Two years after Michigan be came a state the first link in the railroad connecting Detroit and Chicago was built to Dearbornville, then a small village ten miles from Detroit. In those early days the settlers drove to “town” in ox carts over corduroy roads that they themselves had built with logs from the surrounding forests. The coming of the first train was, therefore, a great day in Dearbornville. The pioneers gathered in the shade of the stockade walls of the arsenal and debated the new invention. There were many pessimists among them who were sure that the crude locomotive of that time would never be of practical value. William Cremer had wagered that his white faced sorrel mare could outrun the iron horse in a race from Ten Eyck's tavern to the village; and it did, William reining in his horse at the arsenal before the train came in.
In the group that witnessed this triumph of the horse and the subsequent arrival of the train was a young lad, William Ford, who lived between Dearbornville and Fort Wayne—a post where U. S. Grant was stationed a few years later as a lieutenant. William Ford had recently come over from Ireland. The twinkle in his blue eyes, the glow in his cheek and his ready wit told that, but his speech and his manners spoke of his English ancestry. He had cleared and put under cultivation the land where he lived, and some years later married Mary Litogot, the daughter of his nearest neighbor. In the five years that followed five children came to bless their home.