Flint and Pere Marquette Railway Reorganization - 1880 dated Michigan Railroad Bond - Various Denominations

Bond printed by Evening Post Print, N.Y. The Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM) is a defunct railroad which operated in the U.S. state of Michigan between 1857 & 1899. It was one of the three companies which merged to become the Pere Marquette Railway.

The F&PM was chartered on January 22, 1857 as the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway for the purpose of constructing an east-west railway line on a route, for which a federal land grant was offered, from Flint, Michigan to Lake Michigan at Pere Marquette (now Ludington, Michigan). The early promoters of the road were George M. Dewey & E.H. Hazelton of Flint, w/ Dewey serving as the first president of the F&PM. Construction started in 1859 in East Saginaw. A more energetic management took charge in 1860 when Captain Eber Brock Ward of Detroit, a prominent lumberman, vessel owner, & steel manufacturer, was elected to the presidency of the F&PM. Service began on January 20, 1862, on the 26.1-mile (42.0 km) section from East Saginaw south to Mount Morris. In December 1864 the F&PM gained access to Detroit via trackage rights over the Flint & Holly Railroad & the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad.

Construction westward from Saginaw commenced in 1866 w/ the first section of 20 miles (32 km), to Midland, opened December 1, 1867. In the Annual Report to the Stockholders of December 31, 1867, the secretary of the F&PM, Henry C. Potter, called for the continued building of the line toward Lake Michigan: "The importance & magnitude of the lumber traffic on the Muskegon & Manistee Rivers urge this company to speedy construction on its road west.” Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_and_Pere_Marquette_Railroad