Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad - The Ludington Terminal

The Ludington Terminal

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. James Ludington was the owner of the only mill then at Ludington. 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. Fearing this would make Ward too big, Ludington refused to sell a terminal site or mill sites at any price, hoping to squeeze Ward into selling some of his 70,000 acres (28,000 ha) of timber at a bargain price. Ludington found that Ward would not sell and, more importantly, that Ward was not a man to be trifled with.

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. He secured a court judgment of $650,000 against Ludington, who was ruined; he suffered a stroke and was forced to quit business. 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.

"In November 1874," recalled editor Charles G. Wing of the Ludington Daily News in 1920, "when the F&PM railroad was nearly completed to Ludington, Governor John J. Bagley came over the line on a tour of inspection ... received the most distinguished mark of attention Ludington could show. He rode to and from his railroad car in the only covered carriage up to that time ever owned within the borders of Mason County."

The road was completed to Ludington on December 1, 1874, giving the F&PM 253 miles (407 km) of main line. By 1877 the company had received 511,520.2 acres (207,004.9 ha) of federal land grants, of which over half - 275,741.69 acres (111,588.70 ha) - had been sold, contributing $2,369,729.21 to the railroad's revenues.

Ward died suddenly while walking in Detroit on January 2, 1875. 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.

Cross-lake steamship service between Ludington and Sheboygan, Wisconsin was inaugurated May 31, 1875, with a leased steamer, the sidewheeler John Sherman, John W. Stewart, master. At Sheboygan the line interchanged freight with the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Railway. Quickly outgrowing both the John Sherman and the terminal at Sheboygan, the line was shifted to Milwaukee in 1876. The Goodrich Transportation Company provided service under contract to the railroad from 1876 to 1883. Ships assigned to the route by Goodrich included the De Pere, Corona, Oconto, Alpena and, best-known of all, the City of Ludington. The F&PM terminated its contract with Goodrich on April 1, 1883.

A grain elevator was built in 1877 on the Ludington waterfront by a group of investors associated with the railroad. In 1879 a freight warehouse was built just south of the grain elevator.