The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1893-05-03
OUR FIRST LOCOMOTIVE.
Indisputable Evidence that it was Run on
the South Carolina Railway.

papers that the cid engine "John Bull"
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 fol-
lows:
In 1880 the South Carolina Railroad
Company contracted with Mr.. E. NJ.
Miller, of this city, to build a locomo-
tive 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 railroad. (See "Sketch of
Rogers L. & NJ. Works." New York,
1886, p. u
BY entries in the minute book of the
board of directors of the South Caro-
liua Railroad and Canal Company, it
is shown that the "Best Friend" after
due trial IN service, was formally "ac-
cepted" December %, 1880: that at the
meeting Of the board held January 8,
1881, rates of speed and number Of pas
sengers to be carried were fixed, and
that on April 4, 1881, rule was adopted
that "no person be allowed to 60 on
the engines" {mark the plural, please.)
On Friday, June II, 1881, owing to
the ignorance of a negro fireman, the
"Best Friend" exploded. She was
afterwards repaired and called the
"Phenix." ..
In the Charleston Courier Of June 80,
1880, we find this extremely interesting
notice:
1--WE find the following account of a
locomotive steam engine ordered by
our railroad in the New York Journal
of Commerce of 18th inst:
"a new steam locomotive engine
has just been completed Italics mine1
at West Point Foundry, of this city.
In it's external contou: it bears some
resemblance to the celebrated London
engine, the Novelty, but it is totally
different in its arrangements and de-
tails. Here follows a description too
long for quotation here.] 1t has been
got up by the enterprise and under the
particular direction of Mr.. E. L. Miller,
of Charleston, S. CT, and constructed
by Mr.. Hall, engineer of the West Point
establishment. The exact maximum
of speed it can attain has not been
ascertained, there being no railroads IN
this uicinity upon which. it could be
tried" -. - -, p. ~.> .
DR.. Bishop, in his "History Of Ameri-
can Manufactures" vol. IL, p. 346, says
that the locomotive "Phnnix" was
built in 1880, and adds that second
one, the West Point was built by the
same foundry for our road in the same
year, and third, the De Witt Clinton,
in the following spring for the Mohawk
and Hudson Railroad, which road,
"about the same time" spring Of 1881,
imported the Stephenson locomotive
John Bull. DR.. Bishops statement
regarding the West Point probably ex-
plains 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 Associa-
ton in the year 1881" Sketch Rodgers
L. & NJ. Works, p. ~
The York, built by Davis & Gartner,
of York, Pa, for the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, was placed on the road
between Baltimore and Ellicott's Mills
August 80, 1880, and in the same month
the John Bull twas received in Phila-
delphia for the Camden and Amboy
Railroad and Transportation Compa-
n.y." (M. n. Forney, Scribner's Mag
azine, August, 1855, p. l75.) So that,
you see, the John Bull had at least
four, and probably .foe, predecessors,
which were in actual service when she
was "received in Philadelphia" three
of them built in your city for the
South Carolina Railroad Company,
and one of these, the "Best Friend,"
completed before June Is, 1S30-(her
shipment South, as shown by Mr.. Mil
ler's letters, was unavoidably delayed
on account of the sickliness of the sea-
SON )-antedating the John Bulls "re-
ception" by fourteen months.