| Oxen Tram |
The history of Paulding County railroad and of the old Noble stone quarry near Charloe, are closely interwoven.
Paulding county first railroad was about a mile in length and extended from the stone quarry on the Auglaize river, at what is now known as the Frank Eakins farm, to the old Miami & Erie canal.
Cross-ties and rails were both made from native timber. The old grade is the only reminder that, is now Brown township, has the distinction of having the first railroad built in Paulding county.
Oxen furnished the motive power. Small cars were used for the purpose of transporting stone from the Noble Quarry to the stone dock on the canal. L.M. Wolff was said to have been the first engineer on this railroad. The cars would carry from four to five cords of stone.
The stone quarried was fine magnesia limestone. A James Bobnmyer worked in the Noble Quarry and in the one at Junction for 22 years. Bobnmyer tells that the stones was quarried in strips from 60 to 70 feet in length and sawed into proper lengths for orders received, loaded on the team cars, taken to the canal and reloaded on canal boats and shipped.
These stones strips were quarried by drilling holes at regular intervals and then the whole mass loosened by driving wedges into the holes. The stones taken from this quarry was used in the erection of many fine building at that time. Large shipments were made to Fort Wayne and Toledo. The fancy stones in the present court house at Defiance was taken from this quarry.
In 1866 the quarry was sold to Thomas Nolan, William Christ and Henry Waggison. these Men built a stone saw mill at the stone dock and all stone was than dressed there ready for use.
Later the stone mill was turned into a stave mill which was dismantled when stave making in Charloe became unprofitable.
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