Forest E. Hawthorne was a raw fur dealer who operated out of the Blanchester CM&B Traction Line depot at one time. Later he moved his operations to a garage behind his house at the corner of Baldwin & North Broadway. He operated his business in Cincinnati prior before relocating it to Blanchester. Mr. Hawthorne
Mr. Hawthorne discussed his operations at the depot and the traction line in a 1965 newspaper article on the interurban railroad of Cincinnati and its suburbs.
"They called the one here the CM&L, Cincinnati, Milford and Loveland. But after they began laying the tracks, they decided to bypass Loveland with the track and came to Blanchester instead. The building I once occupied in my fur business here was the traction line depot, and farmers used to bring their milk in and ship it to Cincinnati by the traction line. They'd tie their calves up at the loading point too, and the conductor on the traction line would pick them up and take them to Cincinnati. Quite a thing ... the traction line. I guess they took this one out about 1924 or somewhere along there. Just not enough business to make it go. Sort of a shame, too sort of a shame."
