Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad Co. - 1850's-60's dated Railway Stock Certificate

Stock printed on Blue or White paper. Stub at left. Nice. On July 8, 1853, the Ohio & Indiana companies merged, & on February 7, 1855, the Northern Indiana & Chicago Railroad & the Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad were merged into the Northern Indiana Railroad. On April 25, 1855, that company in turn merged with the Michigan Southern Rail Road to form the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad. In October 1867, the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad leased the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad. The CP&A changed its name to the Lake Shore Railway on March 31, 1868, & on February 11, 1869, the Lake Shore absorbed the Cleveland & Toledo. On April 6 the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad & Lake Shore merged to form the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, which absorbed the Buffalo & Erie Railroad on June 22, giving one company the whole route from Buffalo to Chicago.

The main route passed through Dunkirk; Erie; Ashtabula, Ohio; Cleveland; Toledo; Waterloo, Indiana; & South Bend. An alternate route (the Sandusky Division) in Ohio ran north of the main line between Elyria & Millbury (not all track was laid until 1872). From Toledo to Elkhart, the Old Road ran to the north, through southern Michigan, & the through route was called the Air Line Division or Northern Indiana Air Line. Along with various branches that had been acquired, the Monroe Branch ran east from Adrian, Michigan, to Monroe, where it intersected the leased Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Railroad. At some point the original line to Toledo was abandoned west of the branch to Jackson, Michigan (Palmyra & Jacksonburgh Railroad), with the new connection at Lenawee Junction, the crossing between that branch & the line to Monroe. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Shore_and_Michigan_Southern_Railway