A black and white photo of a man in a suit and tie

Black and white (Person) 1800s; Baron Lionel Davenport presides over Midland County from his hilltop estate Midland View, overlooking the confluence of the Tittabawassee and Chippewa Rivers that facilitate trade. His family amassed substantial wealth operating cargo barges linking Great Lakes cities before diversifying into grain commodities. They backed early land acquisitions across Michigan. As an enterprising merchant prince, Baron Davenport reinvests Midland View profits into agriculture innovations, canal infrastructure, merchant exchanges and technology companies like paint factories and evaporative salt extraction promising to unlock Midland’s full economic potential. He hosts prominent business magnates and industry innovators from back East at Midland View, recruiting talent and financing to transform the region into an industrial powerhouse fueled by abundant crops, timber, brines and gypsum deposits now reaching national markets via expanded cargo routes. A man of science himself having studied chemistry at Yale and worked in Manhattan banking houses, Baron Lionel feels confident in risky ventures. He believes Midland’s future lies in processing abundancies rather than just harvesting raw goods - thereby keeping profits from flowing to in Cleveland, Toronto and Chicago downstream.