Gerrish was a lumbering entrepreneur in the late 1800s.

Following a warm winter that hampered his logging activities, Gerrish moved 20 million board feet of logs to the Muskegon River along a 7.1-mile narrow gauge railroad. The next year he increased his output six-fold. Though Gerrish was not the first to build a Michigan logging railroad, his operation was well-publicized, successful and revolutionized lumbering in Michigan.