American general and President Ulysses S. Grant also stayed at the Point Edward station while traveling from Buffalo to Detroit. A thousand Sarnians hopped aboard the J.C. Spicer ferry to greet Grant when his train arrived. Apparently not given to speeches, Grant bowed several times from the depot balcony but did not address the crowd. One reporter later noted, "it seemed Grant would rather face an army of 50,000 Southerners than expose himself to the prying eyes of 1000 Canucks having for their object the gratification of mere curiosity."
The Grand Trunk railway station in Point Edward also served as a stop on the journey of immigrants settling in Western Canada. In 1860 the Beatty Transportation Company began a steamship service from the Point Edward station to Duluth on the aptly named steamer Manitoba. West of the Grand Trunk station a shed was built for immigrants to take a break on their long journeys. Immigrants crammed into colonist cars on trains needed clean clothes and a bath before continuing the long journey. In front of the shed was an enclosed space on the river where train loads of immigrants (500 - 1000 people) could wash themselves and their clothes before loading onto steamboats for farther destinations.
The sketch by J.C. MacArthur shows a large group of Icelandic settlers arriving in Point Edward on their way to settle on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, beyond the borders of Manitoba in the Northwest Territories, in October 1875. 266 Icelandic immigrants were traveling together to the settlement. The eruptions of Mount Hecla had left hundreds homeless in Iceland, and the Canadian government sent agents there to provide government loans to families who would come and settle in Canada. Point Edward served as a point of call for these and other immigrant families settling across western Canada and the United States.
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