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Saginaw was founded in 1816 as a trading
post on the Saginaw River. The original town was platted in 1823
on the west side of the river. East Saginaw was founded in 1850,
and was incorporated as a village in 1855 and a city in 1857.
The entire Saginaw area was well known as the logging capital of east
Michigan in the second half of the 1800's. East Saginaw was
combined with South Saginaw in 1873 and with Saginaw City (west side
of river) in 1889. [MPN]
The first railroad to enter (East) Saginaw
was the Flint and Pere Marquette, coming up from Flint in 1859.
Railroad construction activity in 1867 was
substantial, with F&PM lines extended extended across the river
towards Midland and north to Bay City. 1867 also brought the
Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw (Michigan Central) up from Owosso.
The Pere Marquette line west towards Alma
was built in 1872, and a connection was built from the Detroit and Bay
City Railroad from Denmark Jct. about 1873. Narrow gauge lines
to Vassar and Reese were built in 1874 and 1882 respectively and
converted to standard gauge later. In 1890, the predessor to the
Grand Trunk Western arrived from Durand and was built through east and
west Saginaw to Bay City. |