History of the First Locomotives in America - Chapters 30-34



CHAPTER XXX.
SECOND AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE.

THE second locomotive for the South Carolina Railroad, and also the second 
built in this country, arrived at Charleston by the ship Lafayette on 
Monday, February 28, 1831. This engine was ordered from the West Point 
Founder, and constructed Tom plans sent by Horatio Allen, Esq., the chief 
engineer of the road. Of this locomotive, Mr. David Matthew, after 
describing in his letter to the author, in 18_9, the "Stourbridge Lion" 
and the "Best Friend" locomotives, thus continues: 

"American locomotive number two was called the 'West Point.' This engine 
was contracted for by Horatio Allen, and wae commenced by me, David 
Matthew, in the fall of 1830, and completed and shipped to the Charleston 
and Hamburg Railroad about the middle of February, 1831. This locomotive 
had the same size of engine, frame, wheels, and cranks, as the 'Best 
Friend,' but has a horizontal tubular boiler. The tubes were two and a 
half inches in diameter and about six feet long." 

After this engine was run upon the road for some time, a trial of her 
speed was made, which is thus described in the Charleston Courier, August 
1, 1831: 

"On Saturday afternoon, March 5, 1831, the locomotive 'West Point' 
underwent a trial of speed, with the barrier car and four cars for 
passengers, on our railroad. There were one hundred and seventeen 
passengers, of which number fifty were ladies in the four cars and nine 
persons on the engine, with six bales of cotton on the barrier car, and 
the trip to the Five-mile House, two and three fourths miles, was 
completed in eleven minutes, where the cars were stopped to oil the axles 
about two minutes. The two and one fourth miles to the forks of Dorchester 
road were completed in eight minutes. The safety has been insured by the 
introduction of the barrier-car(*) and the improvements in the formation 
of the flange of the wheels, which we learn was made by a young mechanic 
of this city, Mr. Julius D. Petsch, in the company's service. The new 
locomotive worked admirably, and the safety-valve being out of the reach 
of any person but the engineer, will contribute to the prevention of 
accidents in future, such as befell the 'Best Friend.'" 

(* A car with bales of cotton fixed up as a rampart between the locomotive 
and passenger cars.)

As we before stated, Mr. Nicholas W. Darrell was the engineer who ran this 
machine from the time it was put on the road. He thus describes it in a 
letter to the author: 

CHARLESTON, S. C., September 23, 1869. "MR. WILLIAM H. BROWN,  

"RESPECTED SIR: I have received your favor of the 22d of August, and would 
have answered it before this time, but, being quite indisposed in health, 
I have been prevented. 

"It gives me pleasure to know that the information and sketch of the 'Best 
Friend' I sent in my last letter is of any service to you. I will now give 
you such information of the second locomotive. 

"Live for our road as my memory serves. The engine was named the 'West 
Point.' The boiler was horizontal, with tubes or flues running lengthwise 
with the boiler, about five or six feet long and, I think, about three 
inches in diameter. I think their number was six or eight. These tubes, or 
flues, or whatever you may call them, were riveted to the fire-box and to 
the other end of the boiler. They were made of iron, and the water in the 
boiler surrounded them, and the fame and smoke passed through the tubes 
into the smoke-box. 

"The engine was similar in every respect to the 'Best Friend,' except in 
the boiler. I herewith send you a rough sketch of the machine as near as I 
can recollect. 

"Several persons now living, and who saw the engine at that time, think 
that the sketch looks very much like the old 'West Point.' Hoping that 
this brief information may lead to some more important results from some 
more valuable source, I remain, dear 

Sir, Very respectfully, etc., 
"Formerly Superintendent of Machinery, South Carolina Railroad!." 

Tristram Tupper, Esq., the president of the South Carolina Railroad, in 
one of his reports under the head of "The History of the Road," gives an 
extract from the report of the Hon. Thomas Bennett, four days after the 
building of the road had commenced, as follows: 

"The locomotive shall alone be used. The perfection of this power in its 
application to railroads is fast maturing, and will certainly reach, 
within the period of constructing our road, a degree of excellence which 
will render the application of animal power a gross abuse to the gifts of 
genius and science." 

"This," continues Mr. Tupper, "was assuming a great deal, when animal 
power was used, years afterward, on all the other railroads then in 
progress in this country. But what, then, were our expectations as regards 
the performance of a locomotive?

"On March 1, 1830, a committee reported that they too had accepted the 
offer of Mr. E. L. Miller to construct a locomotive-engine in New York, at 
the West Point Founder; and that she should perform at the rate of ten 
miles are 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 a trial of engines for the premium of two, which 
Mr. Miller went out to witness. Mr. Miller's engine, under this contract, 
was brought out by him in the fall of 1830, and on the 14th and 15th of 
December, 1830, had her trial and proved her power and efficiency to be 
double those contracted for. She was the first locomotive engine built in 
the United States to run on a rail- road. She was first called the 'Best 
Friend,' but having her boiler burst in June, 1831, and renewed in 
Charleston, she was afterward called the 'Pheenis.'" This engine was built 
according to the plan and under the personal direction of our talented and 
enterprising fellow-citizen E. L Miller, Esq. At the time this engine was 
engaged, 1830, Mr. Miller led the van among the advocates of steam over 
horse or any other power for railroads. Public opinion was, at that time, 
much divided on the subject; the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company 
leaned in favor of horse-power; but, nothing daunted by the weight of 
their authority, Mr. Miller persevered, and, with an unyielding 
fearlessness of purpose, proposed to construct an engine, on his own 
responsibility, equal to the best then in use in England. He succeeded, 
and to him belongs the honor of planning and constructing the "Best
Friend," the first locomotive ever baby card worked on a railroad in the 
Ignited States. The directors of the South Carolina Railroad, there fore, 
are not only entitled to the credit of having had built for their 
railroad, and run upon it, the first locomotive built in the United 
States, for the practical use of their road, but they are also entitled to 
the credit of being the pioneers in having their railroad the first, not 
only in America but the first in the world, constructed from the very 
beginning for the use of locomotive power. 

When the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was commenced nearly a year before, 
from the lack of experience and under the advice of the best English 
engineers, the track was designed and constructed for horse-power, and not 
until it had been built as far as Ellicott's Mills, a distance of thirteen 
miles, did the subject of locomotives come under deliberation; as Mr. 
Peter Cooper states in his letter to the author: "The road, in the opinion 
of the largest stockholders, was considered ruined for locomotives, which 
at that time began to show some signs of advancement and improvement in 
England, and they refused, in many instances, to advance another dollar 
toward its completion;" when Mr. Cooper's little locomotive, the "Tom 
Thumb," demonstrated the fact that, although the road was really built for 
horse-power, locomotives could be run upon it successfully. But with the 
Charleston Railroad directors there was no such doubt. At the first 
meeting of the board, the chief engineer of the road, Horatio Allen, made 
his able report on the kind of power the road should be constructed to 
sustain, and this report was followed by that memorable resolution of Mr. 
Bennett that it should be built for locomotive power; and this resolution 
was unanimously adopted and acted upon in the contract with Mr. Miller to 
furnish a locomotive.



CHAPTER XXXI.
FIRST LOCOMOTIVE-ENGINEER.

WE have mentioned the name of Mr. Nicholas W. Darrell (whose likeness is 
herewith presented) as the first engineer of the two first-built 
locomotives in America; and we are also indebted to him for the 
descriptions and the sketches of these pioneer machines for railroad 
usefulness, the "Best Friend, of Charleston," and the "West Point." 

A few months only after we received from Mr. Darrell's own hand these 
letters of description and sketches, the old veteran in railroad service, 
from his age and infirmities, yielded up his spirit to the God that gave 
it, and died in Charleston, the place of his nativity, and of his long 
career of usefulness, on the 4th of December, 1869, beloved and regretted 
by all who knew him. 

In December, 1830, Mr. Darrell stood upon the platform of the "Best
Friend" as its engineer. What imagination could then have conceived any 
thing like our present system of railroads, covering a continent with a 
net-work of iron stretching out its arms from the Atlantic to the Pacific? 
Yet, at that very time and place, 1830, at Charleston, existed one of the 
small beginnings. The man who helped to give the initial impulse to the 
wheels of locomotion has recently departed this life, beloved and 
respected by a large circle of friends and acquaintances, but almost 
unknown to the public; yet, in Charleston, he was known and appreciated. 
His body was attended to its last resting-place by the entire force of 
officials and employee of the South Carolina Railroad Company, and 
numerous friends, and the work shops were closed in token of respect for 
the first loco motive-engineer in America.

The following statement is from the Charleston Courier, January 1, 18_0. 
It without doubt will be read with a great deal of interest, especially by 
locomotive engineers of the present generation. Nicholas W. Darrell, and 
the first American-built locomotive. 

"In the November number of the Rural Carolinian, the first credit was 
given to Mr. Darrell, as being the engineer of the 'Best Friend,' the 
first American-built locomotive, which engine was brought out to this city 
in the latter part of December, 1830." 

This article was copied into the New York Scientific American. 
Subsequently, No. 23 of the same has the following editorial: 

"The first man who had charge of a locomotive in the United States turns 
out to be not Nicholas W. Darrell, as stated on page 325, current volume, 
in an article copied from the Rural Carolinian, but John Degnon, 48 First 
Street, New York. We had the pleasure of a call from Mr. Degnon, a few 
days since, and he explained to us that he was the man who took charge of 
the 'Best Friend' on its way to Charleston, and that he run this 
locomotive three months, or thereabouts, meanwhile giving Mr. Darrell the 
necessary instructions to qualify him for the post. The following year he 
executed a similar commission with a second locomotive. In proof of his 
statements, Mr. Degnon referred us to Horatio Allen and other prominent 
engineers and manufacturers of this city. 'Honor to whom honor is due!'" 

The first article in the Scientific American the author read with great 
interest; but, on seeing the second article in the same journal, he was no 
less surprised than embarrassed, for he thought he had sealed the claim of 
Mr. Darrell beyond the possibility of a doubt. He immediately addressed a 
letter to Mr. John Degnon, No. 48 First Street. At the same time he 
addressed a letter to a friend in Charleston, requesting him to institute 
the strictest inquiries into the subject. To the first letter to New York, 
the author received in reply a letter from Fames H. Degnon, the son of the 
aforesaid John Degnon, informing the author that his father had but a few 
days before breathed his last, and that he would procure all the 
information upon his father's mission, with the necessary vouchers from 
the best authorities, to establish his claim to the honor of being the 
first engineer in reference to the "Best Friend." Two years have passed 
away, but not one line from young Degnon, to substantiate his father's 
claim, has come to hand. Meanwhile, thanks to the author's friend in 
Charleston, and unfortunately for Mr. Degnon, there is still another 
living witness, in the person of Julius D. Petsch, Esq., who will speak 
for himself. Mr. Petsch is probably the oldest machinist in our country. 
He was connected, as "chief mechanical superintendent," with the South 
Carolina Railroad, under its most successful administration, and is still. 
We would like to know upon what railroad Mr. Degnon gained his experience, 
in those early days of railroads, to be able to teach any person how to 
run a locomotive. 

The following is Mr. Petsch's statement to the author: "DEAR SIR: 

"I noticed an article in the Rural Carolinian, in reference to Mr. 
Nicholas W. Darrell being the first engineer of the locomotive 'Best 
Friend,' and fully substantiate what is there narrated. I have 
subsequently seen an article in the Scientific American, in which a Mr. 
Degnon, claims being the first man who run the engine 'Best Friend,' and 
instructed Mr. Darrell for three months, which statement is entirely 
incorrect. I will give the history of the 'Best Friend' in as few words as 
possible, which is as follows: 

"Mr. E. L. Miller, who had contracted with the South Carolina Railroad 
Company to furnish them with a locomotive suitable for their road, was 
behind time in its delivery. His excuse for being so was, that he could 
get no one at that season of the year to come out South with the engine, 
and, as there was no one in Charleston competent to put the engine 
together, he was forced to delay the shipment of it until late in the 
season, when he would be able to bring a competent person with him to 
erect the same. This letter of Mr. Miller's was at the time published in 
the daily papers of Charleston. He, however, brought the engine to 
Charleston, without his competent man, and called upon Mr. Thomas Dotterer 
to give him assistance in putting it upon the road. I was at that time 
foreman of Mr. Dotterer's establishment, and was requested by him to 
undertake the job. I at first declined, on account of Mr. Miller's 
published letter; but, to please Mr. Dotterer, at last consented. I took 
Mr. Darrell who, like myself, had served his apprenticeship with Mr. 
Dottery, and was just out of his time, to assist me. After erecting and 
putting the engine on the road, I ran it for three or four days, having 
Mr. Darrell with me all the time, then turned her over to him as engineer, 
in which capacity he continued until it exploded its boiler. I might 
mention that, previous to its explosion, Mr. Dotterer had cast and put 
under her (under my superintendent) a pair of new driving-wheels, in place 
of the original, which were made of wood, and which gave out after running 
about a week or ten days." 

"The second engine was called the 'West Point,' and was built at the 
establishment of that name in New York, where the 'Best Friend' was also 
built. Mr. Darrell ran the 'West Point' while the 'Best Friend' was being 
rebuilt. The third engine was the 'South Carolina,' an eight-wheel engine, 
built at the same establishment, on a plan furnished by Mr. Horatio Allen, 
chief engineer of the road, and was the first eight-wheel engine ever 
built. Mr. Degnon came out with that engine on the part of the West Point 
company, and superintended its erection. After he left, I gave her in 
charge of Mr. Darrell. So you will perceive that, so far from Mr. Degnon 
running the 'Best Friend' and teaching Mr. Darrell, he did not come to 
Charleston until after Mr. Darrell had run the 'Best Friend' until her 
explosion, and had been transferred to the second engine, the 'West
Point,' and had run it for months. You are aware that, from the time of 
putting cast-iron drivers under the 'Best Friend' until the completion of 
the road, I had charge of the machinery department of the South Carolina 
Railroad. Mr. Horatio Allen, and Mr. D. Arnold, his assistant, can vouch 
for the facts above stated. You are welcome to make any use you may think 
proper of this communication and vindication of Mr. Darrell's claim of 
being the first locomotive-runner on the South Carolina Railroad Company, 
which was in 1830. 

"Yours truly, 
"J. D. PETSCH. 



CHAPTER XXXII.
HORATIO ALLEN'S LETTER.

WE will now close our history of the first and second American-built 
locomotives, by giving in this place Horatio Allen's communication to the 
author on several points of interest, to which we have alluded in the 
preceding pages. Mr. Allen's letter is as follows:

NEW YORK March 1, 1869. MR. WILLIAM H. BROWN 

DEAR SIR: YOU ask me for some incidents in the early history of railroads 
and locomotives in this country, of which I have personal knowledge. 

Being one of the first of American engineers who gave attention to the 
subject, at the time when the indications were that a new era in 
intercommunication was about to open, and having visited England to obtain 
the information that existed at that time, and having given special 
attention to what was to be, and proved to be, the vital element of the 
new era, the locomotive, I, of necessity, was a party to many events of 
interest at this day. It has always been my intention to place on record 
some of the earlier incidents; but the postponement to a more convenient 
time, which the business engagements of life have led to, will leave this 
intention unfulfilled. 

At your request, and, as you say, it may be of some value to you 
personally, I will briefly refer to one or two events of the character of 
that contained in the quotation sent me. The quotation is from remarks 
made by me at the opening of the New York and Erie Railroad in 1852. 

It is often and, perhaps, generally thought that the railroad system was 
imported full grown. Such is not the fact, and it would greatly interest 
many Americans to have presented the part that was taken in this country 
in the development of this great instrumentality of modern times. I have 
not the time to present it, but I will refer to one or two events. One was 
the running of the first locomotive on a railroad on this continent. 
Herewith I send the remarks made by me at the opening of the New York and 
Erie Railroad, to which I will only add, that the locomotive was built 
under my directions in England, set up and run as described in 1829. 

The first decision in the world to build a railroad expressly for 
locomotive-power, for general freight and passenger business, was in this 
country, and at a period of time which gives especial interest to that 
decision. In the year 1829, it was my duty, as chief engineer of the South 
Carolina Railroad, to report to the directors as to the plan of 
construction of that work, in length one hundred and thirty-five miles. 

At that time, the question of motive power was in the following position: 
In England, the Liverpool and Manchester company had referred the question 
of motive-power to a commission of two engineers of great eminence, James 
Walker, of London, and John W. Rastrick, of Stone Bridge. These gentlemen, 
after a thorough examination of the whole subject, united in an elaborate 
report, accompanied by maps, etc., showing how the system recommended was 
to be carried out, and that system was a series of stationary engines, 
placed one to three miles apart, which, through long ropes, were to draw 
the trains from one engine to the other. 

On this side the water, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company had 
sixteen miles in operation by horse-power. By correspondence with the 
gentlemen who had the beginning of that great enterprise in hand, I was 
informed that they were advised by English engineers, consulted on the 
subject, to build their road for horse-power. 

At this time, and with this intimation before me, I made my report to the 
directors of the South Carolina Railroad Company. In that report I made 
such comparison between horse-power and locomotive-power as the 
information at the time enabled me to make. I presented my conclusion that 
the comparison was in favor of locomotive-power, and I based my 
recommendation, that the road should be built for locomotive-power, 
essentially on the ground that there was no reason to believe that the 
breed of horses would be materially improved, but that the present breed 
of locomotives was to furnish a power of which no one knew its limit, and 
which would far exceed its present performances. At the meeting where this 
report was submitted, the directors, before they left their seats, passed 
the resolution unanimously that the South Carolina Railroad should be 
built solely for locomotive-power. 

To one other circumstance in connection with the same road I will refer. I 
had early come to the conclusion that to make the locomotive the 
instrument that would be required, it must furnish more power in one 
instrument and one engineer; that it was plain that the materials, and 
that, too, of the road which carried the locomotive, limited the weight to 
rest under each wheel, and that, as more power required more weight, there 
must, of necessity, be more wheels, and that, if more wheels are required, 
power must be made in reference to curves and change of grade. In reports 
made in 1830-'31, I set forth the combinations by which such provision 
could be made. At that time the locomotives in England were all on four 
wheels, and it was maintained by a strong English influence that it was 
not for us, in America, to depart from English usage. The subject was 
matter of discussion for a winter. I took the position (English usage to 
the contrary notwithstanding) that no long road for general passenger and 
freight purposes could maintain itself without the use of eight-wheel 
locomotives, and that probably ten-wheel locomotives would also be found 
desirable. Experience has amply sustained my position. My efforts were 
successful, and in 1831 the first eight-wheel locomotives were built on my 
plans and under my direction. The combinations by which provision was made 
for curves and changes of grade are substantially those so generally used 
on eight-wheel locomotives and eight-wheel passenger-cars. 

It is of some interest that their introduction, without patent, was in a 
great degree the means of saving the railroad companies and the public 
from charges for their use. 

It is with difficulty that I have found time to put on paper, in this 
brief way, this reply to your inquiries. 

Yours respectfully, HORATIO ALLEN.



CHAPTER XXXIII.
CLAIMS TO FIRST LOCOMOTIVES.

In previous pages the author has stated that he was mainly induced to 
compile this history in consequence of the numerous statements in the 
public journals, giving what they supposed to be correct accounts or 
histories of the first locomotive built and run upon a railroad in the 
United States, and his desire to settle that much-disputed question of the 
first locomotive that was in the actual service of a company. The 
following from the Philadelphia Public Ledger, of January 18, 1869, is a 
sample of those statements which have, from time to time, been spread 
before the public, as the true history of the first locomotive. Since this 
statement was published in the Ledger, the author has been frequently told 
that the first American locomotive was built in Philadelphia, and run upon 
the Germantown and Morristown Railroad, in 1832. The communication in the 
Ledger reads thus: 

"The first really effective locomotive in America," says Mr. Haskell, in 
the Coachmaker's Journal, "was built in Philadelphia, from a draught by 
Rufus Tyler, a brother-in-law of the late Matthias Baldwin, of 
Philadelphia. Messrs. Tyler N. Baldwin had formed a co-partnership and 
entered into business at the corner of Sixth and Miner Streets, 
Philadelphia, where the plans and patterns were made and the building of 
the iron horse commenced. In consequence of a misunderstanding, the 
partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Baldwin continued the business, 
removing to a shop in Lodge Alley, where the engine was completed. Mr. 
Tyler was at that time considered the best mechanic in America. The wheels 
of the engine were made of wood, with broad rims and thick tires, the 
flange being bolted on the side. It was called 'Old Ironsides,' and was 
built in 1832. At eight o'clock in the morning, she was first put in 
motion on the Germantown and Morristown Railroad at their depot, Ninth and 
Greene Streets. She ran a mile an hour, and was considered the wonder of 
the day. On trial, it was ascertained that the wheels were too light to 
draw the tender, and to obviate this difficulty we had the tender placed 
in front of the engine, which kept the wheels on the track. Mr. Baldwin, 
the machinist, and myself, pushed the engine ahead, until we obtained some 
speed, when we all jumped on the engine, our weight keeping the wheels 
from slipping on the track. The boiler being too small for the engine, 
steam was only generated fast enough to keep the engine in motion a short 
time, so that we were compelled to alternately push and ride until we 
arrived at Germantown depot, where we rested and took some refreshments at 
the expense of the hotel-keeper at that place. 

"At four o'clock we started on our return to Philadelphia, alternately 
riding and pushing in the same manner that we had come. Upon arriving at a 
turn on the road, at the up-grade, the engine suddenly stopped, when, upon 
examination, it was found that the connecting pipe between the water-tank 
and the boiler had been frozen, and the steam was all out of the boiler It 
was then about eight o'clock, and was growing each moment colder. 
'Necessity knows no law,' and so, after a short consultation, we made a 
summary appropriation of sundry panels of a post-and-rail fence close to 
the track, and started a fire underneath the pipe to thaw it. In a short 
time thereafter we had steam up and resumed our journey toward 
Philadelphia, arriving at the depot about eleven o'clock. Several 
successive trials were made during the following year; after each, Mr. 
Baldwin added improvements and made alterations in the machinery. In about 
a year it was found that the grease had saturated the hubs and loosened 
the spokes, and they finally went to pieces, and were replaced by new 
ones. This same engine is still in existence in Vermont." 

When the author read this description in the Ledger with the astounding 
caption that preceded it, viz., "The first really effective engine in 
America," he could not restrain his wonder. His surprise was only 
increased when he tried to imagine what the editor could be thinking about 
when he suffered such a communication to enter the columns of his valuable 
journal. When the author tried to imagine the appearance of this excursion-
party to and from Germantown, first pushing awhile, then jumping on for a 
ride, then off again for another push, and on again for another ride, he 
was forcibly reminded of a scene he has often witnessed after the boss and 
his hands, on a railroad division, had knocked off for dinner, when a 
parcel of schoolboys amused themselves with a ride upon the unoccupied 
hand-car. 

If Philadelphia will claim this specimen of a locomotive as her share in 
the enterprise of introducing this indispensable machine into the United 
States, and as late as 1832, she is welcome to enjoy it; and her mechanics 
maybe justly proud of their handiwork; for they had certainly made no 
improvement upon the English locomotives, several of which were at that 
time (December, 1832) in this country; besides the fact that there had 
been built in this country, between the years 1829 and '31, one most 
successful experimental locomotive by Mr. Peter Cooper, of New York, which 
we describe in full, and also there had been built in 1830 and '31 several 
American locomotives for actual railroad service, which were in successful 
operation, as we have already shown, viz., the "Best Friend" and the "West 
Point," for the Charleston Railroad. Another article upon the subject of 
early locomotives, or rather, as it is headed, "The first train of cars by 
steam in America," we read in the Boston Advertiser of January, 1869, as 
follows: 

"THE FIRST STEAM-TRAIN IN AMERICA." In the superintendent's office at the 
Providence Railroad Station, in this city, is a picture of the first steam 
railroad train in America, run from Albany to Schenectady, over the Mohawk 
and Hudson Railroad, in 1831. The train consisted of a locomotive, tender, 
and two cars. The locomotive, named the 'John Bull,' and imported from 
England, was of very simple and uncouth construction, and might be 
mistaken in these days for a pile-driver. Its cylinders were five and a 
half inches in diameter, and sixteen inches' stroke, and the connecting-
rods worked on double cranks on the front axle. It weighed four tons. John 
Hampson, an Englishman, was the engineer. The tender was a simple frame, 
with a platform, upon which were placed a heap of wood used for fuel, and 
two crates filled with similar combustibles. This vehicle had also a 
passengerbox in the rear. The cars were patterned after the old 
stagecoaches, resembling somewhat the railroad-coaches still used in 
England, and were coupled with three links instead of one, as at present. 
Twelve passengers occupied the inside seats, and three were seated 
outside. Among them were Mr. Thurlow Weed and ex-Governor Yates. Their 
portraits, and those of their fellow passengers, which the picture gives 
in sombre and sharply- defined silhouette, would readily be recognized by 
any one acquainted with them when they made the excursion. The picture is 
photo- graphed by Messrs. J. L. Howard & Co., of Springfield, from the 
original, in the possession of the Connecticut Historical Society." 

The original picture of the engine and train of cars from which the 
photograph just described was taken, was executed by the author of this 
history, and presented by him to the Connecticut Historical Society at 
Hartford. This photograph copy has since been lithographed for Thomas 
Jarmy, at the lithographic establishment of Sage & Son, Buffalo, in 1865. 

The original picture, presented by the author to the Connecticut 
Historical Society, was done on the very day the engine made its first 
trip with a train of cars. Attached to this lithograph Mr. Jarmy has given 
a kind of history of the machine, as follows: "View of the first American 
railroad train, as it appeared ready for starting, on the Mohawk and 
Hudson Railway, the first part of the New York Central Railroad from 
Albany to Schenectady, about the 31st of July, 1832, executed at the time 
on black paper with a pair of scissors, by a Mr. Brown, of Pennsylvania, 
and lithographed from a photograph of the original picture in the 
possession of the Connecticut Historical Society." Mr. Jarmy also goes on 
to describe and name the passengers in the cars, and gives the cost and 
charges of the importation of the engine at the custom-house, New York, 
and the date, November 12, 183l, as the freight of said locomotive, the
"John Bull," per schooner Eclipse, from New York to Albany. With regard to 
this lithograph, which, no doubt, many railroad men look upon as 
authentic, the author will say that, so far as the representation of the 
engine and train of cars, together with the passengers, is concerned, the 
copy really is correct, nor can the author complain at his name being 
given as the artist who took the original sketch in the Connecticut 
Historical Society rooms; but the public should be in formed of the utter 
inaccuracy in the historical portion of the lithographic copy. The 
locomotive drawn by the author on that occasion was not the English 
engine, "John Bull," as Mr. Jarmy represents, but the American built 
locomotive "De Witt Clinton." It was sketched on the 9th day of August, 
1831, the day of the first excursion trip with a train of cars attached. 
Several experiments during the previous month of July had been made with 
different kinds of fuel, to discover that which would be best suited for 
its use.



CHAPTER XXXIV.
FIRST LOCOMOTIVE IN NEW YORK.

This locomotive, the "De Witt Clinton," stood upon the track already fired 
up, and with a train of some five or six passenger-coaches attached to it 
(two only were represented in our sketch, for want of room.) These 
passenger-coaches were of the old-fashioned stage coach pattern, with a 
driver's seat or box upon either end outside. They had hitherto been used 
upon the road for passengers, and drawn by horse-power. At this early day 
when the road was just built, passengers took a car at the foot of the 
inclined plane in Albany, and were drawn up by a stationary engine to the 
top of the hill where the regular track commenced. Horses were then 
hitched to the cars and proceeded to the other end of the road, where 
another inclined plane, not then built, but soon after completed, with a 
stationary engine, lowered the cars into Schenectady. (Both these planes 
are now removed.) On arriving at the top of the plane at Albany on this 
memorable occasion, the engine and train were seen standing upon the 
track. The peculiar appearance of the machine and train (the first ever 
seen by the author) arrested his attention, and he at once resolved to 
make a sketch of the singular-looking affair and its equally singular-
looking appendages. Drawing from his pocket a letter just received of a 
few lines only, written upon a whole sheet of paper (no envelopes were 
used at that day), and substituting his hat for a desk, he commenced his 
sketch of the unique machine standing before him. Meantime the 
excursionists were entering the cars, and the author had taken a hasty, 
rough drawing of the machine, the tender, the individual standing on the 
platform of the machine as its engineer, and the shape of the first 
passenger-coach, when a tin horn was sounded and the word was given, "All 
aboard," by Mr. John T. Clark, the master of transportation, who acted as 
conductor on that memorable occasion. No such officer as a conductor had 
been required upon a railroad before locomotives and long trains of cars 
were adopted. Before this event, in place of conductors, the drivers of 
the single-horse cars collected the tickets or fare, as omnibus-drivers do 
at the present time. 

On this occasion, the two first cars, or coaches, as they were then 
called, and the third also, were just as the two are represented in our 
sketch. The remainder of the cars on the train were surmounted with seats 
made of rough plank to accommodate the vast crowd of anxious expectants 
assembled to witness the experiment and participate in this first ride on 
a railroad train drawn by a locomotive. The cars were crowded inside and 
outside; not an available position was unoccupied. Two persons stood ready 
for every place where one could be accommodated, and the train started on 
its route, leaving hundreds of the disappointed standing around. 

As there were no coverings or awnings to protect the deck-passengers upon 
the tops of the cars from the sun, the smoke, and the sparks, and as it 
was in the hot season of the year, the combustible nature of their 
garments, summer coats, straw hats, and umbrellas, soon became apparent, 
and a ludicrous scene was enacted among the outside excursionists before 
the train had run the first two miles. 

The author was an inside passenger on that ever memorable occasion. We say 
memorable, for it was one never to be forgotten. It was on the 9th day of 
August, 1831, when what was represented and known to be the first American 
locomotive ever run upon a railroad in the State of New York. Thus the 
sketch in our work, representing a locomotive, tender, and two passenger-
cars attached, is, as we before stated, a truthful representation of one 
of the first railroad trains in America, and the very first run in the 
State of New York, and followed soon after the last successful locomotive 
experiments by Mr. Peter Cooper on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and 
the advent of the first American-built locomotives for actual service upon 
the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad, in South Carolina. It was the third 
locomotive built in America for actual service. This engine was named the 
"De Witt Clinton," and is thus described by Mr. David Matthew, in his 
letter to the author in 1859: 

"American engine No. 3 was called the 'De Witt Clinton.' It was contracted 
for by John B. Jervis, Esq., at the West Point Foundery, and was commenced 
by me to fit up in April, 1831, soon after the engines 'Best Friend' and
'West Point' were completed and forwarded to Charleston. 

"I left New York with the 'De Witt' on the 2Sth of June, 1831, and had 
steam on to commence running in one week from that time. The 'De Witt' had 
two cylinders five and a half inches in diameter and sixteen inches' 
stroke; four wheels, all drivers, four and a half feet diameter, with all 
the spokes turned and finished. The spokes were wrought-iron, hubs cast-
iron, and the wheels tired with wrought-iron, inside crank and outside 
connecting-rods to connect all four wheels; a tubular boiler with drop 
furnace, two fire-doors, one above the other; copper tubes two and a half 
inches in diameter and about six feet long; cylinders on an incline, and 
the pumps worked vertically by bell-crank. This engine weighed about three 
and a half tons without water, and would run thirty miles an hour with 
three to five cars on a level, with anthracite coal, and was the first 
engine run in the State of New York on a railroad." 

On this first excursion, on the 9th day of August, 183l, as no such 
officer as a conductor had been required upon the road, where hitherto no 
connected train of cars had been run, but where each driver officiated as 
collector of fares, Mr. John T. Clark, as the first passenger railroad 
conductor in the North, stepping from platform to platform outside the 
cars, collected the tickets which had been sold at hotels and other places 
through the city. When he finished his tour, he mounted upon the tender 
attached to the engine, and, sitting upon the little buggy-seat, as 
represented in our sketch, he gave the signal with a tin horn, and the 
train started on its way. But how shall we describe that start, my 
readers? It was not that quiet, imperceptible motion which characterizes 
the first impulsive movements of the passenger engines of the present day. 
Not so. There came a sudden jerk, that bounded the sitters from their 
places, to the great detriment of their high-top fashionable beavers, from 
the close proximity to the roofs of the cars. This first jerk being over, 
the engine proceeded on its route with considerable velocity for those 
times, when compared with stage-coaches, until it arrived at a water-
station, when it suddenly brought up with jerk No. 2, to the further 
amusement of some of the excursionists. Mr. Clark retained his elevated 
seat, thanking his stars for its close proximity to the tall smokepipe of 
the machine, in allowing the smoke and sparks to pass over his head. At 
the water- station a short stop was made, and a successful experiment 
tried, to remedy the unpleasant jerks. A plan was soon hit upon and put 
into execution. The three links in the couplings of the cars were 
stretched to their utmost tension, a rail, from a fence in the 
neighborhood, was placed between each pair of cars and made fast by means 
of the packing-yarn for the cylinders, a bountiful supply being on hand 
(as the present brass-ring substitute had not then been invented). This 
arrangement improved the order of things, and it was found to answer the 
purpose, when the signal was again given, and the engine started. 

In a short time the engine (after frightening the horses attached to all 
sorts of vehicles filled with the people from the surrounding country, or 
congregated all along at every available position near the road, to get a 
view of the singular-looking machine and its long train of cars; after 
causing thus innumerable capsizes and smash- ups of the vehicles and the 
tumbling of the spectators in every direction to the right and left) 
arrived at the head of the inclined plane at Schenectady, amid the cheers 
and welcomes of thousands, assembled to witness the arrival of the iron 
horse and its living freight. 

After some time passed in the ancient city of Schenectady, and ample 
refreshments had been afforded, the word was given by conductor Clark to 
prepare for the return. The excursionists resumed their seats, and in due 
time, without any accident or delay, the train arrived at the point from 
which it had first started, the head of the inclined plane at Albany. The 
passengers were pleased with the adventures of the day, and no rueful 
countenances were to be seen, excepting occasionally when one encountered 
in his walks in the city a former driver of the horse cars, who saw that 
the grave had that day been dug, and the end of horse-power was at hand. 

After the return to Albany, the author made a clean copy from his rough 
sketch of the engine "De Witt Clinton," and also the likeness of the 
engineer of the day, Mr. David Matthew, who controlled its movements on 
this memorable first occasion. As the tin horn sounded the signal for 
starting, just as the author had sketched the shape of the first of the 
passenger-cars in the train, he supplied the place of passengers with the 
likeness of several of the old citizens of Albany. Hence the appearance of 
Mr. Thurlow Weed, ex-Governor Yates, and others, as named in the article 
from the Boston Advertiser. This original picture, as we have before 
stated, was presented to the Connecticut Historical Society by the author. 
It has since been photographed by J. L. Howard & Company, of Hartford, and 
from this photograph the copy in lithograph by Sage & Son was taken; but 
the engine is there erroneously called an English machine, the "John
Bull," and John Hampson, an Englishman, is said to have been the engineer. 
A second copy of this sketch, calculated to mislead the public, has just 
been circulated by a firm in Boston, called the Antique Publishing 
Company, to Haverhill Street, and copyrighted in l8_0. This picture, like 
the one by Sage & Son, is taken from the same photograph of the author's 
original sketch in the Hartford Institute, and in its history, like the 
other, purports to be a likeness of the English locomotive "John Bull," 
and an Englishman, John Hampson, the engineer. In this volume we shall 
furnish the evidence to show that the original picture in the Connecticut 
Historical Society Rooms was a true representation of the American 
locomotive "De Witt Clinton," the third American locomotive built for 
actual service, and the first American-built locomotive run in the State 
of New York; Sage & Son, and the Boston Antique Publishing Company, to the 
contrary notwithstanding.