Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 43

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149

USA > Ohio > Butler County > Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio > Part 43

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

RAILROADS.

Very few people in this city realize what railroad facilities Middletown has and the amount of business done by the various

roads. The railroad facilities of Middle- town will compare favorably with any city of its size in the state of Ohio, and with a large number of the larger cities. Let us compare it with a few of our neighboring cities. Hamilton has but three lines, the Pennsylvania. Erie and Cincinnati, Hamil- ton & Dayton. Dayton has four lines, the Pennsylvania, Erie, Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton and Big Four. Springfield has four, the Pennsylvania. Erie, Detroit South- ern and Big Four, while Middletown has five, the Pennsylvania, Cincinnati. Hamilton & Dayton, Erie. Cincinnati Northern and Big Four. Middletown is also favored with good passenger service on these lines. If these roads were running in and out of a union depot there would be fifty-two pas- senger trains daily enter the station.

We have direct trains out of Middletown to Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland. Buffalo, New York, Boston and other large cities and our people can take cars out of here direct to these cities without any change of cars, which also puts us on an equal footing with other cities. By having such good passenger service, also helps our mail service, there being mail from all directions at all hours of the day.

Middletown also has the advantage of four express companies through having good railroad facilities. The United States Express Company. using the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton : the Adams and South- ern. using the Pennsylvania Company, and the American, using the Big Four and Cin- cinnati Northern. Our freight service is as good as any in the state of Ohio, and while this statement is liable to cause a dispute. anyone disagreeing with this statement should make inquiries among shippers at

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BANK

OLD OGLESBY & BARNITZ BANK BUILDING. MIDDLETOWN.

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NEW OGLESBY & BARNITZ BANK BUILDING, MIDDLETOWN.

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LEIBER BLOCK-FIRST NATIONAL BANK, MIDDLETOWN.

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other points, after which he would prob- ably fall in line with this opinion. There is much kicking against the railroads here. but that is the case everywhere, for it seems to be a satisfaction to get a chance to make a daily kick to the local agent, for, as has been said, "He is the only man to get at."

The railroads employ over seventy-five men here, which includes yard crews, station men, track men and others. The Big Four and C. L. & N. (or Pennsylvania ) each have a yard engine, which does all switching for these roads.

Our industries receive better service than do industries in larger cities, for here the competition is keen and each fellow is after the business, and, as service counts. every effort is made to accommodate the people. In larger cities there are more people to look after and larger yards to handle, which makes it impossible to give shippers the at- tention that is given our people. There is a switching agreement between the various lines, and a car coming in on one line for an industry located on a competing line. tracks are placed at the plant of consignee without any cost to him, the same rule ap- plying on out-going business. By this ar- rangement all our industries are practically located on all lines into Middletown.

The year 1903 was the best year in the history of Middletown for the Big Four road. During the year it received 93,276 tons and forwarded 41.680 tons, making a total of 134.956 tons. It handled on an average 900 loaded cars per month, which includes in and out-bound business.

Ticket sales for 1903 were $30.092.69. against $27,425.68 in 1902. The month of August, 1903. was the banner passenger month at this station, the sales running to

$3,539.56. The gross receipts for Middle- town on the Big Four, for 1901. were $198,648.40; in 1902, $232,977.44 ; in 1903. $311,420.36. The best month for the Big Four at Midletown was June, 1903. when the gross receipts ran to $35,014.53.

Middletown has the reputation of being the best city of its size on the Big Four sys- tem and the railroad fraternity in general all have a warm spot for Middletown.

PORK AND GRAIN TRADE.

Soon after the opening of the canals Middletown began to attract the attention of capitalists interested in the handling of pork and grain. No city on the continent in those days handled and cured so many hogs as Cincinnati. Middletown being in the center of a rich agricultural territory and within easy reach of the Queen City of the West by canal, soon became a real center of this line of trade.

Sumner Hudson and Gardner Phipps. of Boston, began to kill and cure hogs in Middletown in 1835 and '36. and were soon associated with F. J. Tytus, under the firm name of Phipps & Tytus.

In 1837 Edward Jones came to Middle- town from a town nearby to Boston, a car- penter by trade. He soon found work with the local builders in the summer and fall months: in the winter months he entered the employ of these pork packers, and soon had charge of the "pork house" and was given charge of the workmen by the firm. This continued until 1839 and '40. . when he was given a fourth interest in the pack of that season. The year was an un- fortunate one and he with the house lost money, but they recouped their holdings next year. Mr. Jones mastered the business.

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and made money for himself and his associ- below by steamers, winding up at New Or- ates. He became allied with Mr. Dupee, Mr. leans, where the big hog was exhibited by Mr. Bowman at ten cents for each spectator. Mr. Bowman is now living in Middletown, hale and hearty, at the age of seventy-eight years, and is the oldest man living in the city who was born in it.

Phipps, Mr. Tytus and later with Geo. L. Wren, S. A. Wren, W. B. Oglesby, S. V. Curtiss and others. . The pork handled and hogs slaughtered in Middletown from 1835 to 1875 was enormous, and increased rap- idly until the time of the war. Thousands of hogs were handled every year, be- ing hauled and driven to the village in droves made up often of a hundred head owned by one farmer and weighing from four hundred to five hundred pounds each. The town was simply alive with hogs. Mr. Jones became a most skillful packer, and this business centered about him. "Jones hams" were found in every home and in all the hotels of the land. Hundreds of thou- sands of dollars were paid out to the local farmers; at no point was a larger trade done than at Middletown and during these years Middletown was famous for her pork.

This demand stimulated the breeding and rearing of hogs by the farmer and in these years originated at or near Middle- town, in the Shaker and Harkrader settle- ments, the celebrated breed of hogs known the world over as the Poland China hog. This famous breed has been found at the front in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and all Western states from that day to this.

The largest hogs known in history were bred here during those years. Hogs of this stock were known to weigh, when three and four years old, seven hundred to twelve hundred pounds; one enormous ani- mal raised by Daniel Leibee, of this town, reached the enormous weight of sixteen hun- dred and fifty pounds, and was taken on a canal boat in 1844 by David Bowman, with a large shipment of other hogs, from Middle- town to Cincinnati, and to other river points

Mr. Bowman says that he weighed this hog several times and that the weight here given is correct.

This wide and profitable interest in hogs stimulated the farmers not only along this line, but brought them to raise more corn, wheat, barley and like crops.

The grist mill builded by Sutphin & Mar- tin at or near the site of the old Vail mill and later on owned by Joseph Sutphin, be- came the center of an enormous trade in wheat. This grain was brought here in great wagons drawn by six and eight horses, from points twenty and thirty miles away. Long rows of wagons waited in the streets for a chance to unload. for there were no elevators then as now. The wagon master often slept at night in his wagon, and fed the horses from boxes at the rear of the great wagon. unloading the next day.

The handling of corn by James H. Cun- ningham and others was also a large busi- ness in those days. These were great days for the farmers and did much to develop this county and town.

Railroads. elevators. combinations and centralization have taken this trade to the great cities of the Northwest-to the Ar- mours, the Swifts and the Pillsburys.

THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY.

Tobacco has been called the poor man's luxury and the rich man's solace. When and by whom tobacco was first cultivated and used is a secret that history will prob-

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ably never disclose. Columbus found the natives using tobacco when he discovered America. When Pizarro overthrew the Incas of Peru, and plundered their palaces. he found the use of tobacco to be prevalent among those fated people. The mammoth mounds that have been found in many parts of the United States, especially in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, all yielded many articles that bear evidence of having been used in the consumption of tobacco in some form. When it is remembered that these mute mounds were not the work of Indians, but of a different race of people, upon whose fate the seal of centuries has long been set. it will be seen that the origin of the use of tobacco is locked with jealous care in the silent bosom of the past. Although the fact has been controverted. there can be no doubt that the knowledge of tobacco and its uses came to the rest of the world from America. the original natives of both North and South America being producers and con- sumers of this commodity, which was des- tined, at a later date, to extend its sway. to a greater or less extent, over all the in- habitants of the earth. Savages have made it their choicest offering to the Great Spirit. Barbarians have invested it with sacred functions. Sages have proclaimed its bene- factions.

But not alone in the realms of religion. diplomacy and philosophy has the divine weed received grateful recognition; in the arena of commerce it plays its most impor- tant and conspicuous part, and it is in this capacity that it will command our attention at greater length. In the year 1615, or. about that time, the colonists were encour- aged to grow tobacco for profit. The colony at Jamestown was in the depths of

poverty and despair. At this critical junc- ture a foreign demand for tobacco arose, the supplying of which gave to the despairing colonists new hope and enabled them to pro- cure in exchange for it the necessities of life. The market places and even the streets of Jamestown were planted in tobacco, and it became the currency of the colony.

The tobacco industry, like the plant itself, from small beginnings has developed into proportions of vast magnitude and has become a source of wealth unprecedented in agricultural history. But limitation of time forces us to come abruptly to a brief con- sideration of the commercial aspects of the tobacco industry as it exists in Middletown.

The first persons to enter into the manu- facture of tobacco in Middletown were John G. Clark and J. B. Cecil. This was about the year 1859. Their place of business was located on West Third street, between the river bridge and what is now the Palmer mill. Their venture was probably not a success, as it was abandoned in a few years, owing. no doubt, to the conditions preced- ing the Civil war and the panic among all industries and manufacturing concerns of that period.

The next firm to engage in the manu- facture of tobacco in this city consisted of our well-known townsmen, Capt. Robert Wilson, Hon. P. J. Sorg, deceased, John Auer and James H. Jacoby, these gentle- men moving their factories from Cincinnati in 1869 and occupied the three-story brick building located on the corner of Canal and Sixth streets, doing business under the name of Wilson, Sorg & Company. Mr. Jacoby remained in the firm only a short time after coming to Middletown. The remaining members continued the business until 1877,

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when Mr. Wilson, the senior member of the firm, and Daniel McCallay bought the in- terests of Messrs. Sorg and Auer.

The retiring members formed a new company, built a factory on East Third street, and in July, 1878, began business. The establishment of this new factory as a general competitor in the tobacco business called forth the full powers of our home industries, and with renewed efforts they forged ahead, making large increases in the output of their product from year to year. The ever increasing demand for the "weed" made it necessary to enlarge their factories and increase their facilities for manufactur- ing, which they continued to do until Mid- dletown was rated as the third city in the United States in the output of plug to- bacco, and it still holds this record. Some of the brands made by these firms have be- come commercial household words from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1898 the Continental Tobacco Com- pany, in looking for available factories, recognized our home industries as among the most desirable to acquire. Negotiations were entered into which resulted in their purchasing the P. J. Sorg Company's plant, and three years later in acquiring the Wil- son & McCallay factory. During the same year, 1901, the business of the Luhrman & Wilbern Tobacco Company, manufacturers of the "Polar Bear" brand, was moved from Cincinnati to Middletown, occupying a part of the buildings of the P. J. Sorg branch. The following year, 1902, the Wilson & McCallay business was also transferred to the Sorg branch, thus centralizing all the plug tobacco interests in Middletown in one plant, with G. H. Shafor as resident man-

ager of all the tobacco manufacturing in- terests in Middletown.

Besides the chewing tobacco interests in our city, we have the warehouse and re- handling establishment of Cullom Bros., under the able management of Col. Isaac Hale, pioneer in the cigar leaf business in Middletown. From a very small beginning in 1876, this firm now occupies the extensive plant originally built by the American Twine Company.

Recognizing the central location of our city in the cigar leaf growing district of the Miami valley, the American Cigar Com- pany in 1900, seeking a suitable place to lo- cate a branch leaf house, chose Middletown. They erected commodious buildings, with all the latest improvements for the handling and stemming of this class of leaf, and at once began operations, under the efficient management of H. P. Buell. In 1903 this firm leased from the Continental Tobacco Company what was formerly the Wilson & McCallay factory, with their three large warehouses, to meet the demands of their increasing business.

Having given a brief history of the to- bacco interests in our city, we now proceed to give a few statistics as to the volume of business done in 1903.

During the past year the P. J. Sorg branch, Luhrman & Wilbern Tobacco Com- pany and Sorg leaf department employed weekly one thousand hands, paid in wages $9,000 per week, and shipped during the year about 17,000,000 pounds of manu- factured tobacco. We have every assurance that the output for 1904 was greater than that of the year 1903.

Cullom Bros. and the American Cigar Company bought from the farmers of this

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and adjoining counties during the year 1903 about 14.500,000 pounds of cigar leaf to- bacco, at an approximate cost of $1,500,000. They employed 550 persons weekly, and paid in wages $3,500 per week.

To summarize, during the year 1903 seventeen million pounds of manufactured tobacco were shipped out from our city; fourteen and a half million pounds of cigar leaf bought (at a cost of $1,500,000) ; $12,500 paid out weekly for wages, of which amount a large proportion is de- posited Monday and Tuesday nights of each week in our two building associations, and the greater part of the remainder finds its way into the channels of the retail trade of our city.

It will be seen from the few facts and figures herein given that the tobacco busi- ness is by no means one of the least of the many industries for which Middletown has achieved a world-wide reputation as a manu- facturing center, and that the prosperity and substantial growth of our city may be at- tributed largely to this very important factor in the commerce of our nation.

THE PAPER INDUSTRY.

The W. B. Oglesby Paper Company's mill was the parent plant of the paper in- dustry in Middletown and was originally built by the Erwin Bros. in 1852, as indi- cated on the tablet above the door of their present office. The original mill was or- ganized for the manufacturing of roofing and wrapping paper under the superintend- ency of A. E. Harding and was located in the present building on the northwest corner of First and Water streets. About 1854 the concern was reorganized, taking in Messrs. W. B. Oglesby, George C. Barnitz, F. J.

Tytus, George W. Erwin, William Moore and A. E. Harding, which constituted the firm of Oglesby, Barnitz, Tytus, Erwin & Company. They soon thereafter proceeded to enlarge and added a mill for the manu- facturing of book, blotting and news print. The concern was very successful and con- tinued under the above firm name until about 1865, when Messrs. George W. Erwin and A. E. Harding sold their interests and the firm became known as Oglesby, Moore & Company, comprising the following named members: W. B. Oglesby, F. J. Tytus, George C. Barnitz and William Moore. With some changes among the above holders the firm continued under the same name until 1887. when it was in- corporated and changed to its present name, The W. B. Oglesby Paper Company is now owned and successfully operated by the United States Playing Card Company, which company has recently added a large new building and made many substantial improvements, at a large outlay of money. The company makes board for playing cards exclusively.

During the year 1855 Messrs. Richard- son, Jacoby & Company built what was known for many years as the Globe Mill, situated on the river bank between Third and Fourth streets. After operating it a few years it passed into the hands of George C. and C. S. Barnitz, who operated it for many years. During the early period of the Rebellion they made great quantities of roofing paper and sold it to the government, the paper being transported on wagons to Fort Dennison, located on the Little Miami river near Loveland. Later on, the property was acquired by the Tytus Paper Company and was operated by them under the name

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of the Gardner Paper Company until de- stroyed by fire in 1900. At that time Colin Gardner purchased the mill site and or- ganized what is known now as the Colin Gardner Paper Company, and immediately erected an up-to-date box board mill, operat- ing under the management of Colin Gardner, George Harvey and E. T. Gardner. This mill has been added to in new buildings and machinery until it is now the largest and best equipped mill in the West used for the manufacture of tag or box board papers.

During the same year. 1855. the third mill was built by J. B. Cecil. J. L. Martin and Joseph Sutphen and commenced the manufacture of news-print and continued under the above firm's management until 1858. when Smith Wrenn became a part- ner, Messrs. Cecil and Martin retiring and the firm's name changed to Sutphen & Wrenn, who operated the mill for many years. Later the firm's name was changed to the Wrenn Paper Company and still con- tinues operating under the same name. This mill manufactures blotting and check paper.

Alex. Hill, Sr., and sons. Alex. and James, arrived in our city in 1854 and im- mediately started the erection of a mill at the corner of Second and Water streets for the manufacturing of jute papers. After many years of prosperity and quite a few changes in ownership and management this property passed into the hands of P. J. Sorg, who enlarged the plant and thor- oughly overhauled it at a great expense and organized it as the Paul A. Sorg Paper Company and it is at present as one of the Sorg interests, under the direction of Judge William L. Dechant. managed by M. T. Hartley and T. C. Calvert. The output of this factory is rope manilla specialties and waxed papers.

In 1872 George W. Irwin & Company erected a mill on the corner of Third and Water streets for the manufacture of jute papers and after about one year of oper- ation sold their interests to the Tytus Paper Company. From 1873 until 1893 it was successfully operated and enlarged under the management of F. J. Tytus, J. B. Tytus. C. Gardner and John Shartle, Sr. During that period it was enlarged several times over its original capacity and at one time was the largest mill west of the Alleghanies. In 1893 the Tytus Paper Company. the Gardner Paper Company and the Ohio Bag Company consolidated under the name of the Tytus-Gardner Paper & Manufacturing Company and operated successfully under the same management until 1900, when it passed into the hands of different parties. This mill has given employment to a large force of men and was a great advantage to the growth and prosperity of this city.

April 1, 1867, the firm of Bachlor Thomas & Company. composed of S. H. Bachlor, C. H. Wardlow and J. K. Thomas, purchased from Marmaduke Dodsworth a saw mill, flour mill and water power on the canal, near lock No. 11. where their present mill is now located. The saw mill on the south side of the head race was immediately torn down and a paper mill erected and began operations during June, 1868. In September, 1872. the paper mill. flour mill and all outbuildings were destroyed by fire. In the meantime A. C. Thomas purchased the interest of S. H. Bachlor and the firm's name was changed to Wardlow. Thomas & Company. A new mill was immediately built on the site of the one destroyed and started in 1873. During the winter of 1881 and spring of 1882 the mill was enlarged and its capacity doubled. The plant was

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operated under the same firm until 1885, when the company was incorporated under the name of the Wardlow-Thomas Paper Company and has been practically under the same management since then, with some few changes in the company's holdings.

The Sabin Robbins Paper Company, of which Sabin Robbins, Sr., is president, was incorporated in 1890 and capitalized at twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1902 the capital was increased to fifty thousand dol- lars. The sales for 1900 of one and a half million pounds of paper have been increased to nine million. Their warehouse facilities are being continually enlarged to accom- modate their rapidly increasing business. The company expend annually ten thousand dollars for wages and furnish employment for twenty-five people.

The Advance Bag Company, of which M. W. Renick is president, consumed in 1903 five and one-half million pounds of paper in the manufacture of paper bags. This company was incorporated in 1900. The original equipment consisted of four bag-making machines, which has since been increased to twenty-one machines. Two hundred and thirty-five million bags were produced in 1903. The company last year expended over twenty thousand dollars in wages and have furnished employment for fifty people. Recently the capital was raised from fifty thousand dollars to two hundred thousand dollars, with the view of building and increasing their general equipment. This improvement has now been made, at an outlay of fifty thousand dollars, and will give the company a building double in size and equipped with forty machines, with a capacity of four hundred and seventy-five million bags a year.

It may be of interest to know that these several mills have a yearly output in round numbers of about fifty million pounds of paper. They use about eighty-five million pounds of raw material and consume about sixty-five thousand tons of coal. Besides this they distribute to their employees about two hundred thousand dollars annually, the most of which finds its way to our local merchants who indirectly reap the fruits of the harvest.

INDUSTRIAL PROMOTION.

In the fall of 1899 the good people of Middletown determined that they would ex- pend one hundred thousand dollars to invite, encourage and promote new industries, and to this end Capt. Robert Wilson, E. H. Mc- Knight and Capt. Jacob Schaffer were made a commission to take charge of this fund and secure new industries for the city. These commissioners met Octobers 20, 1899, and organized by electing Captain Wilson. president, W. H. Todhunter. sec- retary. and Henry Erb, treasurer.

In January, 1900, this commission en- tered into an arrangement with the Decatur Buggy Company, of Greensburg, Indiana, a property was secured and the plant in- stalled within a few days thereafter. It has been here since that date, and is now doing a flourishing trade.

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Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 43

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1149

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149