In the spring of 1849, before any railroad had run through western Ohio into Indiana, several east central Indiana businessmen met in the woods where Union City now stands to decide where the state's first rail line would run. After speeches proposing Indianapolis, Connersville, Fort Wayne, and Bellfontaine, Ohio, a vote chose Indianapolis to Bellfontaine by a two-thirds margin, giving rise to the Bee-Line railroad and helping begin a wider railroad system for the great northwest. After establishing the Bellfontaine Railroad on a route to this spot on the state line, Jeremiah and Oliver H. Smith conceived the idea of building a town on the Indiana-Ohio border. Its growth was strengthened because the railroad from Bellfontaine to Indianapolis was being built by two different companies, requiring goods to be transshipped at the termination of each road. Jeremiah Smith purchased the land from Augustus Loveland, whose small cabin and log stable stood in the only clearing there. Within a few short months, five railroads were to meet in Union City. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1852, Dayton & Union track-layers extended the iron one foot across the line into Indiana. A few days later, the Bee-Line from Indianapolis reached the state line from the west, and the tracks were joined so that on January 24, 1853, the first through passenger train went from Dayton by way of Union to Indianapolis. The eastern part of the Bee Line from Bellfontaine reached Union City in the summer of 1853. By 1882, Union City had become one of the nation's leading rail hubs, with 16 passenger trains and 22 freight trains arriving and departing daily. The Bee Line railroad, later known as the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, was the region's pioneer line, proposed in 1847 and completed in 1853. The Dayton & Union railroad was said to be the most profitable in the nation, with a 42 percent net profit. The Pan Handle railroad, Pittsburgh, Chicago & St. Louis, went into operation in 1856 and later became the Pennsylvania Railway.