Calvin S. Brice was a businessman connected to an unbelievable number of industries and companies beyond his life’s work in railroads. Last month, we covered Calvin Brice’s early life and railroad career. Brice’s train connections are critical to understanding his life, so it is helpful to read that article first if you have not already. This story will follow several of his other careers: politics, gas, train car production, banking, insurance, and the many other industries to which Brice was connected. Likewise, even though it was touched on in the last article, we will discuss the end of Brice’s life and resting place.
Brice’s career as a politician is perhaps the most well-known part of his life. One might wonder why he moved into politics as a railroad spectator and millionaire. In short, it was a common thing to do at that time, and Brice followed his friend Charles Foster’s foot steps into politics.[1] Around the time they met, Foster began a career in politics and became the governor of Ohio.[2] Brice’s first step into politics was to campaign for Samuel J. Tilden in 1876.[3] Tilden, the Democratic candidate for the 1876 general election, focused his career on disrupting corruption in the federal government—specifically around business contracts.[4] Tilden ultimately lost his campaign to President Rutherford B. Hayes, despite receiving the popular vote.[5] Brice then worked on the 1884 campaign for Grover Cleveland; he won that election.[6] Cleveland ran on a campaign of no tariffs and anti-corruption in the Federal Government.[7] After that, Brice was often a delegate for Ohio to national conventions.[8] The 1888 Democratic National Convention in St. Louis was when Brice was chosen as the Ohio delegate of the national committee.[9] He would become the chairman of the executive committee and the campaign committee of the Democratic National Committee, DNC.[10] Specifically, on the campaign committee Brice would have helped Democrat candidates by raising and allotting funds and assisting with communication and strategy.[11] No doubt these were less structured campaigns compared to today, but they would run along the same lines. Only a year later, he was elected as the chairman of the DNC when the former chairman, William Barnum, passed away.[12] Brice held that position until 1892.[13]
With Ohio and the DNC behind him, Brice ran for the Senate in 1889, for his term to start 1891.[14] Brice won that election and was sworn in on March 4, 1891, as a United States Senator.[15] He held positions in the Senate on the Democratic Steering Committee; Committees on Appropriations, Pensions, Public Buildings & Grounds; and the chairman of the Committee on Pacific Railroads.[16] Brice had run for his position with seemingly similar aims to Tilden and Cleveland: fiscal conservatism and anti-tariff.[17] At that time, candidates did not always state their platforms when running, and there was often confusion in the papers about where they stood on issues. Once Brice was in the Senate, it seemed as though he was neutral on these platforms.[18] However, after a few years in the Senate, it became clear that Brice was pro-tariffs.[19] Therefore, he ran in opposition to one of Cleveland’s main aims, and they were on either side of the Democratic Party—causing Brice to fall out of favor in the party. Many members of the public and government were weary of Brice’s close connections to New York businessmen who profited from the tariffs he supported.[20] In newspapers, he was often referred to as Calvin $ Brice, in reference to these fears that money was Brice’s main aims in government.[21] Perhaps because of this bad press and distrust from the DNC, Brice lost his bid for reelection in 1897 to Joseph B. Foraker.[22] There had been a time, that Brice had been hopeful to become a presidential candidate, and other Ohioans wished for it as well.[23] Unfortunately, choosing the pro-tariff platform undermined Brice’s position in the DNC and ending his political career.
Another industry Brice was firmly entrenched in was banking, with a bit of insurance mixed in. After the Nickel Plate Road was completed, Brice had significant funds. Thus, it made sense that he would be a valuable player in Lima’s banking, with Brice having controlling interest in the First National Bank in Lima during that period.[24] Unfortunately, around the same time, the First National Bank had some dishonest officials that had evidently been embezzling from the bank, causing it to almost go bankrupt.[25] According to Brice’s obituary circulated by The Times Democrat Lima, he had been the reason the bank was saved.[26] To quote the obituary, “[Brice] supplied personally all the money to place it again upon a solid base, thus saving many citizens here from the loss of their all.”[27] Therefore, Brice used his funds to save the bank, which he held shares in, and helped many not lose their savings. When Brice moved to New York City he also became a director of the Chase National Bank.[28] Likewise, with his work in railroads in the Southern United States, Brice also became a director of the Southern Trust Company.[29] Brice was also a director of the United State Guarantee Company, which was an insurance company.[30] With these examples, we can see that Brice was also very connected to the financial world of his era.
Brice started and directed some Allen County companies beyond the First National Bank of Lima. One was the Lima Gas Light Company, which was incorporated in August 1886.[31] Unfortunately, the exact start date of the company it is not known. At the time of incorporation, there was a capital stock of $500,000.[32] Brice was considered the man in charge of the enterprise and was planning on trying to secure a deal with the city to run gas lines throughout Lima in 1886.[33] This occurred, and the Lima Gas Light Company would run seventeen miles of gas mains and put in around a thousand streetlights in Allen County.[34] Brice also had connections to the Miami Valley Gas Company, was a director of the Dayton Gas Company, and was the head of the Ohio-Indiana Natural Gas Company.[35] It was not clear if any of these companies were incorporations of each other or completely different companies. However, the newspapers noted that Brice’s connection to the gas industry made a lot of sense because he could transport the fuel with his rail lines.[36] So, Brice logically added gas to his portfolio with its new high demand and easy railroad transportation.
Brice was also a part of the conception of another Lima-based company, the Lima Car Works. In February 1881, The Lima Car Works was formed by Brice, James Irvine, his law partner, and S. A. Baxter.[37] This company was focused on building railroad cars. In the beginning, Brice and his partners were not able to sell all the stock in the company and almost immediately had financial problems.[38] Eventually, they raised that money, and the company ran smoothly for around four years.[39] Then in 1884, one of the major partners lost significant money in the railroad gamble and the business became rocky again. To cover that partner’s debt, the Lima Car Works was sold by the U.S. Marshal on May 13, 1885.[40] However, during the better years of the plant, Brice became associated with Lafayette Car Works.[41] With his stockholders and associates from that company, Brice formed the Ohio Car & Manufacturing Company to take over Lima Car Works;[42] however, the Ohio Car & Manufacturing Co. would not start operating in Lima until the summer of 1887.[43] The following year, 1888, Brice and Baxter would purchase the Lafyette Car Works, and [44] it soon became apparent that there was not a need to have both plants operating.[45] Many rumors circulated about which of the plants would close.[46] Eventually, Brice and his associates would sell the Lima branch in February 1892 to Lima Machine Works, which later became Lima Locomotive Works.[47] Thus Brice, invested once again in the prosperous side of railroads and did well because of it.
During his lifetime, Brice dabbled in various other industries. When Brice lived in New York City, he became a director of the Croton Aqueduct.[48] The original Croton Aqueduct had been the leading supplier of water to New York City before the 1880s.[49] After that, the population size became too substantial for the 100 million gallons of water it brought to the city each day.[50] So, the New Croton Aqueduct was built between 1885-1890 and Brice held a director position in the creation and management of this new aqueduct.[51] In the early 1880s, Brice organized the National Telegraph Company.[52] This was a conglomerate with Nickel Plate Road companies and the North Ricer Construction Company.[53] They bought the telegraph lines along the tracks of several railroads for $1,000,000 forming the National Telegraph Company.[54] Only three months later, the Nickel Plate Road’s half of stock was bought out by the Baltimore and Ohio Company for $800,000.[55] Making the Nickel Plate Road $300,000 in three months.[56] In 1892, Brice went into the telegraph business again, forming with his associates the Postal Telegraph Company.[57] They wanted to compete with the monopoly of the Western Union Telegraph Company, but they were unable to do so.[58] Brice was also a director of the Western Union Beef Company and a land company in Nebraska, and he also purchased the Indianapolis Sentinel Newspaper.[59] He was also a director of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, which was the main mail line between the United States and Asia for most of the late 1800s.[60] These examples show just how diverse the industries were that Brice aligned himself with throughout his life.
It is evident that Brice was a busy industrialist. He was connected to at least twenty-two rail companies, seven companies related to railroads, around four gas companies, several banks, an insurance company, and so much more.[61] Calvin Brice would die at his home in New York on December 15, 1898, after catching a cold that turned into pneumonia and heart failure.[62] He was only fifty-three years old.[63] He was brought back to Lima to be buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, in his personal railroad car.[64] Brice was survived by his wife Liv and his five children: Stewart, Helen, Margaret “Kate,” Walter “Kirk,” and John.[65] About his social life, one of his Lima obituaries read, “He has been elected to the membership in all the prominent clubs in Ohio and many elsewhere, including the Manhattan, (the leading Democratic social organization) and the Lawyers’ Riding and Whist clubs, of New York city. He is also a member of the Ohio society, of this city, and of the Delta Kappa Epsilon club.”[66] Brice was well connected in both Ohio and New York City, the two places he called home. Although Calvin Brice lost most of his fortune in a railroad gamble, it is unmistakable that Brice was an important industrialist for his time.
Endnotes:
[1] “Millionaire Calvin S. Brice Dies Suddenly of Pneumonia,” New York Journal, December 16, 1898, in Brice File in the Allen County Archives.
[2] “Foster,” Republican Gazette, December 1898, in Brice File at the Allen County Musuem.
[3] “Very Suddenly,” Lima News, December 16, 1898, accessed March 3, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7751/images/NEWS-OH-LI_NE.1898_12_16_0001.
[4] “Samuel Tilden Biography,” National Park Service, accessed March 17, https://www.nps.gov/gate/learn/historyculture/samuel-tilden-biography.htm.
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Very Suddenly,” Lima News, December 16, 1898, accessed March 3, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7751/images/NEWS-OH-LI_NE.1898_12_16_0001.
[7] Henry F. Graff, “Grover Cleveland: Campaigns and Elections,” UVA Miller Center, accessed March 20, 2025, https://millercenter.org/president/cleveland/campaigns-and-elections.
[8] “Millionaire Calvin S. Brice Dies Suddenly of Pneumonia,” New York Journal, December 16, 1898, in Brice File in the Allen County Archives.
[9] “Very Suddenly,” Lima News, December 16, 1898, accessed March 3, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7751/images/NEWS-OH-LI_NE.1898_12_16_0001.
[10] “Very Suddenly,” Lima News, December 16, 1898, accessed March 3, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7751/images/NEWS-OH-LI_NE.1898_12_16_0001, and “At Headquarters,” The Daily Democratic Times, October 2, 1888, accessed March 3, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8202/images/NEWS-OH-LI_DA_DE_TI.1888_10_02_0002..
[11] “At Headquarters,” The Daily Democratic Times, October 2, 1888, accessed March 3, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8202/images/NEWS-OH-LI_DA_DE_TI.1888_10_02_0002.
[12] “Very Suddenly,” Lima News, December 16, 1898, accessed March 3, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7751/images/NEWS-OH-LI_NE.1898_12_16_0001.
[13] “Democratic Party,” Ballotpedia, accessed March 17, 2025, https://ballotpedia.org/Democratic_Party.
[14] “Senator Brice,” Lima Daily News, January 15, 1890, accessed February 28, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8017/images/NEWS-OH-LI_DA_NE.1890_01_15_0004.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Sue Clover, “Calvin Stewart Brice,” Docent Training, September 16, 1998, in Brice File at the Allen County Archives, 4.
[17] Ralph Morris Goldman, The National Party Chairman and Committees: Factionalism at the Top, accessed March 17, 2025, https://archive.org/details/nationalpartycha0000gold/page/144/mode/2up?q=brice, 144.
[18] Ibid, 541.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Sue Clover, “Calvin Stewart Brice,” Docent Training, September 16, 1998, in Brice File at the Allen County Archives, 4.
[21] Ibid.
[22] “Calvin S. Brice Passes Away,” Sacramento Daily Union, Vol. 96, N. 117, December 16, 1898, accessed March 17, 2025, https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDU18981216.2.6&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–.
[23] Ralph Morris Goldman, The National Party Chairman and Committees: Factionalism at the Top, accessed March 17, 2025, https://archive.org/details/nationalpartycha0000gold/page/144/mode/2up?q=brice, 145 and “At Headquarters,” The Daily Democratic Times, October 2, 1888, accessed March 3, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8202/images/NEWS-OH-LI_DA_DE_TI.1888_10_02_0002.
[24] “Besides Paying,” Unknown Newspaper or date, c. December 1898, In Brice File at the Allen County Archive.
[25] “Home Sweet Home to Rest,” The Times Democrat Lima, December 18, 1898, in the Brice File at the Allen County Museum.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Ibid.
[28] “Besides Paying,” Unknown Newspaper or date, c. December 1898, In Brice File at the Allen County Archive.
[29] History of Allen County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, eds. Dr. Charles C. Miller and Dr. Samuel A. Baxter, Richmond & Arnold, Chicago, Illinois, 1906, 332.
[30] “The World of Calvin Brice,” in Men of Old Miami, in Brice File at the Allen County Archive, 217-8.
[31] “The Oil Field,” Daily Democratic Times, August 23, 1886, In Brice File at the Allen County Archives.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Ibid.
[34] “The World of Calvin Brice,” in Men of Old Miami, in Brice File at the Allen County Archive, 217.
[35] Scott D. Trostel, “Known Investments of Calvin S. Brice,” September 7, 1998, in Brice File at the Allen County Archives, “Oil and Gas,” Lima Daily News, April 13, 1891, accessed February 28, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8017/images/NEWS-OH-LI_DA_NE.1891_04_13_0001, and “Plenty of Gas,” Lima Times Democrat, July 18, 1894, accessed February 28, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8018/images/NEWS-OH-LI_TI_DE.1894_07_18_0004.
[36] “Plenty of Gas,” Lima Times Democrat, July 18, 1894, accessed February 28, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8018/images/NEWS-OH-LI_TI_DE.1894_07_18_0004.
[37] Greg Hoersten, “Reminisce: Decade of the Lima Car Works,” Lima News, January 23, 2024, accessed February 26, 2025, https://www.limaohio.com/top-stories/2024/01/23/reminisce-decade-of-the-lima-car-works/.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Scott D. Trostel, “Known Investments of Calvin S. Brice,” September 7, 1998, in Brice File at the Allen County Archives.
[42] Greg Hoersten, “Reminisce: Decade of the Lima Car Works,” Lima News, January 23, 2024, accessed February 26, 2025, https://www.limaohio.com/top-stories/2024/01/23/reminisce-decade-of-the-lima-car-works/.
[43] Ibid.
[44] Ibid.
[45] Ibid.
[46] Ibid.
[47] Ibid.
[48] “The World of Calvin Brice,” in Men of Old Miami, in Brice File at the Allen County Archive, 217-8.
[49] “Old Croton Aqueduct State Park,” New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, accessed March 20, 2025, https://parks.ny.gov/parks/oldcrotonaqueduct/.
[50] Ibid.
[51] Ibid.
[52] “The World of Calvin Brice,” in Men of Old Miami, in Brice File at the Allen County Archive, 217-8.
[53] “B & O Telegraph purchases National Telegraph Company,” Electrical Review, New York, NY, US, January 31, 1884, Vol. 3, No. 22, p. 10, Col. 3, accessed March 20, 2025, https://reference.insulators.info/publications/view/?id=9566.
[54] Ibid.
[55] Ibid.
[56] Ibid.
[57] Scott D. Trostel, “Known Investments of Calvin S. Brice,” September 7, 1998, in Brice File at the Allen County Archives.
[58] Ibid.
[59] “The World of Calvin Brice,” in Men of Old Miami, in Brice File at the Allen County Archive, 223, and “Senator Brice Buys a Newspaper,” Lima Daily News, August 6, 1890, accessed February 28, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8017/images/NEWS-OH-LI_DA_NE.1890_08_06_0001.
[60] “The World of Calvin Brice,” in Men of Old Miami, in Brice File at the Allen County Archive, 223, and Steve Potash, “Pacific Mail Steamship Company,” Found SF, accessed March 20, 2025, https://www.foundsf.org/Pacific_Mail_Steamship_Company.
[61] “Senator Calvin Stewart Brice,” Label at the Allen County Museum.
[62] Sue Clover, “Calvin Stewart Brice,” Docent Training, September 16, 1998, in Brice File at the Allen County Archives, 4.
[63] Ibid.
[64] “Home Sweet Home to Rest,” The Times Democrat Lima, December 18, 1898, in the Brice File at the Allen County Museum.
[65] “Senator Calvin Stewart Brice,” Label at the Allen County Museum.
[66] “Calvin Brice Dead.” Unknown Lima Newspaper, c. December 1898, In Brice File at the Allen County Archives.
Image Credit:
“Miss Lila L. Morse with kindest regards, Samuel I. Tilden,” 1874 Dec. 4, LC-USZ62-29812, accessed March 25, 2025, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008679452/.
[Grover Cleveland, bust portrait, seated, facing right], [between 1880? and 1900?], accessed March 25, 2025, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014648289/.
“6. Photocopied October 1976, from Theoph Schramke, Description of the New York Croton Aqueduct, New York, 1843. HYDROGRAPHIC MAP, NEW YORK, WESTCHESTER, AND PUTNAM, CROTON AQUEDUCT. – Old Croton Aqueduct, New York County, NY,” HAER NY,31-NEYO,87—6, accessed March 28, 2025, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ny1181.photos.120188p/.
“Pacific Mail Steamship Company, America·Manila/Honolulu·Russia/Japan·China·India,” 1910, LC-DIG-ppmsca-87096, accessed March 28, 2025, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2023635161/.
“The First National Bank Advertisement,” Lima Daily Democratic Times, April 6, 1888, accessed March 25, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8202/images/NEWS-OH-LI_DA_DE_TI.1888_04_06_0003?pId=465704963.
C.M. Bell, “Brice, Hon. C.S.,” [between January 1891 and January 1894], LC-DIG-bellcm-03000, accessed March 18, 2025, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016690451/.
J. S. Pughe, “Doing their little best to spoil his work / J. S. Pugh,” N.Y. : Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, 1894 July 11. LC-DIG-ppmsca-29120, accessed March 18, 2025, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2012648737/.
Summary: Print shows President Cleveland sculpting a statue labeled “Purity in Politics”, but a group of legislators have resorted to mudslinging tactics to destroy Cleveland’s efforts. Those identified with a hammer, ink, mud, and stones are “McPherson, Dana, Hill, Murphy, Gorman, [and] Brice”.
Summary: Print shows three men in a small cage hanging outside the “Democratic National Headquarters”; the cage is labeled “Gorman Brice Smith, Jr. – Exposed Here – As a Warning, For All Time – These Traitors to Democratic Principles and Satraps of Trust and Monopoly”.
Udo J. Keppler, “Where they belong! / Keppler.,” N.Y.: Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, 1894 November 21, LC-DIG-ppmsca-29056, accessed March 18, 2025, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2012648675/.
All other images came from the Allen County Archives, Railroad Archives, or were taken by Allen County Museum Staff.
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