Dayton Car Works and the rail-less railway cars

In 1849 Eliam Barney and Ebenezer Thresher formed the Dayton Car Works which built railcars for the burgeoning rail companies.  Barney and Thresher met each other through the Baptist church and became fast friends.  Barney was a teacher and Thresher was a Baptist minister, but they decided that they wanted to go into the railcar business.  They soon bought some land, hired an expert in car manufacturing, and started their business!

In 1849, railroads were just starting to take off and Dayton didn’t even have any rail or street lines, but that didn’t stop Barney and Thresher from making cars.  The only issue was how to get them out of Dayton and to places in the country that had rails.  So they shipped their cars by boat.

The expert that they hired to start their business died unexpectedly in 1850, but Barney and Thresher carried on.  They had hired a good team of employees and couldn’t be stopped. Their company had so many name changes it was ridiculous.  They were Dayton Car Works, then Thresher, Packard, and Company, then E. Thresher and Co. and became Barney, Parker, and Company when Thresher’s health began to fail and they brought in a new partner, Parker.  The company continued on and eventually started making top of the line sleeper cars for the major rail companies.

Although the Civil War hurt their business with southern companies, business eventually boomed again with the need for railcars for the Union Army. The company name was changed again when Parker retired and sold all his shares to Preserved Smith; it was then called Barney, Smith, and Company. And it changed again later to Barney and Smith Manufacturing Company. Although a flood of the Mad River in 1866 destroyed the factory and a lot of its merchandise, Barney and his company kept pressing on and was the biggest car manufacturer until Pullman opened a huge factory in Chicago.

Barney and Smith Co. had a very long history in Dayton and helped the Dayton economy to grow, and by 1890 they had more than 2,000 employees. They were known for their craftsmanship and luxury.  Unfortunately, damage after the 1913 flood, and government seizure of the rails post-WWI, combined with some slow business decisions took a toll on the company and it slowly fizzled out. 

Damage to Barney and Smith drawbridge after 1913 flood