History of the First Locomotives in America - Chapters 25-29



CHAPTER XXV.
ADDRESS OF THE GRADUATES.

"Here at the mellows of age. At that period in life when men enter 
reluctantly upon untried schemes, and when they cling most tenaciously to 
their possessions, you generously consecrated the bulk of the fortune you 
had been patiently accumulating for half a century, to found the Cooper 
Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, an institution that in the 
present and all after time shall stand as a workingman's legacy to his 
countrymen, at once 'royal in magnitude and beneficent in design.' 

"The grand and solid success which has attended it in the past will be 
vastly strengthened and extended in the future, by the crowning act of 
your life, your noble birthday offering of one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars, to establish, in connection With the institution, a valuable 
reference and lending library. 

"Henceforth, through its School of Design, its School of Science and Art, 
its reading room, library, lectures, and laboratories, it will be the 
radiating center of mighty forces, from which, year alter year, as they 
deepen their channels and wisely their sweep, will proceed influences 
which can never be fully estimated. 

"But among the substantial results will be the advancement and diffusion 
of that larger culture of hand, and head, and heart, that molds the 
skilled artisan and upright, intelligent citizen, without whom our country 
need hope for no broad and thorough development of its boundless 
resources, nor elevation and permanency to its free institutions. 

"The mission of the Cooper Union comprehends more than this. It has 
lessons for the rich as well as for those in the humblest ranks of life. 
Rising here in the midst of the metropolis of a continent, it is an 
'everlasting protest' against the avarice and ambition which rear 
overshadowing fortunes for mere personal gratification. It teaches such 
how they may become the 'masters and not the slaves' of their wealth; how 
they may render it an imperishable memorial of their love, and a perpetual 
source of public good; so that when they shall be seen no more forever in 
the walls of men, they shall live on, through their benefactions, in the 
embalming love and gratitude of mankind. 

"As past and present students, we welcome this opportunity to express, 
however inadequately, still publicly and collectively, our profound 
appreciation of our obligations to you. We fervently thank you, not only 
for the precious educational facilities you have provided for us, but also 
for the ennobling example of a long life, extending through either extreme 
of fortune, yet marred by no vices and enshrouded by no dishonor. 

"Prepared through that knowledge, and inspired by that example, may each 
of us, and those who shall throng these halls after us, pass through life, 
animated by deeper love of country, broader sympathies for man, and 
loftier allegiance to God! 

"In conclusion, sir, we can but renew our congratulations that you have 
been spared to see the day that completes, under such promising auspices, 
the twelfth annual commencement of an institution that long years ago rose 
before your vision in distant and shadowy outlines; that you have lived in 
a period without parallel in the annals of time, for that wonderful 
progress in the industrial arts and physical sciences which heralds the 
dawn of a brighter era for the toiling millions; and that you have labored 
so devotedly and effectual for its realization. 

"A learner, so permanently useful and illustrious, is the prelude to a 
fame neither transient nor uncertain. While virtue, patriotism, and 
philanthropy, are honored on earth and recorded in heaven, your deeds 
shall not drop from the memory nor your name fade from the lips of men. In 
love and gratitude they shall nevermore dedicate to you an exalted station 
in the Pantheon where, from every age and clime, arc enshrined in holy 
keeping that royal brotherhood, the benefactors of humanity." 

To this Mr. Cooper replied: 

"MY YOUNG FRIENDS: If I needed any reward for my humble efforts to benefit 
my fellowmen, the touching language of your address, and this expression 
of your affection and gratitude, would be ample compensation for labors 
however exacting and sacrifices however great. Happily, however, works of 
benevolence carry with them their own recompense, even though they do not 
meet with the recognition which has fallen to my lot, and which makes me 
feel that this occasion is the crowning happiness of a life which has 
passed the eightieth anniversary. 

"In that long experience I have learned lessons which, if I could induce 
you, my young friends, who have your future before you, and others who 
have left their past behind them, to lay them to heart, and to practice in 
the conduct of life, would greatly lessen the evils of society and improve 
the condition of the land and the time in which we live. While yet a 
child, I learned that the hand of the diligent machete rich, and whatever 
of wealth I had achieved has been due, primarily, to habits of patient 
industry formed at the outset of my career. I soon learned that 
'wastemakers want,' and I therefore saved what I earned; and, by taking 
'stitches in time,' guarded against the loss which unavoidably attends 
upon neglect and want of foresight. It did not take long for me to learn 
that drunkenness was the parent of the larger portion of the poverty, 
vice, and, crime which afflict the American people; and hence, until 
advancing age seemed to demand moderate stimulants, I carefully avoided 
alcoholic liquors as the greatest curse of the young, and the most deadly 
foe to domestic happiness and the public welfare. 

"Next, I observed that most of the shipwrecks in life were due to debts 
hastily contracted, and not of proportion to the means of the debtor, and 
hence I always avoided debt, and endeavored to keep some ready money on 
hand to avail of a favorable opportunity for its profitable use. With 
economy and industry, it is easy to do this in this favored land; and in 
my case the result has been that, amid all the financial revolutions 
through which I have passed, no obligation of mine has ever been a day in 
areas. Debt is a slavery which every young man ought to avoid, or, if 
assumed, ought not to endure for one day beyond the shortest time 
necessary to set him free. Shunning intemperance and debt, and practicing 
industry, rigid economy, and self-denial, it was easy to be honest, and to 
acquire such knowledge as the opportunities of this city offered in the 
days of my youth. But these opportunities were so limited, there being no 
free schools by day, nor any night-schools whatever, that I found it far 
more difficult to learn what I wanted to know, than to be industrious, 
temperate, and prudent. Hence, I decided, if I should prosper in the 
acquisition of worldly means, to found an institution to which all young 
people of the working-class, who desired to be good citizens and to rise 
in life, could resort without money and without price, in order to acquire 
that knowledge of their business and science which, in these days, is 
absolutely indispensable to a successful career. Providence, in accordance 
with the declaration that to 'faith all things are possible,' did bless my 
efforts; and this institution, and these encouraging evidences of its 
value and its fruits presented here tonight, is the result of this 
resolution, never lost sight of during a business career of nearly sixty 
years, in which I was cheered, comforted, sustained, and encouraged by the 
greatest of human blessings, a diligent, wise, industrious, faithful, and 
affectionate wife; and in the work of founding this institution, aided by 
the earnest sympathy and active cooperation of my children, who justly 
regarded as the richest portion of their inheritance that part of my 
wealth which I desired to consecrate to the public welfare. Hence, my last 
lesson for the young is to marry at the proper age, when, aged not before, 
they can see the way clear to a decent and comfortable support, and thus 
fulfill the first law of Nature with a high and holy sense of its 
happiness and its duties, the greatest and most serious in the path of 
life. Love ants duty I have ever found to be the passwords of all that is 
true and noble in life, and, when they are separated, the fires on the 
family altar die out, and life loses all its charms, never to be 
compensated by the false jewels which are often worn in the public gaze. 

"These are, indeed, simple truths, which I have endeavored to set forth in 
words equally simple, because I feel sure from a very long experience that 
they will do good to every young man and young woman who will firmly 
resolve to make them the rule of life, and because I began life without 
means, and know the truth of what I affirm. 

"But, having also acquired what is regarded as riches, have I earned the 
right, by the use I have made of them, to give any advice or speak a word 
of encouragement to others, who, by the will of God, are in trusted with 
the great responsibility of wealth? Whether I have this right or not, I 
feel impelled to record my conviction, derived from personal experience, 
that the rich man who regards his wealth as a sacred trust, to be used for 
the welfare of his fellowmen, will assuredly derive more true enjoyment 
from it in this world than from the most lavish expenditure on mere 
personal enjoyments and social display. I do not pretend to prescribe any 
standard of expenditure for others; and I am quite ready to subscribe to 
the doctrine that a just and faithful trustee should be liberally paid for 
his services, and should not be restricted in the reasonable gratification 
of his desires, so long as the rights of others arc not thereby infringed; 
and I desire to give the fullest recognition to the sacredness of private 
property, and the conservation of capital, as for the best interests of 
society and all the members thereof: But I cannot shut my eyes to the fact 
that the production of wealth is not the work of any one man, and the 
acquisition of great fortunes is not possible without the cooperation of 
multitudes of men; and that, therefore, the individuals to whose lot these 
fortunes fall, whether by inheritance or the laws of production and trade, 
should never lose sight of the fact that, as they hold them only by the of 
society, expressed in statute law, so they should administer them as 
trustees for the benefit of society, as inculcated by the moral law. 

"When rich men are thus brought to regard themselves as trustees, and poor 
men learn to be industrious, economical, temperate, self-denying, and 
diligent in the acquisition of knowledge, then the deplorable strife 
between capital and labor, tending to destroy their fundamental, 
necessary, and harmony, will cease; and the world will be no longer 
afflicted with such unnatural industrial conflicts as we have seen during 
the past century in every quarter of the civilized globe, and latterly on 
so great a scale in this country, arraying those whom Nature intended to 
be firm allies and inseparable friends into hostile camps, in which the 
great law of love and mutual forbearance is extinguished by selfish 
passions. 

"The law of force, whether expressed in trade associations, preventing 
other men from exercising their inalienable right to labor where they can 
find work, or in combinations of capitalists, seeking by lockouts to close 
up the avenues of labor, are equally reprehensible, and should never be 
allowed, under any provocation whatever, to take the place of the Divine 
law, 'Whatsoever they would that men should do unto you, do even so unto 
them;' nor will such an unnatural and criminal substitution ever be 
possible, if poor men will remember that it is the duty, and therefore the 
right, of every poor man to strive to become rich by honest, intelligent, 
and patient labor; and if rich men will remember that the possession of 
wealth, which is the fruit of the general effort, confers no right to its 
use, as an engine of oppression or coercion, upon any class which is 
concerned in its production. Let me, then, record that, during a long life 
passed in active business, I have never known any but evil consequences to 
all classes, and especially to the innocent, to result from strikes, 
lockouts, or other forcible measures, designed to interfere with the 
steady and regular march of productive industry; and I feel justified in 
an earnest appeal to both workmen and capitalists, need to, to regard each 
other as equals and friends; and to imitate the great example, so recently 
set by the enlightened Governments of Great Britain and the United States, 
in the submission of their differences to arbitration; and not to expect 
to reform social evils by combinations designed to force either side into 
the acceptance of unpalatable terms by the stern logic of starvation and 
indiscriminate ruin. 

"Reform, to be of any permanent value, must be based upon personal virtue, 
not force; and it seems to me that the millennium will not be far off when 
each individual shall set about reforming himself, rather than society, 
and conforming his life to the great law of loving God and his fellowman. 

"While I thank you again, my young friends (I had almost said my 
children), for this manifestation of your respect and gratitude, so 
touching because so full of love, let me ask you to accept of this feeble 
but heartfelt reply, as a kind of last will and testy of the garnered 
experience of an old friend, whose days are almost numbered, and who asks 
only to be remembered as 'one who loved his fellowmen.'"



CHAPTER XXVI.
PRIZE FOR BEST LOCOMOTIVE.

We will now resume our history of the early locomotives in America, 
believing that our readers will pardon our digression. 

As it may be interesting to railroad engineers and machinists, we insert 
here the conditions required and the premium offered by the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad company for the best locomotive of American manufacture, 
which were Referred to in Mr. Latrobe's letter to the author: true, 
adapted to their road, the president and directors hereby give public 
notice that they will pay the sum of four thousand dollars for the most 
approved engine which shall be delivered for trial upon the road, on or 
before the 1st of month, 1831; and they will also pay three thousand five 
hundred dollars for the engine which shall be adjudged the next best, and 
be delivered as aforesaid, subject to the following conditions, to wit: 

"The engine must burn coke or coal, and must consume its own smoke. 

"The engine, when in operation, must not exceed three and one-half tons' 
weight, and must, on a level road, be capable of drawing, day by day, 
fifteen tons, inclusive of the weight of the wagons, fifteen miles per 
hour. The company to furnish wagons of Winans's construction, the friction 
of which will not exceed five pounds to the ton. 

"In deciding on the relative advantages of the several engines, the 
company will take into consideration their respective weights, power, and 
durability, and, all other things being equal will adjudge a preference to 
the engine weighing the least. 

"Fourth. The flanges are to run on the inside of the rails. The form of 
the cone and flanges, and the tread of the wheels, must be such as are now 
in use on the road. If the working parts are so connected as to work with 
the adhesion of all the four wheels, then all the wheels shall be of equal 
diameter, not to exceed three feet; but if the connection be such as to 
work with the adhesion of two wheels only, then those two wheels may have 
a diameter not exceeding four feet, and the other two wheels shall be and 
a half feet in diameter, and shall work with Willans's friction-wheels, 
which last will be furnished upon application to the company. The flanges 
to be four feet seven and a half inches apart, Mom outside to outside. The 
wheels to be coupled four feet from center to center, in order to suit 
curves of short radius. 

"The pressure of steam not to exceed one hundred pounds to the square 
inch, and, as a less pressure will be preferred, the company, in deciding 
on the advantages of the several engines, will take consideration their 
relative degrees of pressure. The company will be at liberty to put the 
boiler, fire-tube, cylinder, etc., to the test of a pressure of water not 
exceeding three times the pressure of the steam intended to be worked, 
without being answerable for any damage the machine may receive in 
consequence of such test. 

"There must be two safety-valves, one of which must be completely out of 
the reach of the engine-man, and neither of which must be fastened down 
while the engine is working. 

"The engine and boiler must be supported on springs and rest on four 
wheels, and the height from the ground to the top of the chimney must not 
exceed twelve feet. 

"There must be a mercurial gauge affixed to the machine, with an index-
rod, showing the steam-pressure above fifty pounds per square inch, and 
constructed to blow out at one hundred and twenty pounds. 

"The engines which may appear to offer the greatest advantages will be 
subjected to the performance of thirty days' regular work on the road; at 
the end of which time, if they shall have proved durable, and continue to 
be capable) of performing agreeably to their first exhibition, as 
aforesaid, they will be received and paid for as here stipulated. 

"N. B., The railroad company will provide and will furnish a tender and a 
supply of water and fuel for trial. Persons desirous of examining the 
road, or of obtaining more minute information, are invited to address 
themselves to the president of the company. The least radius of curvature 
of the road is four hundred feet. Competitors who arrive with their 
engines before the 1st of June, will be allowed to make experiments on the 
road previous to that day. 

"The editors of the National Gazette, Philadelphia, Commercial Advertiser, 
New York, and Pittsburg Statesman, will copy the above once a week, for 
four weeks, and forward their bills to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
Company." 

As Mr. Latrobe says in his letter before quoted, Phineas Davis's engine, 
built at York, Pennsylvania, was the only one which came up to the 
requirements of the company. After a trial, and several modifications and 
changes, each as it suggested itself, late in the summer of 1831, the 
Davis (or rather "Davis and (partners") engine was found capable of 
pulling on the part of the road between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills, 
thirteen miles, four loaded cars of the gross weight of fourteen tons, in 
about one< hour. 

This engine was mounted on wheels like those of the ordinary cars, thirty 
inches in diameter, and its velocity was effected by means of gearing with 
a spur wheel and pinion on one of the axles of the roads wheels. 

In the construction of the road from Baltimore to the Point of Rocks, 
every mode hitherto suggested by science or experience had been tested, 
and thus the work must be regarded as having the honor of solving most of 
the problems which presented themselves in this early period of railroads 
in this country. The granite, and the iron rail; the wood and iron, on 
stone blocks; the wood and iron on wooden sleepers, supported by broken 
stone; the same supported by longitudinal ground-sills in place of broken 
stones; the log- rail, formed of trunks of trees, worked to a surface on 
one side to receive the iron, and supported by wooden sleepers; and the 
wrought- iron rails of the English mode, had all been laid down, and as 
early as 1832 formed different portions of the work. Great credit is 
therefore due to the engineers and workmen of this road, for the patience 
displayed in carrying out their work, at that time the longest in the 
world; nothing in England could approach it in the magnitude and extent of 
its plan. These men labored long, at great cost, and with a diligence 
which is worthy of all praise. Their road and workshops have been a 
lecture-room to thousands who are now practising and improving upon their 
hard-earned experience.



CHAPTER XXVII.
FIRST AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE.

While these events were transpiring in Maryland, through the progress of 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a similar enterprise, nearly equal in its 
magnitude, and fully so in importance, had been started in another section 
of the country. The practicability of establishing a railroad 
communication between the city of Charleston, South Carolina, and 
Williamsburg, on the western border of the State, a distance of one 
hundred and thirty-six miles, must have been talked of, and even some 
primary steps taken for its consummation, as early as 1827. We have seen, 
in an old file of the Charleston Courier, dated December, 1827, the 
following copy of a letter from Columbia, the capital of the State, where 
the Legislature was in session at the time. It says: 

"The committee to whom the Charleston memorial was referred is divided in 
opinion on the propriety of an appropriation for the survey of the country 
between Charleston and Hamburg. Some of the committee think that if the 
railroad is to be the tools of a company, who is to receive all the 
profits, the whole expense should be borne by the company. And again, that 
if a survey be effected by the State, it would not be done so 
satisfactorily to the community as it probably would be if managed by 
individuals immediately interested." 

However, a bill, granting a charter for the South Carolina Railroad, was 
passed December 19, 1827. Fifteen days after, on January 4, 1828, a 
meeting of the citizens was called, and a committee appointed to report on 
that charter at the next meeting. The second 

"A meeting of the citizens is requested at the City Hall, this day, at 1 
o'clock, to take into consideration the report of the committee on the 
subject of the railroad from this city to Hamburg. At a previous meeting 
on January 4th, the subcommittee had reported unfavorably. This committee 
pointed out many parts of the General Act of the Legislature for 
incorporating companies for constructing turnpike-roads, bridges, and 
ferries, that were inapplicable to a railroad company, as the bill now 
before the Legislature." 

On the reassembling of the Legislature, January 21, 1828, after the usual 
Christmas recess, Mr. Black presented a memorial praying amendments to the 
act of the last session, and a new bill was reported on the 22nd. 

January 29, 1828, the present charter of the South Carolina Railroad was 
granted. A motion had been made to strike out the provision en emptying 
the property of the road from taxation The yeas and nays were taken yeas 
13, nays 22, and the bill passed. 

The stockholders organized as a company on the 12th of May, 1828, being 
the second railroad company formed in the United States for commercial 
purposes and the transportation of passengers and freight. 

At one of the earliest meetings of the projectors, Horatio Allen, Esq. 
(before mentioned), well known as an experienced engineer, had been 
invited by them to fill the position of chief engineer of the contemplated 
work. In compliance with their request, Mr. Allen made a report at the 
first meeting, five days after their organization recommending the kind of 
road to be constructed and the kind of power best suited to be used upon 
the road. Having visited England to survey the progress so far made in 
railroads and locomotive power, and having been requested, while in 
England, by John B. Jervis, Esq., chief engineer of the Delaware and 
Hudson Railroad, to contract for the iron for that roads and procure for 
it three first- class locomotives, the Charleston Railroad directors had 
confidence in his skill and judgment. In his report at this first meeting, 
Mr. Allen used all the arguments at his command to recommend the 
construction of the road for locomotive power, and with such success that 
at the meeting on January 14, 1830, when the report was acted upon, the 
Hon. Thomas Bennett offered a resolution to the effect that the locomotive 
alone should be used upon the road, and in selecting that power for its 
application to railroads, the maturity of which avid be reached within the 
time of constructing the road, would render the application of animal 
power a great abuse of the gifts of genius and science. The resolution was 
unanimously carried. At the celebration in Dunkirk, New York, in 1852, in 
commemoration of the completion of the New York and Erie Railway, Mr. 
Allen, alluding to this subject in his address, makes use of the following 
language: 

"At the same period, that is, prior to the great locomotive trial in 
England, and when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company were so strongly 
impressed in favor of horse-power, it became necessary for me, as engineer 
of the South Carolina Railroad Company, to decide for what power that road 
should be built. The road was one hundred and thirty-six miles long. From 
the character of the country, the plan of the road would be naturally 
influenced by the kind of power adopted. Stationary power was out of the 
question, but the opinion was held, by many of great intelligence, that 
horse-power should at least be commenced with. In the report I made on 
this important question, I submitted such comparative estimate of the 
results of horse-power and locomotive-power as the information then to be 
had appeared to me to sustain. That estimate was in favor of locomotive-
power, but I rested the decision of the question on the position that, 
what the performance of a horse was and would be, every one knew; but the 
man was not living who would undertake to say what the locomotive was yet 
to do; and I may add that, after more than thirty years have elapsed, 
during every one of which the soundness of this position has gained new 
grounds to sustain it, he would be a bold man who would say that we had 
attained the limit in the performance, and especially in the economy of 
performance, of this great mechanical blessing to mankind. In the 
recommendation of this report in favor of locomotive-power the source of 
the South Carolina Railroad Company unanimously concurred, and, as this 
decision was the first of any railway built for general freight and 
passenger business in this country or in England, it has been referred to 
as one of the interesting facts in the early history of railroads." 

The preparations for the work were at once commenced, and the road was 
begun in 1829. Six miles were completed in that year. 

Like the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a number of experiments were tried 
with different powers. 

The company offered a premium of £500 for the best locomotive by 
horsepower. This premium was awarded to Mr. C. E. Detmole, who invented 
one worked on an endless chain platform. When this horse- power locomotive 
was completed and tested upon the road, it carried twelve passengers at 
the rate of twelve miles an hour. 

A sailing car, or a car propelled by the wind, was also tested upon the 
road in 1829-'30. A description of one of the trips upon this machine we 
copy from the Charleston Coflutzer, March 20, 1830: 

"SAILING 0N LAND., A sail Novas set on a car on our railroad yesterday 
afternoon, in the presence of a large concourse of spectators. Fifteen 
gentlemen got on board and flew oft at the rate of twelve to fourteen 
miles an hour. Thirteen persons and three tons of iron were carried about 
ten miles an hour. The preparations for sailing were very hastily got up, 
and of course were not of the best kind; but owing to this circumstance 
the experiment afforded high sport. The wind blew very fresh from about 
northeast which, as a sailor would say, was 'abeam,' and would drive the 
car either way with equal speed. When going at the rate of about twelve 
miles an hour and loaded with fifteen passengers, the mast went by the 
board, with the sail and rigging attached, carrying with them several of 
the crew. The wreck was descried by several friendly shipmasters, who 
kindly rendered assistance in rigging a jury mast, and the ear was again 
soon put under way. During the afternoon the wind changed so as to bring 
it nearly ahead when going in any direction; but this did not stop the 
sport, as it was ascertained that the car would sail within four points of 
the winch. We understand it is intended by some of our seamen to rig a car 
properly, and shortly to exhibit their skill in managing a vessel on 
land." 

The president of the road, Mr. Tupper, in one of his reports to the board, 
informs them that on March 1, 1830, the committee to whom the matter was 
referred had reported that they had accepted the offer of Mr. E. L. 
Miller, of Charleston, to construct a locomotive at the West Point 
Foundery, in New York, and that it should perform at the rate of ten miles 
per hour, instead of eight, as first proposed, and carry three times her 
weight, which was required the year before, on the Liverpool and 
Manchester Railroad, at the trial for the premium of £500. 

Mr. Miller immediately set about the construction of his locomotive. His 
plans and specifications were drawn out by the same Mr. Detmole, who had 
invented the horse power locomotive on the Charleston road, and who was 
then living in New York. 

Meantime the work on the road was pushed forward, and another mile 
completed, making seven miles ready for use, and many more under contract 
and fast approaching completion. 



CHAPTER XXVIII.
FURTHER TRIALS.

Mr. DAVID CASHEW, who was foreman of the hands fitting up machinery in the 
West Point Founder, and had charge of those fitting up the Stourbridge 
Lion, when she came from England, also had charge of the men fitting up 
the "Best Friend," the first locomotive ever built in America, for actual 
service on a railroad. In the same letter, which he addressed to the 
author in 1859, after describing the Stourbridge Lion, he thus continues: 

"The first American-built locomotive for actual service upon a railroad 
was called the 'Best Friend of Charleston.' I had charge of the hands 
fitting up this engine; this was in 1830, shortly after the Stourbridge 
Lion had been tried in our yard, and some modifications made to it. The 
locomotive 'Best Friend of Charleston' was contracted for by Mr. E. L. 
Miller, of Charleston. The best Friend was a four-wheel engine, all four 
wheels drivers. Two inclined cylinders at an angle, working down on a 
double crank, inside of the frame, with the wheels outside of the frame, 
each wheel connecting together outside, with outside rods. The wheels were 
iron hub, wooden spokes and fellows, with iron tire, and iron web and pins 
in the wheels to connect the outside rods to. 

"The boiler was a vertical one, in form of an old- fashioned porter-
bottle, the furnace at the bottom surrounded with water, and all filled 
inside full of what we called teats, running out from the sides and top, 
with alternate stays to support the crown of the furnace; the smoke and 
gas passing out through the sides at several points, into an outside 
jacket; which had the chimney on it. The boiler sat in the centre of the 
four wheels, with the connecting-rods running by it to come into the crank-
shaft. The cylinders were about six inches in the bore, and sixteen 
inches' stroke. Wheels about four and a half feet in diameter. The whole 
machine weighed about four and a half tons. It was shipped to Charleston, 
South Carolina, for the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad, in the fall of 
1830, and was put upon that road during the winter. 

"It was the first locomotive built in America, was exhibitor at our shop 
under steam for some time, and visited by many. She was shipped to 
Charleston on board of the ship Niagara, in October, 1830." Prof. Samuel 
Henry Dickson, of the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, in a 
recent letter to the author, describes his visit to the West Point 
Foundry -works in New York, in 1830. At this time the "Best Friend of 
Charleston," the first locomotive eves built in America, for actual 
service upon a railroad, was just completed, and about to be shipped to 
Charleston Prod Dickson writes as follows: 

Philadelphia, May 30, 1871. 

"WM. H. Brosen,

"DEAR SIR: In reply to your courteous letter of inquiry, just received, I 
regret that I can give you nothing better than general though very 
definite reminiscences. Dates, circumstantial details and printed 
statements, such as would best suit your purpose, have faded from my mind, 
and all written memoranda of that distant time have perished amid the 
general ruin at the South. But I recollect that, being on a tour among my 
Northern friends in the summer of 1830, I was written to on the part of 
the board of directors of the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad (the South 
Carolina Railroad), and requested, as one of that body to visit the 
foundery of Mr. Governor Kemble, to look at a locomotive-engine which he 
was building for our road, and report as on its general appearance, and 
the prospect of its completion by the appointed time. 

"Our contract had been made with Mr. E. L. Miller, who were gauged with 
Mr. Kemble to build the machine. Mr. Miller accompanied me to the 
workshop, where I saw with intense interest an great satisfaction, not 
unmixed with some pride too, the first toes motive constructed in this 
country. Never having seen a locomotive, and being neither engineer nor 
mechanic, I could not of course presume to pronounce upon its merits, and 
was as curious and anxious about the result of our experiment as any one 
interested. But I had read and heard a good deal on the subject, and did 
not hesitate to recommend the prompt acceptance of the engine from the 
contractor, and to congratulate my fellow-directors upon its promise of 
decided utility and advantage to our great enterprise. 

"Mr. Miller named it, I think, 'The Best Friend,' and it was forwarded to 
Charleston late that fall or early in the winter, when it was at once put 
upon the road. It did not disappoint our hopes, but proved in capacity and 
serviceable qualities all that we had expected. It was run long and 
successfully, under the charge of Mr. Darrell, one of our young native 
machinists. I am under the impression that it was one day blown up through 
the carelessness of a Negro fireman, that it was soon repaired and 
replaced upon the road. Of its ultimate fate I am not certain, but believe 
that, after having attained a ripe old age, in process of time it finally 
wore out, and was thrown aside, the common destiny of man and all his 
works. 

"I am glad to hear of the gratifying progress of your book, and know that 
its publication will not long be delayed. Wishing you the large and 
profitable success, as an author, which your energy and perseverance so 
richly deserve, and all other forms of happiness and prosperity, 

"I remain, very truly, 
"Your friend and obedient servant, 
"HENLEY DICKSON." 

The author examined the order-book recently at the West Point Company's 
Foundry, at Cold Spring, Putnam County, on the Hudson River, for some 
reminiscences of the old "Best Friend," but all he could find (the old 
books having been lost or mislaid) was the following order from the New-
York office, dated April 6, 1830, as follows: "Two cylinders, see pattern 
locomotive-engine, nozzles for exhaust cast right and left." 

The above shows that the engine was commenced, as Mr. Matthew states, in 
the spring of 1830. 

The following paragraph appeared in the Charleston Courier, October 23, 
1830: 

"LOCOMOTIVE Steam ENGINE." We understand that the steam- engine intended 
for our road is on board the ship Niagara, which arrived in the offing 
last night." As no machinist came out with the locomotive, the 
superintendent of the railroad applied to Mr. Thomas Dotterer, of the firm 
of Dotterer & Eason, machinists and engineers, to put the machine together 
and prepare her for the road. These gentlemen appointed Mr. Julius D. 
Petsch, who was foreman in their workshops, to discharge this duty. Mr. 
Petsch, at their request, undertook the task, and selected as an assistant 
Mr. Nicholas W. Darrell, a young man just out of his time in their 
workshops. These gentlemen (Mr. Petsch and his assistant Mr. Darrell) 
immediately set about fitting up the "Best Friend" for the road, and so 
energetically did they work that in a few days all was ready. Before the 
1st of November, several experimental trials, at short distances, were 
made to see that all was right; and on the 2d of November, with Mr. 
Darrell in charge, Mr. Miller, accompanied by several gentlemen in a car, 
made a trial trip. 

The result of this trial-trip we learn from the following letter from the 
chief engineer, Horatio Allen, in the Charleston C, November 3, 1830: 

"The public will regret to learn that an accident has happened to a pair 
of the wheels of the locomotive-engine lately put upon the railroad. To 
prevent any misunderstanding or exaggeration, it is proper to communicate 
the facts. The change of direction which takes place when a carriage 
enters a curved part of a road is effected by the action of the flange 
which is attached to the rim against the iron rail. A lateral strain is 
then brought to act on the spokes of the wheel, and in this present 
instance they have proved too weak to resist it, and from this 
circumstance the accident has originated. The spokes were discovered to 
spring, and fears were entertained by Mr. Miller, shortly after he 
commenced running his engine. Yesterday he experimented with it for this 
especial purpose, and after having proceeded to the extremity of the road, 
and almost completed his return, during which time the operation of the 
engine was in the highest degree satisfactory, the forward wheel was 
sprung inward, so much so as to leave the rail entirely; and the engine, 
after proceeding about twenty feet, was stopped with both the front wheels 
off the rail, and some of the spokes much injured. 

"It is as singular as satisfactory that no other part of the frame, 
machinery, or boiler, exhibited the least derangement, affordering the 
most decisive proof of the correctness of the proportions and the 
excellence of the work. It is but justice to state that the wheels were 
made after the English wheels, the most approved until the construction of 
the wrought-iron ones. A short time will be required to replace the 
wheels, when the engine will again be put in motion. 

"No personal injury happened to any of the individuals, either on the 
passenger-car or engine. 

"HORATIO Allen. 

We next hear of the "Best Friend" through the report of President Tupper 
to the board of directors After speaking of Mr. Miller's contract to 
furnish a locomotives etc., he continues: "On the 14th and 15th of 
December, 1830, the engine was tried, and proved her force and efficiency 
to be double that contracted for; running at the rate of sixteen to twenty-
one miles an hour, with forty to fifty passengers in some four or five 
cars," and "without the cars, thirty to thirty-five miles per hour." 
Jockey of York, an amusing sporting writer, gives an account of a trip on 
Christmas-day, in his peculiar style, in the Charleston C. S. Carolina, 
December 29, 1830: 

"SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. Our distant friends no doubt are desirous to know 
the result of our Christmas sports. The celebration season was altogether 
novel and interesting. The iron horse 'Best Friend' was entered for the 
purse, about a fortnight since, to 'run against time.' The 'heat' was, 
that he should run ten miles an hour, carrying three times his own weight. 
He trained every day preparatory to the great trial of speed, and there 
were at first entertained as to 'his wind,' when everybody knowledge he 
had sufficient 'bottom.' The 'Best Friend' out of a horse bred by Messrs. 
Watt & Bolton, and of same breed as the Novelty and Rocket, which 
contended for a purse of £500, at the late Liverpool and Manchester races. 
Crossing the breed with a Columbian sire, he has eclipsed progenitors upon 
the European, and stands unrivaled upon American turf. The knowing ones 
have already hinted that dam was 'half salamander, half alligator' as he 
eats fire, breathing steam, and feeds upon light-wood. All doubts, 
however, or being 'short- winded' have been dissipated, and it is now 
coincedentally believed that he can run one hundred miles without for, 
like Pat, after the foot-race at Donnybrook Fair, being questioned if he 
was 'out of Breath,' he replied, 'No, I'm only likely to be troubled with 
too much of it.' But, Editor, allegory apart, I am the 'odd fellow' of the 
one hundred and forty-one persons who were drawn or rather whisked though 
the air by the iron horse or locomotive-engine, on Christmas day, which 
sped through the air like a meteor swift, while the crowds from around it 
did fearfully drift to the right and the left, as it passed.

"We flew on the wings of the wind at the varied speed fifteen to twenty-
five miles an hour, annihilating time and spa[?] and, like the renowned 
John Gilpin, leaving all the world behind. A venerable friend of mine, 
seventy-five years of age, gravely marked he thought it was passing 
through life rather too qu[?] as the journey at least was a very short 
one. 'Very true, good sir,' said I. 'We cannot, however, just now take 
time those sage reflections on matters and things in general so necessary 
to our mental and moral improvement.' It was nine minutes five and one-
fourth seconds since we started, and we discovered ourselves beyond the 
forks of the State and Dorches roads. Somebody exclaimed the engine was 
'waltzing.' I looked around, and 'tis a fact, Mr. Editor; notwithstanding 
the apparent absence of every moving principle of grace or activity, it 
turned round as nimbly as a miss of sixteen: but I swear by the spectacles 
I shall one day or other wear, that either the road or engine turned round 
like a top, in proof of which I appeal to own pumps, if it did not 
afterward chased to the left and remain there until the three cars led off 
country-dance before it. Never did reviewing general present a more 
warlike front to troops passing on line of march than did this same knight 
in his ironbound armor. As each car came in front, it gave us three whiffs 
of steam in acknowledgment that the compliment to our company was felt and 
appreciated. Never were the three ruffles of the drum more gratifying to 
my feelings when military ardor fired my breast. On our return, it again 
headed the column. We came to Sans-Souci in quick and double-quick time. 
Here we stopped to take up a recruiting-party, darted forth like a live 
rocket, scattering sparks and flames on either side, passed over three 
salt-water creeks, hop, step, and jump, and landed us all safe at the 
Lines before any of us had time to determine whether or not it was prudent 
to be scared. It beats the Dumb Chess-Player all hollow. Your obedient 
servant, JOCKEY OF YORK. 



CHAPTER XXIX.
EXPLOSION OF "BEST FRIEND".

ON Friday the last of June, 1831, the boiler of the "Best Friend" 
exploded. As this is the first boiler explosion upon a locomotive on 
record in America, we will give the account of the accident and its 
consequences, from an article in the Charleston C, June 18, 1831: 

SATURDAY Morning, June 18, 1531. 

The locomotive 'Best Friend' started yesterday morning to meet the lumber-
cars at the Forks of the Road, and, while turning on the revolving 
platform, the steam was suffered to accumulate by the negligence of the 
fireman, a Negro, who, pressing on the safety valve, prevented the surplus 
steam flow escaping, by which means the boiler burst at the bottom, was 
forced [missing], and injured Mr. Darrell, the engineer, and two Negroes. 
The one had his thigh broken, and the other received a severe cut in the 
face and a slight one in the flesh part of the breast. Mr. Darrell was 
scalded from the shoulder- blade down his back. The boiler divas thrown to 
the distance of twenty-five feet. None of the persons are dangerously 
injured except the Negro, who had his thigh broken. The accident occurred 
in consequence of the Negro holding down the safety-valve while Mr. 
Darrell, the engineer, was assisting to arrange the lumber- cars, and 
thereby not permitting the necessary escape of steam above the pressure 
the engine was allowed to carry." 

The wreck of the "Best Friend" was sent to the shops of Mr. Dotterer for 
repairs and such alterations as were found upon experiment to be 
necessary. 

Railroad men of the present day will no doubt ask, "Why was the engineer, 
Mr. Darrell, not at his post upon the engine, and why was he attending to 
the arrangement of the lumber-cars, leaving his engine in charge of his 
Negro fireman?" To these questions we will reply by stating that, at that 
early day in railroad affairs, no such officers of a train as conductors, 
flagon or brakemen, had been instituted. The engineers of locomotives, 
like the drivers of the old- fashioned staged coaches in by-gone days, and 
of the horse-cars used up on railroads, had to do their own hitching up, 
etc. Hence the reason why Mr. Darrell was not on the engine during the 
arrangement of the train. At that time every thing had to be learned as 
the necessity demanded it. Previous to the explosion of the "Best Friend," 
an accident occurred at a switch, which is explained by Mr. Allen, the 
chief engineer, and which called for a new order from the directors, which 
we will insert as an illustration of our remarks in the case of the 
explosion: 

Charleston May 14, 1831. TO ELIAS HORRY, ESQ., PRESIDENT

SIR: I hasten to communicate the causes which produced the accident of 
yesterday afternoon. It originated in the wild de- rangement of the 
tongue, which guides the wheel through the turnout, by some ill-disposed 
person, and was rendered injurious to the car by the imprudent speed 
allowed by those who had the management of the engine, the tongue having 
been nailed to its proper position, but was made loose by removing the 
fastening, and was probably shaken from its place by the speed with which 
the engine and one car had preceded the one injured. Directions have been 
given to pass the turnout at moderate speed, and the attention of the 
person in charge to be constantly kept on the road in advance of the 
engine. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
HORATIO ALLEN. 

Extract from the minutes, July 3, 1831, in reference to the order above 
alluded to by Mr. Allen: 

Resolved, That in future not over twenty-five passengers be allowed to go 
on each car. That the locomotive shall not travel at a greater speed when 
there is attached: 

One car and passengers at fifteen miles an hour. Two cars and passengers 
at twelve miles an hour. Three cars and passengers at ten miles an hour. 
And that directions be given to that effect. 

The foregoing will no doubt draw a smile upon the faces of engineers and 
railroad-men of the present day. It only serves to show the crudeness of 
railroad experience, at that early day, of locomotives. 

The following letter from Mr. Nicholas W. Darrell, the first locomotive-
engineer in America, will, we trust, be read with interest, especially by 
his fellow-engineers and railroad-men. It was received in answer to some 
inquiries made of him by the author, in reference to the "Best Friend." 

Charleston, September 2, 1869. Otis. We. H. BROWN

DEAR SIR: Your letter came to hand a few days ago, and I now hasten to 
reply to it, with all the information I can give you upon the subject at 
this distant day, drawn from memory alone, as I have no notes to which to 
refer. 

In the spring of 1830, Mr. E. L. Miller, of our city, entered into a 
contract to furnish the South Carolina Railroad with a locomotive that 
should travel ten miles an hour, and draw three times its own weight. 

Under this contract Mr. Miller brought out his engine, which was built at 
the West Point Foundery in New-York City. The engine arrived by the ship 
Niagara in Charleston, in the latter part of October, 1830. The engine was 
called the 'Best Friend, of Charleston.' Mr. Julius D. Petsch and myself 
had served our apprenticeship with Mr. Thomas Dotterer, of the firm of 
Dotterer & Eason, as machinists and engineers, and were engaged to put 
this engine together, and made the first run or trail trip, when she 
proved equal to double the stipulations of the contract, running at the 
rate of sixteen to twenty-one miles an hour, with forty or fifty 
passengers in four or five cars, and making thirty to thirty- five miles 
per hour without cars. From this date I was regularly engaged as the 
engineer of the 'Best Friend,' the first locomotive ever built and run in 
this country, in the actual service of a company. 

In June, 1831, the boiler of the 'Best Friend' exploded, while in charge 
of myself. She was rebuilt by Mr. Thomas Dotterer, who substituted 
straight axles and cast wheels and wrought tires, for crank-axles and wood 
wheels with iron tires. Her name was also changed, and called the 
'Phoenix.' During the repairs and alterations of the 'Best Friend,' a 
second engine, called the 'West Point,' arrived in Charleston, and was put 
upon the road. Of this engine I was also engineer. When the 'Phoenix' was 
repaired, she was run by Henry Raworth as engineer. 

I continued to run the 'West Point' until the first eight wheel engine was 
brought out, called the 'South Carolina,' built in New York, after plans 
of Mr. Horatio Allen, then chief en engineer of the South Carolina 
Railroad. Julius D. Petsch, Nicholas W. Darrell (myself), John Eason, and 
Henry Raworth, were the first to run locomotives. We were all apprentices 
of Mr. Thomas Dotterer, and natives of Charleston. I have been constantly 
in the employ of the South Carolina rail- road from December 8, 1830, to 
the present time; was born on the Jan. 12th day of November, 1807.
Attached is a rough sketch of the 'Best Friend,' made from recollection 
alone, yet I was so long upon the machine, and had her so many years 
before my eyes, that her general form and appearence can never be 
forgotten. I have shown the sketch to many of the old hands now living, 
and they all exclaim at once, 'There is the old "Best Friend!"' When I run 
the 'Best Friend,' I had a Negro fireman to fire, clean, and grease the 
machine. This Negro, annoyed at the noise occasioned by the blowing off 
the steam, fastened the valve- lever down and sat upon it, which caused 
the explosion, badly injuring him, from the effects of which he died 
afterward, and scalding me. I hope this information will be of service to 
you. If you re quire any other facts in reference to the first engines, 
let me hear from you. Yours with great respect, MR. W. DARRELL, First 
Superintendent of Machinery, South Carolina Railroad. 

The following letter from James M. Eason, Esq., of Charleston, South 
Carolina, who is a manufacturer of steam-engines, boilers, and machinery, 
will serve to establish the fact that, not only was the South Carolina 
Railroad the very first in the world built expressly for locomotives, but 
it was also the pioneer in having the first locomotive for actual service 
in America built for their use; also the first to order a locomotive to be 
built in their midst and by one of their own native mechanics and 
citizens: 

OFFICE OF J. M. EASON AND BROTIXEB, MANUFACTURES OF STEAM ENGINES, 
BOILERS, AND MACHINERY. CHARLESTON, S. C., September 24, 1869. MR. H. 
BROWNS ESQ.

DEAR SIR: I enclose you a note from old Mr. Darrell, and also a photograph 
of him which I prevailed upon him to have taken for you. If of any 
interest to you, I could send you a photograph of Thomas Dotterer, who, in 
early railroad days, built the 'station,' the first locomotive ever built 
with outside connections and straight axles. After the explosion of the 
'Best Friend,' he changed her to straight axles and made iron wheels. Mr. 
Dotterer was considered one of the best natural mechanics of his day. J. 
D. Petseb, N. W. Darrell, Henry Raworth, John Eason, etc., were the early 
locomotive- engineers here, and were all apprentices of his. Every master-
machinist in charge of the South Carolina Railroad machinery and shops, up 
to this day, was his apprentice. 

I remember the first trip of the 'Native.' She had been started out to run 
up the road, and I well remember the great prejudice which Mr. Dotterer 
had to encounter against his plan of outside connections, which was then 
urged to this effect: that the power, being applied to the end of the 
axle, would rack the road to pieces and the engine too; that the thing 
(not calling it an engine) would not do, etc. But, nothing daunted, he 
made the engine and sent it out. Evening came, and the locomotive, 
probably the second ever run on the road, certainly the first after the 
'West Point,' did not arrive with the train. Great uneasiness was 
manifested by the officers of the company, for in those days everybody 
interested attended at the arrival of a locomotive. Finally night came on; 
neither the regular train nor the little 'Nathan' (for she only weighed 
about four tons) was in sight, and the murmurings could be heard in knots 
of persons and officials, that the damned thong had broken the road, or 
blown up, or some other casualty had happened to her, and prevented the 
arrival of the other locomotive and train. 

My dear sir, imagine Mr. Dotterer's feelings; but behold him, the man of 
genius, standing amid the bickering of men, almost fearing that his little 
engine was the cause of the delay, when a voice cried out, 'She's coming!' 
and the sparks from the smoke-pipe were observed (for in those days spark-
arrestors were not perfected). Then a general rush to hear the news to see 
what caused the detention, and learn the fate of the poor home- made 
'Native,' when a cry from a faithful friend of Mr. Dotterer, 'Why, 'tis 
the Native pulling locomotive and train!' Then look at Thomas Dotterer, 
with a heart full, with teardrops on his eyes, as the smile of successful 
championship and confidence in his work played upon his countenance. I 
stood beside him at that moment, and shared with him in his pride. If I 
had the time and the ability, I could gather many interesting facts of 
early railroad times here in our old city, for I can remember many things. 
But I only intended to enclose to you Mr. Darnel's letter and his 
photograph, and trust you will excuse me for thus intruding on your 
valuable time. 

Very respectfully, yours, etc., 
JAMES EPSON.