Decline of Lumbering
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. Upon the death of Hoyt on August 14, 1882, William W. Crapo of New Bedford, Massachusetts, a director since 1868, was elected president of the F&PM. Under his presidency the F&PM was run very much like a New England railroad rather than a Western logging line, as heretofore.
After 1887 the transportation of logs by the F&PM began to fall off rapidly. This was offset somewhat by the growing freight traffic of the company's steamship line. In 1888 the decline in logs transported amounted to 193,790 tons ($153,308 in gross earnings), while earning of the Black Boats totaled $40,556 and rapidly increased as the F&PM attracted movements of wood products, flour, and grain.
On January 31, 1889, the F&PM was consolidated with the East Saginaw and St. Clair Railroad, the Saginaw and Clare County Railroad, the Saginaw and Mount Pleasant Railroad, and the Manistee Railroad. The F&PM bought the Port Huron and Northwestern Railway on April 1, 1889, converted it to standard gauge, and constructed a new line east from Yale to Port Huron. It also converted to standard gauge its existing branch line between East Saginaw and Yale. This gave the F&PM a standard gauge line across the breadth of Michigan, from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.
The F&PM was a part-owner of the Fort Street Union Depot Company in association with the Wabash Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad. Construction of this Detroit station commenced in 1890 and it was opened for service on January 22, 1893.
Until 1897 the F&PM reached the important railroad center of Toledo, Ohio, over the rails of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. An extension of the F&PM, 15.2 miles (24.5 km) from Monroe to Alexis (an unincorporated place just across the state line in Ohio and just outside the city limits of Toledo), was constructed by the Monroe and Toledo Railway. Soon after the line's completion, the M&T was purchased outright by the F&PM on August 27, 1897. Entry into Toledo from Alexis, 6.6 miles (10.6 km), was secured in 1897 through a 99-year lease of trackage from the Ann Arbor Railroad.
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. The new, larger grain elevator was ready for operation by November 20, 1899.
Read more about this topic: Flint And Pere Marquette Railroad
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