The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-05-03
Anaerspt1 gntelligeneer.
Our First Locomotive.

The claim of the New York newspa-
pers that the old engine "Johu Bull, y
built in England in 1881, now on its way
to the Chicago Exposition, is the first
locomotive engine ever used in America,
is successfully controverted by W. G..
Mazyck, of Charleston, who writes to the
New York World as follows:
In 1880 the South Carolina Railroad
Company, contracted with Mr.. E. NJ.
Miller, of this city, to build locomotive
for the company. This engine, which
was called the Best Friend, was put into
service in November, 1880, and was the
first locomotive ever built or used in
America for active service upon a rail-
road. (See "Sketch of Rogers L. &. NJ.
Works." New York, 1886, p. z
By entries in the minute book of the
board of directors of the South Carolina
Railroad and Canal Company, it is phown
that the Best Friend, after due trial in
service, was formally accepted" Deem
Der 20, 1880; that at the meeting of the
board held Janusry 8, 1881, rates of
speed and number of passengers to be
carried were fixed, and that on April 4,
1881, rule was adopted that mo person
be allowed to go on the engines" (mark
the plural, please.)
On Friday, June II, 1881. owing to the
ignorance of negro fireman, the Best
Friend exploded. She was afterwards
repaired and called the Phoenix.
In the Charleston Courier of June 80,
1880, we fnd this extremely interesting
notice:
"We find the following account of q
locomotive steam engine ordered by our
railroad in the New York Journal Of
Commerce of 18th inst:
"tA new steam locomotive engine has
t,lst been completed [italics mine] at West
Point Foundry, of this city. In its ex-
ternal contour it bears some resemblance
to the celebrated London engine, the
Novelty, but it is totally different in its
arrangements and details. Here fol-
lows description too long for quotation
here. It.has been got up by the enter.
prise and under the particular direction
of Mr.. E. Z. Miller, of Charleston, s. O.,
and constructed by Mr.. Hall, engineer of
the West Point establishment. The
exact maximum of speed il can attain
has not been ascertained, there being no
railroads in this vicinity upon which it
could be tried"
DR.. Bishop, in his History of Ameri.
can Manufactures" vol. H., p. 346. says
that the locomotive Phoenix was built in
1880, and adds that second one, the
West Point, was built by the same foun-
dry for our road in the same year, and
third, the De Witt Clinton, in the follow.
ing spring for the Mohawk and Hudson
Railroad, which road "about the same
time,," spring Of 1881: imported the ste-
phenson locomotive John Bull. DR..
Bishops statement regarding the West
Point probably explains the use of the
plural "engines, above noted.
"a locomotive called the South Caro-.
lima, designed by Horatio Allen, was
built for the South Carolina Railroad by
the West Point Foundry Association in
the year 1881" Sketch Rogers L.& NJ.
Works, p.7.)
The York, built by Davis & Gartuer,
of York, Pa, for the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, was placed on the road between
Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills August 80,
1881, and In the same month the John
Bull "was received in Philadelphia for
the Camden and Amboy Railroad and
Transportation Company IN. N. For
ney, Scri6ner's. Magazine, August, 1883,
P. 175) so.that, you see, the John Bull
had at least four, and probably yfue, pre-
decessors, which were in I actual service
when she was received in Philadel-
phia," three of them built in your city
for the South Carolina Railroad Compa.
ny, and one of these, the Best Friend,
completed before June lS, 1880, (her ship.
ment South, as shown by Mr.. Miller's
letters, was unavoidably delayed on &C
count of the sickness of tie season.
antedatiug the John Bulls reception"
h., for,toau ,oontbo