The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway System was formed in 1869 through the merger of four railroads: the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana; the Cleveland and Toledo; the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula; and the Buffalo and Erie. These companies provided an unbroken rail route between Chicago, Illinois, and Buffalo, New York.
The Lake Shore's predecessor roads had, in turn, been formed through mergers of a variety of smaller lines, some of which were among the first railroads to be established in Ohio and Indiana. The Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana resulted from the merger of the Michigan Southern Railroad and the Northern Indiana Railroad in 1855. the Michigan Southern's antecedents included the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad which was chartered in 1837. The Cleveland and Toledo represented the merger of the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland and the Junction Railroads in 1853. In 1854, the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad, which had been completed in 1852, acquired the rights to a railroad between the Ohio State line and Erie, Pennsylvania. This road had been constructed by the Franklin Canal Company. The easternmost portion of the Lake Shore System was comprised of the Buffalo and Erie Railroad which had been formed through the merger of the Buffalo and State Line and the Erie and North East Railroads in 1867. Almost all of the railroads which came to constitute the Lake Shore System were the result of the great interest in railroad construction which characterized the American Midwest in the 1830s and 1840s.
Financiers from Cleveland, Ohio, were largely responsible for the creation of the Lake Shore System. However, within several months of the merger, the Vanderbilt family of New York City acquired control of the railroad. Although the Lake Shore maintained its headquarters in Cleveland, and prominent Clevelanders such as Stillman Witt, Amasa Stone, Jr., Henry B. Payne, and Jeptha H. Wade sat on the road's board of directors during the late nineteenth century, the system was dominated by the New York interests. Cornelius and William K. Vanderbilt used the Lake Shore as a connection with their own New York Central and Hudson River Railroad to create a totally controlled railroad linking New York City with Chicago.
By the early 1900s, Cleveland representation had disappeared from the System's board of directors. In late 1914 the Lake Shore was combined with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad to form the New York Central System.
From the guide to the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company Records, 1849-1909, (Western Reserve Historical Society)
