In April 1833, the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad company was given a charter to start the building of a railroad. The Palmyra Jacksonburgh Railroad was the first railway in the state of Michigan. It was built in 1837 - the year that Michigan became a state - as the Tecumseh branch. The charter that was received in 1833 granted them the ability to create a 46-mile-long (74 km) railway that would run through Clinton, Michigan and finish in Jacksonburgh (which is now known as Jackson). The new railroad branch tried to start building in 1838, but because of financial problems the railroad could not be built. However, in 1844 it was sold to the state to be operated by the Southern Railroad, which two years later became the Michigan Southern.
After a few years construction began once more. The railroad reached Clinton in 1853, Manchester in 1855, and finally Jacksonburgh in 1857. In 1855, it became part of the Northern Indiana Railroad. Once reaching Jacksonburgh, the branch was completed as the Palmyra Jacksonburgh Railroad. It was bought by the New York Central Railroad system in 1915.