So Easy A Child Could Be Seriously Injured While Doing It

All Harry Frahn and Morris Rice wanted to do was make things easier for the citizens of Osborn, and make money while doing it. They had the perfect plan. If Osborn had to move to make way for the new dam, why not buy all the property, move it themselves, and then resell it? The residents of Osborn wouldn’t have to worry about moving their property, they would be so thankful! Frahn and Rice gathered seven other Osborn businessmen and set to work as the Osborn Removal Company in March of 1920. Moving an entire city couldn’t be that hard, right? Surely not everyone in Osborn would actually want to keep the same house they owned before. Only a handful would, and Frahn and Rice could then profit from the resell of the other houses. Their plan was foolproof!

But then almost everyone in Osborn wanted to stay. Frahn and Rice could still make this work. So they had to resell most of the properties to their original owners and couldn’t make as large of a profit had they been able to solicit outside buyers, big deal. They could still solicit outside buyers for a few of the properties, new businesses would be dying to come to a place as fine as Osborn. Well, maybe not dying, but why were these potential owners being so needy? WM. Snyder expressed interest in moving his hardware store to Osborn from Cleveland, but then he had the gall to suggest that his “first class” reputation might be sullied if the citizens of Osborn couldn’t meet his high standards. As if Cleveland is the pinnacle of high society! Why did Snyder and the others need so much convincing? 

Greeting card featuring the beautiful landscape of Osborn

Even the citizens of Osborn were creating a fuss. Didn’t they realize that Frahn and Rice were trying to help them? Of course they were going to have to pay a little extra money when they rebought their own homes, entire houses were being dismantled and moved miles away! Obviously the company couldn’t guarantee the houses would be undamaged when they arrived at their new location, it’s not like they were a professional moving company. Well, technically yes, they were but they had never done this before, why couldn’t anyone cut them some slack?

And then there was that awful business with Henry Seifer. The Osborn Removal Company was providing work for hundreds of locals, all they had to do was tear down the houses and rebuild them, it’s not like that took any special skill set. Why couldn’t 17 year old Seifer do the job correctly? He said he passed 9^th grade, he should have been completely qualified to demolish a house and rebuild it without supervision. Was the Osborn Removal Company actually expected to train him to tear down a 30 ft. high brick wall? All the other workers could do it just fine, Seifer must just have been a little dim. When he saw the wall start to fall why couldn’t he have just moved? And then he had the nerve to sue! The kid was making more money than he had in his life, why couldn’t he have been happy with that and moved on after the injury? He somehow convinced the judge the Osborn Removal Company was at fault, and they had to pay him $280 per week for the next six months. So what if Henry Seifer couldn’t use his left arm and leg, what’s truly shocking is that no one seemed to appreciate the hard work of the Osborn Removal Company.

- Krista Dunkman

Sources:

[Creation of Osborn Removal Company, 1920-1921, Box #7, Folder #19], MS-77, Osborn Removal Company Records, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.

[Letter from WM. J. Snyder to the Osborn Removal Company, March 26^th, 1920, Box #9, Folder #8], MS-77, Osborn Removal Company Records, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.

[Henry Seifer Injury Case: Case Documents, 1925-1926, Box #9, Folder #1], MS-77, Osborn Removal Company Records, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.