CHAPTER XVI
MORE FACTS ON THE "STOURBRIDGE
LION"
In September, 1829, a locomotive built by George Stephenson,
at his works in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, arrived in New York and was
to be seen, for some time, in the yard of E. Dunscomb, Water Street;
its wheels were raised above the ground and kept running for the
amusement of the crowds attracted by its novelty. Of this engine
Mr. Horatio Allen speaks in a letter to the author as follows:
"This locomotive, or motive (but not progressive motion),
was not the engine which made the first run on the railroad at
Honesdale, Pennsylvania. This engine (built by Stephenson at Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
was set up at an iron-yard on the East-River side of New York,
and being blocked up, so that the wheels could not touch the ground,
the engine could go through the motions without running."
As we are determined that our history of the first locomotives
in America shall lack no evidence to sustain the facts we record,
we cannot close our testimony in the case of the "Stourbridge
Lion" without removing an impression which many persons entertain,
and have often declared to the author, that this same old engine,
which came from England and made the first trip on a railroad
in Americas is still in existence somewhere in New England. Such
is not the fact. Not withstanding the testimony upon this point
to be found in the latter part of the Hon. John Torry's letter
to the author, where he distinctly records the ultimate fate of
the Lion, we have another letter from an old citizen of that region,
the same gentleman who favored us with the file of the Republican,
Mr. Dilton Yarrington, from which we will extract such parts as
relate to the final disposition of this locomotive, thus:
"As far as the locomotive was concerned, it was considered
a failure from the very first time it was used. It stood around
for some years, and by degrees was taken to pieces and wasted
away like an old cripple. I worked up some of the fragments of
it in the shop in 1849.
"The boiler is now in use here in Carbondale, in a foundry,
where it has been in use for twenty years past, and is still considered
reliable. The iron plates composing it are full half an inch thick.
Mr. Yarrington was a blacksmith in the company's shops, an old
citizen of that region, and lived in Dundee from 1821 to 1847.
We will now close our description of the events
incident to the first locomotive in America, by giving our readers
Mr. Allen's account of his ride alone the "Stourbridge Lion,"
in a speech made by him in 1851, at Dunkirk, on the occasion of
the celebration in honor of the completion of the New York and
Erie Railroad, and transmitted by him to the author. After alluding
in terms of commendation to those who, by their talents and perseverance,
had carried through to a successful completion the great work
just finished, Mr. Allen continued:
"Having occupied your time with these statements of perhaps
no great interest, but the omission of which would have been an
act of injustice, I leave thought that, on this great railroad
occasion, a reference to some of the incidents in the early railroad
history of this country might be appropriate. To bring before
you as strikingly as in my power, it has occurred to me to lead
your imagination to the conception of the scene which would present
itself if, on some fine morning, you were placed at an elevation,
and gifted for the moment with a power of vision which would command
the railroad movements of the whole United States. There would
be presented an exciting picture of activity, in a thousand iron
horses starting forth from the various railroad centers, or traversing
the surface of the continent in all directions. When the imagination
has attained to some conception of the scene, let it seek to go
back to the time when only one of these iron monsters was in existence
on this continent, and was moving forth, the first of his mighty
race. Then was it? where was it? and who awakened its energies
and directed its movements? It was in the year 1829, on the banks
of the Lackawaxen, at the commencement of the railroad connecting
the canal of the Delaware and Hudson Company with their coal-mines,
and he who addresses you was the only person on that locomotive.
"The circumstances which led to my being left alone on
the engine were these: The road had been built in the summer,
the structure was of hemlock-timber, and the rails, of large dimensions,
notched on to caps placed far apart. The timber had cracked and
warped, from exposure to the sun. After about five hundred feet
of straight line, the road crossed the Lackawaxen Creek on a trestle-work
about thirty feet high, and with a curve of three hundred and
fifty or four hundred feet radius. The impression was very general
that the iron monster would either break down the road or that
it would leave the track at the curve and plunge into the creek.
Any reply to apprehension was, that it was too late to consider
the probability of such occurrences; that there was no other course
but to have the trial made of the strange animal which had been
brought here at such great expense, but that it was not necessary
that more than one should be involved in its fate; that I would
take the first ride alone, and that the time would come when I
should look back to this incident with great interest. As I placed
my hand on the throttle-valve handle I was undecided whether I
would move slowly or with a fair degree of speed; but believing
that the road would prove safe, and preferring, if we did go down,
to go down handsomely and without any evidence of timidity, I
started with considerable velocity, passed the curve over the
creek safely, and was soon out of hearing of the cheers of the
large assemblage present. At the end of two or of three miles,
I reversed the valves and returned without accident to the place
of starting, having thus made the first railroad trip by locomotive
on the Western Hemisphere."
Our readers are doubtless now satisfied that to the Delaware
and Hudson Canal Company is justly due the credit of having introduced
and run upon their railroad the first locomotive that made a revolution
with its driving-wheel upon the American Continent. And although
this engine proved to be impracticable under the circumstances,
it was caused by no defect in its construction, or the principle
involved, nor from a lack of power and ability to perform all
the duties that might have been required; but from this cause
alone, that the road had not been built to sustain such a weight
as it was called upon to bear when this new instrument of power
was placed upon it. The road had been constructed for horsepower
alone, as all other roads were in this country at that early period,
and for a long time after, even in England. No idea of a locomotive
had then been conceived in this country. Nevertheless, these machines
were the forerunners of a mighty race of iron monsters, which
only two years after were to be seen traversing every section
of the country, even stretching their course from the Atlantic
to the Pacific.
We will now leave the "Stourbridge Lion " where we
last heard of it, by the roadside, snugly stowed away in a shed,
constructed of hemlock-boards, purchased from Jason Torry, Esq.,
as it appears from the copy of the original entry in his books,
in November, 1829, and pursue our history a few years later, by
recording events which soon after followed the advent of the Lion.
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