|
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF
WILLIAM A. BURT, BY GEORGE H. CANNON.
June 7, 1882.
On September 1, of that year, a number of the citizens of Ypsilanti pledged, by subscriptions, the sum of $500, to be paid the Detroit railroad committee in defraying the expenses in making the survey of a railroad line from Detroit to St Joseph, at the mouth of the river. Mr. Burt and one of his sons were engaged upon this work about three months, when he received a large contract of surveys in Wisconsin; and leaving civil engineering, he thereafter devoted his time to the linear surveys. His work was now in a prairie country and the result more satisfactory. He continued to work on the surveys west for several years, mainly in Iowa, and along the Mississippi river, marking the township lines where is now the city of Milwaukee.
April 4, 1838, he was appointed one of the Commissioners of Internal
Improvements, the State at this time having started out on a vast scheme of rapid development. In his duty as commissioner, he made the survey of a railroad line from Port Huron to Saginaw City, then the only town on the Saginaw waters. Personally, Mr. Burt entertained hut little confidence in these Utopian schemes, and resolved that whatever he did should not be entirely lost, hut that the surveyed line, when cleared, could serve as a highway for settlers in occupying the country. His anticipations proved correct, and the State in due time abandoned its policy with reference to carrying on internal improvements, wisely leaving to private enterprise that which should properly belong to it. Of the extensive projects into which the State entered, Judge Campbell, in his Political History, says: That the "northern road was graded beyond Lapeer, and its bed was converted into a wagon road, at the expense of a large amount of internal improvement lands, which paid a great price for very little work. The Clinton canal was completed a few miles, and rented for water-power.
Michigan
Page 6
|
|
Thank you for visiting. If you have found the information here interesting please consider making a donation.
|
