails, company officials rejected the idea. When the Panic of 1873 began, three Bessemer steel works were in operation in the East, and three additional mills were about to open in the Midwest.

Since the demand for new railroads virtually disappeared following the Panic of 1873, these steel mills were able to supply the existing railroads, now only interested in purchasing steel rails. The death knell tolled for the iron rail business in the United States.

Throughout the first half of 1873 prices for commodities and labor continued to rapidly increase as the postwar inflationary bubble in the United States prepared to burst during General U.S. Grant’s second term as president.

Although obtaining money for expansion was more difficult, the railroad building furor had not diminished. Even railroads with high credit ratings began purchasing rails for about one-third in cash and two-thirds in time payments.

Like the North Chicago Rolling Mills Company, the Milwaukee Iron Company sold about $1,200,000 worth of rails on credit to Thomas Scott, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his associates, who were building the Texas & Pacific Railroad from New Orleans to California. These rails had been delivered before July, and the Milwaukee Iron Company had also extended over $1,000,000 in credit to other railroad companies.

On September 18, Philadelphia’s great and supposedly unshakable financial house, Jay Cooke & Company, promoters of the Northern Pacific Railroad, suddenly failed, inaugurating the Panic of 1873 and the ensuing depression. Scott’s Texas & Pacific Railroad also failed. Within a few months more than 5,000 large-scale commercial enterprises went bankrupt, and 89 railroads defaulted on their bonds.

The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days starting on September 20. By November 1873 some 55 of the nation’s railroads had failed, and another 60 went bankrupt by the first anniversary of the crisis.

Construction of new rail lines, formerly one of the backbones of the economy, plummeted from 7,500 miles of track in 1872 to just 1,600 miles in 1875. Some 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875. Unemployment peaked in 1878 at 8.25 per cent. Building construction was halted, wages were cut, real estate values fell and corporate profits vanished.

Work on the Menominee Range Railway resumed in the summer of 1876.

April 29, 1876: “It is rumored that work will commence on the Menominee Range Railway. It is to be hoped that the report may prove true, and the work go on without delay.”

June 3, 1876: “The Menominee Range R.R. project don’t [sic doesn’t] appear to pan out with that degree of success which it’s [sic its] friends wish it. We had hoped ere this to announce that operations had been commenced but we very much fear that the bottom has fell [sic fallen] out of the business, as it is impossible to find anyone who knows anything positive about the intentions of the managers.”

June 10, 1876: “The Menominee Journal feels quite positive that the Menominee Range R.R. will be built during the coming summer, but says it can’t give reasons for it’s [sic its] opinion. We certainly hope ‘the opinion’ will prove true, reason or no reason.”

June 24, 1876: “S.H. [Samuel H.] Selden Esq., has been engaged the past week in making a survey of the Menominee Range Railroad and at the present writing it looks as though the branch would speedily be built.”

In July, 1876, Albert Keep and Marvin Hughitt, officials of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, strongly urged by H.H. Porter, one of the company’s directors, offered to build the branch railroad providing the Milwaukee Iron Company would sign a large freight contract and agree to purchase $100,000 worth of the $400,000 of seven per cent bonds for the Menominee River Railroad at ninety per cent. James John Hagerman and John H. Van Dyke, officials of the Milwaukee Iron Company, accepted the proposition, erroneously expecting to easily sell the bonds.

The August 5, 1876 edition of The Escanaba Tribune noted that earlier in the week Marvin Hughitt, general manager, Albert Keep, president, E.H. Johnson, chief engineer and C.C. Wheeler, assistant general superintendent all officials of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company had “paid this country a visit.”

In the same edition, under the headline “Menominee River Railway,” the following appeared:

“S.H. Selden[,] chief engineer of this road[,] has just completed the survey to the Quinesaik [sic Quinnesec] Mine, distant fifty miles west from hear [sic here].”

August 12, 1876: “The survey of the Menominee Range Railway has been completed, and it is hoped that work will be commenced as soon as possible, although nothing is yet known definitely what the policy of the company may prove to be.”

September 2, 1876: “As we go to press, information comes to us that the Menominee R.R. Co. have [sic has] filed the map of their route from Spalding to Quinnesec, and we have other news to the effect that work will commence at once. A party of men arrived here last evening from Ishpeming, with a quantity of giant powder [dynamite], blasting tools & c., and left for the Quinnesec Falls, where the work of blasting the large rocks at the foot of the falls, will be carried into effect. Menominee Journal.”

December 2, 1876: “We have information, seemingly reliable, indicating that work will be speedily commenced on the construction of the Menominee Iron Range branch of the C. & N.W. R’y. We are not at liberty to give details this week. The building of this road would be of great advantage to Green Bay and this whole section. Green Bay Advocate.

“Judge Ingalls brings word that the prospect is now very fair for building the Menominee Iron Range Railroad, and that considerable work will probably be done on it this winter. The C. & N.W.R.R. Co. has decided to take hold of the matter, and will push the thing with as much dispatch as possible. Menominee Herald.

“That is all right. It will bring us 25 miles nearer to St. Paul and then, for the next link westward. The people along the Wisconsin River are anxiously waiting to get an outlet to our lake system, this way[.] Speed the good work.”

January 27, 1877 [The Mining Journal]:

“Work on the Menominee Range Railroad is being pushed rapidly forward. The road commences at a point on the Chicago & Northwestern railway, twenty-three miles from Escanaba, and forty-two from Menominee, at which buildings to be used as offices, stores, boarding houses and dwellings have been erected. Three hundred men are at present employed, which force will be increased as soon as arrangements can be made for their accommodation. It is intended to have the road built to the Breen mine on section 22, township 39 north of range 28 west, at the opening of navigation, when active work will commence at that mine.”

February 17, 1877: “The many friends of Mr. Samuel H. Selden, [sic] will be glad to learn that he has so far recovered from his late indisposition, as to be able to resume his regular duties again as Chief Engineer of the Menominee Range Railway.”

Another item in the same column under the headline “To Be Extended” provided an additional update, as follows:

“The joint committee on railroads last Saturday morning reported in favor of extending the grant to the Menominee Iron Range Railroad for two years on condition that twenty miles be completed before January 1st, 1878, instead of ten miles, as required by the terms of the existing law. The committee say [sic says] proper restrictions should be thrown around the grant so as to protect the interests of, and on the completion of the road to secure a permanent benefit to, the State.”

February 24, 1877 [The Mining Journal]:

“Work on the Menomenee [sic Menominee] Range Railway is being pushed with great vigor, there being at present a force of not less than 600 men employed. Clark, Lipe & Co. have [sic has] a sub contract for that part of the line west of the Breen mine, and there is no reason to doubt but that the track will be completed to the Quinesaik [sic Quinnesec] early next fall possibly in time for the shipment of some ore before the close of navigation. The building of this line is attracting a great deal of attention to the new iron field, and negotiations are now in progress looking to the extension of the railway from the Quinesaik [sic Quinnesec] across the river to the newly discovered deposits in Wisconsin.”

March 17, 1877: “One thousand tons of railroad iron for the Menominee Range railroad was received at Powers (Sec. 42) this week. This will lay about eleven miles of road.

“Work is progressing finely on the Menominee Range railroad and the contractors are pushing matters energetically. The different mines along the route are getting things in shape to take advantage of the completion of the road to their several localities. We expect to make a trip in that direction next week and can then say more about it.

“E.P. Parks, Esq. was in town on Friday. He is engaged at present on the new railroad.”

March 17, 1877 [The Mining Journal]: “FROM the Menominee Herald we learn that a new company has been organized under the name of the Menominee Mining company, to which has been transferred the leases of the Breen, Breitung and Quinnesaik [sic Quinnesec] properties, originally and lately held by the Milwaukee Iron company. Mr. Whitehead, the superintendent for the new company, is on the ground and expected to have a force of miners at work on the Breen deposit this week.”

March 24, 1877: “The bill making a grant of land in aid of the Menominee Range R’y has passed both branches of the Legislature. Twenty miles of road to be be [sic] completed by Jan. 1st, 1878.”

March 24, 1877 [The Mining Journal]: “By a letter just received from a member of the engineering corps on the line of the Menominee Range railway, we learn that work is progressing favorably to the completion of the road to the Quinesaik [sic Quinnesec] mine by the first of August next. The frost is a hindrance rendering it necessary to use blasting powder in loosening the ground in grading.

“Arrangements were being made to commence work in the Breen and Quinesaik [sic Quinnesec] mines during this week, to put them in shape to produce ore. There is a prospect of considerable work being done the coming summer along the line of this road in the way of prospecting for mineral [sic minerals].”

April 21, 1877: “About 150 men at work on the Menominee Range railroad struck for higher wages last Tuesday, and after proceeding to ’42’ met some 60 laborers who had just come in on the train from the south. These gave such an unfavorable account of matters outside, that the most of the men went back to work again at the same wages. They were getting $1.25 a day and were paying $3.50 [a week] for board but wished their wages raised to $1.50[,] a demand which was not complied with.

“Camp No. 5 on the new railroad is presided over by Mrs. Hayes; the foreman’s name is Mr. Wheeler, so the establishment is dubbed the ‘White House.'”

[Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 January 17, 1893) was the 19th President of the United States (187781) at that time, and his vice-president was William Almon Wheeler (June 30, 1819 June 4, 1887) which explains why Camp No. 5 was named the “White House.”]

A brief contemporary report of the Battle of the Little Big Horn (June 25-26, 1876) which appeared in the July 8 edition of The Escanaba Tribune, complete with local editorial comment, provides a point of reference for what was happening nationally while Selden’s survey from Powers Station to the Quinnesec Mine was being conducted. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and 274 men of the 7th Cavalry lost their lives.

This 12-page installment of Menominee Range Memories contains additional information regarding the early construction of the Menominee Range Railway. Numerous additional photographs are also included.

Read the rest of this story on the Dickinson County Library’s website (www.dcl-lib.org).