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Jackson Time Line
- 1841 - Central line arrives from Detroit
- 1844 - Central line builds west towards
Albion
- 1857 - LSMS Jackson Branch arrives from
Tecumseh.
- 1865 - the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw
builds north from Jackson to Lansing, arriving there a year later.
- 1868 - the Grand River Valley (later the
MC Grand Rapids branch) is built northwest to Grand Rapids..
- 1869 - The Fort Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw
arrives from Fort Wayne, via Jonesville
- 1870 - The Michigan Air Line is built
between Jackson and Niles
- 1883 - the Grand Trunk Western arrives in
Jackson from Pontiac.
- 1886 - Cincinnati Northern arrives from
Hudson and beyond
- ~1900 - Sometime after the turn of the
century, the Jackson & Northern narrow 24" gauge (20 lb. rail) was
built north from Jackson towards the area of the current prison.
This road was removed by 1929.
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Jackson was founded in 1827
and originally known as Jacksonburgh. It was named after U. S.
President Andrew Jackson. The town was first platted in 1830.
Jacksonburgh was changed to Jacksonopolis in 1835 and to Jackson in
1838. It became the county seat in 1833, incorporated as a
Village in 1843 and as a city in 1857.
Railroads came to Jackson in
December, 1841 with the arrival of the "Central" road, owned by the
State of Michigan. This line became the Michigan Central
Railroad soon after. The road built west from Jackson to Albion
in 1844. In 1857, the Central's chief competitor, the Lake Shore
& Michigan Southern built their line north from Tecumseh to give
Jacksonian's a second option for rail travel.
Beginning in 1865, a series
of railroads were built to or from Jackson. Many were owned, in
part, by Jackson community leaders and many had the backing of the
Michigan Central. Directorships of these railroads will often in
common. In 1865 the JL&S was built north to Lansing. Three
years later, an off-shoot of this road left the line at Rives Jct.
(north of Jackson) to Grand Rapids. The following year, in 1869,
the FWJ&S arrives from the south and in 1870 the Michigan Air Line was
completed between Jackson and Niles. All of these roads were
consolidated into the Michigan Central at some point. In 1883,
the "foreign" Grand Trunk Western arrived from Pontiac, and finally
the Cincinnati Northern arrived from the south (a "Big Four" line). |