John S. Walper was 70 years old when he stopped his span of grays and proudly posed for Pearl Roscoe's camera during the spring of 1929. It was his 28th year of service driving a gas wagon for the Standard Oil Company in the Vermilion area. On his chest he proudly displayed the badge the company had belatedly given him for 25 years of faithful service. And then he was on his way.
Walper was born in Ohio in 1859 of German parents who had, like many German people, left their Vaterland during the German Revolution (1848-49) and ventured to America, Ohio, and finally Vermilion. As a younger man he had worked at the Decker Livery on Liberty Avenue resigning at the very turn of the 20th century to work for Standard Oil.
By 1900 the Standard Oil Company had been in the oil refinery and distribution business in Cleveland for 30 years. However; practical applications for the by-products of crude oil were not as significant as they are today. During the first 20 years Mr. Walper worked for them the products he distributed were primarily used for home and business heating systems, stoves, and lamps. It was not until the automobile became both a practical and affordable mode of transportation that the demand for Standard's products drastically increased.
And thus, it was that for nearly 30 years John S. Walper drove a span of grays down unpaved roads in and around Florence, Berlin Heights, Birmingham, and Vermilion distributing oil, gasoline, and kerosene to citizens throughout the countryside. During these years he wore out 3 wagons, which the company was quick to replace, and he was always furnished with beautiful, well-kept, horses.
When motor powered vehicles had finally been perfected Standard OIl, logically, began to replace their horse drawn wagons with motorized trucks. But for reasons unknown the company continued to keep Mr. Walper and his horses in service.
About 1920 they gave him an assistant with a motorized vehicle who took care of deliveries (primarily of gasoline for automobiles) to outlying Vermilion precincts. Prior to this time Walper and his trusty team had been accustomed to covering a distance of nearly 40 miles daily. And workdays of 12 to 14 hours, despite weather conditions, were the rule - not the exception.
In addition to this Standard Oil always required daily reports to be filed and sent to their Cleveland headquarters. For this work Mr. Walper depended upon the skills of his daughter, Margaret (Mrs. Andrew) Kneisel. Until her marriage she had lived with her father and mother, Martha, in their home on State Street. Margaret had also worked for the Englebry Coal Company as a bookkeeper.
Although his regular route had been substantially reduced to about five or six miles, once given an assistant, practically every farmer in the area still had one or more fuel tanks in need of filling on a very regular basis. They still needed gasoline for their new machines (i.e. automobiles) and kerosene for their stoves and tractors. Mr. Walper, in short, kept busy.
A gentleman by the name of Sam Ewing once opined that, "It's not the hours you put in your work that counts, it's the work you put in the hours." That being said I am convinced that John S. Walper always earned his keep.
(Ref: The Vermilion News; 5-9-29; Ancestry.com; U.S. Census 1910) Appeared in the 4-7-05 editon of the Vermilion Photojournal
Written on 4/3/05 @3:36 PM
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