| November 8, 1993 the City of Vassar resting just east of Middleton. No.1977 is an EMD NW2 built in 1942. |
| City of Cadillac and City of Vassar ready for the pull towards Ashley. No.393 is a EMD GP35 built in 1964. Middleton is in the background. |
| 1889 MAP OF PERRINTON |
| Perrinton is another village that owes its existence to the building of the Toledo, Saginaw, & Muskegon Railway.Not like Middleton, Perrinton is incorporated. The original plat of Perrinton was made by Ansel H.Phinney and Warren W.Baker on March 30, 1887. The village was first named Perrin, after some lawyers in St. Johns who owned considerable amounts of land around there. It was later changed to Perrinton as there was already a post office in Michigan named Perrin. On the 1889 map of Fulton township there is shown a rail spur going north off the main line at Perrinton. Mr.David Brown ran a large saw mill and stave factory on 70 acres of woods there and it was a large operation. By 1895 nearly all of the wooded land had been cleared and the factory buildings were torn down and sold for lumber. A milk plant was built on the east side of Perrinton in 1916 by the Wolverine Condensing Co. It was then run by the Libby, McNeil & Libby Co. It was taken over by the Borden Company in 1929. The Borden Company was still in business in August, 1955. From History of Gratiot County 1910 & Gratiot County Herald Aug. 1955. In 1997, the only railroad spur left in Perrinton is to the old Borden milk plant. This facility is now used by Kleins for incoming fertilizer products. |
| West view towards the old Borden milk plant in Perrinton. The main to Middleton is on the right. Its up hill here from Pine Creek. The track to the left curves into a coal unloading shed to power the steam plant when the milk plant was in business. This was the site of Klein fertilizer in 1997. The spur to Brown's saw mill mentioned above took off to the right from the main line. Date of photograph Feb., 1997. |
| I took this photo in 1987 of the coal shed at the milk plant. The hoppers were unloaded between the rails into a pit. It was quite an up grade into this shed. |
| Southwest view of Perrinton's first depot. The location was just west of Luce rd. on the south side of the track. Photo, Gordon Lydeksen collection. |
| Perrinton's second depot built in 1916. Photo, Gordon Lydeksen collection. |
| Just east of the old Bordon milk plant is the bridge over Pine creek. Printed on the east side was M.P.30.47 from the GTW days. June 22,1887 the Maple Rapids Dispatch had these words: "The railroad bridge is nearly done. The railroad grade from Pine creek to Ashley is ready for the ties. The paymaster is expected today and there are lots of men with fingers itching to get hold of the filthy lucre." I believe this is the second structure as there were cut off pilings in the creek bed. Feb.,1997. |
| 1901 south view of Pine creek trestle completed in the summer of 1887. Later the trestle approaches were filled in and the steel girder span, shown in the proceeding photo, was put in place. Photograph courtesy of Gordon Lydeksen |
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