"The grading of the first division of six miles is nearly completed.
Part of the Iron Rails for the first division have arrived at Louisville
from Liverpool by way of New Orleans, and the laying of the stone sills
will be forthwith commenced."
* * * * *
The work progressed steadily in spite of many obstacles--chief of which
seems to have been the indifference of Louisville and lack of ready
money, and so in the Observer for March 16th, 1832, there is an
interesting and eloquent appeal:
"To the Citizens of Lexington and Fayette County--
"Now is the time for every man, who is a man and will act like one, to
come forward and put his shoulder to the wheel. The Lexington and Ohio
Rail Road can be finished to Frankfort before the 1st of November, 1832,
if those who are able will do their duty and take stock, or increase
their present subscriptions. Not one should hang back and let his
neighbors do for him what he ought to do for himself. If he loves money,
this is the way to improve his fortune; if he loves his country, this is
the sure way to advance her power and glory.
The work can be done and will be done in the time I have named if you
are true to your best interests and will act promptly on this occasion.
No time is to be lost--Come all--Come quickly. Let us have no more
theorizing but in its stead, efficient action."
* * * * *
And again in the same month the Directors authorized the President, Mr.
Elisha I. Winter, to let the grading of the twenty-three sections of the
"Second Division."
The Observer and Reporter, June 28th, 1832, says:
"Laying the stone sills is rather a tedious operation. Messrs. Holburn
and Benson, who are the contractors for this branch of the work deserve
great praise for executing their contract not only faithfully but in
a style of beauty and elegance of workmanship which has excited the
admiration of all who have examined it. They are now putting in the Iron
Rails and we hope it will not be long before the Directors will have it
in their power to gratify the universal anxiety which daily increases in
intensity to behold the novel spectacle of a Rail Road Carriage in rapid
motion."
This desire was soon gratified according to an article in the Lexington
Observer dated August 9th, 1832, and entitled "Our Rail Road." It says:
"A splendid car (the Lexington and Ohio) was placed on the Rail Road on
Thursday last. It made two trips, the distance the road is finished,
having inside and outside about sixty passengers each trip. The crowd to
witness the experiment was very great and we never saw spectators more
delighted. The opening of the Rail Road from Lexington to the Ohio River
will be the commencement of a new era in the history of Kentucky. Let
unbelievers in the utility of Rail Roads witness but one experiment and
their scepticism will soon vanish.
"On Tuesday the 14th the road we understand will be formally opened and
the car afterwards kept constantly running for the accommodation of
passengers. The Governor of the State and the Mayor and Council of the
City of Louisville have been invited to be present on this occasion."
* * * * *
The Observer and Reporter of August 16th, 1832, tells how "The Lexington
and Ohio Rail Road was formally opened on yesterday. Among the persons
present was Gov. Metcalf. At twelve o'clock precisely the Car left its
moorings at the upper end of the lower Market in fine style, having on
board about 40 passengers. The Road is completed entirely only about one
mile and a half from its termination in this city. Other portions are in
a state of great forwardness and will be ready for the Car in a few days
which will make the whole distance completed about 3 miles. The Car
travels at the rate of about 10 miles an hour."
* * * * *
How eagerly they longed for its completion, using it for pleasure trips
when only a mile and a half was finished! And how quaintly they spoke of
it leaving "its moorings" as though they were still thinking in terms of
rivers and flat boats and steam boats, and could only describe it in
river terms! And how they dignified it with capitals, it was always the
Rail Road and the Car--as if the very immensity of the undertaking
demanded capital letters. To them the "Rail Road started" or "returned,"
or was "kept running," as in the article in the Observer of August 25th,
1832, which says:
"Two miles of the Lexington and Ohio Rail Road are now completed, and
the splendid car, "Lexington and Ohio," is kept constantly running this
distance to gratify those who feel an interest in Rail Roads, and are
desirous of testing their utility. The Car is sufficiently large to
accommodate 60 passengers and this number is drawn by one horse, with
apparently as much ease and rapidity as the same animal would draw a
light gig. The delight experienced at the sight of a car loaded by sixty
passengers and drawn by one horse at the rate of ten miles an hour
through a country where heretofore five miles per hour with one
passenger to a horse has been thought good speed, is sufficient of
itself to repay the beholder for the trouble of a journey of fifty
miles. We understand a locomotive steam engine is now being constructed
to be placed upon the road as soon as the distance is opened on the
whole of the First Division."
* * * * *
Having always heard the Old Lexington and Ohio Road referred to as "the
first rail road built West of the Alleghany Mountains," I was greatly
surprised at this juncture to see how close the question of priority
between it and the old Pontchartrain Railway really was and being unable
to decide the question myself, I beg leave to lay the evidence before my
readers and let them decide the matter according to their own judgment.
Mr. J. H. Ellis, Secretary of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, at
a banquet in Louisville in 1914, when speaking of the oldest railroads
built West of the Alleghanies and South of the Ohio River, said: "It is
commonly believed that the oldest road is the Lexington and Ohio, so it
may surprise you to know that in point of antiquity it is beaten by that
little old Pontchartrain Railroad, Charles Marshall's darling, but by
a remarkable coincidence, by only a week. For while the Pontchartrain
Railroad Company received its charter on January 20th, 1830, that of the
Lexington and Ohio Railroad Company is dated January 27th, 1830. And in
point of construction the latter likewise followed the Pontchartrain."
An article published in the Lexington Observer of October 4th, 1832,
taken from the New Orleans Emporium of September 15th, 1832, says:
"The beautiful locomotive Pontchartrain recently received from England
came up to the city this morning from the lake in a manner highly
gratifying to the directors of the company, who were present and a large
concourse of our citizens. It commences running Monday next at 12
o'clock. The Mayor and City Council are to be present and no doubt
hundreds of our citizens will fill the train which will accommodate
between three and four hundred people. This locomotive is said to be the
most perfect and elegant in the Union and that there are only two in
England equal to it. The display will be at once beautiful and imposing
and will no doubt attract thousands."
At this time _our_ first locomotive was "in course of construction," as
the Observer and Reporter of December 6th, 1832, says in an editorial:
"We yesterday had the pleasure of examining--at the machine shop of Mr.
Bruen--a new Locomotive Engine constructed for the Lexington and Ohio
Rail Road Company. We understand the Engine will be in readiness for an
experiment on the Rail Road sometime next week."
* * * * *
It is evident therefore that the Charter for the Pontchartrain Railroad
was one week older than the Charter of the Lexington and Ohio Railroad.
It is also evident that the Lexington and Ohio Railroad was "formally
opened August 15th, 1832," while the formal opening of the Pontchartrain
Road did not occur until September 15th, 1832, one month later than
ours.
It is true the Pontchartrain opened with a real locomotive while the
Lexington and Ohio road first used horse power. But it must also be
remembered that the locomotive of the Pontchartrain Railroad was built
in Stourbridge, England, while the first locomotive for the Lexington
and Ohio road was invented and built in Lexington by two Lexington men,
Thomas Barlow and Joseph Bruen; that it was in course of construction at
the time of the opening, and that it made its trial run March 2nd, 1833,
"from Lexington towards Frankfort."--
So far as I have been able to learn our locomotive was the first one
built in the United States unless we except that of Peter Cooper, which
is said never to have given satisfaction.
* * * * *
By the first of January, 1833, the first railroad advertisement appeared
headed:
"TRAVELING"