Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad Company

Product Details

$50 to $75

Historical Context

The roots of this line go back to the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan (DL&LM) - which was incorporated on April 11, 1871, as a consolidation of the Detroit, Howell and Lansing Railroad and the Ionia and Lansing Railroad. In 1872, the Ionia, Stanton and Northern Rail Road was added. By 1876 the railroad was obliged for more than $6 million in mortgages at 8%, much of it owed to men sitting on the Board of Directors, and had an operating deficit of more than $1.8 million, much of it representing unpaid interest.

DL&LM's lenders foreclosed in April 1876. George O. Shauttuck and J. Lewis Stackpole of Boston - acting as trustees for the lenders - purchased the railroad for $60,000 at a mortgage sale in Detroit on December 14, 1876. A new corporation was organized on December 27, 1876 under the name Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad, with most of its stock going to the lenders in exchange for their forgiving the DL&LM's debts. The only Michigan resident among the eleven directors named to the first board was James Joy, formerly president of the BL&LM.

Declared business objectives of the DL&N were:

• To extend the mainline to Pentwater, on Lake Michigan.
• To extend the Stanton line to join the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad at Chippewa.
• To pay a 7% annual dividend on its preferred stock.

In 1882, the principal officers were Alpheus Hardy, president; Thomas Fish, general superintendent; and J.J. McVean, engineer. The DL&N had over 1,000 employees in Michigan, but none of its 438 stockholders or eleven directors were Michigan residents. Though profitable, the railroad had taken on debts equivalent to $15,897 for every mile of track over which it operated. The railroad withstood the Panic of 1893, and as late as 1895 was still profitable, with an expense-to-earnings ratio of 81.78. The principal mortgage of $2.67 million at 7% was payable in 1907. Total debt per mile owned and operated (221.57) had climbed to $19,158. President of the railroad as 1896 began was Nathaniel Thayer, general superintendent was J.K.V. Agnew, and chief engineer was J.J. McVean.

The DL&N went into receivership on April 1, 1896, and was reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad on January 1, 1897. The DGR&W also consolidated the Grand Rapids, Lansing & Detroit, Saginaw Valley & St. Louis, Saginaw & Grand Rapids, and the Saginaw & Western. On December 7, 1899, it became part of the new Pere Marquette Railway.

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