Document reLLO7VDbBrv8Nxn205xXaXyE

FILE NAME: Baldwin (BALD) DATE: 1987 DOC#: BALD065 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Book Excerpt - High Iron A SERIESOF EXHIBITSEXPLORINGTHE EFFECT OF THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY ON THE LIMA. OHIO, COMMUNITY I f{! I 'x !. i ^ 'h /I T ^ - N ;E Ri ' t . ' \>v , -4v Vv'lVv. 1C V v; ' -> Vi , a 4, ** y4" . Yx *v . a r 4***, b..4r/ *'-'-v*j : Vr \ hii M",* sf r%' *4 'v' X' High Iron Throughlamci^ " - / !> 1 "%> The Railroad Right-Of-WayShapes A,Community ' - , r - ,rA piS5-M ay 2 ,1 9 |P ^ ~ , Barr H otel^m a, Ohio & 1 t^- ' : f fW * t / ' 9 -1* . ,, 1 The udU ef And Interafban,Connection 1 - , ~ n ' > Ajp>ril |-May2/19&7 , ' " lj^aM uniapo^ihl|ng;;Lim a, Ohio ..J X- *v Lima1And The Lima Locomotive Works n ' > ^ s - * ~ f^ fyay-Ju n e m w . j ^ Crouse Hal|Lo^by of the Limcr/Allen County Veterans JMIeriioriai Ciffc ahd;Conwention C e n t e r ' . ? r V( ~ Umaadhi* \ ' . ' V e.auihoi; Xv ' and Jd^n H. ^nei;E la:a rcrilroad tttstorian, ^ retired from the N i^ el^ late a n ^ M o |k andp7%tern1 ,v --' ` '* & y ; /- 34 i rf.iA '* ' VU'lfc, ^ f r* * K a *> .t . * r'*' h % '*C tr . ^ *fsl*^*2C^ #*~7sv^ V* ;V r ^ `J'V ' ^'r y 'sI^ ^ .* r\. -*> . - n, C4.. ,. "fS>4,?V**' %*- , - V `I 'A 1 . A \s *1 v - i -p > J i / f" .... ' ^ f| f , J3 . f, ' 1 '* ^ 4 j S' . . KV ' '* 1! > * _' ^ ^ M -.-'f / ' * * X , v / , Sk M J -4^ J J / ^ ) . ^ *. - > ' & "l ^ v * r '* - ` ;The exhibits an& icrtalogue were underw ritten by*^ the Pepsi Cota Bottling Company ol Lima \iinjgssistance Irom \ " ty the Ohio Arts Council and the Ohio Humanities Caundl On April 27th, 1987, du rin g the High Iron exhibit A m erican Hoyse, {pc. sponsored a reun ion o<th e w om en who worked a t H |e J4m a C anteen. The I afternoon luncheon included g reat stories about volunteer in g a t the canteen. (Photo! g rap h ed by M arilyn H eilm an: for A m erican House) 1 O- ' ** CONTENTS Preface M artha S.MacDonell Foreword John R. Stilgoe Acknowledgments Self-Portrait Of An Industrial Community: "High Iron" Railroad Exhibits an d Lima Ohio Andrew Gulliford End Notes Selected Bibliography Buildings in commercial, residential an d industrial downtown districts and neighborhoods that w ere built during the railroad boom still rem ain in Lima. That building stock includes an interurban station, hotels for the railroad trade, the present Amtrak train station (circa 1890), engineers' boarding houses an d railroad workers' homes. The Lima Locomotive Works, a sixtyseven acre industrial complex, more recently the Lima h a d e Center, is still intact. In 1977, the erecting shop was nom inated as a national historic site by the American Association for State and Local History Because of these resources, American House has established a program called h a in Town, with the goal of recovering and understanding Lima's central role in the railroading industry In October of 1986, American House introduced the h a in Town program to the public by dedicating a Baltimore an d Ohio caboose donated to American House by the CSXCoiporation. The caboose was renovated, and placed on Lima's Town Square through the efforts of community volunteers. Lim a-area home builders, in cooperation with heavy construction an d truck ing companies, worked with local union members, railroad employees, utility companies, office suppliers, an d two B. 8cO. historical and research societies. The caboose was the first visible sign of the h a in Town program. It becam e the office of Andrew Gulliford, Ph.D,, folklorist an d historian, who w as con tracted by American House to research an d collect an oral history of Lima's pervasive railroading tradition. Gulliford worked for nine months, perusing the extensive railroad collection of the Allen County Historical Society and recording one hundred hours of interviews w ith railroaders, former employees of the Lima Locomotive Works, an d community people who rem em bered the influence of the railroad on Lima. The body of oral history gathered by Gulliford is the beginning of a collection called "Memory Engines," available to the public and scholars at the Allen County Museum. Excerpts from those oral histories becam e the focus for the series of three High Iron exhibits, all ofwhich w ere organized around the thesis of John Stilgoe's book The Metropolitan Corridor: Railroads and the American Scene. Professor Stilgoe put forth the idea that the railroad right-of-way, which he term ed the metropolitan corridor, cut through American cities, industrial dis tricts, suburbs, small towns, and farm land, creating a conduit for the forces of m odernization. Stilgoe's insightful and thoroughly docum ented study provided a national perspective from which to view the effect of the railroad on Lima; conversely, the oral histories included in the High Iron exhibits gave a rich local portrait of an epoch of American life when railroading w as a dominant force. Profes sor Stilgoe traveled to Lima, w here he spoke at a w ell-attended community symposium about the im portance of rem em bering such industrial products as locomotives, as well as the tools an d pride in craftsmanship that accom panied industrial occupations. The High Iron exhibits were, by the nature of their subject, a comprehensive overview of the im portance of the railroad in Lima. Future research, exhibits, publications, an d public presentations will focus on specific aspects of Lima's railroading tradition. We will study the craftsmen who m ade the Lima locomotives, an d the people who operated an d m aintained the five major railroads operating through Lima. We will search out and collect the traditional music of the ethnic groups that cam e to the Lima a re a to find work in this railw ay center. As the Train Town program progresses beyond its first year, American House officials a re working with those responsible for our city's downtown revitali zation to encourage the development of buildings an d sites which could confain perm anent installations, changing exhibits, folk art perform ances, and other activities and displays on the subject of Lima's folklife. As early as 1984, Marilyn McKinley Hellrrtann proposed a mixed use complex for downtown Lima featuring a Lima locomotive an d railroad exhibits. That idea is now in the design stage and is called Locomotive Place. Our next step is to gather information on a potential tourist market for Train Town an d a strategy for capturing that market. Each day, community m embers stop by the Train Town caboose or the Am erican House office an d share photographs from their attics, ideas, expe riences, and stories told to them by their parents or grandparents. The High Iron exhibits a re based on this community memory set within the larger fram ework of national history. Three oi th e m ost im portant locom otives ever designed a n d built by th e Lima Locomo tive Works include the sm all Shay geared-locom otive, the Berkshire engine, w hich was a favorite of th e N ickel Plate Road, a n d th e Daylightwhich was owned an d operated by the Southern Pacific. (Allen , County H istorical Society) Usually the Lima Locomo Works em ployed approxi m ately 2,000 people, but d u rin g World War n over 3,000 m en an d women worked at th e Loco including m any women. (Allen County Histori cal Society) FOREWORD John R. Stilgoe, Ph.D., Professor ofV isual a n d Environm ental Studies an d of the History of L andscape a t Harvard University. e s look at these things, these artifacts an d photographs, but b e not satisfied with looking only. See them, scrutinize them, realize them. M ake them real not as they a re now, so carefully sited in museum-like surroundings, but as they w ere once real, in their former con texts, their pecu liar habitats. Look long enough, scrutinize precisely enough, an d you will hear. Everything in this collection echoes. Late at night, when the long trains roll, something of a noisier, more forthright past reverberates across Lima, across Allen County, across the country. Muted now by dieselization, by stillnesses in heavy industry, by houses insulated with storm windows an d air conditioners, the noises still penetrate, still rem ind thoughtful listeners of the sounds of steam -pow ered work, the sounds lingering about any item in this collection. Consider something as simple as the "yard limit" sign. Railroad m en knew the sign indicated a border critical in their lives. On one side of the sign long distance rules governed the operations of trains. Engineer and fireman con trolled train movements according to trackside signals, watching for the red, am ber, or green aspect indicating stop, caution, an d proceed. Everywhere beyond the sign unexpected stops m eant sending out a flagm an from caboose or last passenger c ar to protect the halted train against rear-end collision, an d "whistling in" the flagm an when signals indicated "proceed." In the farm country surrounding Lima, along the tracks radiating out to a dozen cities an d regions, schedules an d pocket watches dictated train movements. On the other side of the yard limit sign lay a different world, however, one defined in the 1925 Pennsylvania Railroad System Operating Department Rules in the most specific terms: "Yard: A System of tracks within defined limits provided for the making up of trains, storing of cars and other purposes, over which movements not authorized by time-table, or by train order, m ay be m ade, subject to prescribed signals and rules, or special instructions." Within the y ard railroaders expected sudden, com plex activity. Yard locomotives backed an d pulled, cars slowed by brakem en high atop roof boards rolled along sidings, cuts of cars parted according to signals given by lanternw ielding switchmen. In the yard inside the limits lay spread a maze of track an d switches punctuated by dozens of lighted switch-stand lanterns, a m aze taxing the most experienced hands to move safely an d expediently. Stand at the yard limits sign an d listen, listen in 1925. On one side, the side tow ard the m ain line stretching into the country, trains m ake regular sounds, rhythmic sounds. Steam locomotives lean into their loads, their pistons making the chugging sound that lives into the diesel era as the one unforgettable sound of a vanished past. But other sounds throb un d er the rhythm. Over the driving wheels beats the air pum p filling the air-brake cylinders along the length of the train; from the smokestack pulses the roar of the draft of exhausted steam; and from the train itself comes the clickety-clack of wheels rolling over forty-foot lengths of steel rail. Now an d then the whistle for a g rad e crossing, now and then the hissing of brakes being applied accentu ates the rhythm, but little alters it. 6 n the yard side of the sign, however, all sounds different, almost chaotic. Never does the y ard locomotive find space to hit a stride. Instead it accelerates an d brakes, chugging and slipping, its air pum p clattering, itswhistle blasting signals to switchmen twenty or forty cars back, its bell ringing qut its w arning at street crossings and factory gates. And everywhere the snap a n d hiss of air-brake lines parting between uncoupling cars, everywhere the shouts oi trainmen, everywhere the dull, thundering clank oi steel couplers slamming together. Today the American public, or at least the older half oi it, remembers mostly the regular sounds oi mainline steam railroading. Only in cities like Lima, cities crosshatched with railroad yards, do old-timers rem em ber the sounds inside the yard-limit border. Any object in this collection echoes, although now the echoes grow faint, fading like the sounds oi a freight rumbling into the humid Ohio night. See the sleeping car sign a n d hear the gentle hiss of steam escaping on a winter evening, steam from lines warming coaches and Pullman sleepers alike. See the interurban car and hear the whine of its motors, the clatter of its air pump, the unique crackling spark of its trolley wheel contacting the overhead elec tric wire. See the photographs of the Lima Locomotive Works an d hear the din of heavy manufacturing, of steel upon steel, of tons of metal in motion on dol lies, cranes, a n d flatcars, of tools cutting, riveting, bending, forging. See the faded photographs of the women serving coffee to the servicemen, an d hear the staccato clatter of cups filled, washed, an d refilled in haste, the sound of war. See the Lionel electric train and hear the diminutive clickety-clack of a toy teaching children about the important things in life. Sounds of machines an d people intertwined, of machines a n d people at work. e l e v e n Lima from the air shows d e a r evidence ot th e im portance oi railroading to the community. (City oi Lima) Even the echoes w hisper of quality, of good work, however dangerous, tiring, and monotonous, however momentarily thrilling. To realize the artifacts, to scrutinize the photographs is to know that however difficult the work, however poorly paid, somehow it involved people of quality with quality m achines in work of quality. Here in this exhibit are objects that explain the industrial might of the Republic, not only the might from which comes our mysterious "quality of life," but the might from which comes our casual, taken-for-granted attitude toward machinery an d structures of all sorts. So well did the men and women of Lima and Allen County work that their products and ethic survive everywhere in the landscape and in the recesses ofthe national memory. Lima, Ohio, builder of locomotives, junction of railroads, city at work. Railroad lines crossed Lima like lines across a palm. This exhibit makes clear their m eaning, and reminds us that too often we concentrate only on what the hand holds, not on the h an d itself. Most people rarely scrutinize the lines across their palms. For all that they say they know places "like the b ack of my hand" they rarely do, for they rarely know their hands at all. Scrutinize this exhibit an d know Lima, Allen County, and an industrial nation, places of quality work, places at work. Scrutinize, and look until the echoes come drifting back. Mrs. Elloiuse L arsen, wife of the vice p resid en t ol th e Lima Locom otive Works, w as a prim e m over b eh in d organiz in g th e Lim a Servicem en's C anteen. (L oaned to Am eri can House by V ivian D ahlke) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS , M artha S. MacDouell, Director M arilyn H ellm ann, A ssociate Director Andrew Gulliford, FoM orist/H istorian L ou Cira and his associates at The Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Lima have been early and generous suppor ters of the series of High Iron exhibits. They have provided the funds to pro duce both the exhibit series an d this catalogue. Their enthusiasm for the Train Town program and their promotion of it within the community have been equally important. The Joint Program of the Ohio Arts Council an d Ohio Humanities Council provided significant funding for the folklorist position enabling Andrew Gulliford's research for the High Iron exhibits. The Arts-in-Education program of the Ohio Arts Council provided the funds to engage graphic designer Drew Cronenwett. Cronenwett designed the exhibit series and its printed materials, __ including this catalogue. Dr. John Stilgoe, of H arvard University, provided the invaluable national perspective for the High Iron exhibit series. We wish to thank Professor Stilgoe for giving us permission to use his overall concepts an d specific m aterial from his book Metropolitan Corridor: Railroads and the American Scene and for contributing the foreword to this catalogue. We are indebted to Dr. John Hellmann of The Ohio State University at Lima, for assistance in planning the exhibits, as well as for his continuing professional advice. Tim Lloyd acted as our ongoing folklife consultant. He gave us valuable advice during the seminal stages of the exhibitions. John H. Keller served as the local railw ay history consultant for American House, an d without his generous assistance the exhibits could not have b een possible. The majority of exhibition photographs an d artifacts a re from the Allen County Historical Society. We are grateful to that organization an d its Presi- dent, Jam es A MacDonell. Jack Pisel of Terry an d Jack Neon Sign Company restored the sleeping cars sign, lent to us by the Allen County Historical Society. Additional photographs an d artifacts w ere provided by community individuals an d businesses included in the listing of lenders and donors. The staff of the Allen County Museum provided invaluable assistance and advice in the preparation of the exhibits. Special thanks for research assistance goes to Curator, Ray Schuck; Assistant Curator for Manuscripts & Archives, Anna Selfridge; an d Assistant Curator for Collections, Jay Martin. A group of volunteers helped the American House staff to install, assemble, transport an d host the exhibitions. Karen Q uatm an served as volunteer Chairperson of the High Iron exhibits. She w as assisted by M ary Ann Emrick and Girl Scout Troop #583, Stephanie Foster, Heather Cook, Charles Smith, Curt Wilkins, Tracey Moulton, Jack Purves, Ben an d Nancy Rose, Noreen Wamock, Robert Hammel, Joe an d Joanna Wantuch, Rick an d Nora Davis, John Keller, Jr., Russell Heine, Robert Keller, Jam es Schwabero, Bruce Boggs an d his Memorial Hall staff, and Betty Flanigan an d clients of the Allen County Department of Human Services. Other community individuals, businesses an d institutions volunteered goods an d services. They are Sister M ary W asserman of St. Rita's M edical Center, David Gast of Hart Audio, John Gossard of North American Van Lines, Don Brodbeck of Klepper's of Lima, Susan Cole of the Lima Art Association, James W ende of The Huddle Restaurant, an d Paula Spring an d Florian Smith of the Lima/Allen County Veterans Memorial Civic an d Convention Center. The City of Lima, the Allen County Council on Aging, an d the Lima/Allen County Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center provided space for the series of exhibits. Special events and exhibits accom panied the High Iron exhibits. Renderings of a concept for Locomotive Place, a downtown development, and a photo graphy essay on the subject of the train an d the urban landscape w ere dis played along with the exhibit at the Lima Civic Center. Architect M ichael Liscano provided the Locomotive Place renderings. The photography essay was com prised of im ages produced through a workshop by Stephen Shore. Photographs by Shore, Thomas Cramer, Charles Erickson, Andrew Gulliford, Marilyn Hellmann, Phil Hugo an d Lynette Molner w ere exhibited. Both pro jects w ere supported by grants from the Ohio Arts Council. The Lima Art Asso ciation was the co-sponsor of the photography essay, which was exhibited earlier at the Art Association's Alma Gallery in Memorial Hall. Asymposium took place on M ay 17,1987, the d ay of the opening of the High Iron exhibit at the Lima Civic Center. The themes of the exhibits w ere illumi nated by panelists John R. Stilgoe, John H. Keller, an d Eric Hirsimaki, author of Lima: the history, a comprehensive history of the Lima Locomotive Works. We wish to thank the speakers. A reunion luncheon for the women who operated the Lima Servicemen's Canteen w as scheduled during the exhibit at the Barr Hotel. The luncheon w as coordinated by Patricia Noble and Karen Quatman, who w ere assisted by Linda Kuhn and Jack Purves. Easter Straker served as the Mistress of Ceremonies for that m em orable event. Bus tours of Lima's railroad-related neighborhoods an d sites w ere conducted during the course of the High Iron exhibits. Nancy an d Ben Rose coordinated these tours which w ere conducted by Andrew Gulliford an d architectural his torian Phyllis Brockmyer. Richard Kriegel hosted tour groups a t the Lima Trade Center. We wish to acknowledge the assistance of those who have read, commented on, and edited the text for this catalogue. They a re John Hellmann, James Machor, Patricia Newcomb, Anna Selfridge, Ray Schuck and Jack Purves. Vicki Zimmerman and Tracey Moulton provided w ord processing. Finally, we wish to recognize m embers of the Lima an d Allen County com munity who generously provided oral history for the High Iron exhibits. There were m any interuxban lines w hich flourished in Ohio, a n d one line even proclaim ed ttselim U M A K H ^M len High Iron Exhibit Donors and Lenders The John H. Keller, Louis Dreisbach an d Frank Harmon Railroad Collections oi the Allen County Historical Society The Lima News The City oi Lima Ohio High Speed Rail Authority Greyhound Bus Lines Allen County Regional Transit Authority Amtrak Dorothy Black Herbert Cattarene Jim Christoff Linn Cummings Vivian Dahlke Mrs, M. L. Furhman John H, Keller Nancy Moulton Harriett B. Selfridge Reverend Jam es C. Welty Emil White W alter White Randy Hoehn Lafe an d Dorothy Riker Jam es Joseph Moening Neil W agner Bob Cutter BillAlborough Mrs, Harold O'Dell Frank Fradin, Argonne N ational Laboratories r Each locom otive builder b ad its own distinctive builder's p lates w hich were affixed to th e locom otive boiler Lima's diam ond-shaped plate becam e synonymous the world over with quality craftsm anship. (Allen County Hist John H. Kelle r is Lima's pre em inent railroad historian who retired from the Nickel Plate a n d Norfolk a n d West e rn railroad.'; after 33 years. (Photo by Marilyn H ellm ann SELF-PORTRAIT of a n Industrial Community: "High Iron"Railroad Exhibits a n d Lima, Ohio Andrew Gulliford, PHD., Folklorist/ Historian-in-Residence for A m erican House, Inc. T h e High Iron exhibits produced by American House, Inc. juxtapose local history and folklore in bringing Lima's railro ad in g past into the present. "History from the bottom up" shapes the High Iron exhibits, because they a re draw n from over 100 hours of formal and informal interviews with men an d women from the Lima community who vividly recall the rich railro ad leg acy of Lima, Ohio. O nce served by five m ajor railroads, Lima also m anufactured 7,752 locomotives from 1878-1951.1 The three exhibits produced by Am erican House, Inc. an d originally dis played at three separate sites in Lima, Ohio, in the spring of 1987 focus on "High Iron Through Lima: The R ailroad Right-of-Way Shapes a Community," "The Halley an d Interurban Connection," an d "Lima an d the Lima Loco motive Works." The High Iron exhibits draw their nam e from those special rail lines used by high speed trains, or limiteds, that stopped in Lima, and use of the term acknowledges the influence of John R. Stilgoe's book Metropolitan Corridor: Railroads and the American Scene. Dr. Stilgoe, Professor of Visual an d Envir onmental Studies and the History of Landscape at H arvard University, writes: Thick, clean ballast elevated ties an d rail above standing w ater and provided an absolutely firm foundation on which to b ed the track necessary to high-speed operation an d very heavy luxury pas senger cars. Only high-speed, heavily used routes received such ballast... Throughout the nineteenth century, in d eed until about 1930, railroad tracks, an d especially the w ell-ballasted tracks Americans called "the high iron," provided about the only dry pathw ays in rainy weather. Schoolchildren, farmers, an d hoboes risked death rather than slop through m uddy roads that paralleled the tracks.2 Taken as a whole, the series of exhibits based on oral history an d historical fact established a retrospective framework for communicating the effect of the railroading industry on the Lima community. In his book Artifacts and the Am erican Past Thomas Schlereth, Professor of American Studies at Notre Dame University, discusses six fallacies frequently found in American history texts an d museums. These fallacies include the idea that history is progress, that history is patriotism, that history is nostalgia, that history is consensus, that history is simple, and that history represents money (because "old Quakers sell oatm eal, log cabins sell syrup an d 'great American homes' such as Monticello sell paint"). Schlereth particularly deplores interpreting the Am erican past as the sole provenance of "Great White Men," and he condemns our eagerness to view the past as nostalgia.3 Similar words of caution have been voiced by Elizabeth Ewen in a recent essay titled "The Memory Hole" published in The Nation. Ewen states, "In the present period... historical mythmaking has invaded nearly every aspect of Am erican culture,"4but she also defines and delineates a new generation of historians who have sought their ethnic roots, who have written revisionist histories, an d who accurately see history not m erely through the lens o large political movements ajid econom ic fluctuations, but also from the perspective of the living, breathing individuals who have experienced it. Ewen explains that "the most important productions of the new history have com e from a sense of dem ocratic engagement."5Through extensive reliance on oral his tory sources, that sense of "dem ocratic engagem ent" isvery much a part of the High Iron exhibits and the Train Town project. Most written records of an event can b e augm ented by oral records that are even richer in detail an d description. In the cases of railroading and locomo tive building, the written records a re product-oriented, telling us little or nothing about the process of running a railroad or building a 744,000-pound steam locomotive. Boxes and boxes of railroad records describe contracts for m aintenance of the right-of-ways, correct grading procedures, ownership of equipment, condition of rolling stock, an d proper freight and passenger han dling procedures, but they tell us little about the men an d women who did the work. Most railroad m aterial in archives represents coiporate histories of the railroads, not social histories of the railroaders who, for a century and a halt have operated American trains. Am erican House, Inc. has relied on oral his tories to provide the hum an perspective. Because of this emphasis, the High Iron exhibits have m ade extensive use of folklore as an essential aspect of railroad history. Railroaders can b e defined as a classical folk group since they share similar occupational clothing, speech patterns, drinking patterns, foodways, music, housing styles, jokes, rituals, and a continuity of occupation within the sam e family. In Lima, Ohio, dozens of men becam e railroaders because their uncles, fathers, or brothers worked on the long steel rail. The eminent folklorist an d founder of the Folklife Center a t the Library of Congress, Archie Green, has written, "No industrial folklore is as w idespread as that of the rails." But industrial folklore faces the sam e precarious future as other aspects of American industrial dominance;6 we have becom e a national enam ored of microchips, not 400-ton steam locomotives or the people who m ade a n d operated them. Ifwe a re to recover our past and discover in our engagem ent with it a new community identify, we must document industrial folklore as fully as possible. The thoroughly studied portrayal of railroading in American literature, when com pared to the findings of the High Iron exhibits, provides a good exam ple of how industrial folklore can give specific substance and new perspectives to our understanding of the past. Immersed in nature at W alden Pond, Henry David Thoreau found his romantic idyl routinely shattered by the intrusion of a steam whistle, causing him to contem plate the im pact of industrial change upon pastoral New England.7Literary scholars have even argued that the industrial development which followed the Iron Horse ended American inno cence. Butwhile few retired railroaders in Lima, Ohio, could care about American innocence, the evocative notes of a steam whistle and the distant rumble of a freight train do evoke in them a brace of associations about the history and m eaning of railroad labor.8To revitalize those memories, American House, Inc. included as part of one of the exhibits a continuous tape loop of steam engine sounds, recorded by E. H. "Wally" W allace in the late 1950swhen the last coal-fired locomotives w ere thundering down the track. The train sounds im m ediately served to place railroaders visiting the exhibit in another time, when, by carefully listening, they knew haw fast the engine was going, whether or not the valves needed adjusting, how close the train w as to a railroad crossing, an d a dozen other facts and impressions unfamiliar to the rest of the exhibit patrons. For railroaders, the lonesome whistle connoted an entire occupational context of hard labor, frozen fingers and toes in winter, oppressive summer heat, and far too many nights "on the road" gone from wives and children. M any women walking through the High Iron exhibit listened to the train sounds an d had specific memories of their own. Some women rem em bered days and weeks when they never saw their railroading fathers or uncles. As they grew up to b e housewives in Lima, Ohio, the train whistles ruled their lives. Bythe unique signature of an engineer's whistle, railroaders' wives could tell which engineer w as on the throttle and whether or not the train was on time.9 For railroad wives, m arriage m eant a secure position for themselves and their families, barring any unforeseen accidents (an d there w ere dozens of those), but it also m eant filth, grease, an d endless grime. Because steam engines belched thick, black clouds of oily smoke, particularly in Ohio where railroads used soft coal, Lima wives had am bivalent feelings about the rail road. Their railroad m en cam e home with blackened overalls, grimy ban dannas, an d sooty caps an d shirts. Wives putting out fresh laundry an d linen to dry on the line dread ed a change in the wind, which drove the oily engine smoke into theirwet w ash an d m ade it dingy gray. Houses could never be kept clean; photographs, books, tablecloths--all w ere perpetually soiled. Nostalgia for the steam a g e usually focuses on the w idespread m ale pre occupation in the culture with shining steel, gleam ing engine rods, an d the powerful drive wheels, not the thick clouds of black pollution which regularly em bittered housebound wives an d obscured neighborhoods near railroad roundhouses.10 These memories of ordinary men an d women involved with railroading w ere elicited by the interviewing that p rep ared the exhibits a n d then by the view ing of the exhibits themselves. In the recovery of the experiences, the thoughts, and the emotions of those involved in the daily life of railroading, the exhibits give us valuable insight into the social history of Lima, Ohio, and into the general im pact of industrialization upon American life. First Exhibit High Iron Through Lima: The Railroad Right-oi-Way Shapes a Community . l n exploring the m eaning of the rail w ay industry upon the lives of Lim a-area people, the High Iron exhibits take their organizing theme from Stilgoe's Metropolitan Corridor: Railroads and the Am erican Scene. Stilgoe explains: Metropolitan Corridor designates the portion of the American built environment that evolved along railroad rights-of-way in the years betw een 1880 and 1935. No traditional spatial term, not urban, suburban, or rurgl, not cityscape or landscape, adequately identifies the space that perplexed so m any tum-of-the-century observers. Reaching from the very hearts of great cities across industrial zones, the m etropolitan corridor objectified in its unprecedented arrangem ent of space and struc ture a wholly new lifestyle. Along it flowed the forces of modernization.11 The centerpiece of the first exhibit "High Iron Through Lima: The Right-oi-Way Shapes a Community" is a Lionel m odel train display. The large-scale artifact is a rare 1929 "Blue Comet" Lionel train set in O -gauge. The display case includes the engine, three railroad cars, a red m etal bridge, small railroad crossing sign, pow er station, Lionel city station, M ain Street streetlam p, an d a sem aphore signal which proclaims "Caution--High Speed Trains." The model train offers three-dimensional proof of the physical effect of railroading on the Lima community, particularly with the m iniature power station an d railroad crossing signs still in evidence on all Lima streets intersecting with railroad tracks. - The exhibit begins with a three-quarter lifesize blow-up photograph of John H. Keller, a Lima native an d a nationally known expert on American railroad ing. Mr. Keller's father, John G. Keller, worked as a machinist in the Baltimore & Ohio yards in Lima, an d his family suffered through the National Railway Shopmen's Strike of 1922. John H: Keller retired after 33 years as a brakem an and conductor on the Nickel Plate and Norfolk an d Western railroads. Along the way, he graduated from Bluffton College, attended Garrett Seminary at Northwestern University, joined the Socialist Party of America, and has served as a trustee of the Allen County Historical Society for 39 years. His knowledge of railroaders' rights under the law an d his accomplishments as a skilled union negotiator for the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen are legendary. He gav e of his own time before countless committees as he sought to improve the w orking life of his fellow railroaders. Although these exhibits owe their conceptual framework to Stilgoe, they owe their im m ediacy and their visual im pact to the depth and breadth of railroad artifacts an d m aterials collected over the years by John H. Keller. Largely through Keller's unfailing dedication to his occupation, the railroad collec tions of the Allen County Historical Society a re am ong the top ten collections in the nation. One of the last in a long labor tradition of blue collar intellectu als, John H. Keller represents that extraordinary synthesis of a w ell-read m an who worked as a laborer much of his life an d fully understands American industrialism from the perspective of a community historian. An oral history excerpt of Keller introduces the exhibit, describing the ease of rail transportation from Lima west to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and east to Cleve land. Adjacent to Mr. Keller's photograph is a m ap of railroads in the United States and a separate 1918 railroad m ap of Ohio, which shows Lima's promi nence as a rail hub not only for the "high iron" tracks, which connected major American cities, but also for light'rail interurban systems. Acontem porary aerial photograph of Lima shows the rail lines entering town and enum erates fifty-eight businesses representative of m any which thrived because of the railroads betw een the turn of the century an d 1945. Photographs and cap tions highlight specific businesses. These businesses represent the Golden Age of railroading in Lima, which lasted from approxim ately 1920to a few years after World War II. The Green % Lantern Cafe, one of the businesses which is highlighted in the exhibit, served Baltimore &Ohio railroaders sit-down m eals of meat, potatoes, vegetables, an d hom em ade breads an d soups. On any given d ay the cafe was crow ded with m en w earing coveralls, bandannas, railroader's caps, and regulation leather shoes. Like the truckers of today, engineers an d their crews let their steam locomotives idle in the B&O yards while they w alked to the Green Lantern for lunch coffee, and companionship. The Barr Hotel served railro ad passengers "riding the plush" of Pullm an Cars, and Blattner's Store on South Main Street offered credit to railroaders' wives who bought everything from furniture to clothing. Jerom e Blattner explained that: In those years everyone knew everyone else in Lima an d doors went unlocked. Families would leave their furniture paym ents in special Blattner's envelopes right inside their doors, an d collection agents would come an d pick up the funds, leave a receipt an d walk on down the block to other custom ers.12 Downtown businesses thrived b ecause of railroad connections. Each year, hundreds of freight cars brought choice Kentucky an d Cuban tobacco to the Deisel Wemmer Cigar factory located on North Main Street directly adjacent to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Banta Candy Factory an d the Lima Mat tress factory w ere also located near the railroad for ease of rail shipments, an d the Standard Oil Refinery prospered because of rail connections to cus tomers across the country. Rail passengers traveling through Lima stayed at the Lima House, the Norval Hotel, the Argonne, the Kirwan, the Hotel French, and the Cam bridge House (now the Taylor Glass Company). Sears' and Penney's stores w ere prominently located on Lima's Town Square as w ere seven movie theaters. The architectural fabric of Lima reflects the railroad boom a n d the effect of the m etropolitan corridor on the community. In a study of historic buildings an d themes in Lima, Argonne Associates concluded that an "era of optimism" in the 1920s resulted in major downtown construction of such prominent build ings as the Argonne Hotel, the Lima Trust Company, Cook Tower, and local headquarters for fraternal lodges like the Eagles and the Elks.13The Lima Trust Company, now the Huntington Bank, displays a magnificent 34-panel stained-glass window which illustrates agriculture, industry, and prosperity in Lima, Ohio. There is no mistaking the significance of the Lima locomotive etched in glass in the center of the bottom panels.14 Railroaders an d Lima Locomotive workers lived in m any brick row houses newly constructed in Lima in the early 1920s. These row houses an d apart ments, with nam eplates etched in stone in the m iddle of the buildings near the roof line, w ere comfortable dwellings for the families of working m en who labored on ten-hour shifts or of railroaders who w ere gone for days.15Other evidence of the railroad's architectural im pact is found in the huge mansions which w ere built on Market Street and the unique Irish cottages in north Lima on N. Elizabeth Street. Though records a re scarce, in all probability these simple one-and-a-half story dwellings w ere built at the turn of the century for Irish railroaders.16While the Depression eventually curtailed additional downtown construction, community bonds rem ained strong in those neigh borhoods of cottages and row houses. That sam e sense of neighborliness existed with numerous com er grocery stores like Christoff's Market near Schoonover Lake. Just as a large blow-up photograph of Jerom e Blattner accents the business section panels, a similar lifesize photograph of Jim Christoff accom panies the important issues of . community during the Depression. Christoffw as born in M acedonia. His father worked as a janitor at the Lima Locomotive Works, and after scrimping to p ay passage for his family, he brought his wife an d sons to Lima, Ohio, in 1923. Jim Christoff ran the family market in the 1930s an d vividly remembers the hobo jungle near Schoonover Lake. Recalling the m any railroad bums who cam e to the m arket to get ingredients for hobo stew, Christoff states: Beggars would come in to ask for something to eat and ask ifyou had any extra food like m eat or bones for soup. We'd give 'em soup bones. A lot of times w e might give 'em a loaf of b read and m aybe a pound or two of soup beans, which they could boil and m ake a m eal out o t and some bacon--we used to have to slice bacon by hand. You'd give 'em a chuck of bacon, and they could m ake a beautiful m eal with bacon an d beans. And we gave other stuff that w e had. We tried to help those in need of food. We have to help each other. We Americans a re very charitable.17 The exhibit panels go on to describe those transients during the Depression who cam e into town by "riding the rods," often as m any as sixty or seventy on a single train. The vast num ber of hoboes coming into Lima each w eek in the 1930s had a direct effect upon the community of the railroads an d the metro politan corridor. Two Lima m en stand out during this era, and on an exhibit panel their photographs can be com pared. Bom in M acedonia, Jim Chris toff an d his m other em igrated to A m erica a n d rejoined his father who w orked a t the Lima Locomotive Works. (Photo by M arilyn H ellm ann for Ameri can House) The Rev. Adam Welty founded th e Lima Rescue Home an d w as nicknam ed Onion John by hoboes who told about his onion soup in hobo jungles across A m erica (Gilt to Amer ic a n House from th e Reverend John Welty) Nicknamed "Onion John" by hoboes, the Reverend Adam Welty w as a committed Christian of Swiss Mennonite extraction who devoted his life to the downtrodden by building the Lima Rescue Home at the corner of Wayne and Central. The large, three-story building is itself a testament to faith, because ^ Reverend Welty began construction without sufficient funds for the building's completion; he believed that the Lord would provide. For half a century now the Lima Rescue Home has b een offering "soup, soap, an d salvation" for those men in need of a handout. The Reverend Welty earned the nicknam e "Onion John" during the Depres sion by serving gallons of onion soup to hoboes out of a belief that onions w ere nutritious. They w ere donated regularly by farmers from the nearby Bluffton a re a who supported W eltis mission whenever they brought foodstuffs into town. Any vegetable items not sold to downtown hotels such as the Argonne, the Lima House, the Norval, the Barr, an d the Kirwan, or vegetables too blemished to be sold to servant cooks at the backdoors of the big homes on Market Street, w ere given to Onion John. No Bluffton truck farm er ever returned home with produce in his w agon.18 In South Lima, Ruel Steen earned his nickname, "Lima Slim," not as a friend to hoboes, but as a railroad "Bull" to b e feared and hated. In the lexicon of hobo slang, a "Slim" was a railroad detective, and "Lima Slim had the distinction of being one of the toughest cops in the Midwest.19In 1936, according to FBI records, he m ade more arrests than any other law officer in the nation.20The reality of Lima Slim's inhumanity to hoboes and the reign of terror which he represented exemplifies the tension betw een personal and corporate rights. An original artifact hanging in the exhibit has major im portance, for although it is a simple white metal sign with black lettering that states YARDLIMIT, the m eaning of that sign denoted the limits of personal safety for hoboes. Once beyond that sign, a hobo had entered onto the property of the Ene Railroad, fiercely protected by Lima Slim, who routinely beat trespassers. According to a n interview recorded by Studs Terkel in his book Hard Times: An Oral History oi the Great Depression, Lima Slim also shot at hoboes. In Terkel's book Louis Banks, an aging Veterans Administration patient, states, "Lima Slim, he would kill you if he catch you on any train. Sheep train or any kind of m erchandise train. He would shoot you oft he wouldn't ask you to get off."21Local oral histories conducted for the Train Town project confirm Lima Slim's brutality, but other stories a d d another dimension to Lima Slim s per sonality. R. G. Miller remembers: Steen was m ean, tough, an d rough, but with all of that meanness, ifyou w ere really hard up, and you would talk to him, he would take you and buy you a meal. He'd even help you get coal off the cars to keep your family warm. But ifyou violated the law, he was going to enforce it.22 \r h -.. - . r Lima Slim's life epitomizes d eep contradictions in the American past during the dark days of the Great Depression when the railroads ad d ed additional security forces because of the huge volume of transients who w ere "riding the rods." Communities feared this large influx of hoboes in contrast to an earlier generation of rural tram ps who w ere well known an d invited to sleep inside farmhouses. Lima Slim's extrem e use of force in the pursuit of corporate jus tice raises pivotal questions about hum an rights versus occupational obliga tions as well as questions of community values an d community norms conflicting with the railroads' absentee ownership. These are major humani ties issues, which reflect not only upon the im portance of local history and folklore in chronicling a community's past, but in Lima Slim's case, also reflect upon the complexity of hum an personalities an d the omnipotence of corpo rations in their dealings with the public. Along the m etropolitan corri dor hoboes u sed a distinct set ol sign m arkings a s a coded language known to other "knights of th e ro ad " (Allen County H istorical Society) 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Hobo, or Tram p, Signs. 1 Good for a handout; 2 C ranky woman or b id dog; 1 Not generous; 4 Stay aw ay; 5 Police not hostile; 6 Police hostile ( 1 * used for Railroad Police, if applicable); 7 Jail good for a night's lodging; 8 Clean jail; 9 Jaii food no good: 10 " Cooties" in jail; 11 Jail has rock pile; 12 Jail is a workhouse; 13 Saloons in town; 14 Tow n is hostile; 13 Streets good for begging; 16 Plain-clothes detectives here. In addition to the hoboes who passed through Lima, celebrities also stopped in town on their w ay to other engagem ents. Exhibit panel photographs depict President Truman's "whistle stop" in 1948, an d Tallulah Bankhead who played at the Ohio Theatre in the early 1940s. She kept her own railroad c a r on a special siding in South Lima near the Nickel Plate roundhouse.23Traveling by private railroad car represents high iron opulence, but the exhibit also de scribes standard dining car service. Artifacts illustrating Pullman plushness include a com plete table setting from the Nickel Plate Railroad with linen napkin, printed menu, a com plete silverware setting, a silvervase with a long stemmed rose, and even a sealed toothpick with tiny lettering stating "dining cars." The service is com pleted with the inclusions of a silver coffee pot and hot-water pot for tea which w ere used on the Pennsylvania Railroad. This place setting represents a vivid contrast to the plastic-packaged airline meals travelers are served today. Also in the exhibit is a five-foot long white neon sign w ith black background proclaim ing SLEEPING CARS. The sign hung in the M ichigan Central Termi nal in Detroit foryears and was restored for this exhibit by master neon-tube bender Ted Coon, em ployed by Terry 8cJack Neon Sign Company of Lima, Ohio. The sign hangs directly ab o v e a larg e blue-tinted Nickel Plate publicity photograph of a 1950s mother preparing her son for bed in a Pullman sleep ing car. Just as these sleeping cars carried Lima residents to faraw ay places, so, too, did American soldiers carry the nam e of Lima, Ohio, from coast to coast. Community memory vividly recalls operation of the Lima Canteen. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Mrs. Ellouise Larsen an d Mrs. Charles Baker, Lima had a servicemen's canteen near the Pennsylvania Station that was second to none in the country for the length of time it w as open. Though other railroad canteens run by Am erican Women's Voluntary Services flourished during World War II, the comprehensive volunteer program set up by Mrs. Larsen and Mrs. Baker lasted for nearly thirty years. From its beginning in 1942 until it closed in 1970 the Lima canteen was open from ten in the morning until ten at night to provide free sandwiches, fruit, milk, coffee an d m agazines to Ameri can servicemen and women during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The effect of the railroad right-of-way on Lima, Ohio, w as to galvanize Lima citizens into this unprecedented volunteer effort to show their support for men an d women in uniform. Seven dairies donated fresh milk, one for each d ay of the week. Seven bakers furnished free loaves of bread, each on a particular day, an d Swift &Company donated American cheese. The Lima Packing Com pany donated meat. Pangles Groceries donated cigarettes, an d the Lima Canteen itself and all its furnishings w ere built with donated labor and m aterials. The Lima Locomotive Works donated three red, white an d blue w agons, an d Westinghouse donated a m agazine w agon with three trays. The National Tile Company put tile on the floor as well as linoleum on the work tables an d counters.24Women volunteers at the canteen served ten trains a day. Betty Jo Feltz recalls: Youw anted to do something for the soldiers because they w ere doing so much foryou. When that train stopped w e h ad just so m any minutes to get rid of those sandwiches. Sometimes when the train started to move w e'd run down the platform throwing apples an d sandwiches. We threw every thing but the milk and coffee at them!25 Mrs. Ellouise Larsen was "a leader an d a starter an d a finisher" who had an undeniable "presence." Betty Jo Feltz remembers, "She'd sail in just like the Q ueen Mary. I think she probably would have ranked a four-star general with epaulets."26Mis. Larsen com m anded the canteen an d com m andeered the supplies. She also removed from the racks of donated m agazines certain ones, such as Esquire, b ecau se she feared that photos of provocative pinup girls "might diminish the w ar effort"; however, her volunteers felt differently, an d M ary Porter remembers, "As fast as she'd remove them. I'd stand there a n d put them back in."27 The Lima Canteen functioned flawlessly becau se of careful cooperation am ong service clubs, church groups, women's clubs, labor union auxiliaries, the Blue Star Mothers, an d local businesses from Lima an d surrounding towns such as Harrod, Ada, Cridersville, an d Delphos. In this one dram atic instance, the effect of the railroad right-of-way on the Lima community was to unite it in an unprecedented w ar effort which saw food an d friendship go to thousands of servicem en on hundreds of troop trains. M ary Porter recalls. I rem em ber standing there looking up at a young soldier and giving him a sandw ich an d seeing the appreciation in his eyes. "Oh, boy," they'd say. Here was something to e at a n d a lady to talk to. Some times that m eant something, too. Just the hello and someone that rem inded them of home a little bit. A lot of them w ere homesick and did not know what was ahead of them. It brings back a lot of memories for me. The Lima C anteen w as the best of any of the canteens. All we w ere giving was our time. They w ere giving a lot m ore.28 . Any m an or w om an in uni form could tak e free food from th e Lima can teen carts in quantities sufficient to m atch th eir hunger. (Allen County H istorical Society) At the Barr Hotel exhibit opening, the successful voluntarism of the Lima Can teen lived again. Girl Scouts pushed m etal carts donated by the Lima Civic Center and St. Rita's Hospital, and on those carts w ere hom em ade sand wiches as well as coffee, candy bars, an d fruit. For those who rem em bered the Lima C anteen an d studied the exhibit to see thank you letters from ser vicemen, the Girl Scout volunteers provided historical continuity and living history at its best. After the exhibit opening had concluded, the extra sand wiches w ere donated to the Lima Rescue Home. Onion John would have been proud. His son, the Reverend Jam es C. Welty wrote. Thank you very much for the sandw iches that were brought in last night. It brought to m ind how the Canteen used to call us an d give us the leftover sandwiches and coffee. We would receive the call and then take our coffeepot over an d get what was left-over. You a re doing a great job in getting people mindful of our history which is centered around the railroad. I really appreciate your efforts and congratulate you on this work.29 Second Exhibit The Trolley and Interurban Connection l n contrast to the Barr Hotel exhibit, with its focus on the impact of the nation's railroads an d their right-of-ways in Lima, the second exhibit--which opened at Lima's Municipal B uildingaddresses the trolley and interurban years in which Lima also played a key role. In 1887, Benjamin C. Faurot transformed Lima's horse-drawn trolley system into an efficient electric system transporting thousands of people--the third such system in the nation. Many Lima streets h ad up to four trolleys operating simultaneously By 1930, trolley and interurban traffic m ade Lima one of the most important transportation hubs in Ohio. Commuters could take Lima trolleys to work on any one of ten main thoroughfares. When w ages w ere low and few families owned automobiles, trolleys w ere the heart of Lima's inner city travel. Five interurban lines operated into Lima an d delivered people and goods north to Ohio's lake shore, west to Fort Wayne, south to Dayton and Cincinnati, and northwest to Defiance. Connections could also b e m ade for Columbus and points east by routing through Springfield. The Western Ohio Railroad proudly proclaim ed itself THE LIMAROUTE. Close to the gazebo, where trol ley passengers w aited in Lima's Town Square, the present Lima Municipal Building was constructed in 1910, as the interurban passenger terminal for the Ohio Electric Railway. On the next block, the W estern Ohio Railway Company built their passenger term inal in 1924 to replace an earlier station. A m erican House, Inc, chose to open the trolley a n d interurban exhibit in the downtown building which was built as the interurban depot. Exhibit viewers rem em bered the days of interurban travel when high-speed, lightweight, interurban cars sped quickly an d quietly through the countryside in the ag e before automobiles. The interurban system played a key role in elim inating rural isolation.30Unlike their chugging, smoke-belching, high iron counter parts, the interurban rail cars w ere electric, efficient, an d clean to operate. Period photographs in the exhibit show Lima citizens boarding trolleys for trips to the park, trolleys stopping on a country bridge above a river, trolleys an d interurbans bisecting Lima's Town Square, an d sisters M ary Vail McCoy an d Nancy Vail Moulton posing for their portrait. Nancy Moulton remembers: : The streetcars went by our house on Cole Street. On ' Saturdays I'd take my b aby sister an d get on the streetcar, an d we would go clear out to Ohio Steel an d back to the entrance of W oodlawn Cemetery; then w e'd turn around an d go back. We did that all morning. I rem em ber my mother gave the motorm an a box of cigars for Christmas because she said w e certainly owed it to him for entertaining us on Saturday mornings!31 The photographs in the exhibit, the oral history excerpts, an d the original arti facts such as buttons, work cards, an d Lima Electric Street Railway tokens, all attest to Lima's boom period when it w as a growing cosmopolitan commu nity. Photographs of Lima's downtown, with trolleys cruising up the middle of Main Street, replicate similar photographs taken during the sam e era in Toledo, Detroit, Charleston, Cleveland, an d Cincinnati. Though trolley workers faced bitter labor disputes to improve their working conditions,32by all accounts trolley travel w as pleasant. Regular patrons enjoyed discussing their personal business with each other, an d oral histories attest to the fact that motormen would purposely linger on a streetcorner if a regular commuter w as just a little late. Contrasted with the anonymity experienced by today's commuters shut up in their own automobiles, trolley travel offered the oppor tunity for genuine exchanges betw een friends an d strangers an d provided com radeship. Henry Valentine White worked as a Lima motorman from 1919 to 1939, a n d his grandson states that trolley passengers frequently helped his grandfather turn the seats around when the trolley needed to reverse its course. The fact that passengers would help motormen with their chores confirms the sense of community which w as a benefit of trolley travel. Herb White, a rail roader born in 1896, worked as a motorman on Lima's trolleys before retiring from the B&O Railroad. Aswith other Lima railroading families, many of the m en shared related occupations. Herb White cam e to the exhibit at the Municipal Building an d saw himself in a sepia photographic blow-up w earing the exact motorman s outfit he had w orn three decades earlier. The honored celebrities in these exhibits a re not the movers an d shakers with political clout, not the industrial barons who ruled with iron fists, but rather the working m en who m ade the wheels turn. Third Exhibit T.imw<tt>h the U m n Locomotive Works or hundreds of railroaders, those wheels w ere the 750-pound steel wheels of Lima locomotives produced by precision machinists,dedicated to turning out top-quality locomotives. The third an d final exhibit, which prem iered in the Crouse Hall Lobby of the Lima/Allen County Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center, fea tured locomotives m ade at the Lima Locomotive Works. From Lima, some of the most famous rod locomotives of the 20th-century w ere shipped world w ide.33As Lima Chief of Police Frank Catlett recalls: After World War IIwas over in 1946,1was stationed in Manila. W hen you go into a new m ilitary outfit you take a lot of razzing, an d in the outfit I got into nobody cam e from a small town. When I told 'em I was from Lima, Ohio, they w ere on me all the time. On one occasion w e w ere down at M anila Harbor watching them unload. Suddenly of the hold of this ship cam e a great big locomotive and on the side of it w as a banner which said MANUFACTURED BY LIMALOCOMOTIVE WORKS, LIMA, OHIO. It m ade m e proud to see something from my hometown when Iwas so far aw ay It put a feather in my cap an d nobody asked me ag ain where Lima, Ohio w as.34 Police Chief Catlett saw a familiar hometown product in the Philippines in 1946. A year earlier the first of 280 locomotives was produced for the Socit Nationale des Chemins de Fer Franais, an d a French delegation from the w ar-torn nation traveled all the w ay to Lima for the christening on July 30, 1945. Of course, Mrs. Ellouise Larsen had her AWVScanteen workers pose with the French visitors, Lima locomotives w ere rebuilding Europe, and all of Lima was proud of the role its famous factory would play in implementing the M arshall Plan.35A series of photographs taken at the christening and used in the exhibit belonged to Frank Cutter, who was a plant engineer as well as Works M anager an d Vice-President of the Lima Locomotive Works. The exhibit also includes a photograph of Lima Locomotive Works engineer R. B. Krueger seated in a Chinese rickshaw. In 1919, the "Loco" built and assem bled ten locomotives for the export trade to China, and Krueger volun teered to go to China with the steam engines. The engines w ere assem bled an d tested, then taken apart, bolt by bolt, and boxed for shipment half a w orld away. Krueger's job w as to train unskilled Chinese laborers to assem ble the locomotives and to personally see that the engines met all necessary requirements of the Kin-Han Railroad. Krueger left Lima in 1919and returned in 1920 after almost dying of influenza in Peking where the famous physician J. W alter Reed suggested he sprinkle Scotch on the food to help kill germs. Krueger followed his doctor's m edical advice; his "China [Trip] Itinerary" and expense account ledger itemizes bottles of Scotch charged to the Lima Locomotive Works.36 For years the Lima Locomotive Works w as the largest employer and one of the econom ic mainstays of Lima, Ohio. Just as railroaders knew that steam engines would perpetually haul the nation's passengers and freight, so did Lima residents believe that the Lima Locomotive Works would always offer secure local employment. Although w ages w ere low and benefits marginal, over the years so many men had worked "at the Loco" that the com pany had undisputed local respect, an d high status w as accorded its employees. Norman Pierce, who worked at the Lima Locomotive Works with other m em bers of his family, states: In the teens, the 20s, an d the 30s, the Lima Locomo tive Works was the industry in the city of Lima. When they had an order, the people of Lima were eating, because that was the biggest payroll, and it supported the merchants an d everyone in the city. There wasn't hardly anybody that you could meet in the city of Lima that their father, brother, or uncle * wasn't working out at the plant.37 The dem ographics of Lima, Ohio, from the turn oi the century to World War II mirror the larger population shift from iarm to cities and the intensive urbani zation occurring throughout the United States.38A good factory job for a young m an fresh off the farm or an immigrant newly arrived in America met most occupational aspirations. Working at the Loco kindled a strong sense of personal an d group identity, especially through such organizations as the Foreman's Club or the innovative 25-Year-Club which ignored blue an d white collar distinctions to perm it membership am ong any workers with 25 years seniority. Many men stayed on the job to becom e 40 or 50-year members. Sales Engineer lor the U m a Locomotive Works R.B.Krueger visited C hina from 1919-1920to supervise th e delivery ol ten steam engines. (Gilt to Ameri can House by Dorothy Black) Three generations of fathers an d sons worked to build locomotives at the 67acre plant site southwest of where the Nickel Plate and Baltimore &Ohio tracks intersected South Main Street. Lafe Riker's father worked as a riveter at the plant, an d Lafe fondly rem em bers taking lunch to his d a d by slipping through a hole in the factory fence. Normally it was expected that the sons of m en who worked at the Locomotive Works could get jobs whenever they w ere old enough, but the Depression changed all that, and corporate pater nalism took on a deeper m eaning in a true community context. One of the effects of railroading on Lima an d the production of Lima locomotives was employment for men who needed work the most. As a young man, Lafe Riker vividly recalls: I reached my teenage years in the 1930s, and I'd go to the Lima Locomotive to hunt a job, an d there'd be a line of m en there--200 men in line. And the guy would come out an d he'd say, "I'm gonna hire m arried m en with children today. I'm gonna hire three. Now, who's got five kids?" And some guy would holler out, "Well, I've got six." And he'd hire him. And he'd say, "Who's got five?" Nobody would say, so he'd yell out, "Who's got four?" And some guy would say, "Well, I got four kids." And they said, "Well, we'll hire you." And so on until he'd hire a m an with three children.39 . In those Depression years, when w elfare and Social Security simply did not exist as they do now, men with families had to find jobs. The paternalism prac ticed by the Lima Locomotive Works, despite the hard working conditions an d perennial low pay, dem onstrated community solidarity. Probably more than any other industry, the Lima Locomotive Works epitomizes the effect of railroading on the Lima community, because as railroads prospered an d engines w ere ordered, the Loco could keep three shifts of men employed. Louis Murphy was one of ten m embers of the Murphy family who worked at the Locomotive Works. He rem em bers the im pact on the community of a large order for locomotives. It turned into a big celebration when w e'd get an order tor twenty or thirty engines which m eant work for six months. The new spaper would put out an extra. I can rem em ber carrying newspapers and running uptown at two o'clock in the morning. The headlines would b e letters as b ig as they could print across the paper. LOCO GETS THIRTYENGINES.40 Louis's brother, Bob, stillworks at the plant site which has now becom e the Lima Trade Center. Other exhibit visuals include photographs an d text on famous types of Lima locomotives. Introduced in 1925, the A-l revolutionized railroading b ecause it could produce two-and-a-half times the horsepower using 20%less fuel. The dram atically beautiful Southern Pacific "Daylights," first ordered in 1936, w ere passenger engines as streamlined an d as aesthetically breathtaking as any locomotives Henry Dreyfuss or Raymond Loewy designed.41Another engine type described in the exhibit is the Berkshire, a solid workhorse of an engine an d the final rod locomotive locally produced. The Nickel Plate Rail ro ad ordered the last Lima steam locomotive, engine #779--a Berkshire, now on display at Lincoln Park in Lima. The Lima Locomotive Works h ad exclusive m anufacturing rights on the Shay, which becam e the standard for all geared steam engines. Exhibit panels explain that most locomotive parts w ere manu factured at the Lima Locomotive Works, but other businesses in Lima also supplied parts, especially the Ohio Steel Foundry, which produced locomo tive frames, bolsters, tie rods, and couplers. Tools for the factory cam e from Siferd Hossellman and Steele's as well as Stippich's and Schnorf Hardware. R eed Electric handled some electrical contracting, an d the Fidelity Coal Company ordered specialty coal. Bob Murphy recalls: There w ere boilermakers, blacksmiths, ham m er operators, heat treat men, an d foundry people who cast m etal and brass. You had all phases of machine operators from planer operators who m achined the fram er on up to wheel lathe opera tors who m achined wheels an d all other configura tions of parts. You had a lot of drill press operators, but no welders until about 1940. Before then every thing was ham m ered out, heated, shaped, and then machined. You had painters, an d all kinds of mechanics who repaired moving parts and did specialty work like polishing the drive shafts. Spe cial machinists hand-cut the oil grooves in brass or bronze fittings an d scrapped them to tolerance for high speed fittings.42 Like that of other industries in other states, the work force at the Loco included Irish, Italians, Czechs, Slovenians, Germans, and Poles. Because of the noise on the factory floor and the many workers who spoke only broken English, hand signals w ere frequently used as an effective m eans of communication. Just as immigrants cam e to work at the Loco, blacks m igrated north to work at the Ohio Steel Foundry during World War II. Furl Williams worked at Ohio Steel for years and becam e a skilled labor negotiator. He is now the first black in Lima who has ever served as president of the Lima City Council. He rem em bers: There was only one industry [in Lima] which hired Blacks and that was the Ohio Steel Foundry Com pany. About all of their employees w ere Blacks or Italians. The jobs w ere very hard, rough, dirty work. I've often told people that everything in the Ohio Steel Foundry when I went to work there was either hot or heavy an d most oi it w as both--hot and heavy.43 Working at the Lima Locomotive Works an d support industries aifected the worker an d his community in a w ide variety oi areas including music, craft, social customs, and even disease. Industrial accidents an d d eath w ere common and are also part of a community's railroading heritage. Hostlers working in the roundhouses inhaled thick, noxious fumes from steam engines, and those few hostlers who still live have limited mobility, because they are closely tied to portable respirators. Roundhouse workers also cleaned engine parts in vats of super-heated lye, resulting in excessive exposure to their skin and lungs.44Because of the dangers of the railroad workplace, John H. Keller admits, "I'm lucky to have all my fingers and toes."45 On the erecting shop floor of the Lima Locomotive Works men blanketed the huge steam locomotive boilers w ith white jacketing or lagging in chunks approxim ately four inches thick an d twelve by eighteen inches long. Today w e call that lagging asbestos. It is one of the most dangerous substances known to man, because once inhaled the tiny asbestos particles rem ain forever em bedded in the lungs. The Lima Locomotive Works had a hospital. The building still stands, but safety practices w ere minimal, and men went to the hospital only in an emergency, not for treatm ent of daily industrial hazards. The buckers and riveters who pounded in white hot rivets frequentl' lost their hearing because of the trem endous din and noise in the shop. If the missed catching a hot rivet in the tin funnel which they used like a baseball mit, the rivet hit them in the chest or upper arm s and left perm anent scars th size of a quarter.46Only a few older m en d ared to toss the long twelve-inch bolts in a movement that stopped all activity on the factory floor as other n laid down their tools to w atch the white hot bolts whistle through the air. Fc lorist Archie Green has argued that occupation defines a community as much as territory does. He states, "It is now im perative to see machine ter as creative performers in an interactive b allet... Factory behavior is itsel folklife."47 The Legacy Pride and Problems 0 _ _ from research for the High Iron exhibit involves the historical effect of rail roading on Lima, Ohio, in creating psychological an d financial ties to a dying industry. Just as none of the engineers at the Lima Locomotive Works ever believed that diesel power would rival steam, so none of the men who dedi cated their lives to railroading ever thought that their ranks would be pared, that their unions would lose strength, an d that cabooses would even cease one d ay to punctuate the ends of trains.48 . The railroad industry, which was so important to American communities in the 19th century, means little to communities in the 20th century. Although Lima's Project Rehab has participated in the rehabilitation of over 150homes in recent years, and the project will renovate an additional 600 homes in the next ten years,49block after block of unpainted and decrepit housing in Lima decays in what was a once vibrant working class neighborhood on Lima's south side. Yesterday's train towns must now face declining populations, stag nating economies, an d adherence to blue collar beliefs an d values toward jobs which have limited relevance to today's decentralized information and com puter-age careers. An earlier generation oi railroaders w orried only about their seniority and the next vacancy on the job roster. John H. Keller says, "Seniority w as almost as precious as life itself."50What w as rew arded was not ability, ingenuity, or innovation, but rather years of service. Men worked for the railroad to earn a paycheck an d a pension; careful, conscientious work brought ridicule, not rewards. In today's international m arketplace, not emphasizing innovation m ay cost com panies their competitive edge. Once the epitome of American industry a n d corporate m anagem ent, the railroads h ad institutionalized a seniority system which shunned progressive change.51 The underlying premise for these exhibits has b een to m ake use of the past an d to reestablish historical continuity for a community steeped in railroad traditions. Through photographs an d oral histories the High Iron exhibits create a self-portrait of an industrial community, yet like all self-portraits it is only a single im age of a particular time an d place. In order to have a recognizable past, it is important to articulate pride in pre vious accomplishments. At the sam e time, it is essential to understand Lima's generational ties to a dying industry. The issues raised by the High Iron exhib its can be useful to this industrial community as it studies its past to define its future. END N O T E S 1. The A llen County Historical Society in Lima, Ohio, u nder the direction oi Raym ond F.Schuck, owns most of the original records for the Lima Locomotive Works. These records have b een extensively studied by Eric Hirsimaki for his new book Lima: the history (Edmonds. WA H undm an Publishers, 1986). 2. John R. Stilgoe, M etropolitan Corridor: Railroads a n d the Am erican Scene, (N ew Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983). p. 145. For additional recent railro ad scholarship see Jam es H. Ducker, M en o i the Steel Rail: W orkers on the Atchison, Topeka &Santa Fe. 1869-1900 (Lincoln: University oi N ebraska Press, 1983), Jeffrey Richards a n d John M. MacKenzie, The Railw ay Sta tion-A Social History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), a n d Jam es A W ard, Railroads a n d th e C haracter o iAm erica. 1820-1887 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. 1987). 3. Thomas Schlereth. "Collecting Ideas a n d Artifacts, com m on P roblem s oi History M useum s a n d History Texts," in Artifacts a n d the Am erican Past (Nashville: A m erican Association for State & Local History, 1980), p. 210. 4. Ewen's essay is a review of the book ed ited by Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, a n d Roy Rosenzweig. Presenting the Past: Essays on History a n d the Public (Philadelphia, PA Temple Uni versity Press. 1986). Also see Edith M ayo's review of Presenting the Past, "Anii-Commodifiers in Public History" in Am erican Q uarterly 38, ^5 (W inter 1986): pp. 887-893. Elizabeth Ewen. The M emory Hole," The Nation (13 Septem ber 1986), p. 224. 5. Ibid. p. 225 j, t 4 ( t A rchie G reen, "Industrial Lore: A Bibliographic-Sem antic Query," in Robert H. Byington, ed,, W orkingAm ericans: C ontem poraryA pproaches to O ccupational Folkiiie, Smithsonian Folkliie Studies No. 3 (1978), pp. 96-98. 7. The best analysis of Henry D avid Thoreau a n d the im pact of the railro ad is in Leo Marx, The M achine in the Garden: Technology a n d the Pastoral Ideal, (New York, Oxford University Press, 1964). For a n excellent inteipretation of the sam e id e a through a rt see the catalog, edited by Susan D anlyW alther, The Railroad in the A m erican Landscape: 1850-1950 (M eriden, CT: Welles ley C ollege M useum 1981), to a n exhibit a t The W ellesley College Museum, Wellesley, M assachu setts, 15April-8 June 1981. 8. In O ctober 1987, A m erican House, Inc. featu red a soundscape. in Lima's Town Square by sound sculptor Bill Fontana. He p laced speakers on high buildings n ea r the square a n d one in a n alley to project a stereophonic interpretive re-creation of the p assage of trains. Like the train sounds a t the High Iron exhibit, the soundscape g en erated strong response. Citizens cross ing the street rep eated ly looked both w ays for trains they could h ear but could not see. For a rem iniscence of the passenger's perspective on train travel see H elen Hooven Santmyer, "D ay C oach Dreams, Pullm an Visions," Ohio M agazine 7, #1 (O ctober 1984), pp. 69-78. The article is excerpted from Santm yer's Ohio Town (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1962). 9. O ral history interview by author w ith C.S. Baals, 111 Valleyview Drive, W apakoneta, OH, 14 N ovem ber 1986. For a recent book featuring o ral history interviews w ith railroaders see Stuart Leuthner, The Railroaders, (N ew York: R andom House, 1983). 10. R ailroad historian an d retired Nickel Plate b rak em an John H. Keller explained to the author that roundhouse hostlers p aid little attention to co al u sag e a n d frequently cau sed steam loco motives to sm oke far in excess of engine requirem ents. The excessive smoke regularly blew into ad jacen t neighborhoods. John H. Keller sp eech before the A llen County A rea Agency on Aging in the Barr Hotel, Lima, OH, 24 April 1987, 11. Stilgoe, M etropolitan Corridor p. 3. 12. Jerom e Blattner interview w ith author, A m erican House caboose. Town Square, Lima, OH, 13 Jan u ary 1987. 13. M ary Ann Brown, M ary N iekam p, Phyllis Hopkins (A rgonne Associates), "State-Wide The m atic Study Unit URBAN [for the] City of Lima [on] N ational Register of Historic Places Inventory--N om ination Forms" 5 O ctober 1981. 14. See, "Art W indow Typifies City" Lim a (Sunday) News, 12 D ecem ber 1926, Lima Hust Section, p. 8, a n d "New Lima Thist Bank Is M onument to Builder's Art," sam e section, p. 2. 15. O ne form er Lima resident who rem em bers living in a double house w hile his father w orked at the Lima Locomotive Works is television com m entator Hugh Downs. See his book On Camera: M y 10,000Hours on Television (New York: G.P. Putnam 's Sons, 1986), p. 23. 16. A dditional description of the Irish cottages in Lima is found in Brown, N iekam p, an d Hopkins "State-W ide Them atic Study." Further research w ill clarify the cultural connection. 17. Jim Christoff interview w ith author, 501 ViN orth Findlay Road, Lima, OH, 9 F ebruary 1987. For g en eral inform ation on hoboes see Nels A nderson, The Hobo (Chicago: University of C hicago Press, 1923). For inform ation on hobo signs a n d how hoboes knew w here to find the best handouts see Stan R ichard 8cAssociates, Hobo Signs (N ew York: Barlenm ir House, 1974). Contem porary photographs of hoboes a re in M ichael M athers, R iding the Rails (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974). For scholarly w ork see Lynne M arie A drian, "O rganizing the Rootless: A m erican Hobo Subcul ture. 1893-1932," (A m erican Studies dissertation. University of Iowa, 1984). 18. H erm an Hilty interview w ith author, 9255 Lugabill Road, Blufftoa OH, 12 F ebruary 1987. For additional inform ation on Onion John see R everend Jam es C. W elty interview w ith author, Lima Rescue Home, 216 East W ayne Street, Lima, OH, 17 D ecem ber 1986, a n d historical files on the Rescue Home in the possession of R everend Welty. 19. R ailroad detectives actively cultivated a reputation for toughness w hich b ecam e p art of A m erican folklore. Lima Slim w as the M idwest's version of "Little East Texas Red," a railro ad bull who finally m et his m atch along a Texas railro ad right-of-way, a n d w as im m ortalized by Woody G uthrie a n d Cisco Houston. Listen to the song "Little East Texas Red" on Cisco Houston's album "I Ain't Got No Home," V anguard, VRS 9107. 20. Statistics a re from Ruel Steen's obituary "D eath Claim s C rack Officer," Lim a (OH) News, 10 O ctober 1939, sec. 1, p. 1-4. Also re a d about Steen in "Sack Bandit C aptured in Lima W hen W reck Ends Auto Pursuit," Lim a (O lf) News, 22 April 1939,sec. l.p .l. Because the Erie R ailroad passed through A lger an d McGuffey, OH, Lima Slim also p la y ed a key role in the Scioto M arsh Onion W orkers strike w hen fire m elted a railro ad teleg rap h c a b le a n d d elay ed Erie trains m ore than two hours. For details on the strike see B ernard Stemsher, "Scioto M arsh Onion Workers Strike, H ardin County Ohio, 1934," in Northwest Ohio Q uarterly 58, no. 2-3 (Spring/Sum m er 1986): pp. 39-82. / 21. Studs Terkel, Hard Times: An Oral History o t the G reat Depression (New York: Pocket Books, 1978), p. 58. 22. R.G. M iller interview w ith author, 435 Franklin, Lima, OH, 2 D ecem ber 1986. Also see Frank McRitchie interview w ith author, 829 South Glenw ood Avenue, 2 F ebruary 1987; Frank Catlett interview w ith author, Lima Police Station, 20 M arch 1987; Lester W aggoner interview w ith author. 778 West High, Apt. #1, Lima, OH, 13F ebruary 1987; a n d the previously cited H erm an Hilty interview - 23. John H. Keller telephone interview w ith M arilyn H ellm ann, A ssociate Director, A m erican House, Inc., 13M arch 1987. 24. RUnntaa Larsen, C anteen Chairm an, "Report of AWVS. C anteen of Lima, Ohio, for The Allen County A rchaeological an d Historical Society of Lima," 22 April 1943. O riginal typescript an d related photographs, clippings, a n d other m aterials in the collections of the Elizabeth M. MacDonell M em orial Library, Allen County Historical Society of the A llen County Museum, Lima, OH. 25. Betty Jo Feltz interview w ith author a t the hom e of M ary Porter, 209 North D ale Drive, Lima, OH, 3 M arch 1987. Also see Linn Cummings, "The Lima C anteen," The Keystone 18, #3 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 43-48. 26. Betty Jo Feltz interview. 27. M ary Porter interview w ith author, 209 North D ale Drive, Lima, OH, 3 M arch 1987. 28. Ibid. 29. Jam es C. Welty, Superintendent, Lima R escue Home, letter to M artha M acDonell, Director, A m erican House, Inc., Lima, OH, 6 April 1987. 30. C arl C. Taylor states in his book Rural Sociology: A Study o t Rural Problems (New York: H arper 8cBrothers, 1929), p. 136, "The com ing of the autom obile followed so closely upon the heels of the developm ent of the ru ral electrical transportation systems that w e h av e failed to g rasp the signif ican ce of the electric service to ru ral communities." In addition to Taylor's study, also see the ch ap ter on trolleys a n d interurbans in Stilgoe's M etropolitan Corridor a n d H. Roger Grant, "Interurban." Timeline 3. #2 (April-May. 1986), pp. 14-23. 31. N ancy Moulton interview w ith author, 328 South R osedale, Lima, OH, 2 D ecem ber 1986. For interviews on trolley pranks, see Lester W aggoner interview a n d Betty Jo Feltz interview. 32 John H Keller, in a previously cited talk for the A llen County Agency on Aging, described streetcar strikes in Lima in 1902,1916, a n d 1923. During the 1902 strike, m otorm en w ere ab le to red u ce their w orkday to ten hours a d a y though they w orked seven d ays a week. The strike also resulted in recognition of the union a n d a p a y raise from 12 cents to 16 cents a n hour. For a Pul itzer Prize-winning fictional account of trolley strikes a n d bum s see W illiam Kennedy. Ironweed (New York: Viking Press, 1983). 33. In addition to Eric Hireimaki's LIM A the history, also see Eugene L. Huddleston an d Thomas W. Dixon The A lleg h en y Lima's Finest (Edmonds, WA H undm an Publishing, 1982), M ichael Koch, The Shay Locomotive: Titan o t The Tim ber (Denver: W orld Publishing, 1971), a n d D an R anger Jr.. Pacic CoastShay. Strong M an o t the Woods (San M arino, CA G olden West Books, 1964). 34. Frank C atlett interview. 35. See "First Locomotive is accep ted by French," Lim a (OH) News. 31 July 1945, p. 1. 36. Inform ation on K rueger's fascinating trip is from his daughter. Dorothy Black interview w ith author, 642 Madowk>rook, Lima. OH. 17F ebruary 1987. R.B. Krueger. China Itinerary, personal journal kept during trip to China. 1919-1920 (both in the possession of A m erican House, Inc.). Also see R.B. K rueger "My Hip to China 1919-1920," [to deliver a n d assem ble ten Lima locomotives to the Kin-Han R ailroad], Allen C ounty Reporter. XXIII, #4 (D ecem ber 1966), pp. 63-71. a n d M ary Pannabecker. "Lima m an [R.B. K rueger] 95, reflects on y ears on the railroad." Lim a (OH) News. 17 F ebruary 1980, p. B3. 37. N orm an Pierce interview w ith author a t the Lost C reek County Club, 2409 Lost C reek Boule vard. Lima, OH. 3 D ecem ber 1986. 38 For this ru ral to urban ch an g e in Allen County see Leslie A Floyd. Lima a n d M anufacturing, 1850-1910." A lien CountyR eporterXXXXIII. #2-3 (1987). An excellent national perspective on this e ra is Robert H.W eibe, The Search tor Order. 1877-1920(New York: Hill a n d W ang, 1967). A < i, ' 39. Late a n d Dorothy Riker interview w ith author, A m erican House caboose, Town Square, Lima, OH, 11 D ecem ber 1986. 40 Louis M uiphy interview w ith author, 1490 Arlington Drive, Lima, OH, 3 N ovem ber 1986. N ew spaper headlines stating LOCO GETS THIRTYENGINES could not b e located, but see Loco Gets O rder tor 50 Engines: Millions to b e spent h ere by Railroad," Lim a (OH) News. 25 N ovem ber 1936, sec. 1. p. 1. an d "Lima Loco Books 14-engine order: Large freight type bought by M ar quette," r.frnnr(OH) News. 29 January 1942, sec. 1, p. 1. 41. See the section"M achines fortheR ail" in The M achine A g e (N e w York: Harry N. Abrams, 1986), pp. 136-144, com prehensive catalo g u e for the exhibit "The M achine A ge in A m enca, 1918 1 9 41," shown at The Brooklyn Museum, 17 O ctober 1986-16 F ebruary 1987, M argaret L. Kaplan, Project Director. For inform ation on the Daylights see Richard J. Cook, Super-PowerSteam Loco m otives (San M arino, CA G olden West Books. 1966). Richard J. W right, A m erica's Bicenten nial Q ueen: Engine *4449 "The Lone Survivor" (O akhurst, CA privately printed, 1975), a n d the 1986 feature-length film "Tough Guys", starring Burt Lancaster a n d Kirk Douglas, in w hich two ex cons steal the last o perating Daylight. 42. Robert M urphy interview w ith author a t the Lima T rade Center, 1046 South M ain Street, Lima, OH, 5 N ovem ber 1986. -. 43. Furl W illiams interview w ith author. H all of Justice Building, M arket &Union Streets, Lima, OH, 14Jan u ary 1 9 8 7 .A lso see Eldridge"B ubba" Fields interview w ith author, 1201 South M ain Street, Lima, OH, 24 N ovem ber 1986. 44. John Thomas W ard interview w ith author, 1139 South M ain Street, Lima, OH, 5 F ebruary 1987. 45. John H. Keller interview w ith author, A m erican House caboose. Town Square, Lima, OH, 15 N ovem ber 1986. 46. L ate a n d Dorothy Riker interview. For another interview w ith the son of a bucker a n d riveter see John A dam s interview w ith author, 1045 South Union, Lima, OH, 1D ecem ber 1986. 47. A rchie G reen, "Industrial Lore," p. 98. 48. For a look at the business decision to c e ase m anuiacturing steam locomotives in Lima, see Thomas G. M arx, "Technological C hange a n d the Theory of the Firm: The A m erican Locomotive AIndSuhsotrrytH, 1is9t2o0r-y1o9t5S5t,"eaBmusLinoecsos HmiosttiovreyBRueivldieewrsLin,#thl e(SStperainmgE1r9a76()s:ip:pB. a1s-s2.4I.nAc.,ls1o9s8e2e).John A White, 49. D avid Berger, "Rehab Project--Long R ange Plan: N eighborhood Revitalization Through Home Ownership," Lima, OH, Septem ber. 1985. 50. John H. Keller interview. 51. Business histories of railroads w hich p la ce them in a corporate context include Stew ard H. Holbrook, The Story oiA m erican Railroads (New York: Crown, 1947), Alvin F. Harlow, 7he Road o t the C entury-T he Story o f the N ew York Central (New York: C reative A ge Press, 1947), an d Alfred D. Chandler, The Railroads: The N ation's FirstB ig Business (New York: H arcourt, Brace 8cWorld, 1965). S E L E C TE D B IBL I O G RA PHY "Memory Engines" Oral Histories "M emory Engines" is a grow ing body ot o ral history adm inistered a n d funded by A m erican House, Inc., through grants from the Joint P rogram of the Ohio Arts Council a n d the OMo Humani ties Council. This listing represents only those interview s used for the High Iron exhibits. A lltapereco rd ed interviews a re by A ndrew Gulliford a n d w ere reco rd ed in Lima, Ohio, unless otherw ise stated. "M emory Engines" O ral History tap es a n d transcripts a re in the collections of A m encan House, Inc., an d the Allen County Historical Society, Lima, Ohio. 1. Beehler, Anne. Interview ed at the Lima Trust Building. 11 D ecem ber 1986. 2. B lack Dorothy M. 642 M eadow brook. 17 F ebruary 1987. 3. Blattner, Jerom e. Interview ed a t the A m erican House caboose in Lima s Town Square. 13 Jan uary 1987. 4. Cardosi. Louise. Interviewed a t the hom e oi M ary Porter. 209 North D ale Drive. 3 M arch 1987. 5. Catlett, Frank. Interviewed a t the Lima Police Station. 20 M arch 1987. 6. Christo, Jim. 501H North Findlay Road. 9 F ebruary 1987. 7. a i a Lou. interview edat the Pepsi-Cola-Dr. P epper Bottling Company, 1750 G reely C hapel Road. 12 Jan u ary 1987. 8. Feltz. Betty Jo. Interview ed a t the hom e oi M ary Porter. 2 0 9 North D ale Drive.. 3 M arch 1987. 9. Hilly, Herm an. 9255 Lugabill Road. Bluflton, Ohio. 12 F ebruary 1987. 10 Keller JohnH Multiple inteiviews with both Andrew G ^ o i d a n d M arilyn Hellmann. John Z i d historv consultant to A m erican House. Inc. 11. Keller, Robert. 1683 Jo Jean Road. 16 D ecem ber 1986. 12. McRitchie. Frank. 829 South Glenwood Avenue. 2 F ebruary 1987. 13. M eredith, Richard. Telephone interview w ith M artha MacDonell. 12 M arch 1987. 14. Miller, Robert G. 435 Franklin. 2 D ecem ber 1986. 15. Moulton, Nancy. 328 South Rosedale. 18 D ecem ber 1986. 16. Murphy, Bob. Interview ed a t the Lima T tade Center. 1046 South Main. 5 N ovem ber 1986. 17. Murphy, Louis. 1490 Arlington Drive. 3 N ovem ber 1986. 18. Pierce. Norman. Interview ed at the Lost C reek Country Club. 2409 Lost Creek Boulevard. 3 D ecem ber 1986. 19. Porter, M ary 209 North D ale Drive. 3 M arch 1987. 20. Riker.Lafe a n d Riker. Dorothy, m terview ed a t the A m ericanH ouse caboose in Lima'sTown Square. 11 D ecem ber 1986. 21. Rose, Ben. Telephone interview w ith M arilyn H ellm ann. 12M arch 1987. 22. Shepherd. Vane J. 634 South Dewey. 17 O ctober 1 9 8 6 a n d 3 F ebruary 1987. 23. W aggoner. Lester. 7 7 8 West High Street, Apt. # 1 .13February 1987. 24. W agner. Neil. 10 2 Concord Place. 10N ovem ber 1986. 25. Welty, R everend Jam es. Lima R escue Home. 216 East W ayne Street. 17 D ecem ber 1986. 26. W em er.M elvinP..R.G . Dunn Company. 435 North M ain Street. 6 F ebruary 1987. 27. White, Emil. 3571 H iaw atha. 9 F ebruary 1987. 28. White, Herb. 1395 Amherst Road. Crideisville. Ohio. 1 3 F ebruary 1987. 29. Williams. Furl. Interviewed in the H all ofJustice Building. M arket &Union Streets. 14January by Dorothy Black. 3 Lima Locomotive &M achine Company. Lima Locomotives--C atalogs No. 14 & 15Various dates. (Num erous catalogs w ith varying num bers. Also in French a n d Spanish) Collections ot the A llen County Historical Society; L im a Ohio. A . j A ' Shay Patent a n d Direct Locomotives. C atalog ca. 1900. R eprinted ed. Parson. WV; M cClain Printing Company, 1971 5. Lima Locomotive Works,Lima Super-Power Steam Locomotives, 1946. Collections of the Allen County Historical Society, Lima, Ohio. 6 ________ Photographic Im pressions oi Lima Locomotive Works, Inc. 24-page public rela tions piece. New York: G.M. Bassiord Com pany Advertising, s.d. 7 Lima, Ohio. Allen County Museum. Elizabeth M. M acDonell M em orial U braiy. Ellouise Baker Larsen. "Report oi AW.VS. C anteen of Lima, Ohio for the A llen County A rchaeological a n d Itetoricai Society of Lima," 22 April 1943. Also see A m erican W omen s Voluntary Services. Inc. Collec tion w hich includes photographs, scrapbooks, clippings, etc. 8 Lima, Ohio. Allen County Museum. John H. Keller R ailroad Collection. Hoffmcm. Louis J. The Lima Locomotive Works Incorporated." Typewritten. Lima, Ohio. 13 February, 1933. 9 Lima, Ohio. Allen County Museum. John H. Keller R ailroad Collection. Robinson, H arry ! "Historical D ata-L im a Locomotive Works. Its Predecessors a n d Lima A rea P enod 1869-1909. 10 Welty. Reverend Jam es C. File, articles, a n d historic new spaper clippings on tte Lima Rescue Home started by A dam W elty in 1904. File in the possession of R everend Jam es C. Welty. Lima, Ohio. Books 1. Anderson, Nels. The Hobo. Chicago: University of C hicago Press, 1923. 2. Botkin, Benjamin A, an d Harlow. Alvin. A Treasury o i RaUroad Folklore. New York: Crown, 1953. 3. Burkhardt, Franklin A The Experiences o i a Lim a Ticket A gent in the G ay Nineties. Lima, OH: A llen County Historical Society, 1946. 4. Carnes. John R., ed. The 1976 History o iA llen C ounty Ohio. Evansville, IN: U nigraphic, Inc., 1976. 5. C hristiansea Harry. Ohio Trolley Trails Through W estern a n d Central Ohio. Vol. 1in Ohio Series. Cleveland: Privately printed, 1971. 6. Church. R.J. Those D aylight 4-8-4's. The Story o i the Southern PacMc's GS Class Locomotives. O m aha, NE: Kratville Publications, 1966. 7. Cook. Richard J. Super-Power Steam Locomotives. San M arino, CA G olden West Books. 1966. 8. Cottrell, W.F. The Railroader. Stanford, CA Stanford University Press, 1940. 9. Gamst. F rederick C. TheH oghead. New York: Rinehart, Winston, 1983. 10. Hirsimaki, Eric. LIMA the history. Edmonds, WA H undm an Publishing, 1986. 11. Huddleston, Eugene L, a n d Dixon, Thomas W. The Allegheny: Lima's Finest. Edmonds, WA H undm an Publishing, 1982. 12. Koch, M ichael. The Shay Locomotive: Titan o i the Timber. Denver: W orld Publishing, 1971. 13. Ranger. Dan, Jr. Pacic Coast Shay: Strong M an o i the Woods. San M arino, CA G olden West Books, 1964. 14. Rehor, JohnA The N ickel Plate Story M ilwaukee, WI: K alm bach Publishing, 1965. 15. Reinhardt. Richard. W orkin'O n The Railroad. Palo Alto. CA A m erican West Publishing, 1970. 16. Richard, Stan &Associates. Hobo Signs. New York: Barlenm ir House, 1974. 17. Stilgoe, John R. M etropolitan Corridor: Railroads a n d the Am erican Scene. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983. 18. TerkeL Studs. Hard Times: An Oral History o f the G reat Depression. New York: Pocket Books. 1978. 19. W alther, Susan Danly The Railroad in the Am erican Landscape: 1850-1950. Exhibit catalog. The W ellesley College Museum, Jew ett Arts Center, Wellesley, M assachusetts. Exhibited from April 15-June 8,1981. 20. W eitzman. David. Superpow er. Boston: D avid R. Godine, 1987. Newspapers/Periodicals 1. A lborough, Bill. ed. "Sugar Steam TEFS" (To Everyw here for Steam ). S pecial report on "Steam in Paradise" Easier 1986 tour to see Shcrys in the Philippines. TEFS Travel Service, Q uom . England, LE 12 8AX. (Summer, 1986). , 2. Bixel, Jam es. "Bluttton w as soft touch tor railro ad during d ay s of the g reat depression.' The Bluitton (OH) News, 28 D ecem ber 1972, sec. 2, P age 7. 3. "C. 8cO. 'A llegheny' Locomotives First of 2-6-6-6 Type." R ailw ay Age. 1 1 2 . #10 (7 M arch 1942). pp. 478-482. 4. Cummings. Linn. "The Lima Canteen." The Keystone. 18. #3 (Autumn. 1985). pp. 43-48. 5. Davis, Earle. "60 Years of Lima Locomotives." RaU roadM agazine. (D ecem ber. 1939). pp. 6-27. 6. "D eath Claims C rack Officer." Lim a (OH) News, lO O ctober 1939.sec. l.p p . 1-4. 7. "20 Locomotives O rdered: Lima plant to start a t once officials say." Lima (OH) News. 23 D ecem ber 1927, sec. 1, p. 1 8 "First Lima Locomotive is accep ted by French." Lim a (OH) News, 31 July 1945. p. 1. Studies No. 3 (1978): pp. 71-102. 11. G rant. H. Roger. "Interurban." Timeline. Columbus. OH: Ohio Historical Society. 3, #2 (AprilMay. 1986). pp. 14-23. ' 12 K rueger R B "My Trip to China 1919-1920," [to deliver an d assem ble te n jim a lo c o m o h ^ to the H n-Han R ailroad].Alien County Reporter. Lima. Ohio: Allen County Histoncal Society. XXIII. #4 (Decem ber. 1966). pp. 63-71. 13. "Loco Gets O rder for 50 Engines: Millions to b e spent h ere by Railroad." Lima (OH) News. 25 N ovem ber 1936,sec. l.p . 1. 14. "Lima Loco books 14-engine order: Large freight type bought by M arquette." Lim a (OH) News. 29 Jan u ary 1942, sec. 1, p. 1. 15. M ansfield. Drummond. "M emories of the Road." Am erican History Illustrated. XXI. #10 (Feb ruary. 1987), pp. 34-41. Administration. L, #1 (Spring, 1976): pp. 1-24. 17. Pannabecker. Mary. "Lima m an(R . B. K rueger) 95. reflects o n y ears on the railroad." Lima (OH) News, 17F ebruary 1980. p. 83. 18. "Sack Bandit C aptured in Lima W hen W reck Ends Auto Pursuit." Lim a (OH) News. 22 April 1939,sec. l.p . 1. 19. Steiner. Fred. ed. "A LookB ackat our Interurban Railway: 50 Years After the W estern Ohio Railw ay 1932-1982." The Bluitton News, 24 D ecem ber 1981, Section two. 20. Ziel. Ron. "Final W anderings of the G.l. 2-8-0's." Locomotive &R ailw ay Preservation. 1, #4 (Sept.-O d. 1986): pp. 42-48.