History: The Fruit Belt Line

Brighton, Rix, Walker, & Eassom

Long Lost Stops on “The Fruit Belt Line”

By Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library The Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago Railway (KLS&C) known as “The Fruit Belt Line” provided rail service between Kalamazoo and South Haven during the fi rst decades of the 20th century. From its depot near downtown Kalamazoo, The KLS&C followed a southwesterly route through familiar towns like Oshtemo, Mattawan, Lawton, Paw Paw, Lawrence, and Hartford. But the train also made stops in small but important communities that are perhaps not so familiar. Brighton (or Brighton Crossing), Rix (Rix Station), Walker (Walker’s Crossing), and Eassom (Eassom Station) were all places where mail bags were exchanged, commuters waited for the next train into town, and farmers loaded baskets fi lled with potatoes, melons, apples, tomatoes, peaches, and berries onto freight cars bound for market. Those locales have long since vanished from today’s maps but a little over a century ago, they were rural stopping places alive with activity and important hubs of agricultural commerce in southwestern Kalamazoo County. Two miles west of Oshtemo, the train stopped in Brighton on South 6th Street near West N Avenue. Brighton was evidently named for David R. Bright, a Civil War veteran and award-winning local farmer who hosted the rail stop along the north side of the KLS&C tracks east of South 6th Street. Bright’s fl ower gardens were said to be “magnifi cent.” Continuing west from Brighton, the train made its next stop on a portion of the Rix family farm in Texas Township. Rix Station was located where the tracks crossed South 4th Street, a half-mile north of West O Avenue. At one point Rix had all the makings of a small village with a post offi ce, a grocer, two schools, and a railroad depot. The stop was named for brothers Ira, Johnson, and George Rix who were among the earliest white settlers in Texas Township. Students in the area attended the Fractional District No. 6 schoolhouse (northwest corner of Stadium Drive and 1st Street) and the District No. 12 schoolhouse (northwest corner of West O Avenue and 4th Street). Both were located on Rix family property and remained in service until the Second World War. After leaving Rix, the train traveled west to Walker, located on West O Avenue just west of 4th Street, where a small depot stood on the southern corner of Robert Walker’s farm. A native of Scotland, Walker moved his family from Kalamazoo to Texas Township after serving in the Civil War. A mile west of Walker, the train made a stop at Eassom on South 1st Street, north of West P Avenue. Robert and Edwin Eassom where well-known family farmers who emigrated from England and settled in Texas Township during the 1850s. Ed’s son George later served as a township constable and justice of the peace. After taking on passengers and freight, the train continued into Van Buren County through Mattawan, Lawton, and eventually on to South Haven. After years of declining ridership, the Fruit Belt Line was closed in November 1924 and the tracks were removed. Today, portions of the old KLS&C railroad bed between Oshtemo and Mattawan serve as an informal walking trail called the Fruit Belt Trail.

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