Alexander H. Morrison and the
to St. Joseph
By Graydon M. Meints
Forty Years of Failed Attempts
The Man for the Job
Over a period of 40 years, a number of railroad proposals
had developed, but none laid tracks into the village. First was
the Detroit & St. Joseph in 1832. It planned to build a line
across the Michigan Territory from the Detroit River to St.
Joseph. St. Joseph pioneers Calvin Britain and Talman Wheeler
helped sell its stock, but five years passed with very little
building done. Finally, in 1837, the fledgling state of Michigan
bought the rights to the railway line and began building west
from Detroit. By 1842, the state’s line was in business as far as
Jackson, but only stage coaches left the railhead for St. Joseph.
In 1846, the state—then out of money to complete the line to
St. Joseph, much less to keep its existing line in repair—sold its
line to a group of New England men who formed the Michigan
Central Railroad. The new owners immediately started to build
west from Kalamazoo, but they chose a route through Niles to
New Buffalo—completely bypassing St. Joseph.
Eager to get a railroad for St. Joseph, local businessmen
organized the St. Joseph Valley Railroad in 1848. The plan was
to build from St. Joseph, through Niles, to Cass County, where
the road could connect with both the Michigan Central and the
proposed Michigan Southern Railroad. Nothing came of this
road.
In 1850, the same organizers replaced this proposal with the
St. Joseph Railroad, which would run from St. Joseph to some
point on the Michigan Central. The financial panic of 1853
sank that road before construction started. Matters rested there
until the end of the Civil War in 1865, when enthusiasm for new
railroads re-emerged.
The first post-war project to surface was the Chicago &
Michigan Grand Trunk Railway, a grandiose scheme to connect
Chicago with the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada at the St.
Clair River. It would run through St. Joseph, Benton Harbor,
Allegan, and Lansing. Its promoter and owner of the Benton
Harbor Palladium newspaper, Joseph P. Thresher, enlisted a St.
Joseph businessman, Alexander Morrison, as an investor. Morrison and a few other men traveled to Montreal to try to persuade
Charles J. Brydges, the general manager of the Grand Trunk of
Canada, to support their project. For whatever reason, nothing
developed from the attempt, and by 1869, the idea disappeared.
While the Grand Trunk project failed, it drew Alexander
Morrison to the possibilities of railroads and inspired him to
venture out with his own road. Morrison decided on a line to
connect St. Joseph to the nearest railroad—the Michigan Central. On April 29, 1869, he formed the Chicago & Michigan
Lake Shore, an undertaking of a size he considered realistic for
his small community.
He planned to build a 30-mile road along Lake Michigan
from St. Joseph to the Indiana state line. Morrison sought
support from several friends who were in the Grand Trunk
project, including Warren Chapman, a 57-year-old St. Joseph
lumber merchant, real estate investor, politician, and farmer;
Benjamin C. Hoyt, a 62-year-old business owner in St. Joseph;
and George Bridgman, a 56-year-old early lumberman and the
founder of the town that took his name.
Morrison also brought in his former employer, David
Ballentine, a merchant involved in banking and Great Lakes
shipping. Ballentine may have been the most successful of
the group. He also brought along his son-in-law Robert A.
Conolly, a civil engineer, who became both an organizer and
the engineer in charge of building the road.
In June 1869, construction started at St. Joseph. A steamboat brought in a shipment of rails and a locomotive named
Swallow. The road managed to borrow $150,000 to start
work. The five townships along the route issued $93,500 in
municipal bonds, although this money was held by the state
treasurer until tracks had been laid through the respective
townships. St. Joseph Township also gave $4,000 in cash to
assist the project. But all of this did not provide enough money
to complete the road, forcing Morrison to find other investors.
James F. Joy, president of the Michigan Central, was expanding his road by arranging financial help for connecting
lines. The two men may have become acquainted when both
served on the Ways and Means Committee in the Michigan
Legislature. Morrison went to Detroit with a project that fit
well with Joy’s expansive plans for the MC. The two agreed
quickly. With this new financing, Morrison completed the line
to New Buffalo in January.
On February 1, the line hosted a grand excursion, followed
18 HSM Chronicle
Unless otherwise noted, all images are from Leonard A. Morrison’s, “The History of the Morison or Morrison Family.”
By the end of the Civil War, St. Joseph had grown to be a village
of more than 2,000 residents. The mouth of the St. Joseph River
provided an excellent harbor, but the arrival of winter ended the
navigation season and isolated the community. What St. Joseph did
not have was a railroad, and it wanted one desperately.
by the formal opening for business the next day. The line climbed
out of St. Joseph and held to its present route from St. Joseph as
far as Union Pier on the lee side of the sand dunes. From Union
Pier, it continued straight for a distance, then curved toward the
lake, neared it along Riviera Road, and ended at the west side of
the Michigan Central’s New Buffalo station.
Unless otherwise noted, all images are from Leonard A. Morrison’s, “The History of the Morison or Morrison Family.”
Expanding the Vision
When construction started toward New Buffalo, Morrison
expanded his vision. In June 1869— with Hoyt and Ballentine—he formed the Lake Shore Railroad of Western Michigan to build from St. Joseph to Muskegon. He then promptly
merged this new company into the Chicago & Michigan Lake
Shore. Records are incomplete, but construction north from
St. Joseph likely began soon after the completion of the line to
New Buffalo in 1870.
By the end of February 1871, Morrison had this extension
in operation as far as Grand Junction, where it connected with
the recently built Kalamazoo & South Haven (also controlled
by Joy’s Michigan Central). This connection allowed Morrison to tap the pine forests of northern Van Buren County and
bring the logs to St. Joseph. He pushed on and completed the
road into Holland by the end of June.
During 1870, Joy, who had arranged ample New England
financing for Morrison to build the road to New Buffalo, decided he should take firmer control of the company to protect
his investor friends. The extension north from St. Joseph still
required more money. Morrison stepped aside to become vice
president and general manager, and Joy became president of
the C&MLS. Joy brought in Isaac Livermore, the Michigan
Central’s treasurer, who also became the C&MLS treasurer
and money watchdog.
In August 1870, in another expansion, Joy and Morrison
bought the rights of the one-year-old Grand Rapids & Lake
Shore. The line had been organized the year before by a group
of Grand Rapids and Muskegon businessmen, who wanted
to build a line from Grand Rapids through Whitehall and
Pentwater to Manistee. The GR&LS had laid no tracks, but
Morrison and Joy must have felt there was value in its route
franchise.
When Morrison completed the C&MLS line into Holland
in June 1870, he was already at work farther north. In 1870,
he built a line between Muskegon and Nunica and, by June
1871, extended those tracks into Holland. Muskegon was
an important lumbertown and C&MLS now had access to
saw mills that could provide carloads of lumber to ship to the
Chicago markets.
Another connecting line, the Grand Rapids & Holland Railroad, was formed by a separate group of Holland and Grand
Rapids men in February 1871; this line would provide an ideal
connection for Morrison’s road to reach West Michigan’s largest city. In October 1871, Morrison and Joy bought the Grand
Rapids road and, on the same day, bought the projected Montague, Pentwater & Manistee Railroad, a line formed earlier
by a group of Pentwater men to build between its namesake
towns. The Pentwater company hadn’t laid any track, so it is
likely that Morrison bought it either to eliminate a potential
competitor or allow some later expansion.
Morrison began building the rail line between Holland and
Grand Rapids as soon as he bought the rights, completing it
by the beginning of 1872. At the same time, Morrison finished
building the C&MLS as far north as Pentwater.
In another expansion, Morrison added the Muskegon &
Big Rapids Railroad to his company in August 1872. This road
was originally organized in August 1871 by a group of Muskegon lumbermen to provide the Muskegon mills with a steady
year-round flow of logs from Newaygo County forests. The
line was completed from Berry to Big Rapids, through Fremont
and White Cloud, in July 1873, but parts of it very likely were
in use before that date.
By building and expanding their line as rapidly as they did,
Joy and Morrison walked into a trap. In just four years, they
had spent nearly $8 million for purchases and construction,
and borrowed $6,630,000 to do it. At 8 percent, the interest
charge on the loans and bonds came to $530,400 a year—an
Opposite page: Alexander Morrison. Left: The A.H. Morrison Wooden Ware Works manufactory. Right: A
portrait of James F. Joy from Burke Aaron Hinsdale’s “History of the University of Michigan, 1906.”
HSM Chronicle 19
The St. Joseph residence of Alexander Morrison.
amount that was almost twice the roads’ net profits. They paid
what interest they had to and deferred the rest, which was possible because Joy’s friends held many of the bonds.
This situation was soon followed by the Financial Panic of
1873. Bank doors closed to them for more borrowing, and
forced the bondholders to demand the back interest due to
them—nearly a million dollars. To protect themselves, the New
England lenders forced out both Joy and Morrison in 1874
and placed men from Boston on the board of directors.
After the Railroad
After Morrison’s “retirement” from the railroad in September 1874, employees of the C&MLS presented him with a
watch and chain said to be valued at $650. While Joy refocused his attention to concentrate on the Michigan Central
(after 30 years of profitability, it, too, was in financial difficulty), Morrison concentrated on his businesses in St. Joseph. He
kept his store and continued dealing in lumber. In his store, his
nephew, William Roderick Morrison, had an insurance agency
and the village’s telegraph office.
In 1876, the C&MLS went into receivership and emerged in
1878 as the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad, with Morrison completely absent. Even so, Morrison and Joy continued
their partnership in a shipping dock on the St. Joseph side of
the river west of the railroad swing bridge. It shipped both
lumber and seasonal fruit to Chicago. Morrison owed much of
his success to his connection with Joy, and gave him full credit
for this good fortune.
To improve shipping, Morrison dug the Morrison Channel
next to the St. Joseph River, which gave his village improved
dockage for lake ships.
In 1878, he opened a factory that produced wooden products; one historian considered it “the most extensive woodenware manufacturing establishment in the Northwest—indeed,
as much so as any establishment of its kind East or West.” The
factory was located just east of the St. Joseph River drawbridge on Morrison Channel.
The next year, Morrison opened a factory to manufacture
pails or other products made of the pulp of straw and hay. He
also built a new home at the intersection of State and Broad
streets in St. Joseph.
Around 1872 or 1873, Morrison partnered with Charles G.
20 HSM Chronicle
Wicker of the Dakota Southern Railroad. After building the
first part of the Dakota Southern in 1872, Wicker formed the
Sioux City & Pembina Railroad and then built north along
the Big Sioux River toward Sioux Falls. Morrison joined him
about the time that it was extended northward. The two roads
were merged into the Sioux City & Dakota Railroad in 1879,
and Wicker sold his interest in the company in 1880. In 1881,
the road was sold to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul.
It is unclear how long Morrison and Wicker worked together; it may have been for only a short time since official railroad
reports to the Iowa regulators do not mention Morrison as a
director or officer after 1872.
Morrison and his wife moved to Chicago, where they took
up residence in Chicago’s south side. There is no record of his
active business involvements while in Chicago, but it is very
likely he continued to manage his investments and properties
in St. Joseph.
Morrison died September 4, 1890 and is buried in Chicago’s
Oak Woods Cemetery. Throughout his life, Morrison remained
an important force in St. Joseph business circles. In fact, the
Morrison Channel of the St. Joseph River perpetuates his name.
While his factories in St. Joseph have since been torn down,
the Morrison Wooden-Ware Company is remembered today as
one of the nation’s largest in the 1880s. His St. Joseph home
was torn down around the turn of the century, but one of his
storefronts—a part of the Morrison Block—still stands as the
Pump House Grille at 214 State St. in downtown St. Joseph.
The writer thanks Robert C. Myers of St. Joseph for his
help in preparing this article.
A Brief Biography
Born February 22, 1822 in Berthier, Quebec, Alexander
Hamilton Morrison left home at age 16 for Chicago, a
new village with fewer than 4,000 residents at the time.
While there, David Ballentine—one of the contractors
working on the Illinois and Michigan Canal—hired Morrison as a clerk.
After three years, Morrison went out on his own and
landed contracts for several public works projects in Iowa
and Illinois in the late 1840s. In 1848, Morrison married Julia
Ann Reynolds of Buffalo, New York in Elkhart, Indiana.
In 1850, the Morrisons moved to St. Joseph, where he
opened a general merchandise store and, a few years later,
went into lumbering. He also plunged into local politics
and, in 1852, was elected supervisor of St. Joseph Township. In 1856, he was elected to the Michigan Senate,
served for two years, and was speaker pro tem. From 1861
to 1862, he served in the Michigan House of Representatives, sat on a special committee on war matters, and also
served as speaker.
In 1862, President Lincoln offered Morrison an appointment to the army’s commissary department, which he
declined. He then accepted an appointment as a collector
of internal revenue, and held that office for about a year. In
1866, President Andrew Johnson made him an assessor of
internal revenue and he served in that office for three years.