This cache is near the site of the Kiddville depot. The cache is on property owned by the Fred Meijer Flat River Valley Trail.
Atlas of Ionia County, Michigan, F.W. Beers & Co., 1875, UofM Digital Library
1875 plat of Belding and Kiddville. Dickerson Creek is mislabeled as the Flat River in right pane.
Kidd
Kidd (railroad name for Kiddville) was a former settlement at the junction of two Pere Marquette railroad lines. A branch to Belding was constructed off the “main line” between Ionia and Greenville. The branch eventually became the main.
According to the History of Ionia County, Michigan, pp175-183, the first white settlement in the area was where Dickerson Creek (formerly known as Dickinson Creek) flows into the Flat River northeast of Belding. George W. Dickinson, in company with Thomas Cornell, both of New York, built a saw mill there in 1836. The settlement became known as Dickinsons, though when a post office was opened in June 1838, it was named "Otisco", after the township. Dickinson sold the mill to James M. Kidd in 1845, who platted the village as Kiddville and a post office reopened there with that name in February 1855. The Kiddville Post Office closed in June 1894. Kiddville became nothing more than a junction on the railroad. As the city of Belding grew, the settlement of Kiddville essentialy disappeared. All that remains of the settlement is the part of the dam on the creek, a stone bridge where the railroad line from Ionia crossed Dickerson Creek, and possibly a foundation or two. The DNR has taken over the site with several buildings.
Photo by A.G. Hudley © 2013
Stone viaduct carried the Pere Marquette over Dickerson Creek at Kiddville.
Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad
The Ionia & Lansing Railroad extended its existing line from Ionia, through Orleans, Chadwick, Kidd and on to Greenville in 1870. That same year, the line was purchased and consolidated into the Detroit, Lansing & Lake Michigan Railroad. The never realized goal was to reach Pentwater on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
In 1872, the Patterson Railroad completed a 1.67 mile line from Kidd into Patterson’s Mill. Upon completion, that line became part of the DL&LM. The first passenger trains into town were horse drawn and started service in August, 1888 coinciding with the opening of the Hotel Belding.
In 1876 the DL&LM, in receivership, was reorganized as part of the Detroit, Lansing & Northern Railroad. In 1896 the DL&N was reorganized as the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad. In 1899, the Grand Rapids, Belding and Saginaw Railroad extended its recently purchased Lowell and Hastings Railroad from Lowell to Belding, connecting with the DGR&W, which apparently had a lease of the GRB&S. This line opened on January 1, 1899 by the Pere Marquette Railroad and eventually became the main line between Saginaw and Grand Rapids.
The original line from Ionia to Kidd(ville) was abandoned in 1942, leaving the line from Elmdale (south of Lowell), through Belding, Greenville, Stanton, Edmore and on to Saginaw. In 1947, the PM became part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. The C&O was merged into CSX Transportation in 1987. The line was removed between Greenville, through Edmore to Elwell in 1988. The remainder, Elmdale to Greenville was sold to the Mid-Michigan Railroad whose headquarters were in the Greenville C&O Depot. In 2007, all but the segment from Malta (across the Grand River from Lowell) to Lowell was abandoned and. The portion from Greenville to Lowell was purchased by the Fred Meijer Flat River Valley Trail (not yet improved).
Sources
History of Ionia County, Michigan
Atlas of Ionia County, Michigan, F.W. Beers & Co, 1875
Ionia and Lansing Railroad
Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad
Patterson Railroad
Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad
Grand Rapids, Belding and Saginaw Railroad
Pere Marquette Railroad
Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad
CSX Transportation
Mid-Michigan Railroad
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