The president of the Detroit Southern, Samuel Hunt, was to remain as president of the reorganized road but died suddenly on May 15, 1905. George Miller Cumming, a New York City lawyer who was formerly first vice-president of the Erie Railroad Company and the former chairman of the board of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, was elected president in June and served for one month. F. A. Durban was elected president in July but resigned in November, and replaced by Eugene Zimmerman. Cumming and Durban continued to serve as officers under Zimmerman's presidency.