Railroads Play Major Role in County Growth

A history of railroads through Paulding County. An early attempt at a line failed for nearly ten years before young railroad man Calvin S. Brice (later a U.S. Senator) resurrected it in 1881, completing construction through the county that September — the line that became the Nickel Plate. One skeptical old settler, watching construction, is quoted: “This ‘ere road will never be built.” By 1892 the line was valued at $200,000, and the American Midland/Mahoning line was graded through the southern part of the county the same year.

Much of the article is told through Keith McCullough, station agent at Payne (the only remaining staffed station in the county by 1978, following in his father’s and uncle’s footsteps on the old Nickel Plate), reflecting on the line’s decline: “When the railroads came, the canals declined and disappeared. When the trucks and planes came, the railroads declined.” He notes the busiest era: “There’s always a crowd gets off at Payne, Ohio” — a caption on a 1910 photo of the depot included in the original article.

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