By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES - The choice for Historian of the Year was an easy one.
The amount of work Donna Ochenryder had put into recovering the facts of the Big Four Railway in Niles was unmatched.
Aside from leading the plans for the city's time capsule and veterans memorial, Ochenryder spent a good part of the last year researching the Big Four Railway that used to run through Niles. There were multiple train depots in the city, including the current Amtrak station, and the country's only tri-level bridge where The Big Four, Lake Michigan Central and the interurban lines all intersected which sat near the Taco Bell on South 11th Street.
The company's name was a reference to the four cities - Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati and St. Louis - that could be reached by hopping on a train in downtown Niles.
Ochenryder said digging up the history of the railway was like a chain reaction. She found evidence of a man named E.W. Strong that was injured by celebratory cannon fire during the opening ceremony of the railway. As compensation, Ochenryder said Strong was given a job by The Big Four as the company's permanent flag man for the Niles station and was also handed a shop in downtown Niles to sell goods like tobacco.
Through her research, Ochenryder said she was able to trace Strong's family line and found his great granddaughter-in-law in the area.
A more recent discovery for Ochenryder led her to a local woman named Pat Benson-Bachman, who is a relative of one of Niles' founding fathers, Jacob Brown. Ochenryder said she spent the past week listening to Benson-Bachman tell stories of her great grandfather and other prominent figures of historic Niles, such as Ring and Lena Lardner.
And there is still more to discover.