The Sohioan September 1936

Published monthly by and for the employees of The Standard Oil Company of Ohio, to whom it is distributed free of charge. Address all news items, correspondence and exchange to the Editor of Publications, The Standard Oil Company, Cleveland, Ohio.

.▲. Of all its ghastly horrible forms, warfare paints its ugliest picture in civil conflict. Justification looms in anyone's soul for resisting invasion or violation of the God or man-made laws, but the specter of neighbors, brothers, killing and crushing one another chills the marrow. That the teeming bounty and beauty on this earth are enough for us all is a visionary's quest, we know, but is not the horror that is Spain today a hideous travesty on this thing called civilization.

.▲.Poor Winchell! A few-more kicks in the teeth and the psychology that causes people to hate "Mrs. Winchell's bad little boy" will shift to sympathy, for the mob always champions the downtrodden. Maybe this latest calumny will do the trick: Someone has credited him with starting this awful "Knock-Knock" business. If so, he's probably reveling in his contumacy, but when Winchell knocks, we'd like to answer, "Winchell we hang the guy ?"

▲ This issue of The Sohioan contains the final chapter of the account by M. S. Obenauf of his trip to Mexico City. With no exception, there have been more requests for single copies of the magazines containing this article than for any past issue. Not only have many Sohioans come in to ask for an extra copy because "Uncle Jack or Aunt Jill" wanted one, but outsiders (furiners) as well, have come in to beg a copy. You're made, Obie!

.▲. Two events of importance to Ohioans and Sohio took place during the last week of August—too late for inclusion in this issue. At Marietta, the ninth annual Mid-East Regatta was scheduled for the 28 and 29. This event is always packed with excitement and beauty. The Muskingum River, one of the beauty spots of this part of the country is the scene, and contenders for the cups and cash prizes enter the Regatta from all parts of the country. Fuel and oil get severe tests in these events and Sohio products are always anxious to meet the challenge.

.▲. This issue contains a large number of pictures and items of service station men who are cashing in on the radio contest. That money is pretty easy picking and with so many winners it would seem that every salesman could get a little of it. The boys at our pet station are conducting a little contest of their own which is increasing distribution of contest blanks among their customers. They are pooling both the blanks and the winnings and will divide the money when the contest closes. There is only another month to go, so here's luck to you.

.▲. We demand a terrible price from our athlete heroes. We insist that they be mauled and pawed like playthings, that they smile and seem to enjoy having their right arms either pumped off or worn to a nub with autographing, that they give every ounce of strength and courage to their endeavors, and that they be satisfied with raucous din and ticker tape entanglement as compensation. Never must the primordial necessities of life be mentioned in the breath with a hero's name, for the penalty is to cast him among the renegades. The Jesse Owens situation might have been serious had he elected neither to turn professional nor go to Sweden.

.▲. At Columbus, on the 31, the Ohio State Fair begins its annual show. Besides the booth, in charge of H. A. Scott of Columbus, and the distribution of gasoline and oil requirements on the grounds, in charge of A. R. Burke, Sohio will have two gunners policing the grounds constantly, spraying the restaurants with fly spray, and the animals with herd oil. Wherever Sohio gunners appear they are in constant demand, and no activity is more appreciated than this effective service.

THE SOHIOAN for September, 1936

Sohio Pioneer

Receives Fifty Year Pin

Annuitant Finds Cabinet-Making Prideful Hobby

the early American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Thad Trout was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1868. Eighteen years later he began to work at the newly organized refinery at Lima. A small office building, on the site of the present storehouse, was the only structure on the grounds when Mr. Trout reported for work on his first day. The personnel was composed of eight or ten workmen under the direction of J. W. Van Dyke, superintendent.

While this job was Trout's first he had a background of figures and accounting which was very useful to him in doing the bookkeeping and payroll work. In those days, however, specialities had to give way to all around work and one of Trout's early recollections is the cutting of stakes for the laying out of No. 1 crude still, the first oil processing unit built at Solar Refinery.

Motor vehicles were, of course, unknown in those good old days when Grover Cleveland was president and billy-cock hats and handle-bar mustaches were the mark of the young refinery worker. J. W. Van Dyke had a pony saddled and ready to use in getting out over the Plant. Sunday was just another day in the life of a refinery, and Thad can recall years passing without a day off and every man doing any job that came to hand.

At the time of his retirement in 1925, Trout had worked up to the position of head timekeeper. In those years his energy became a byword; no task was too arduous for him to get done.

All Sohioans can learn a lesson from the way Trout has ordered his life. Hard, faithful work for a man's middle years, and a completely satisfying and useful activity for the later years have brought happiness and contentment to this fine, respected Sohioan.

Thaddeus Trout

IN a workshop, built by himself and located back of his home on Lowell Street, in Lima, Tom Seelye, reporter to The Sohioan from Solar Refinery, found one of the happiest men who ever worked for The Standard Oil Company. The occasion of Mr. Seelye's visit was to congratulate Thaddeus Trout upon his completion of fifty years with Sohio and to learn how a man feels after half a century of service.

The workshop is no tinkerer's bench, but a large, thoroughly equipped shop where an artisan's tools are arranged in neat, methodical rows and where just the right tool is at hand for any given job.

Thad Trout has always been interested in hand-made furniture, but he never had much time to devote to it until ten years ago when he retired from Solar Refinery after 40 years of service. But he has devoted the greater part of his time since then to his hobby and the quantity and quality of his output is astounding. Mr. Trout uses old corner cabinets, beds, chairs, bureaus, etc., and by rebuilding and veneering them he has produced results that could stand beside anything in the Edison Museum at Dearborn, Michigan, or

At right, a corner of Mr. Trout's complete workshop.

Above- This picture shows the first Solar Refinery Employees and was taken in 1888. Mr. Trout is at extreme left.