Grass Lake had two interurban lines from about 1890 to the mid-1920's, including the D.U.R., the Detroit Urban Railway, and the electric interurban rails changed the face of the community by enabling men and women to travel from farms to work in the cities. William A. Boland, a native son, left the area with his young family around 1880 and in Massachusetts shared in profits from an invention related to shoe manufacturing. Those profits allowed him to pursue interests in real estate, electrical power production, and especially the development of electric rail lines. By 1894, he had taken a $12 million contract to build a Nassau Co, NY electric railway. He was instrumental in the development of interurban rail in Grass Lake, though his goal of establishing a line from Detroit to Chicago was not achieved. Original stockholders in his Jackson Suburban Traction Co included Grass Lake investors Henry M. Hobart and William F. Shaler and Jackson businessmen William A. and James B. Foote.