The old B&O depot with its oil lamps, pot-bellied stove and hard seats. It was a big depot and a busy one. There were two large waiting rooms, a ticket and telegraph office in between. One end of the telegraph office was used by the Wabash and the stop was known as the Defiance Juction. At the west end was the baggage room where Ed Murphy held forth. Ed was not only an expert baggage man but a philosopher as well. He was one of Father Kincaid's boys, a local Catholic Priest whose admonitions led many a boy to sign the pledge. Ed never took a drink of intoxicating liquor in his life.
The station was a big frame structure with a slate roof. Back of the depot building was a United States Express office where as high as 14 men were employed. The freight house had a crew of 17. Most were students, boys just out of school.
There were plenty of trains those days. Both railroads operated passenger trains that stopped at all points, as well as fast trains. There was a big immigrant business and many cars changed for western points. The Wabash frequently had a string of Santa Fe tourist cars shunted on a siding across from the B&O depot. Each immigrant carried a bed tick and in that tick were his worldly possessions. He was tagged as to where he was going. These were the people who built up the great empire of the west.
Sunday afternoons folks used to go to the B&O Depot to see the sights There were trains, immigrants, hoboes, and and Police Lt. Dan Shea in the mildst of all preserving peace and order and giving information. Lt. Shea was a typical Chicago-type Irish policeman of that period.
It wasn't the depot so much that was an attraction as the immediate neighborhood. At one time there were nine liquor places, a Chinese laundry, three houses of ill repute, a fire department, (the clipper Hose co., with a hand drawn hose reel)ma cell block in the rear of the city's ward building where hoboes were kept over night and fed in the morning a good steaming bowl of hot soup, because that was the day of the railroad hobo, an eccentric lot never committed serious crimes but would not work and traveled from place to place in freight cars, and on brake beams under cars.
Across from the depot was the Junction House which started as a hostelry and end up sort of a brothel. It was a tough place. One night a battle took place that would have been a credit to a Central American revolution. The entire police force of four men and the chief were engaged. They reached the scene in a street car. The street car line terminated at the south end of Harrison Ave. and received quite a patronage from the depot.
The battle started about 9 pm and lasted until about 2 am when the police route the defenders who ran down the B&O tracks to the old Marshall hoop mill (now the Farmer Co-Operative). Here they made a brief stand but were driven out probably because of lack of ammunition. Many shots were fired and one of the occupants of the saloon who attempted to cross the tracks was shot in the sitter. Jim Montgomery, B&O fright agent, who was working at night had a close call. A bullet bored into the window sash,about two inches from his head.
There was a barber shop, and also a restaurant. The restaurant served meals that would make folks today green with envy. You could buy a whole pie for 20 cents. And it was a pie both in taste and size.
For a long time the B&O double tracks end in East Defiance and at Sherwood, with the result that there was always a congestion in the local yards. One day there was as high as 14 locomotives in the yards.
Police officers were kept on duty 24 hours a day at the old B&O depot. Many Chicago and Toledo thugs made some of the places in the immediate vicinity a hang out.
That was the day of the horse drawn buses. The Crosby Hotel, Cunningham Hotel and Hotel Wayne each had a bus that met the passenger trains and the drivers would line up and call out their hotel and bus. Sometimes they would yell "bus to any part of the city", at other times "Crosby Hotel bus." The competition became so spirited that the railroad company placed a wire in the wooden platform and the bus men were not allowed to step over the wire.
Folks in the neighborhood of the B&O depot lived high on oysters. The B&O ran wht was called the "oyster train." It was a solid express train of oysters in wooden buckets at this point from eight to a dozen platform trucks loads were transferred every day to the Wabash. They were iced here and one of the peculiar things is that in the icing process the buckets overflowed but hardy any water ever ran over, but oysters instead. For 15 cents you could go to the "proper" persons and get all the oysters you wanted. Frequently consignees would refuse a shipment of oysters, then the Express Company was ordered to sell them.
Whiskey was shipped in oak barrels. The rear end of the freight platform was quite high above, the sloping ground and there were a few vagrants who liked their liquor straight. They used to crawl under the platform, bore a hole in the barrel get a swig and then plug the hole.
When the Baltimore and Ohio elevated their tracks through Defiance, built over-passes or viaducts, and erected a new depot on Clinton street and the freight house east of it, all changed.Today the site of all the activity is vacant. The land is on the east side of Deatrick street. between the two railroads and the fast freights whiz by at 40 and 50 miles an hour.
The Junction House is gone, the barber shop is gone, the good old time restaurant is gone.
Much of the switching has been transferred to east of Defiance so as not to block streets. Time marches on and scenes change!
Lloyd Tuttle
The station was a big frame structure with a slate roof. Back of the depot building was a United States Express office where as high as 14 men were employed. The freight house had a crew of 17. Most were students, boys just out of school.
There were plenty of trains those days. Both railroads operated passenger trains that stopped at all points, as well as fast trains. There was a big immigrant business and many cars changed for western points. The Wabash frequently had a string of Santa Fe tourist cars shunted on a siding across from the B&O depot. Each immigrant carried a bed tick and in that tick were his worldly possessions. He was tagged as to where he was going. These were the people who built up the great empire of the west.
Sunday afternoons folks used to go to the B&O Depot to see the sights There were trains, immigrants, hoboes, and and Police Lt. Dan Shea in the mildst of all preserving peace and order and giving information. Lt. Shea was a typical Chicago-type Irish policeman of that period.
It wasn't the depot so much that was an attraction as the immediate neighborhood. At one time there were nine liquor places, a Chinese laundry, three houses of ill repute, a fire department, (the clipper Hose co., with a hand drawn hose reel)ma cell block in the rear of the city's ward building where hoboes were kept over night and fed in the morning a good steaming bowl of hot soup, because that was the day of the railroad hobo, an eccentric lot never committed serious crimes but would not work and traveled from place to place in freight cars, and on brake beams under cars.
Across from the depot was the Junction House which started as a hostelry and end up sort of a brothel. It was a tough place. One night a battle took place that would have been a credit to a Central American revolution. The entire police force of four men and the chief were engaged. They reached the scene in a street car. The street car line terminated at the south end of Harrison Ave. and received quite a patronage from the depot.
The battle started about 9 pm and lasted until about 2 am when the police route the defenders who ran down the B&O tracks to the old Marshall hoop mill (now the Farmer Co-Operative). Here they made a brief stand but were driven out probably because of lack of ammunition. Many shots were fired and one of the occupants of the saloon who attempted to cross the tracks was shot in the sitter. Jim Montgomery, B&O fright agent, who was working at night had a close call. A bullet bored into the window sash,about two inches from his head.
There was a barber shop, and also a restaurant. The restaurant served meals that would make folks today green with envy. You could buy a whole pie for 20 cents. And it was a pie both in taste and size.
For a long time the B&O double tracks end in East Defiance and at Sherwood, with the result that there was always a congestion in the local yards. One day there was as high as 14 locomotives in the yards.
Police officers were kept on duty 24 hours a day at the old B&O depot. Many Chicago and Toledo thugs made some of the places in the immediate vicinity a hang out.
That was the day of the horse drawn buses. The Crosby Hotel, Cunningham Hotel and Hotel Wayne each had a bus that met the passenger trains and the drivers would line up and call out their hotel and bus. Sometimes they would yell "bus to any part of the city", at other times "Crosby Hotel bus." The competition became so spirited that the railroad company placed a wire in the wooden platform and the bus men were not allowed to step over the wire.
Folks in the neighborhood of the B&O depot lived high on oysters. The B&O ran wht was called the "oyster train." It was a solid express train of oysters in wooden buckets at this point from eight to a dozen platform trucks loads were transferred every day to the Wabash. They were iced here and one of the peculiar things is that in the icing process the buckets overflowed but hardy any water ever ran over, but oysters instead. For 15 cents you could go to the "proper" persons and get all the oysters you wanted. Frequently consignees would refuse a shipment of oysters, then the Express Company was ordered to sell them.
Whiskey was shipped in oak barrels. The rear end of the freight platform was quite high above, the sloping ground and there were a few vagrants who liked their liquor straight. They used to crawl under the platform, bore a hole in the barrel get a swig and then plug the hole.
When the Baltimore and Ohio elevated their tracks through Defiance, built over-passes or viaducts, and erected a new depot on Clinton street and the freight house east of it, all changed.Today the site of all the activity is vacant. The land is on the east side of Deatrick street. between the two railroads and the fast freights whiz by at 40 and 50 miles an hour.
The Junction House is gone, the barber shop is gone, the good old time restaurant is gone.
Much of the switching has been transferred to east of Defiance so as not to block streets. Time marches on and scenes change!
Lloyd Tuttle
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