There was no one at Marion who made the transfer of goods and merchandise a business, so the opening was a fine one and they saw their chance and were quick to seize it.
Besides the transfer of goods to and from the railroad depot, they did a general teaming business, handling large quantities of all sorts of building material, such as brick, lime and sand, lumber and stone.
They also kept a full supply of hay and feed, both for their own teams and for sale.
They owned and ran four good teams and wagons, and had built a large barn and stables for their teams and supplies, capable of stabling twenty horses. When fully employed they kept from eight to ten men.
Henry Edward Lane and John J. Lane, brothers and proprietors of Lane Bros. Transfer and Feed Company had always been partners in everything they did since they were old enough to work.
Their father, Andrew Jackson Lane, died in 1899 and left the wife a widow with two boys, Henry 23, and John 21, who together went into coal mining as soon as they reached manhood.
They were poor and had only the benefits of a common school education, although Henry had a short term at Crab Orchard Academy, and digging coal seemed the best prospect for a living they knew of.
Henry married April 5, 1900, Miss Elnora Henson. They had one child which died in infancy, and on November 6, 1902, the wife sickened and died also. The death of their father, and Henry’s wife and child all within three years kept the family poorer still, and was a great setback in the way of business.
But they had started the teaming business in August 1902, preceding the death of Mrs. Lane in November, and their misfortune only spurred them to greater effort.
Henry was born at Bainbridge, Illinois April 4, 1876 and John, February 19, 1879. They both belong to the Woodmen and Henry is a member of the M. E. church.
In politics both are republicans. Henry at one time spent five years in handling musical instruments and books. That was before the death of the elder Lane, and before his marriage.
The transfer business of Marion in 1904 consisted mainly in the loading and unloading of cars from the two railroads entering the city of the various commodities handled here, such as store goods of all sorts, marble, brick, stone, lime, sand and lumber.
In 1904, coal was loaded for shipment at the mines and for local use was largely brought in by farmers from near-by coal banks. There were no long hauls to furnish steady employment to teams, as the various roads reach all parts of the county and only short hauls in town and city transfer business can be obtained.
The city furnished some work in grading its streets and graveling them with broken stone. The four wholesale houses here ran their own teams, as did the three lumber dealers, and the two flouring mills.
So, in addition to several drays (carts) and a swarm of delivery wagons, the transfer business was in the hands of three firms: Lane & Brother, T. C. Whittock and W. H. Travelstead.
With the advent of the automobile, engines with horsepower had overtaken literal horsepower not long after 1910 and this business was most surely gone by 1915.
(Data and photo of business from 1905 Souvenir History, WCHS; Marion City Directories; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 04/08/2013)