Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad
A more energetic management took charge in 1860 when Captain Eber Brock Ward of Detroit, a prominent lumberman, vessel owner, and steel manufacturer, was elected to the presidency of the F&PM.
In the Annual Report to the Stockholders of December 31, 1867, the secretary of the F&PM, Henry C. Potter, called for the continued building of the line toward Lake Michigan: "The importance and magnitude of the lumber traffic on the Muskegon and Manistee Rivers urge this company to speedy construction on its road west."
With the completion of 22 miles (35 km) to Reed City in December 1871, the F&PM made a connection with the north-south main line of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway.
[9] In 1868 President Ward of the F&PM opened negotiations with James Ludington for a terminal site at his namesake town with frontage of Pere Marquette Lake [ceb].
He attempted to spin out the talks; though he favored completion of the F&PM, Ludington knew Ward intended to build mills to tap the timber along the Pere Marquette River.
[10] Ward learned early in 1869 that Ludington's logging crews had, accidentally or otherwise, cut pine from part of his land.
He kept quiet until Ludington went to Detroit on business, then had him arrested and lodged in the Wayne County Jail on charges of trespassing and timber theft.
His successor in business, the Pere Marquette Lumber Company, reached an amicable agreement with Ward in August 1869 for both the railway terminal and the mill sites.
Elected to succeed him as president of the F&PM was Jesse Hoyt of New York, who had extensive lumber and salt interests in East Saginaw.
Ships assigned to the route by Goodrich included the De Pere, Corona, Oconto, Alpena and, best-known of all, the City of Ludington.
5, built at West Bay City in 1890, differed in originally being configured as a straight package freighter with no passenger accommodations.
Since Jesse Hoyt lived in New York City and did not visit Michigan after 1877, he was represented on the F&PM board by his attorney, William L. Webber of East Saginaw, who also served as the company's general counsel and land commissioner.
Until 1897 the F&PM reached the important railroad center of Toledo, Ohio, over the rails of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway.
Movements of grain in bulk had become so important to the economics of the railroad that when the elevator at Ludington was destroyed by fire on July 7, 1899, it was immediately rebuilt.
A steel car ferry designed by Robert Logan of 2,443 tons, the Pere Marquette, was built at West Bay City, where she was launched on December 30, 1896.
With Joseph Russell as master, the Pere Marquette arrived at Manitowoc on her maiden voyage from Ludington on the morning of February 17, 1897, interchanging freight with both the Wisconsin Central and the Chicago and North Western Railway.
[32] 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.
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.
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.
