A Pioneer Railway of the West Part 4

This "new locomotive" may have been the "Nottaway" or "The Logan" or the "Daniel Boone." The latter, which was inclined to run behind time, was the b.u.t.t of many jokes. One traveller is said to have asked "What is the matter, will we never arrive?" and another replied "Let us ask the engineer to feed 'Boone' another stick of cord wood, or we will never get there." Capt. Alfred Pirtle, Secretary of the Filson Club, says "The Baldwin Locomotive Works have a record that they built an engine named 'Daniel Boone' for the Lexington and Ohio Rail Road in 1842."

The Observer and Reporter January 24th, 1835, says:

"Several hundred of our citizens had the pleasure yesterday of witnessing a successful experiment on the Rail Road with the new Locomotive. Its performance justifies all our hopes. Two burthen cars and the large pa.s.senger car filled with pa.s.sengers were attached to the engine. It moved off with great ease clearly indicating its ability to perform all its requirements. Every one who witnessed the experiment seemed to feel a high degree of patriotic enthusiasm that he lived in a city which had originated and thus far successfully prosecuted this magnificent and invaluable scheme. "We learn that the Locomotive made the trip to the Villa, a distance of six miles, in a little over 20 minutes although badly provided with fuel."

The "success of the experiment" had an unfortunate set back, however, for in the Observer and Reporter, January 24, 1835, is an account of the _Accident_ which caused profound distress.

"We have carefully prepared from authentic information the following account of the melancholy occurrences of yesterday. To allay public excitement and prevent misrepresentation or misapprehension of facts we consider it our duty to give as brief and accurate account as possible of those unfortunate accidents today which caused the death of two individuals and severe injuries to four others.

"The splendid Locomotive Engine recently imported was placed on the road two or three days since and has made one or more pleasure trips each day to the Villa (6 miles) and back with perfect safety and entire success. This morning it performed the trip with one large Pa.s.senger Coach containing some fifty or sixty pa.s.sengers, and one burden Car also loaded, attached to it, in 19 minutes going and about 22 minutes returning without accident. This afternoon, as the Engineer was proceeding from the car house a quarter of a mile below the depot in the city a number of boys were continually trying to jump upon the tender although repeatedly forbidden to do so, till finally while the Locomotive was going at the rate of only about five or six miles per hour, a negro boy, 11 or 12 years of age, the property of Mrs. Ross, on attempting to jump on the fore part of the tender fell under it and was crushed to death. No possible blame can attach to the Engineer as he stopped the moment he saw the boy fall, but was too late.

He then came up slowly to the depot, both sides of the road being lined by hundreds of anxious spectators, and attached the Locomotive to two burden Cars and the large Pa.s.senger Coach, before mentioned, altogether containing, we suppose, over 150 persons, in the following order:

1st--The Engine and tender. 2nd--A common Burden Car with temporary benches to sit on but no side on front or rear railing to protect the pa.s.sengers from falling or being pushed off; fastened with common trace chains by means of the centre beams to which the shafts are used fixed to the Locomotive. 3rd--Another common Burthen Car attached to the second as it was to the first giving 10 to 12 inches loose play forward and back but with only a single bench running through the centre from front to rear. No railing or other protection to the pa.s.sengers, who were obliged to stand up, except a few standards along the sides for the purpose of hauling wood. 4th--The large Pa.s.senger Coach attached to the third as it was to the second. Before starting, more than one gentleman who noticed the manner of attaching the cars, and the consequent jars which they would inevitably receive, made remarks as to the dangerous situation of the individuals crowded on the burden cars, but we made the trip down safely in 24 minutes.

After remaining to Wood and Water we started back with position reversed, the large Pa.s.senger Coach in front, then the two burthen cars following each other, and lastly the Locomotive, each pus.h.i.+ng forward the one in front of it, by pressing the end of the centre beams, some six inches square against each other, loosely attached as before described, by common trace chains. We had proceeded in this manner about a mile at a moderate pace when in pa.s.sing a curve, the beam of the front burthen Car was seen to pa.s.s to the right of the rear beam of the Pa.s.senger Car, which jerked the wheels off the track and caused a considerable shock and great alarm. Some of the pa.s.sengers on the two burthen Cars attempted to jump off, the ground being nearly on a level with the road at that place; others, especially those standing in the forward burthen Car were thrown backwards and knocked off, those near the edge of it under the wheels of the other; some attempted to leap on the bank, fell and rolled down, and thus all the mischief was done.

Lewis Lankard and Leonard Taylor, of Lexington, Ky.; William A. c.o.c.ke and Joseph Holt, of Louisville; F. W. Trapnall, of Springfield, and Daniel Green, of Fayette County, were in this way thrown off the forward burthen Car and under the wheels of the other. Lankard was instantly killed; Taylor and Green had each a leg broken; Messrs. Trapnall and Holt had severe bruises and were probably saved by Lankard's falling before them and in some measure stopping the car. Mr. c.o.c.ke had his right foot firmly fastened in the forward wheel of the hindmost car and was much injured and but for the presence of mind and promptness of the Engineer in stopping at the moment must have lost his leg and most probably his life; another quarter turn of the wheel would have been fatal. He could only be released by taking that part of the Car to pieces. Several other gentlemen were bruised and slightly injured. None of the Cars turned over and if the burthen Cars had been substantially railed round or if only pa.s.senger cars had been used or all had been drawn and not pushed, nothing serious would have been the consequence.

Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the Engineer. Although under considerable headway he stopped almost instantly and much sooner than a stage with horses could have been halted. May we now be permitted to make a single suggestion or two to the Manager of the Rail Road?

1st--The number of pa.s.sengers to go in each Car should be limited.

Huddling numbers on the top is extremely hazardous.

2nd--Unless a wire sieve is fastened over the top of the chimney of the engine we shall soon have some dwelling house, barn or other building near the road burnt down or the Cars themselves set on fire.

In conclusion we hope that the feeling of our citizens will not be again excited by the occurrence of such a painful and heart-rending accident as the one over which a number have been called to mourn, as we are confident that by proper management and strict attention it may be easily avoided."

Now let us consider this first locomotive engine ever used on the Lexington and Ohio Railroad. This locomotive was invented by Thomas Harris Barlow (who afterward became world-famous as the inventor of the Planetarium) and was constructed by Joseph Bruen at his machine shops which stood near the corner of Water and Spring Streets.

That wonderful little locomotive is described by one who saw it with his own eyes, who rode behind it often, and who knew the men who invented and constructed it quite intimately. The old gentleman I refer to was Samuel D. McCullough, who was born in 1803 and who wrote his diary, which is now in the Lexington Public Library, in 1871.

"Mr. Thomas Harris Barlow was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, (says his son, Milton, in a letter to me) August 5th, 1789, and resided in the State of his birth till the last year or two of his life and died in Cincinnati June, 1865."

I shall condense Mr. Milton Barlow's short biography of his father, which states that he had but a common school education. He was an industrious and even a hard working student of mechanism for which he had a wonderful natural gift, and which induced Col. R. M. Johnson to appoint him princ.i.p.al Military Artificer in his Regiment. He was under fire in the Battle of the Thames (1812) where he distinguished himself for coolness and bravery. After his intermarriage with Miss Lizzie West he turned his attention to erecting flour, saw and other mills and building and overseeing their steam motive power. In 1825 he removed to Lexington and opened a machine shop.

"I remember myself all which followed and give my own recollections.

Believing that Locomotives could be propelled at a greater velocity Mr.

Barlow and Mr. Joseph Bruen, another mechanical genius, built an engine to run on the new Rail Road, just started from this place towards Frankfort, the finished portion of the road extending then but five miles from this City, and on which Sunday pleasure Cars were running drawn by two horses.

The Steam Engine was an odd concern; not more than three or four feet high wheels, boiler and all; the pistons working perpendicularly; two cylinders _and a tongue in front to guide the steam wagon with the necessary pilot wheel with its tiller ropes_. I never knew what became of the engine but I have placed all that is left of the model in the Museum of the Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum along with the remnant of Edward West's model steam engine for boats. Mr. Barlow and Mr. Bruen also built another small steam engine which ran on a miniature oval Rail Road, in the large room, third story of the factory, corner of Water and Rose Streets, drawing after it a miniature car large enough to hold one grown person or two children. I paid my 25 cents for a ride on it.

The novelty of the occasion brought mult.i.tudes of citizens, male and female, to see it and as Mr. Barlow quaintly and truthfully observes, 'each of the visitors had to pay a small sum for the pleasure of riding on land by steam.' I give the following remark of Mr. Barlow, Jr., just as he used it without stopping to inquire whether it be genuine or apocryphal. He says, 'This was the first steam locomotive engine ever made in America.'

Mr. Barlow sold the miniature engine, Car and wooden rails to Mr. Samuel Robb, of this county, who exhibited the workings of them in 1827 in the cities of Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Vicksburg, New Orleans, in which city it was consumed by fire during the year 1828. Mr. Barlow built another miniature engine for Mr. Rockhill who used it for exhibition. I wish it distinctly remembered so as not to confuse dates, that the first mattock struck and the first stone laid on the Lexington and Louisville Rail Road were done in Lexington June 3rd, 1831, the citizens, the Free Masons and the Military a.s.sisting in the ceremonies which took place at the corner of Water and Upper Streets, not ten feet from the present storage house of Hayman and Wooley. Prof. Charles Caldwell, of Transylvania Medical School, made the address on the occasion.

I remember again, that the model engine of Mr. Barlow and Mr. Bruen was run on the miniature Rail Road _three or four years before_ the first rail was laid on the track which was a flat iron rail on a stone sill.

The great danger occurring continually from the ends of the flat rails turning upwards causing what was then called 'snake heads,' and the disintegration of the stone sills induced the directors to change both sills and rails to their present form.

I recollect the old horse car running from here to Frankfort and back to Lexington.

It was in 1835, in company with my deceased friend, John J. Crittenden, who with myself was watching a splendid comet in the North West during our ride, the horse cars were four hours in running the distance of twenty-four miles, or six miles an hour. Upon arriving upon the hill near Frankfort the pa.s.senger trains were sent down an inclined plane drawn by horses. Several accidents occurred which afterwards induced the Directors to change the route to a more circuitous and safer place, the road now in constant use. At Frankfort the pa.s.sengers for Louisville took seats in five and six four-horse coaches, eighteen to twenty-four pa.s.sengers each. The necessities of travel and commerce finally culminated in finis.h.i.+ng the Rail Road to Louisville. Lexington and Frankfort with the counties of Fayette, Woodford and Franklin did their parts n.o.bly, and Louisville with that symptom of haggling so usual with her, finally was induced to help finish the road to that city.

Whilst upon the subject of inventors, inventions and Rail Roads, I may tell you that the two-horse-car ran from this City to Frankfort over the 'flat iron' rail until 18-- when a little steam locomotive called the Nottaway made one trip to Frankfort and back the same day. It drew one pa.s.senger coach built by Mr. Ashton, the venerable coach builder of this city. The inside would accommodate about as many as a modern omnibus and seats on the top with an iron railing all around would seat as many more. I have an indistinct recollection where the baggage and mail matter were stored but I think they were given in charge of the engineer, who also in that capacity was baggage master and mail agent.

I recollect distinctly the little locomotives, Nottaway and Logan.

More than two-score times have I and other able bodied men gotten out of the pa.s.senger car when the locomotive was not able to pull the load over some slight elevation in the road and pushed pa.s.senger car and engine up the inclined plane of less than one degree inclination. When we arrived at the summit of the inclination, which was about nine miles from Lexington in what was called the 'deep cut,' the engineer in the meantime having raised steam enough to carry pa.s.sengers to the next slight ascension in the road, cried 'all aboard' and away we went.

'All out' was the engineer's next cry when he came to some slight ascension in the road. Out we came and our shoulders were again applied to help the little locomotive out of its terrible difficulty. Arriving at the top of the hill at Frankfort from a four to six hours ride of twenty-four miles we met with two serious questions either to go down the inclined plane at nearly 40 degrees inclination free of charge or take the hacks and carriages in waiting by paying 25 cents extra. My old friend, Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckinridge and myself not wis.h.i.+ng to risk our lives on the incline plane took seats in a hack. I recollect Dr.

Breckinridge's remark, when he paid his extra quarter for hack hire: 'I agree to pay $1.00 to be carried safely to Frankfort. I pay this additional 25 cents under protest as a swindle.' The driver 'took our monies and went his ways' and proceeded to collect 25 cents from each pa.s.senger going into Frankfort until some 'change' was made by the Directors of the Rail Road."

Mr. Andy Shepherd in an interview said he remembered the old locomotives Daniel Boone, Logan and Joe Davis.

He said the pa.s.senger coach was painted yellow. He described the first locomotive as having a tall smoke stack, a single wheel, and a crank axle, with no cab, the engineer standing unprotected through wind and weather. He said it required a cord of two-foot wood to make the trip from Lexington to Frankfort and return, that the engineer stopped at Villa Grove and at Duckers "to wood and water." He said at first there was one pa.s.senger and one freight train a day, that freight came from Cincinnati to Frankfort by river, and from Frankfort to Lexington by rail. When asked where the headlight for the locomotive was, he replied: "They did not need a headlight because they only travelled by daylight."

(And yet one of the English commentaries which had made deepest impression on the railroad promoters was that "Locomotives can travel safely in the dark.")

Mr. Shepherd said the old engines were finally sold for sc.r.a.p iron, loaded on a flat car, and taken away. But the Logan was sold to a coal mine.

The Gazette, November 28th, 1835, says:

"There seems to be a perfect mania pervading the country on the subject of railroads. Hardly a paper comes to hand but contains accounts of meetings held for the purpose of projecting one through some part or another."

And on January 9th, 1836:

"The Mayor has called a meeting of the citizens of Lex. and Fayette Co.

on Monday next at 12 o'clock to take into consideration measures relative to the contemplated Railroad from Charleston, S. C., to the Ohio River. The meeting will take place in a Court House."

On January 23rd, 1836:

We learn that "the Directors of the R. R. Co. have declined bringing more fire wood to this city but have offered to the agents for procuring fuel the use of their road and wood cars free of expense for the transport of that article. The great quant.i.ty of freight at the depots rendering this course necessary on the part of the Company."

On December 12th, 1835, was an interesting article headed: