Railroad
Before 1850 the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad had
intentions of building through Byron, but the people of the village
were so sure that the road would have to be built through this area
that they asked an unreasonably high price for the right of way, the
result being that the railroad was laid five miles northeast of
Byron bringing into existence a little later the villages of Gaines
and Durand, and at the same time blasting all hopes of Byron ever
becoming a city.
The Railroad Company first known as the Toledo and Ann Arbor was
made up of corporations in order to issue first mortgage bonds which
had to be sold to push the railroad north from Ann Arbor. In time
this was re-incorporated as the Ann Arbor. The citizens of Byron saw
their previous mistake and pledged a bonus of $15,000 and the right
of way for the Ann Arbor to be built through Byron in 1885, but it
was too late to make Byron the center it should have been.
Around 1904 Fred and Henry Meier ran a dray in Byron hauling freight
from the elevator and delivered oil to the stores which was shipped
in barrels to the elevator. Bread came to Byron in large hampers and
was taken to the stores by dray, around 1910.
Soft and hard coal and coke was shipped in on coal cars, unloaded
and stored in coal sheds to the east of the track. Behind the coal
sheds was the stockyards which was a very busy place. Any animals
shipped were driven in by helpers and loaded here.
Elevator and Depot Destroyed by Fire on May
29, 1909.
Fred Kelsey, George Downing and Jay Skinner were stock drovers. Calkins
and Augsbury who bought the Roger Haviland farm north of Byron, fed
lambs who were shipped in in the early fall and out early the next
spring. Bill Schad who married Kittie Haviland also did the same
thing on the Haviland farm before it was sold to Calkins and
Augsbury. One time 20 double decks of lambs were loaded out one
evening. Three helpers drove 600-700 head at a time and $1.50 was
paid for a full days work on Saturday.
Across the track from the stockyards to the east and back in a field
stood an old slaughter house owned by Orlando Lee and rented in 1909
by Oscar Eddy when he purchased the meat market from John Crawford.
Later this was torn down and rebuilt across the road from the Fosket
farm on Braden Road. Mr. Eddy used this until the mid thirties.
Another slaughter house stood east of the present elementary school
building down by the pond and was rented from Floyd Downing. This
was torn down.
For many years the railroad did a thriving business, two passenger
trains a day each way and many freights. Around 1911 gasoline
powered motor coaches called “the Potato Bug” came into being to
care for extra passenger service. One started at Toledo and came as
far as Ann Arbor; here a second one started and came to Owosso;
while a third started at Owosso and ran to Mt. Pleasant, sometimes
making two trips a day each way. Anyone in the country who wished to
go to Cohoctah, Howell, Durand, Owosso, Byron or just for a mile or
two only had to walk to the nearest crossing and the “Tater Bug”
would pick them up and in due time return them to their destination
if they so desired.
"Potato Bug" at the Durand Depot
Much grain, feed and lumber arrived on the freights. Practically
everything used in the village and countryside came on the railroad.
With the coming of the automobile and trucks fewer people traveled
by rail; produce of all kinds began to be moved by truck rather than
shipped, and one by one the passenger trains were taken off the road
and freight service became limited. The last passenger train to go
through Byron on a regular run was in July 1950. In August 1958 the
railroad closed its depot and freight house and retired its agent,
Clarence Wiggins, who had been their agent here since 1915.
In recent years, the Ann Arbor railroad was sold to the Tuscola
Saginaw Bay line and trains still run through Byron.
Elevator and Depot, 1916
