Time Line - 1864

Last Year | Next Year

• Civil war continues.

• This is the end of the Antebellum period in the United States, which began in the early 1800's.

• August: Peninsula RR of Michigan completes Escanaba-Negaunee line.  31,072 tons of ore were shipped between the two points in 1864.  It was consolidated with the Chicago and Northwestern in 1865. [MDOT/AAD]  [MCR-75] reports this date as September, 1864.

• September: C&NW (Peninsula Railroad) completes line from Escanaba to Negaunee. [MRRC]

• October 21: Chicago and Northwestern acquires Peninsula Railroad (Escanaba to Ishpeming). [MRRC]

• November 1: Flint and Holly Rail Road opens line from Flint to Holly. The F&H trains run into the Brush Street depot over the D&M as a result of trackage rights between the two railroads. This relationship continued for several years. [MCR-75/MRRC/MRC-6/1973]

• Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad enters Detroit. [DWS]

• Blendon Lumber Co. abandons logging road, 7 miles near Blendon Landing in Ottawa County :(T7N R14W to T6N R14W). [MRRC]

• Michigan Car Company organized in Detroit by James McMillan and John Newberry to manufacture railroad freight and refrigerator cars.  They build their works at Grand Trunk Junction, now West Detroit.  Leads to numerous ironworks. [DWS]

• The Eureka Iron Works, constructed in 1853 in Wyandotte, produces America's first Bessemer process steel. The plant is destroyed by fire in 1894 and went out of business. [EMR4]

• Thomas Edison takes a job as a telegraph operator on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad at Adrian, Michigan.  He is fired two months later and moves to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad at Fort Wayne, Indiana [ELI/MWD]

• The Iron Cliffs Company begins. It was created by the C&NW and other investors to insure ore for their railroad to Escanaba. They also purchased 34,000 acres of mineral land and also took over the Jackson Mine.This company becomes a major iron mining company in Ishpeming and surrounding environments. [IOHT][DSS]

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 Time line Key:

• Railroad event in Michigan
• Event relating to mining
• Event related to car ferries
• Event outside of Michigan
• Improvement in Technology
• Railroad built or extended
• Railroad abandoned and/or removed
• Economic panic or depression