The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-12-02
'sTHE FATHER or RAILWAYS"
:

11EGeo. Stephenson, who'is now justly
called the father sof railways" was
the child of poor parents in England.
Unable to send him to school, they
employed him at home as a nurse for
the younger children until he was
eight years old. His chief duty as
nurse was to keep his little brothers
and sisters from under the hoo;s OF
the'horses which drew the coal-cars
Oh the ''tram-way'-a wooden rail
road leading from coaln.Ine. which
ran near his fathers door. At this
early age, while watching the coa'-
trains passing, he conceived the idea
that iron would make better rail,
than wood, and that if he could put
upon wheels the steam-engine which
his father tended as fireman at tie
.cQal;pit, 1t could be made to draw IS
heavy a: train of coal-cars as could be
moved BY D. greatteam of fifty horses.
, ,19The idea did not pass away from
the brain Of George Stephenson when
he was removed from his home at
nine years of age, and hired out, at
-four, cents a day, to tend the COWS of
a l1neighborine. farmer. He had
enough of leisure while watching the
herd in the field to think over the
s'ahject. He even builthim an engine
'oflday, with hemlock branches for
steam pipes. I suspect that, like Lit
tleBoy Blue, he sometimes let the
COWS stray into forbidden: meadows
while he sat. thinking about: engines
on wheels and roads of iron.2a He
could not study about them in books
p5or.tvo. very good reasons. In the
|6st. place, no books about rsilrpads
and locomotives had been printed,
since neither had been built. + The
other reason was that George Stephen
son ,oonldn't read at all. He did not
know his alphabet until he was nine
teen years old.
| Little George, or "Geordy," as the
common people nicknamed him, was
next employed to drive the horse
which turned the winding machine;
or :gin," as the colliers called it, at
the eeal-pit where his father worked.
He then began to think Of plan for
making the steam do the work of the
horse, and one day astonished the
eolliers by building on a bench, in
front Of, his fathers cottage. a model
ia clay Of an engine which turned
the "gin" and lifted the coal. He
was At this time so young and small
that hie father made him hide when
the owner of the coal-mine went "the
rounds" to pay his hands, for fear he
1should think him too small to receive
si1teen cents = day wages!
| II, "a. not until he was nineteen
years old, and was set to watch an en-.
| CINE, that he found time to attend
school and learn to read and write
He worked steadily at his old idea
for twenty-five years. He made the
first locomotive with smooth driving
wheels. 1t had been thought neces
sary by some engineers to construct
locomotives with cosged driving
wheels, and corresponding rack OF
the rail, to prevent the wheels from
slipping. But Stephenson successful
ly set aside all these contrivances. H,
was nearly fifty years old before Ii
found men willing to risk their money
in constructing an iron railroad te
test his locomotive. When, at length
the first railroad was completed, be
! tween Stockton and Darlington(tw>
! English towns only twelve miles
|.apart), the procession with which tn
day was celebrated was headed by {
man on horseback, to keep the roac
clear for Stephenson's locomotive ane
car, and ladies and gentlemen OF
horseback and in carriages kept pace
with the train by riding by the sid'
of the track But after the proces
issien had proceeded a short distance
fsttepheuson5 who was running his Owl
|engiue, ,zimpatiently called to @th'
'thorseman,to,get out of the way, and
lsputting steam on, he ran his locomo
i tive the rest of the distance at th'
terrible pace of twelve miles an hour
49, Nicholas for December.