Railroad Union Birthplace

Railroad Union Birthplace is a Michigan historical marker in Marshall, Calhoun County, dedicated 1974.

633 West Hanover St, Marshall

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In April 1863 a meeting held here at the home of Jared C. Thompson led directly to the organization of the Brotherhood of the Footboard. Under the leadership of Marshall’s William D. Robinson, founder and first Grand Chief Engineer, fifty-four locals were established in the next sixteen months. Renamed the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in 1864, the union grew to over eighty thousand members by the mid-twentieth century.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1855 · A new map of the State of Ohio (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1855 · The Western Tourist And Emigrant's Guide (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1873 · Michigan. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1874 · Colton's Michigan (1874) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Michigan, 1873, covering the location of Railroad Union Birthplace, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Michigan, 1873, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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