GTW Jackson Branch
I'm coming a little late to this discussion. I haven't done any research on the original route of MAL west of Pinckney My suspicion is, and its only a suspicion, that the original route headed more directly toward Jackson and bypassed Stockbridge. Its residents MAY have wanted a railroad so badly that they came up with money to "encourage" the MAL to build to their town. Such financial incentives from communities were not rare. The MAL appears to have been in such financial straits during the 1870s, and with the state having declared municipal bond support unconstitutional, the road might well have been receptive to cash from investors in any community, even if it meant building a slightly different route than originally proposed. A very interesting field for someone to research and to have citations to support the evidence. GMM
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