[Illustration]
This restoration of a portion of the original track of the
Lexington and Ohio (now Louisville and Nashville) Railroad
laid at Lexington in 1831, is dedicated to those men of
forethought and courage who were pioneers in railroad
development in America.
Erected Anno Domini
MCMXVI.
Dedication Exercises
10 A. M.
May 30, 1916
College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering
University of Kentucky
During the month of July, 1915, there appeared in a local newspaper an
account of the finding of "Old Rail Stones" and "Old Strap Iron Rails"
which had been used in the construction of the railroad generally known
as "the old Lexington and Frankfort Road," though it was incorporated
under the name of the "Lexington and Ohio Rail Road." It is believed by
many to have been the first railroad west of the Alleghany Mountains.
Be that as it may, the quaint and interesting relics had just been dug
up that week by the workmen who were reconstructing the freight yards
of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The workmen were moving more
recently laid tracks back to _the old original road bed of the pioneer
railroad_, and in doing so they unearthed those curious relics of 1831.
Although just starting that very day for a summer vacation, I hurried
down town a little before train time, and went to the Main Street
offices of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad where the interesting
relics were on display.
As I stood gazing at that worn and rusty bar of iron with its single
bent and rusty spike, I was whisked back across the years by some
strange trick of memory and I saw, instead, a dimly lighted sick room,
on a hot summer night--myself a little sufferer, and sitting beside me,
fanning my fevered brow, my beloved father, who, notwithstanding the
fatigue of a heavy and exacting practice sat thus night after night,
soothing me to sleep by telling me entertaining stories of his youth,
and as he was born one hundred and one years ago, the strange
experiences of his boyhood were thrilling indeed to his youthful adorer.
And so, I saw in my mind's eye that familiar room of my childhood--the
open window, the breezes blowing the curtains to and fro, the moonlight
casting strange shadows on the terrace outside, and I heard again that
voice which has meant so much to me telling how "when the first railroad
started" and all the people had gathered from far and near "to witness
its departure," he and a group of fellow students from Transylvania
University, mounted on fast horses, galloped ahead "to see if the
Wonderful Thing could round the curve without running off the track";
and how "it came in sight, thundering along, puffing out clouds of black
smoke, the engineer adding to the confusion by incessantly blowing his
shrill whistle," all of which so terrified his horse, he had great
difficulty in keeping his seat, but yet, how tremendously impressed he
was by the "gallant way in which the gentlemen seated in the coach
raised their stovepipe hats in greeting as they passed by like a streak
of lightning."
He said the locomotive had been invented by his old friend Tom Barlow,
in whose honor he had named our Tom Barlow, his favorite race horse.
He also said the old locomotive looked like a "thresher engine mounted
on a flat car," and that the coach was for all the world like an
"omnibus with seats on top as well as inside," and furthermore, he
added, when it had been proved safe he rode upon it himself, and then
"rode home on horseback" (a distance of thirty miles) to tell his mother
all about it.
And this was all that was left of that Wonderful Thing, this bit of
scrap iron and a few stone sills!
Finding myself gazing vacantly at that relic of the Past, and that
people were noting my abstraction, I hastily gathered myself together
and crossing the street to our beautiful Union Station, I started
on my journey. In a magnificent chair car, luxuriously furnished and
upholstered, a liveried porter raised the windows and adjusted screens,
turned on an electric fan, offered me the latest magazines and papers
fresh from the press, placed a footstool at my feet and a cushion at
my back. My safety was provided for by double tracking and unseen but
perfectly trained employees, but neither the reading matter in my lap,
the comfort of my surroundings, nor the always charming scenery from the
car window, could drive from my thoughts the quaint old railroad; and
when I came back to Lexington in the fall, in my eager desire to know
more about it, I immediately began my research which has grown into this
history of
"A Pioneer Railway of the West."