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Even before the SBM&N project collapsed for the first time, Monroeville had already welcomed its first operational electric interurban. The contrast between the SBM&N and the TF&N could not be more pronounced. Both companies were formally organized in late 1899. Over the following two years the SBM&N performed several miles of grading, put down a few short stretches of Indestructible Roadbed and rails, and partially constructed an empty power house. In the same time span the TF&N built 60 miles of high quality track, a state of the art power plant, car shops, substations, and had more than a dozen cars in operation. Historian Dennis Lamont described it as "the difference between smoke and mirrors and nuts and bolts." While the TF&N's entry to Monroeville was not without obstacles, the company possessed both the finances and the will to push through to their ultimate goal. On April 9, 1899, five months before the company was formally incorporated, president Samuel Angus and attorney Henry Haigh visited Norwalk and Monroeville inspecting possible routes and locations. One month later they requested a franchise from Huron County to lay their track along the "prairie road" (present US20) between Bellevue and Monroeville. Rude and Graham immediately filed a protest, claiming it would interfere with their own franchise on that road. Although the county eventually ruled in favor of the TF&N, later developments would render the decision moot. On May 17, 1899, Angus and Haigh requested a franchise from the village of Monroeville. Three routes were under consideration: the first would enter on Monroe Street to the center of town, turn south on Main Street, cross the river and on to Norwalk Street; the second option would enter on Sandusky Street, again following Main and Norwalk Streets; the third option would enter via the Bellevue road or a short section of private right-of-way, run south on Ridge Street, cross the steam railroads and the river, before joining Norwalk Street at "Cone's crossing." All three routes required the TF&N to build their own bridge across the Huron River. The road bridge on Main Street was then sixty-two years old and not remotely capable of supporting heavy interurban cars. (In fact, it was replaced with a steel bridge in 1910 after a portion collapsed under the weight of a steam-powered traction engine pulling a wagon-load of stone.) The village council made no immediate decision on the franchise, taking time to consider all questions and options. In fact, it appears that little to no action was taken by either party over the following year. Matters regarding the SBM&N occupied the council, while TF&N officials became mired in franchise negotiations at Bellevue. With that dispute finally settled in July 1900, attention returned to the unresolved Monroeville situation. The council convened a special session on the evening of July 30, 1900, but quickly came to loggerheads with the railway. The requested route on Ridge Street was rejected for unspecified reasons, possibly at the behest of the SBM&N. The use of Main Street was also denied, as the SBM&N had already laid track on that thoroughfare and council was opposed to having two tracks. Furthermore, the council insisted that only girder rails should be used in town. The TF&N had used T rails throughout their line and balked at the idea of making special expenditures to satisfy the demands of a small village council. (It is unclear if the SBM&N had been required to use girder rails.) Certainly Angus and Haigh had no desire to become involved in yet another protracted conflict, and promptly began investigating a route over private right-of-way as a means of side-stepping both the protests of the SBM&N and the need for a franchise altogether. By September the company began purchasing property in Monroeville. The "prairie road" was abandoned in favor of a right-of-way parallel to the LS&MS and W&LE. Upon reaching Monroeville, the route crossed Monroe and Ridge streets, the B&O railroad, the Huron River, to "Cone's crossing" on Main Street, and then private property alongside Norwalk Street in front of Riverside Cemetery. Acquiring the property necessitated a condemnation suit against seventeen property owners and the B&O. The suit was settled and deeds were filed on October 10, 1900. A newspaper reported at the time that the TF&N would build a waiting station at Cone's crossing (later LSE stop 207), which may have been a stipulation of the settlement with the Cone family. (If the waiting station was ever built it would certainly have been of the small wooden type seen elsewhere along the LSE, although it is absent from subsequent right-of-way maps.) In all, purchasing the private right-of-way cost the TF&N an additional $25,000 (equivalent to over $635,000 in 2019), but prevented further delays in construction and allowed a faster running time for the cars. With right-of-way acquired, a crew of 80 men was quickly put to work grading roadbed and laying tracks east from Bellevue. By October 25, the rails were within two miles of the Monroeville limits. A substation, which also included a ticket office and waiting room, was located at the crossing of the B&O on Ridge Street. The 25 foot by 50 foot brick structure was finished by December 4 at a cost of $3,000. The electrical equipment arrived two days later and cost an additional $17,000. This consisted of three 150 kilowatt step-down transformers and two Westinghouse 200 kilowatt rotary converters to change the 15,000 volt alternating current from the Fremont power-plant to 650 volt direct current to power the cars, as well as the large switchboard, circuit breakers, and other various apparatus. The transformers were originally located in a small basement at the rear of the building, as evidenced by windows in either side of the foundation. A house adjacent to the substation was purchased from Ann Moore for $800 and repurposed as the station operator's residence. Later a lunch room was added to the side of the house, catering to passengers, railway employees, and other locals. Irving H. Williams, a native of North Monroeville, was given the job of station operator and ticket agent. The TF&N was determined to complete their work as quickly as possible and were apparently unconcerned about stepping on some toes to accomplish their goal. Monroeville's street committee was displeased that the railway had laid tracks across village streets without requesting permission; a dispute arose with the B&O railroad over crossing that company's tracks; and the Huron Telephone Company was angered when their poles were cut down by TF&N crews. Railway officials were able to placate the street committee, an agreement was reached with the B&O, and restitution was soon made to the telephone company. The first TF&N car to Monroeville arrived at the station on Wednesday, January 9, 1901. Hourly service began the next day, albeit with some temporary limitations. With no wye or loop at Monroeville on which to turn the single-ended cars, the company opted for a shuttle service, running the car backwards ten miles to Bellevue where passengers transferred to other cars for points further west. The first timecard for Monroeville, issued January 12, gives the following schedule: The first car departed Monroeville at 6:40 a.m., arriving in Bellevue at 7:05. At 7:10 it departed again, arriving back in Monroeville at 7:35. This schedule repeated hourly until 6:45 p.m. when there was an unexplained three hour suspension of service. A final round trip departed Monroeville at 9:45 p.m. and returned at 11:35. The sedate 24 mph average speed was presumably necessary due to the awkward backing run, and the shuttle car evidently laid over at Monroeville for the night. The fare from Monroeville to Bellevue was 10¢, and 75¢ to Toledo. Round trip tickets cost double, but a promotional round trip fare of $1.00 to Toledo was offered that first weekend of service and again for the weekend of January 26. The Monroeville substation was not yet online, so power for the shuttle was supplied from Bellevue. The Norwalk Reflector reported that the substation was finally powered up on Saturday, February 2, and performed well throughout the weekend until adjustments to the rotary converters required they be shut down on Monday. Presumably the adjustments were made promptly and they were soon back in service. Even before the first cars rolled into Monroeville attention had turned to the Huron River bridge. A contract was let to the Massillon Bridge Co. on November 26, 1900 to build the 292 foot long structure, consisting of two 76 foot deck plate girder spans and a single 140 foot deck truss span. Italian laborers began working seven days a week pouring the concrete abutments and piers. Hoisting machinery arrived in late March and the spans were soon lifted into place. During the week of April 11 the bridge spans were topped with notched oak ties and rails. The ironwork came to a total weight of 85 tons, was capable of supporting a train of 40-ton cars, and cost $22,000. The TF&N formally accepted the finished bridge on April 24, 1901, but construction trains and cars of local officials on inspection tours had already been rolling over the bridge for nearly two weeks. Regular hourly service to and from Norwalk began on the morning of May 1 and the Monroeville-Bellevue shuttle was finally dispensed with. The TF&N was essentially complete. Within weeks the Everett-Moore syndicate began negotiations with the Comstocks to purchase the railway. Consolidating Power Everett-Moore's purchase of the TF&N and the creation of the Lake Shore Electric had little immediate effect on Monroeville, but the village did figure in one pressing concern for the new company. While the TF&N had been built with an AC powerhouse supplying substations along the line, the other individual railways which made up the LSE all operated DC power-plants at Beach Park, Sandusky, and Milan, none of which could reliably power the new section between Lorain and Norwalk. The power system itself was in dire need of consolidation and streamlining. The Beach Park power-plant would continue to supply the Cleveland division from Rocky River to Lorain, while power from Fremont would replace the Sandusky and Milan plants and thus power the rest of the railway. One step in accomplishing this was to string a high voltage AC transmission line from the Monroeville substation to Ceylon Junction. Interestingly, this new transmission line was not built along the track as was typical practice. The private right-of-way the TF&N had purchased in the fall of 1900 actually included property that paralleled the W&LE all the way to Norwalk. Exactly why the TF&N did not build their line on this route is unclear, but there were several possible reasons. Most significantly is the expensive fill and bridging that would have been required to cross the wide gorge of the Huron River at this location. A much smaller bridge could be utilized where the Norwalk Road crossed the river. Additionally, the TF&N had already been granted a franchise along the road by the county in 1899. Entering Norwalk alongside the W&LE would have required an additional franchise from the Norwalk council, but using the road required only a traffic agreement with the Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk Railway. While the TF&N did not use this private right-of-way in 1901, the plan to eventually build a "cut-off" route remained. LSE leadership, which included ex-TF&N manager Furman Stout, intended to build a track here to allow faster running of the high speed limited stop service. Local cars would continue using the Norwalk Road. But the plan was never put into effect and no track was ever laid on the route. Everett-Moore's "financial embarrassment" of 1902 and the bankers' control of the LSE almost certainly put it on the back burner, where it remained behind other construction priorities over the next several years, and was then rendered somewhat redundant by the opening of the Sandusky-Fremont line in 1907. In the meantime, the "cut-off" property provided a convenient route for the power line, which was run from the Monroeville substation to near the east branch of the Huron River. From there it turned generally north following present-day Drake and Hill Roads to a point just south of Milan (in order to supply the substation that would soon replace the Milan power-plant) then east along the Erie-Huron County line to near stop 171, on present-day State Route 61, where it rejoined the LSE track. The transmission line was completed to this point by January 11, 1902, but apparently delayed by the LSE receivership proceedings. It was finally completed to Ceylon Junction the first week of August and the power began flowing August 7. Dairy Business The agricultural surroundings that had made Monroeville a grain industry hub naturally included a great deal of dairy farming. At the same time that the interurbans were being created, a local company was organized to take advantage of this output. The Star Creamery Company Limited was formed in early 1899 by members of the Erf family, well respected farmers of Peru and Lyme Townships. They erected a creamery building on South Ridge Street in front of the E.J. Baker Flour Mills, a location presumably chosen for its proximity to Monroeville's railroads. Within a few years, however, the interurban would prove far more important to their business. The creamery opened April 24, 1899, and received over one thousand pounds of milk the first day. Business grew rapidly and in July 1905 the company was re-organized and incorporated by William Erf, his younger brother Louis, their brother-in-law August Horn, William Wolf, and Edward Mowry. The elder Erf brother served as president and director, the younger as a director, Mowry as manager, and Uriah Eckhart as treasurer. The Erf's youngest brother, Oscar, had briefly served as manager in 1903 but soon went on to bigger things, becoming the first dairy science professor at Ohio State University in 1907 and a well-known expert in the field. In its June 17, 1909 edition, the Norwalk Reflector reported on the virtues of the Star Creamery and how machinery and interurbans had revolutionized the dairy business. Instead of letting the milk stand for the cream to rise, and then churning it, which was a good deal of work and trouble, the up-to-date farmer buys a separator, and as soon as he is through milking he puts the milk into the machine and in a few minutes has all of the butter fat out of the milk. Then he steps to the road side and places the cans of cream on the trolley car and ships them to a creamery.Butter fat was being shipped from Plymouth, North Fairfield and Chicago Junction via the Sandusky, Norwalk & Mansfield Electric Railway, and from Vermilion, Sandusky, and near Fremont via the LSE. A 1911 article reported that the Star Creamery was buying nearly all the butter fat produced in Huron County, and that the majority of butter and bread consumed in Norwalk came from the Star Creamery and the Heyman Milling Co. That the Star Creamery was so highly-regarded and had such voluminous output in these years makes its sudden failure all the more surprising. The factory at Monroeville was abruptly shuttered for unknown reasons sometime in the middle of 1912. In November the Farmer's and Citizen's Banking Co. of Monroeville, the creamery's largest creditor, petitioned the federal court in Toledo to declare the company bankrupt, which it did. A few months later the building was sold to pay the creditors. But the dairy business in Monroeville wasn't finished. In January 1914 the building was purchased by Carl H. Beyer, a creamery manager from Grove City, Ohio. Beyer moved his family to Monroeville and quickly set about installing new machinery. The name Star Creamery was retained in the beginning, but was soon changed to the Monroeville Creamery Co. Business was booming again by July. Demand for butter exceeded the plant's output, and Mr. Beyer was looking to secure an increased supply of milk. The new company continued to grow and attracted significant attention in the industry. In December 1918 it was announced that the Monroeville Creamery Co. was being merged with the Telling-Belle-Vernon Co. of Cleveland, the largest manufacturer of dairy products in the country at that time. Beyer continued as manager under the new company, as did his assistant, Bernard Myers. In addition to the creamery building, Telling-Belle-Vernon acquired the property between the creamery and the LSE tracks, including the lots along the edge of the river. On the latter they built a small depot and platform next to the LSE tracks so that milk cans could be easily loaded onto and from LSE freight cars. This wasn't the only relationship between the LSE and the Monroeville Creamery Co. Monroeville resident and LSE motorman Harvey Desler worked for the creamery as an ice cream maker after serving in World War I, before returning to the LSE. Former motorman and night substation operator Benjamin Snyder also worked for the creamery by 1920. (More about Benjamin Snyder on page three.) Early in 1919 the company announced their intention to build a condensing plant next to the creamery at a cost of $100,000. Milk could be condensed at Monroeville for easy and economical shipment to Cleveland for use in making ice cream. In February 1920 Monroeville's fledgling chamber of commerce arranged a meeting at which a representative of Telling-Belle-Vernon and the county agricultural agent both implored local farmers to support the proposed condensery by committing to deliver a certain minimum amount of milk each month. Indications are that the farmers had some reservations, however, and soon the national economy fell into the depression of 1920-21. Whatever the exact reasons, Telling-Belle-Vernon's plans for Monroeville were scrapped early in 1921. Not only was the condensing plant not built, but the creamery itself was shut down in April. The machinery was removed and sent to Cleveland, but the building was retained for cold storage. Locally produced milk was still received here and loaded on LSE cars for Cleveland at the small trackside depot, but never again in the quantities that had been handled before 1920. Carl Beyer and Bernard Myers, having already resigned their positions with Telling-Belle-Vernon, took up operation of the Norwalk Dairy Co. 
   
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with the village council led them to purchase a private right-of-way and bypass Monroeville's streets entirely. (Drew Penfield) |
village council's demand for girder rails and opposition to a franchise on Main Street. (Norwalk Reflector) |
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chase property, the TF&N was determined to finish their line. (Norwalk Reflector) |
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The W&LE, and later the TF&N, crossed South Main Street just north of the home. (Picturesque Huron County) |
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by the TF&N in 1900. (Jim Mihalek) |
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in 1901. It was 292 feet overall and consisted of two deck girder and one deck truss span. (Ralph H. Sayles photo) |
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LSE, spanning the west corporation line to east of the river. (Dennis Lamont) |
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side of the Huron River to the east corporation line. (Dennis Lamont) |
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bridge in the spring of 1901. (Dennis Lamont) |
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Stout (second from left) and other company officials making an inspection tour of some type on car 18 in 1901. (Dennis Lamont) |
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to the rotary converters inside the Monroeville substation. (Dennis Lamont) |
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above, this time with Irv Williams posed at the switchbaord. (Dennis Lamont) |
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of the TF&N on May 1, 1901. (Norwalk Reflector) |
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Everett-Moore syndicate began negotiations to buy the line. Amusingly, the same column announced that the village council had grant- ed the essentially immaterial SBM&N yet another franchise extension. (Norwalk Reflector) |
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Huron River east branch on the proposed "cut-off" route between Monroeville and Norwalk. (Picturesque Huron County) |
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as well as the proposed "cut-off" route and the AC transmission line to Milan and Ceylon Junction. (Richard Egan) |
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photos of the original AC transmission line from Monroeville to stop 171, built in 1902 over the "cut-off" route. (Ralph H. Sayles photo) |
as a result of the strong, reliable power provided by the new Monroeville to Ceylon Junction power line. (Norwalk Reflector) |
Township and a founder and director of the Star Creamery Co. from 1905-1912. (Drew Penfield) |
(Dennis Lamont) |
Star Creamery Co. was declared bankrupt by federal court in November 1912. (Norwalk Reflector) |
January 1914 and was back in full operation by that spring. (Norwalk Reflector-Herald) |
German-born dairyman who had previously managed a creamery at Grove City, Ohio. (Mary T. Beyer) |
Carl Beyer had improved the factory and increased business. (Mary T. Beyer) |
served at the "Interurban Stand" inside the LSE's Sandusky station. (Sandusky Star-Journal) |
into the Telling-Belle-Vernon Co. in December 1918. (Norwalk Reflector-Herald) |
and (left to right) the Commercial Flour Mill, Monroeville Creamery Co., milk depot, and LSE substation. (Ralph H. Sayles photo) |
showing the old creamery building and the trackside milk depot. (Drew Penfield) |
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