Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-06-07
Early Engines.

John White, a native of Darlington,
England, who knew George Stephen
son, the builder of the first locomotive,
very well, is another peculiar old veter.
an. '.You see that engine they're now
fixing up" he said, pointing to the
locomotive, the oldest engine in the
exhibition, which was built in 1925.
'.Well, | fired her. | was a mere boy
then, only twelve, in fact. The way It
happened was this: | didn't like to 90
to school, and ! did like to handle
horses and to ride on horseback.
suppose l should of turned out Jockey
or something of that sort, if / hadn't
become acquainted with the Stephen
sons. They had just finished building
the locomotive, and James Stephenson,
a cousin of George, had taken quite a
fancy for me. So when he was put on
this new engine as engineer he set me
10 do the firing. 1t wasn't very labo-
rious task, as You can see the boiler
was small. and did the work mainly
for the sake of having free rides.
did this work for about eighteen months,
and then l was employed in LAYING
tracks. Later on did other railroad
work, and finally | became acontrac-
tor and builder of railroads. 1 am now
settled in Winnipeg, Man, and am
building a large railroad
elbow long was the road on which
the locomotive was putt"
"The Stockton & Darlington line was
then about twenty-six miles long. That
was in 1927. Passengers were still
transferred by horse power. and it took
seven or eight years more to overcome
the fright people had of the iron horse.
1t was in 1882, l think, when the Will
5erforce, the first locomotive used for
passenger traffic, was started running.
was really ridiculous to see how
people acted at that time. You know,
the whole country around about OAR
lington is mostly settled by Quakers.
| remember one party of them coming
to town. and, on seeing the locomotive
they fell on their knees and commenced
to pray. They actually thought it was
the devil.
At this point Mr.. NJ. HI. Lackersteen,
a physician practicing in Chicago, who
had been listener to portion of this
recital, broke in with: eyes | know
how the native Hindoo population acted
in the East Indies when the first rail
road was built from Bombay to ALA
habad. | was surgeon in the British
army then, in 1860, and had been all
through the mutiny. The natives ran
away in wild alright, andit took them
several years to become used to the
locomotive, which they dubbed Pookla
Hotta (wild elephant.) In fact, the
cows and horses took more kindly al
first to the iron roads than their owners
and masters
..Well," continued Mr.. White, ..ii
was the same way in England. An cid
woman, one day along about 1880.
after looking long and earnestly at the
engine, asked me where its feet were
The people couldn't understand how a
little bit of steam could make that
heavy iron machine run so fast. and
haul heavy loads of coal besides. Then
came the hostility of the canal men and
of the stage people, who feared tina,
their occupations would be gone, and
that there would be no further use fol
horses. They spread the widest and
most extravagant rumors all through
the country, claiming that the locomo
tives would set the country on fire. FL
nally an act of Parliament was passed
legalizing the running of locomotives
Well, well, we're past all that now
But can tell you those were queer
times. - Chicago Herald.