The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-06-21
THE OLD SOUTH CAROLINA
Was the First Railroad Built in the
United States.

In this railway age the acquisition of
the old South Carolina railroad by the
Southern, which again makes that roa1
the most important to the city of Char
lesion, gives the early history of the
pioneer road, where once the motive
power was the wind, an especial interest.
While the South Carolina was not the
first railroad in the world, and possibly
not the first in the Unitid States, it was
conspicuously first in many particulars.
1t was the first road ever constructed
with definite plan CT operating exclu-
sively by locomotive power: it was the
first railroad to use an American built
locomotive; it was the first to use loco
motives that were purely the product
Of American invention; it was the first
road in the world to use an eight
wheeled engine, and that engine was
the first eight-wheeler ever constructed,
and was devised by this same road s
chief engineer
Although there were tram roads in
America that are said to have ante-dated
the South Carolina, still it is doubtful
if even that is the case, for the South
Carolina company ante-dated by some
years the genuine railroad that was
opened by that company January Is,
1880, and several circumstances indi-
cate that the company operated a tram
way by horses and sails before the loco
tive steam power was inaugurated in
1880. Certain it is that the work on
this, the first real railroad in America.
was commenced in 1923. Although
tramways had been in use in England
for century or two nothing much was
accomplished until Stephenson opened
up the Manchester and Liverpool rail-
way in 1929, introducing thereon the
steam locomotive.
In his work entitled Railroads
Their Origins and Problems" MIR.
Charles Francis Adams says there is
some reason for believing that the
South Carolina railroad was the first
constructed in any country with de-
finite plan of operating it exclusively
by locomotive steam power. :" There is
corroborAtive evidence on this point in
the memoirs Of Horatio Allen: SIN
September of 1929 MIR. Allen became
the chief engineer of the South Carolina
railroad the construction of which had
then been determined upon. On his
recommendation the gauge of the rad
IS made five feet. This road was
c,npleted and the cost was within his
original estimates, and when finished
it was the longest railroad in the world.
At that early date the South Carolina
Railroad company had to decide wheth-
er the motive power of the road should
be horses or locomotives. In report
made to the company in November,
1929, Mr.. Allen presented an estimate
Of the cost of transportation by horse
power and by the locomotive power.
The estimate Of cost of locomotive
power was based on facts obtained on
the Stockton and Darlington railroad,
(Englaud). The result of that compari-
son was in favor of locomotive power
and the South Carolina company adopt
ed the engineers recommendation to
use that power. But that action was
based not on the experience OF the
English road, but on the report of the
engineer who held that in the future
there was mo reason to expect any ma
terial improvement in the breed of
horses, while in my judgement the man
is not living who knows what the breed
Of locomotives will place at command. +"
This report was made to full meet
ing of the board and the decision for
locomotives was unanimous. Engineer
Allen says: 1t was the first action of
this kind by any corporate body in the
world" Mr.. Adams is authority for
the statement that the South Carolina
road was opened January Is, 1880, for
says he; ''On the 18th of January,
1881, exactly four months after the
final opening Of the Manchester and
Liverpool road, the first anniversary Of
the South Carolina railroad was cele-
brated with due honor" AS to the first
engine useI on this road, Mr.. Adams
says: A queer looking machine, the
outline of which was sufficient to prove
that the inventor owed nothing to Ste
phenson, had been constructed at the
West Point foundry works in New York
during the summer Of 1S30--a first at
tempt to supply that locomotive with
the board had with sublime confidence
in possibilities, unanimously voted on
the l4th of the preceding January
should alone be used on the roai." The
name Of 'Best Friend" was given to
this very simple product of native gcni-
US. Iu June, 1881, another locomo-
tive, the "West Point" arrived at
Charleston. Nicholas W. Darrell, Of
Charleston, machlnist, was the frt man
to open the throttle and run in the
Best Friend" This engine later ex-
ploded her boiler.
The third engine built was an eight
wheeler constructed on the plans fur
nished by Horatio Allen, chief en-
gineer, ''and was the first eight-wheel
engine in the world. 1t was named
the South Carolina -
According to Mr.. Aliens memoirs,
the road at first constructed consisted
cf stringers 6xl2 inches, on which iron
bars ,. inches were spiked. News
papers OF Tie Period were not eager for
railroad nt >S, bat in The Charleston
Mercury, July 6, 1881, is an account of
an enthusiastic meeting of citizens of
Knoxville, Tenn, aud vicinity, held
June 10th, at which resolutions were
adopted recognizing the value to com
merce of the South Carolina road and
urging continuance of the line to the
west, and committees were appointed 10
aeitate the subject in territory between
Knoxville and Columbia.
This railroad advertisement appeared
in The Mercury July 10, 1881: THE
locomotive engine runs every day for
passengers at half past I D, m, Parties