The first train: October 4, 1851

1850–1852 · THE FIRST RAILS

The railroad reached the town the water power had made: On 4 October 1851 the Michigan Southern railroad's first train came into Mishawaka behind the locomotive John Strycker — three passenger coaches and a baggage car, the engine, in the city history's words, only the size of a small tractor, fueled with wood and braked by hand. Bonfires blazed, cannon erupted, and the assembled crowd cheered. The Story of Mishawaka section section carries the arrival in brief; this entry carries the road that made it.

How the road got to Indiana: The Michigan Southern had built west from Toledo to White Pigeon, Michigan, but its Michigan charter barred it from building within two miles of the Indiana line east of Constantine — and the practical route ran closer. Judge Thomas Stanfield of South Bend bought the right-of-way from White Pigeon to the state line and leased it to the company until the charter could be changed. Mishawaka's own history tells the same work in corporate form: Stanfield incorporated the Portage Railroad, which connected White Pigeon to the state line. The two tellings are printed together because they are the same transaction seen from the courtroom and from the town. West of the line, the building company was the Northern Indiana & Chicago Railroad, chartered 30 November 1850; its track ran from the state line through Elkhart, Osceola and Mishawaka to South Bend, and it opened the whole way on the day the first train reached Mishawaka — the arrival here and the opening to South Bend are one event, the train passing through the mill town on its way to the end of the track. Father Edward Sorin's chronicle at Notre Dame records what the road meant before a rail was laid: in January 1851 the news that the legislature had secured a railroad "through South Bend, Mishawaka, Elkhart" was spread along the valley by cannon fire, against the long opposition of the rival Michigan Central.

Through to Chicago, and the first consolidation: The road's own corporate record dates the completion west to Chicago to 20 February 1852. Mishawaka's city history says only that "by the following summer, the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana went to Chicago" — a season later than the corporate date, and the difference is printed as it stands; the corporate record's February date is the one the railroad's own chronology keeps. On 25 April 1855 the Northern Indiana & Chicago was merged with the Michigan Southern to form the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad, the name under which the road served Mishawaka through its first generation — and the name on the train that met the town's greatest tragedy four years later, in the entry below on the wreck of 1859.

Sources:

1. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History (city-commissioned history) — the arrival of 4 October 1851; the train of three coaches and a baggage car behind the John Strycker, wood-fueled and hand-braked; the bonfires and cannon; Stanfield's Portage Railroad from White Pigeon to the state line; Chicago reached "by the following summer."
2. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern's corporate record — the Northern Indiana & Chicago charter of 30 November 1850; Stanfield's purchase and lease of the White Pigeon right-of-way; the opening through Elkhart, Osceola and Mishawaka to South Bend on 4 October 1851; the Chicago completion of 20 February 1852; the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana consolidation of 25 April 1855.
3. Edward Sorin, Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac, chapter for 1851 (University of Notre Dame Archives) — the railroad secured through "South Bend, Mishawaka, Elkhart," the news spread by cannon in January 1851, and the Michigan Central's opposition.
4. This build's Spine section — the first train of 4 October 1851 carried in brief there and built on here.