Railroads

Written by Anna Mae Maday, Manager, Eddy Historical & Genealogy Collection of Hoyt Public Library in Saginaw, Michigan
September 2000


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When Jesse Hoyt died, one of his business ventures, the construction of the Saginaw, Tuscola & Huron Railroad, was only partially completed. Hoyt's Saginaw attorney William L. Webber pushed for completion of the project along with several prominent East Saginaw businessmen who had invested in the company.

Stone from the Bayport quarries was shipped to Saginaw over this rail line and used in the construction of the Hoyt Library. Agricultural and lumber products, as well as coal from mines in the Thumb provided freight income for this small railroad.

The railroad's first public excursion occurred on June 9, 1882, bringing Thumb residents to East Saginaw for the Forepaugh Circus. In the 1880's Saginawians took the passenger train to visit the new summer resort hotel at Bayport.

Originally built as a narrow gauge railroad, it was converted to a standard gauge railroad about 1891, shortly after its acquisition by the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad. In 1900 this small rail line became part of the newly organized Pere Marquette Railroad Company. The Pere Marquette Railroad Company was later purchased by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1947.

Suggested Reading
  • Mills, James Cooke. History of Saginaw County
  • Michigan History Magazine. Volume 52. No. 3.
  • Saginaw Courier Herald. October 3, 1899.

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Keywords: Hoyt Public Library  ; Saginaw, Tuscola and Huron Railroad  ; Railroads  ; Transportation  ; Hoyt, Jesse  ; Webber, William L.  ; Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company  ; Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad  ; Pere Marquette Railroad  ; 
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