Railroad brought excitement to village

This article was originally published in The Cass City Chronicle on November 14, 2012.

Were you to visit Cass City Nov. 18, 1882 (130 years ago this Sunday), you would feel excitement and energy in the air.

For the past 20 years, the residents of this growing settlement had been striving to make their little burg a prosperous and respectable town. With a sizeable business district, a modest school house, a handful of churches, and the newly built township hall, a small, yet growing village had been carved out of the dense wilderness that not long ago covered the Thumb area. But the break they had been looking for – the opportunity to be connected to the rest of the world – was soon to arrive...around 9 a.m., in fact.

The book, “The History of Tuscola & Bay Counties”, provides the following account of that momentous day — the day the Pontiac, Oxford, and Port Austin Railroad came to Cass City:

“About 9 o’clock in the morning, the engine appeared in sight around the bend to the northwest of the village, with the track laying going on in advance of it. An hour later, the locomotive crossed Main Street.” This was the dawning of a new era for the people of Cass City, and the feeling of progress was electric.

It’s hard to imagine the excitement that was felt over the arrival of the railroad. At the time – the late nineteenth century — Cass City had certainly progressed throughout its short history. The homes and fields early pioneers envisioned remained mere fantasies until they cleared the land of its great White pines. Their dreams were soon realized, however, as the dense forests were quickly eaten away by the ax of the logger and farmer. Before they knew it, settlers were able to see their neighbors’ homes acres away. The wilderness had been conquered.

This path of progress was not without its difficult, and often tragic, challenges, however. While unintentional, the result of the mass deforestation of the Thumb region in the late 1800s, combined with a severe drought, was a widespread fire, which developed into a formidable wall of destruction. In fact, the fire, which became infamously known as the “Fire of ‘81”, claimed thousands of dollars in property damages, not to mention scores of lives lost.

Due largely to the resilience of area residents who fought the flames for 3 daunting days, as well as the close proximity of the Cass River, the village of Cass City did not fall victim to the fire. Despite their close call, Cass Citians, though their strength was wearing thin, continued marching toward their goal of expanding their fledgling community.

Which prompted local business and civic leaders to begin an effort to bring the railroad to Cass City. A railroad, reported the Cass City Enterprise, meant “no more lugging heavy loads of grain and merchandise 16 or 20 miles through the mud…and good old Uncle Samuel will put in an appearance with his mail bags oftener than once in 2 days. There will be no more running off 16 miles before we can get telegraphic communication with the outside world.” Before long, news reached local residents of a proposed railroad that would be coming from Pontiac this way, and, although it never did, it was expected to extend all the way to Port Austin– just the sort of break they were looking for.

Soon after the news was received, local leaders made an offer to the railroad company, in which the community would give a $6,000 bonus to the company as an incentive for them to come by way of Cass City, as well as several hundred dollars more to secure the right of way.

By October 1881, the offer had been accepted and most of the necessary funds had been raised. The Cass City Enterprise reported the news to its readers in the Oct. 20 edition of the paper:

“Have you heard the good news? Well, we are to have a railroad…The work of soliciting subscriptions in this vicinity has progressed slowly, but the amount we were asked for, $6000, is so nearly raised that it will be a small matter to secure the small balance. It will only be necessary to raise an additional seven or eight hundred dollars to secure the right of way across the township…We have no particular fears but that this will be promptly done.”

According to “A History of Cass City and Elkland Township”, “Construction was begun from both the north and the south terminals of the line simultaneously”. The weekly newspaper, which featured updates on the progress of the railroad in almost every issue, seemed to be just as excited about the railroad’s coming as the residents were. Reports of the grading of the railroad bed and the shipping of 1,800 tons of rails to Caseville only caused the excitement to grow. Slowly but surely, the P.O. & PA inched its way closer to Cass City; its anticipated date of arrival set at Nov. 18, 1882. And with that fall day marked on everyone’s calendars, a local committee of men and women had formed to organize a gala welcoming celebration.

“After a period of anxious waiting and longing expectation the sound of the track-layer’s sledge and the whistle of the locomotive were heard,” reported one account. “A grand reception and entertainment of their welcome guests [had been prepared], and at noon Messrs. P.R. Weydemeyer and W.L. McLachlan, on behalf of the citizens, invited the men employed on the construction to dinner. A procession was formed, and, headed by the band, marched to the town hall, where a bountiful repast awaited them.”
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The town hall (now the Elkland Township Cultural Center) was filled to capacity, as over 300 residents celebrated a new era in their own lives and the life of their community. Business stopped for the entire day, a flag was flown high atop the town hall, and the guests enjoyed their dinner. After the meal, those in attendance stood around their tables, as the railroad workers formed a line at the front of the hall. Over the noise of the crowd, the men shouted, “Three cheers for the ladies of Cass City! Three cheers for the prosperity of Cass City! And 3 cheers for the band!” It was truly a day to remember.

The Pontiac, Oxford, and Port Austin Railroad, later the Pontiac, Oxford, and Northern (P.O. & N), went into bankruptcy in 1900 and became part of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad in 1909. A depot was built sometime during the latter part of the nineteenth century on the southwest corner of Vulcan and Garfield Streets. That depot burned in 1909. Shortly thereafter, a large cement block building was built in its place, where it stood until its demolition in 1980.

According to the Cass City Area Historical Society’s “The Way It Was, Vol. 1”, a branch line between Cass City and Bad Axe was added in 1913. But it was in the early 1920s that the railroad reached its zenith. During that time period, “Cass City was serviced by 6 passenger trains in a 24-hour day!” And this did not include the freight and work trains that also came to town.

The heyday didn’t last long. By the end of the ‘20s, passenger trains were becoming fewer, as Henry Ford and others like him made the automobile affordable for the working man. By the 1930s, Cass City was down to a mixed train, which consisted of a freight train with a passenger car attached.

The depot closed in 1975 and the furniture was sold to Huckleberry Railroad. In 1980, it was torn down after more than 70 years of use.

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company, according to the historical society, “filed a formal application of abandonment, and in February 1984, the very last train to leave Cass City departed with 2 diesel engines, a snow plow, 2 empty cars, and a caboose”. The rushing by of that last train car and the final blast of its whistle marked the end of an era.

The season of locomotive travel, at least in this neck of the woods, is over. Not a soul living at the time of that “day of jubilee”, back in 1882, remains today. The railroad bed has been converted into a walking trail; the tracks across Main Street were removed years ago; and the town hall that was the center of activity that momentous November afternoon, filled with hundreds of people, sits vacant, staring out at the same Main Street it has for well over a century.
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When Cass City’s residents saw the iron horse pull into town for the first time, they would never have guessed how transportation would change in the next century; their buggies would be forced to give way to the automobile, their skies would be traversed by airplanes, and one of their own native sons would one day command a shuttle crew bound for outer space.

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