Photo: Nickel Plate Livestock Cars
Photo: Nickel Plate Livestock Cars
Photo from the Nickel Plate Historical & Technical Society:
https://archive.nkphts.org/object/13379-clover-leaf-depot-matlinta-oh-stock-cars
Caption:
Clover Leaf Depot Matlinta OH Stock Cars
Possibly the trucks belonged to the Brown & Pohlman company.
An interview with the granddaughter of Henry F. Pohlman recorded by the Henry County Historical Society included these notes about how her grandfather got started in farming and ranching:
“He cleared the land. Of course, that was Black Swamp and as he cleared it he grew cattle and built barns, and he went out of the butcher business into the farming and livestock. He met with a pioneer in this area called Jacob Brown and they became Brown & Pohlman, livestock buyers. They would go around and buy cattle; then over the weekend they’d hire high-school kids to help them They’d drive these cattle to Napoleon on the road. Of course, the kids would come ahead and block the side roads so the cattle could come straight into town. They had a difficult time getting them across the bridge because of the vibration on the bridge. They would drive them thru town to the stockyards.
Interviewer: Where was your stockyard?
It was on the railroad approximately where the VFW is now on the Wabash RR, and they also had a place in Malinta where the Nickel Plate RR is now. That’s where they would weigh the cattle, pay for them and ship ’em out by rail, usually to Buffalo or New York.
Interviewer: Not to Chicago?
No. They’d go east-more population, less agriculture.”
Bob Chaparro
Moderator
Railway Bull Shippers Group