The Great Railroad Conspiracy of Michigan
The Great Railroad Conspiracy had nothing to do with wealthy railroad barons conspiring to fix shipping rates or create a monopoly. It had to do with angry farmers and an indifferent company response to a relatively simple problem. The railroads ran through fields in which farmer’s cows grazed. Sometimes the cows wandered onto the tracks and were hit by trains because the locomotive was unable to stop in time and the cows were too cow-like to get out of the way. Unable to work out a reasonable solution, several farmers conspired to commit arson of railroad property.
The railroad was the Detroit and St. Joseph, which at first used wooden rails covered with iron straps which limited the speed of the trains. Despite the slow speed many cows met their demise on the tracks. A group of investors took over the line, renamed it the Michigan Central, and replaced the rails with standard iron rails beginning in 1845. The faster speed of the trains and the new practice of running at night increased the number of cow casualties alarmingly. Fencing along the rail beds was determined to be an unworkable solution due to costs.
Jackson County farmers formed a committee to address the issue and asked the railroad to compensate the farmers for lost cattle. It refused. More dead cows and more letters to the railroad led to an offer of compensation of 50% of the animal’s value. The farmers refused. Farmers began harassing the trains by laying dead trees and other items across the tracks. By 1849 farmers were shooting at passing trains. One of their leaders, Abel Fitch, threatened to burn bridges and other railroad structures. Passenger traffic on the railroad declined due to the threat of violence. The railroad employed spies to keep an eye on the farmers.
In November 1850 the railroad’s Detroit depot was destroyed by a fire which was determined to be arson. The railroad’s spies soon unearthed the information that the fire had been set by a conspiracy including Fitch and more than three dozen farmers who had created the device to set the fire, obtained the materials, and bribed a Detroit brothel owner to place the device in the depot. The Wayne County Sheriff set out to arrest 44 named participants in the conspiracy to commit arson. They were transported to Detroit, ironically, by railroad to stand trial. A total of 37 were tried. Bail was set at $2 million dollars for the bunch.
Fitch was one of the defendants, but he died during the trial. Twelve of the defendants were found guilty of conspiring to destroy railroad property and sentenced to up to ten years imprisonment, to be spent at hard labor. The attention to the trial by the newspapers led to changes enacted by the legislature. In 1855 all railroad locomotives were required to be equipped with an alarm bell. The legislature also required the railroads to fence the rails where they ran through grazing areas, a solution which would have prevented the whole problem in the first place.