The electric system whole: consolidation, the 1917 strike, the jitneys, the fires, the end

1908–1940 · THE SYSTEM AT SYSTEM STRENGTH (CERA BULLETIN 132'S OWN SPINE)

The system's whole course, in the order its own history lays it out: CERA Bulletin 132, the Northern Indiana system's history, builds its middle on the decisions of 1908–1910 — "Major Decisions on Electric Power, Consolidation and New Shops" — when the competing lines were gathered into one company and one power and shop plant. The next chapter is the system's hardest decade: "1913–1917: Storms — Jitney Buses — Track Extensions — New Streetcars," in which the jitneys — cheap, unfranchised motor cars skimming the streetcars' routes — appear as the system's first motor competition, fought in council chambers and courts while the company extended track and bought new cars against them; and then, as its own chapter, "1917: The Strike," the system's labor war of the war year. Fire took the plant twice: the Columbia Street carbarn burned in 1919 and again in 1923. It was not enough. The interurbans were abandoned in 1934 — Osceola's service ended 1 June 1934 — and the city streetcars of South Bend and Mishawaka, the system's last rail, were replaced hastily by buses after the 1940 reorganization, under civic pressure, South Bend's last streetcars running in June 1940. Osceola's share, at its size: of the system's plant, this ground held the power house and the mile-10.1 station, both banked; no carbarn, shop, strike episode or jitney episode seated in Osceola was found in the system's record, and none is claimed — the strike, the fires and the jitney war are South Bend's and Mishawaka's chapters in a history Osceola only rode.

Sources:

1. Central Electric Railfans' Association, Bulletin 132 — chapter spine quoted in the text ("1908–1910, Major Decisions on Electric Power, Consolidation and New Shops"; "1913–1917, Storms — Jitney Buses — Track Extensions — New Streetcars"; "1917 Strike"; "1923 — The Motor Bus Appears"; "More Buses & Receivership") and its system summary: competing bus operations purchased and run to complement the cars, parlor cars mid-1920s, 1930 reorganization and lightweight cars, interurbans abandoned 1934, city cars replaced by buses after the 1940 reorganization; Columbia Street carbarn fires 1919 and 1923.
2. Transportation — the succession Indiana Railway Co. 1899 → Chicago, South Bend & Northern Indiana 1907 → Northern Indiana Railway 1930; service ended at Osceola 1 June 1934; last South Bend streetcars June 1940; the power house and mile-10.1 station (Howard pp. 310–311). Banked; not re-told.