USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 61
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The building associations of Dayton formed a league for mutual benefit, on March 6, 1889. All associations doing business in the county are eligible to membership. The league was originally called the "Building Association League." This name was later changed to "The Montgomery County Building Association League."
The offcers elected at the time of the formation of the league were : President, A. A. Winters; Vice-President, Louis H. Poock; Secretary, H. F. Cellarius ; and
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Treasurer, D. Leonhard. The associations represented in this league at the time of its organization were as follows: The American Loan and Savings Associa- tion, The Central Building Association, the Dayton Building Company, the Equitable Loan and Savings Association, the Gem City Loan and Savings Asso- ciation, the Germania Building Association, the Homestead Aid Association, the Mechanics' Loan and Savings Association, the Miami Loan and Trust Company, the Mutual Home and Savings Association, the New Franklin Building Associa- tion, the Permanent Building Association, the Washington Building Company, and the West Side Building Association. All the associations in the city, except two, were represented.
This league is still maintained, the present officers being : President, S. Rufus Jones ; and Secretary and Treasurer, Oscar J. Bard.
INSURANCE COMPANIES.
Prior to 1868, Ohio Fire Insurance Companies were not required to make and file statements of their condition, so there are no available records up to that time. A law passed in 1867, required all insurance companies to make sworn re- ports of their financial condition to the auditor of the state, who was made acting commissioner of insurance.
According to the first report of Auditor Godman, made January, 1869, for the year ending December 31, 1868, we find there were ten stock and one mutual fire insurance company in Dayton, as follows, to-wit :
CENTRAL INSURANCE COMPANY, organized August, 1859. President, Henry Herrman; Secretary, Anthony Stephens.
COOPER INSURANCE COMPANY, organized January, 1867. President, Daniel E. Mead; Secretary, Daniel W. Iddings.
FIREMEN'S INSURANCE COMPANY, re-organized April, 1859 (originally or- ganized in 1835). President, Hon. Samuel Craighead; Secretary, J. S. Miles.
FARMERS AND MECHANICS INSURANCE COMPANY, organized January, 1864. President, R. D. Harshman ; Secretary, H. H. Weakley.
GERMAN INSURANCE COMPANY, organized January, 1867. President, John Bettelon ; Secretary, William Gunckel.
MIAMI VALLEY INSURANCE COMPANY, organized April, 1863. President, Jonathan Harshman; Secretary W. R. S. Ayers.
OHIO INSURANCE COMPANY, organized February, 1865. President, William Dickey ; Secretary, W. H. Gillespie.
TEUTONIA INSURANCE COMPANY, organized February, 1865. President, Henry Miller ; Secretary, J. Linxweiler, Jr.
UNION INSURANCE COMPANY, organized January, 1865. President, James Turner ; Secretary, George M. Young.
DAYTON INSURANCE COMPANY, organized in 1850. President, Hon. Daniel Haynes ; Secretary, James R. Young.
The last named company was created under a special charter granting the right to do banking and other business besides fire insurance and for many years refused to report to the state insurance department fearing it might lose some of its rights.
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THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, also failed to make reports of its condition, but from other sources, we find that it was incor- porated in 1844 and commenced business in 1845. Mr. Daniel Kiefer was the president and Daniel W. Iddings the secretary in 1868.
THE COLUMBIA INSURANCE COMPANY was organized 1881. The present officers are: President, E. M. Thresher ; Secretary, O. I. Gunckel.
The officials of above named companies are those that held office in 1868 (ex- cepting the Columbia, that was organized afterwards), and are the same that held office at the time the respective companies were organized with the exception of the secretary of the Firemen's and the president and secretary of the Teutonia Insur- ance companies. The Teutonia's first officers were: President, John Hanitch, Sr .; Secretary, John H. Stoppelman.
Of the ten stock companies in existence in 1868, only two are left-the Teu- tonia and the Cooper. Since then (in 1881), the Columbia Insurance Company was organized and along with the two other companies, is doing a successful business.
Years ago, when Dayton had these many companies, it was called "The Hart- ford of the West."
Up to the year 1867, it was an easy matter to organize fire insurance com- panies in Ohio. The capital required was only one hundred thousand dollars and of this, only twenty per cent or twenty thousand dollars, was required to be paid in cash-for the balance (eighty thousand dollars) stock (personal) notes of the stockholders with one surety were given. The new law passed in 1867, required that before a dividend could be paid the stockholders, a certain part of the net earnings had to be passed to the credit of the stock notes so that eventually the stock notes would be wiped out, thus putting the companies on a proper and solid foundation.
In the winter and spring after the great Chicago fire (1871), and in which the Dayton companies had no losses, the stockholders of the Firemens, Teutonia, Cooper, Miami Valley and Ohio Insurance companies, resolved to pay and take up their outsanding stock notes, thus putting their companies on a fully paid-up basis. This was promptly done in 1872 and the companies entered a wider field of operation-in part going into neighboring states.
The other companies, the Farmers and Merchants, German, Union and the Central, wound up and retired from business by reinsuring their outstanding risks in other companies.
Today three stock companies-the Teutonia, Cooper and Columbia, remain in business. Though having only a combined capital of four hundred and fifty thousand dollars, they have cash assets of over two million and twenty-one thous- and dollars, of which amount one million six hundred and twenty thousand dol- lars is gross surplus and one million one hundred and seventy thousand dollars is net surplus, which represents the earnings and savings of nearly forty years of untiring work and careful and economical management.
The assets of these three companies are invested in the very best and safest securities to be obtained, such as United States Government Bonds, the bonds of Ohio cities, counties and municipalities, National Bank stocks and the guar- anteed stocks of high-class and well established railroad companies. This in
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connection with their strict compliance in every way with insurance laws and full obedience of the rules and requirements of the State Insurance Department, puts these three companies as regards financial strength and stability as well, as thorough reliability in the front rank of such organizations.
The three above named companies had at risk (property insured) sixty-four million six hundred ninety-nine thousand, one hundred and six dollars on January 1, 1909. Their total premium receipts since organization, equalled nine million nine hundred and fifteen thousand one hundred and sixty dollars, and they paid for fire losses, three million four hundred thirty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven dollars; for agents' commissions, taxes, sal -. aries, rents, fees and all other expenses, over four million two hundred and sixty thousand dollars and for dividends, one million three hundred eighty-two thou- sand dollars during that time.
The most recent fire insurance company to be established within the city, is the Dayton Mutual Fire Insurance Company. This company was organized early in 1908 and was licensed June 18th of that year. The officers are: Presi- dent, Adam Cappel: Vice-President, William F. Breidenbach; Secretary, B. C. Coleman ; Treasurer, William H. Kuhlman. This new company rapidly attracted business, the outstanding risks in August, 1909, being one million one hundred eighty-five thousand dollars.
The Central Business Men's Accident Association, was formed in 1909, the officers being : President, G. A. Billow ; Vice-President, E. J. Rogers; Secretary, A. H. Putnam ; Treasurer, F. A. Funkhouser ; Medical Examiner, J. M. Deam, M. D., other trustees being: H. W. Arnold and C. A. Funkhouser.
CHAPTER XVII.
TRANSPORTATION.
EARLY TRANSPORTATION-THE CANAL-RAILROADS-BEGINNINGS OF THE BIG FOUR- CINCINNATI, HAMILTON AND DAYTON-DAYTON AND MICHIGAN-DAYTON AND WESTERN --- DAYTON, XENIA, AND BELPRE-DAYTON AND UNION-ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTERN-DAYTON AND WELLSTON DIVISION-DELPHOS SOUTHERN RAIL- WAY COMPANY-DAYTON, LEBANON AND CINCINNATI-INTER-URBAN LINES- STREET RAILROAD COMPANIES-DAYTON'S NEW BRIDGES.
EARLY TRANSPORTATION.
An account of the beginnings of transportation has already been given in the simple story of the growth of Dayton. Some of the earlier facts, however, may well be given in connection with an account of the later developments and the present forms and proportions of transportation.
The pirogue, poled up the Miami river, the train of pack-horses, the two- horse wagon following a path cut through the timber, now seem to belong to another age.
THE CANAL.
The canal, on which operations were begun in 1829, was a convenience and source of wealth and even a luxury in the early days. A twenty-hour schedule to Cincinnati by packet was regarded as a wonderful improvement. The trans- portation of merchandise from New York by water in twenty days occasioned astonishment. The route was by the Erie canal to Buffalo, thence by Lake Erie to Cleveland, thence by the Ohio canal to the Ohio river, and down the river to Cincinnati and up the Miami canal to Dayton. After the completion of the Miami canal to Lake Erie, in 1841, shipments were made directly from Lake Erie to Dayton.
The flourishing period for the canal was from 1831 to 1861. The largest amount received in any one year was three hundred and fifty-one thousand eight hundred ninety-seven dollars and seventy-two cents, in 1851. From 1829 to 1888, inclusive of both years, the total receipts of the Miami and Erie canal were five million nine hundred sixty-nine thousand four hundred thirty-two dollars and fifty-six cents, and the total expenditures were four million three hundred fifty-two thousand four hundred fifty-four dollars and seventy-nine cents. The total receipts down to and including the year 1908 were seven million three hundred seventy-two thousand seven hundred eighty dollars and ninety-
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eight cents, and the total expenditures for the same period were six million two hundred thirty-three thousand one hundred twenty-five dollars and seventy cents, the profits to the state being one million one hundred thirty-nine thousand, six hundred fifty-five dollars and twenty-eight cents. After 1861 the receipts ran very low, eight years none being reported. Beginning with 1878 extensive repairs were made on the canal, and at the same time receipts were increased, being in 1879, one hundred twelve thousand and ninety dollars and thirty-two cents. The re- ceipts gradually fell away, ranging from the amount named to fifty-one thousand seven hundred sixty-two dollars and forty-eight cents in 1908. Of this amount. the tolls were two thousand five hundred eight dollars and seven cents, water power fifteen thousand and eighteen dollars and seventy-six cents, pipe per- mits eight thousand eight hundred and forty dollars and fifty-six cents, land rents eighteen thousand and twenty-seven dollars and forty-one cents, miscellaneous three thousand two hundred thirty-four dollars and fifty-six cents, land, one thou- sand five hundred and one dollars, other sources two thousand six hundred twenty- two dollars, two cents. The amount of tolls, rents, etc., paid at Dayton was four thousand one hundred twenty-one dollars and forty-six cents.
At the present time there is a general effort to rehabilitate the Ohio canal and the Miami and Erie canal. On the latter there was expended in the year ending November 15, 1908, two hundred and twenty-eight thousand dollars and thirty cents, leaving a balance of one hundred and forty-one thousand seven hun- dred ninety-one dollars and thirty-seven cents to be applied for the same purpose In 1909 the amount already expended on the Miami and Erie canal, since 1906 was six hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars. The estimated amount necessary to complete the improvements, according to present plans, is one million three hundred seventy-one thousand six hundred eighty-five dollars. The appropriation in 1909 for the improvement of the Miami and Erie canal was one hundred and forty thousand dollars. The tolls received for the year ending November 15, 1909 were very small, as little of the canal was in use for transportation purposes. October Ist, the canal was reopened from Defiance to Toledo, and a few months later from Dayton to Cincinnati.
Whenever the abandonment or sale of the canals is proposed a storm of oppo- sition is raised in Dayton as well as elsewhere in the state. While at present little advantage is derived from them by way of transportation, a strong hope is entertained that they can be made profitable when reconstructed, according to present plans or that they may be made deep waterways for the use of large boats between Lake Erie and the Ohio river.
RAILROADS.
BEGINNINGS OF THE BIG FOUR. The first railroad to reach Dayton was the Mad river and Lake Erie Railroad. The company formed to build the same was the first railroad company chartered in Ohio. The date of the charter was Janu- ary 5, 1832. Work was commenced on the road in the fall of 1835, and it was opened for traffic a part of the way in May, 1838, and was completed to Dayton in 1851. In the year 1837, application was made to the legislature and the credit of the state obtained for two hundred thousand dollars to aid in building the
UNION PASSENGER STATION
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road. Subsequent amendments were made authorizing county and town sub- scriptions. The company struggled under embarrassments with a poor road and strap rail for several years and was finally driven to insolvency and the road placed in the hands of a receiver and sold. The name was then changed to Sandusky, Dayton and Cincinnati Railroad. October 18, 1866, it was included, by lease, with other lines under the name Cincinnati, Dayton and Eastern Rail- road. The original company, under that name, was chartered June 14, 1865, and became the owner of the realty, right of way and other property of the Dayton and Cincinnati (S. L. Short Line) Railroad Company. The latter company had been chartered earlier and was partly graded. Until the new company could complete it, the tracks of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad were used between Dayton and Cincinnati. This was the beginning of the Cleveland and Cincinnati division of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Rail- road, popularly known as the Big Four. More than half of the distance from Dayton to Cincinnati has been supplied with double tracks and the remaining distance will be double-tracked within a year. Probably the Erie and Big Four tracks between Dayton and Springfield will be used as the double track of a single system, both companies sending their trains north over one track and re- turning them by the other.
THE CINCINNATI, HAMILTON AND DAYTON RAILROAD was the next road to reach Dayton. The company that built this road was chartered March 2, 1846, as the Cincinnati and Hamilton Railroad Company. The road was completed to Dayton, September, 1851. It was a very profitable road from the start. In addition to its own local business, the traffic of the Dayton and Michigan, Cin- cinnati, Dayton and Eastern and the Atlantic and Great Western railroads was in a short time passing over its entire length. Naturally, one of the best-paying roads in the country, the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, has been robbed by speculators and made subservient to interests beyond its own limits. The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company obtained primary rights for tracks and a railroad station where now the railroad station and the chief tracks are.
THE DAYTON AND MICHIGAN RAILROAD COMPANY was incorporated March 5, 1851. The road was to extend from Dayton to Toledo and the Cincinnati, Hamil- ton and Dayton Railroad Company was empowered to lend the new corporation money or to otherwise aid it in the construction of the road. The line was opened for traffic from Dayton to Troy in April, 1853, to Piqua in 1854, to Sidney in 1856 and to Toledo, September 1, 1859. May 1, 1863, the road was leased in per- petuity to the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company.
THE DAYTON AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY was chartered February 14, 1846, to build a railroad from Dayton to some point on the state line between Ohio and Indiana. Work was commenced in July, 1848, and the road was open for traffic October 1I, 1853. In January, 1865, the road was leased to the Little Miami and Columbus and Xenia railroad companies for ninety-nine years, lease renewable forever. The Dayton and Western Railroad which was for a long time held by lease has recently become the property of the Pennsylvania company, this supplying additional inducements for the betterment of the roadway.
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THE DAYTON, XENIA AND BELPRE RAILROAD COMPANY was chartered Febru- ary 19, 1851. Work was commenced in 1852 and the road was completed in that year from Dayton to Xenia, the road never being extended further. In Feb- ruary, 1865, the road was sold on decree of foreclosure to the Little Miami and Columbus and Xenia railroad companies. This road, together with the Dayton and Western road, now constitutes the Pennsylvania Line through Dayton. It is understood that the work of surveying for the laying of a double track through Dayton, between Xenia and New Paris has already begun so that the work of laying the double track can begin early in 1910. There is already a double track between New Paris and Richmond, and at present a double track is being built between Richmond and Cambridge City, Indiana, which is to be extended to Indianapolis. With these improvements the Pennsylvania Company will have a double track from Pittsburg to St. Louis through Dayton with the exception of a short stretch of track where the line crosses the Big Darby. This improvement will bring a largely increased amount of traffic through Dayton.
THE DAYTON AND UNION RAILROAD COMPANY, first known as the Greenville and Miami Railroad Company was incorporated February 26, 1846. The road was completed from Dayton to Greenville, June 10, 1852 and to Union City, December 22nd of that year. April 11, 1861, a reorganization was effected and the name of the company was changed to the Dayton and Union Railroad Com- pany. Later an arrangement was made with the Dayton and Western Rail- road Company for the use of its tracks from Dayton to Dodson. Its own track for this distance was taken up and sold. The Dayton and Union Railroad passed by sale in 1863 to certain trustees and later by lease to the Big Four Railroad Com- pany.
THE ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD was designed to connect, by a continuous gauge of six feet, New York City with the city of St. Louis, by way of the Erie Railroad to Salamanca, New York, thence in a southwesterly direc- tion to Dayton, thence to Cincinnati over the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton road and then to St. Louis. By a consolidation effected August 19, 1865, the road came to be known as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. In Feb- ruary of the previous year, the road was built into Dayton. From Dayton to Cincinnati, the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton track was used. At one time there were four rails on this road to suit the different gauges of trucks. Later, the cars coming in on the broad gauge road were at Dayton lifted by a hoist and standard gauge trucks placed under them for the further trip to Cincin- nati and beyond. In 1874, the road by lease came to be a part of the Erie sys- tem.
THE DAYTON AND WELLSTON DIVISION of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad is the successor of the Dayton and Southeastern Railroad which was built from Dayton to Xenia in 1877, and completed to the Jackson county coal fields in 1881. As early as December, 1870, the Dayton and Mineral Region Railroad Company was incorporated with reference to securing an adequate quantity of cheap coal. Dayton had, for a long time, the advantage of cheap coal, but the money put up by the citizens of Dayton into the coal fields was largely sunk. The Dayton and Southeastern was, at first, a narrow gauge road
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but was changed to a standard gauge on the incorporation of the road into the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton System.
THE DELPHOS SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY was incorporated July 7, 1877. It was at first, a narrow gauge road but was widened when it was included in the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton system. In September, 1879, the completion of the road as far as West Milton was celebrated by a grand excursion to that place. At that time and for a short time afterward the Dayton and Western tracks to a point four and a half miles west of the city were used. When the company com- pleted its own tracks a spur was built into the Soldiers' Home grounds from the north. At that time the road was called the Dayton, Covington and Toledo Railroad.
Counting this short road, the latest brought into Dayton, a system to itself, Dayton would have five railroad systems. It is believed that the Pennsylvania lines will in some way acquire this road and by it and the Cincinnati Northern, which it now owns, establish another direct line to Cincinnati which at Dayton would connect with the great Pennsylvania system.
It is a striking fact that no railroad was ever built through Dayton. Dayton was the beginning or terminus of the twelve lines of railroad now radiating from Dayton, and aside from the Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati Railroad, forming parts of four of the greatest railroad systems in the United States.
One of the latest of the railroad changes was the taking of the valuable but abused and pillaged Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad from the re- ceiver into whose hands the entire Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton system had been placed and the sale of the same to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. This change will give to Dayton a valuable, new road to the eastern seaboard. What could Dayton want beyond the railroad facilities given it by the Balti- more and Ohio, the Pennsylvania, the Big Four and the Erie systems?
From statistics recently compiled, the freight tonnage of the steam lines enter- ing the city for the year ending December 31, 1908, was as follows: amount of freight received, 2,057,544,098 pounds, amount of freight forwarded, 670,257,805 pounds, total 2,727,801,903 pounds.
This does not include the various electric traction lines which handle a vast volume, both inbound and outbound. Considering the financial depression all over the country in 1908, this volume of business is certainly creditable.
The great difference between the amount of freight received and the amount shipped from the city is an index as to the great amount of raw material that is converted into manufactured articles and then sent out in greatly reduced bulk.
DAYTON, LEBANON AND CINCINNATI RAILROAD COMPANY.
The original construction of the Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati Railroad property, was made by the Toledo, Delphos and Burlington Railroad Company, which at that time owned a narrow-gauge line from Delphos, Ohio, to Dayton, Ohio, and from Dayton, Ohio, to Ironton, Ohio. This line went into operation in the year 1877 or 1878. The Cincinnati Northern Railroad Company about the same time finished its line from Cincinnati to a point north of Dodds in Warren county. Both of these constructions were narrow-gauge and they did not con-
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nect with the Toledo, Delphos and Burlington Railroad by a distance of seventeen and one-tenth miles, which construction was made by the Toledo, Delphos and Burlington Railroad Company, from a point on its Dayton and Ironton division, at Lebanon Junction, to connect with the Cincinnati Northern Railroad, near Dodds. These properties were operated as narrow-gauge properties for a few years, until the C. H. & D. Ry. acquired the Dayton and Ironton division as aforesaid, and the seventeen and one-tenth miles of construction made as before described were sold by the receivers of the Toledo, Delphos and Burlington Railroad Company, to Mr. Fairbanks of Indianapolis. The property was not used for a period of three or four years, when it was purchased by Mr. Henry Lewis. He at once widened the narrow-gauge track to the standard width and commenced the opera- tion of the railroad. On January 29, 1899, The Dayton, Lebanon and Cin- cinnati Railroad Company, was organized and Mr. Lewis transferred to the com- pany the property acquired by him which extended from Lebanon Junction in Montgomery county, to a point near Dodds in Warren county. The original authorized capital stock of the corporation was the sum of five hundred thous- and dollars. On June 1, 1892, the Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati Railroad Company leased from the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway Company, which was the successor of the Cincinnati Northern Railway Company, the line from the termination of the Dayton, Lebanon and Cincinnati property near Dodds, to the corporation line at Lebanon-a distance of six and five one-hundredths miles. This property was taken over upon a lease for ninety-nine years, renew- able forever.
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