On May 22, 1852, the first train ran between Toledo and Chicago, on two roads, the Michigan Southern and the Indiana Northern. Three years later, the two railroads consolidated and the Air Line began traversing the rails from Toledo to Elkhart, Indiana. Records of the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad show a station in the area in 1860 with no name, but freight and passengers from that site. In their records of 1880, it shows Holland having a population of 230 people, with the tons of freight increasing almost 20 times while the number of passengers increased by approximately 400% from 1860 to 1880.