local manager, and held this position until May 20, 1879, at which time John L. Garber, took charge, and is still in office. There are two lines on the road from Bradford to Richmond-one wire is exclusively used in the transaction of railroad business, the other transacts both railroad and commercial business. One line in the up-town office is for commercial transactions alone; the other is used for the work of both business and railroad. The Dayton & Union Railroad has only one wire, which is used for both purposes. The line between Dayton and Union commenced working at 3 o'clock. June 28, 1854, and the office was in charge of Mr. Swayne.

BANKS AND BANKERS.

A full history of banking in Ohio is not expected, yet, prefatory to the record of these indispensable institutions in Darke County, it will prove of interest to learn of the initiatory steps toward bank organization in the State.

The bank is a help to commerce. Managed with fidelity, its notes are more convenient than specie, and its vaults are more secure than the receptacles of private dwellings. As it facilitates exchange, renders possible great undertakings and accomodates the necessities of business men. it has met a patronage that has repeatedly been used to defraud the people by dishonesty and by excessive circulation.

The State endeavors to protect the people, and her Legislature, from time to time, frames acts regulating the conduct of banking. Several times, prior to the civil war, specie payments had been suspended in Ohio, but the interval from 1861 to 1879 has been a period so protracted that the recent disbursements of gold and silver are a novelty to the generation accustomed to fractional currency, greenbacks and national bank notes.

"Wild-cat" banks were long a feature in the Western country, and bank issues were held at more or less a discount, which increased in geometric proportion as the distance increased from the location of the institution that issued them. Bank-note reporters lay upon the counters, each bill was duly examined, and the fluctuations of value were noted and enforced with each new report.

This was all changed by the war. The exigencies of the times created the national system, still in vogue, by which bonds of the Government, purchased by an association, are deposited with the Treasurer of the United States for security. and 90 per cent of their face value in national currency issued to the bank for circulation. The system has been very popular from the uniform equality in value, freedom from counterfeiting and from their absolute security; yet there are many people who are opposed to the plan, and opinions as to their continuance are conflicting. Whatever may be done, they tided the Government over a critical period and have been of incalculable good to the country.

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The earliest bank chartered in Ohio was the Miami Exporting Company, of Cincinnati, the bill for whose incorporation passed the Legislature in April, 1803. The primary object of this association was more with a view of stimulating and aiding business, then languishing, than to do regular banking work, and it was not until 1808 that the first bank devoted to commercial interests was established. was located at Marietta, and bore the name of the place. At the same session during which this charter was given, Mr. Worthington reported upon a proposition to found a State bank, and, as a result of this legislation, the Bank of Chillicothe" was subsequently established.

Charters were severally granted to similar institutions till 1816, when a banking law was passed which incorporated twelve new banks, continued existing charters, and made the State, without outlay, a party to the profits and capital thus created and continued. The plan was as follows: "Each new bank was, at the outset, to set apart one share in twenty-five for the State, without payment, and each bank whose charter was renewed was to create for the State stock in the same proportion; each bank, new and old, was yearly to set apart out of its profits

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