The Republican., 1925-10-22

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railroad was actually started,con-
structed and completed for the
specific purpose of transporting
passengers and freight, and is
still operating, for nearly a CEN
tury, under its original charter
name. 1t was the first railroad
to cross the Allegheny Noun
taIns; the first TO issue a time
table; the first to employ cleo
trIcIty as means Of cOmmunlca-
ton, having the first telegraph
line in the world, over which Prof.
). i. b. Morse sent his first mes
sage, land the first to employ cleo
trlclty as motive power.
Two years from now the City of
Baltimore will be in the midst of one
of the most unique and significant
celebrations in which it has ever been
the good fortune of city to partici-
pate. What Importance the year 1927
will have attached to it in the general
scheme Of the universe or how it will
go down to posterity, of course, we do
not know, but to the city of Baltimore
and its inhabitants, the State of Mary
land and its residents, particularly, it
will be the hundredth anniversary Of
the beginning of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company, whose char
ter was granted by the State Of Ma
ryland, February %, 1927.
This grant was the beginning of
railroading on the Western Hemis-
phere, as we understand and look up
on railroading today, for the Balti-
more and Ohio was chartered to con-
struct two or more sets of rails from
Baltimore to the Ohio river. 1t was to
be a carrier of both freight and pas
sengers and to do and perform all
that common carriers Of today are
called upon to do-namely, a general
transportation business.
For this reason, the charter Of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad marked
the beginning of a new era in civili-
zation, an era of expansion and devel-
opment of a nation, the like Of which
has never been witnessed in the his
tory of the world. Attribute, if you
please, this remarkable and astound-
ing growth of small group Of prov
inces into the solidity and unifcation
of these United States, to all kinds of
causes, but no other one thing, no
other force, no other agency, has con-
tributed more to its growth than
steam railroad transportation.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
was to transportation, it might be
said, what the Declaration of indie
pendence was to the forefathers of its
founders. The spirit that imbued them
was much the same. Although they
had no battle to fight, theirs was a
great conflict, to compete with the
unknown, the untried and the unsolv-
ed. Theirs was the daring and cour-
age of the true pioneer to venture, to
risk and to achieve.
The Beginning.
An actuating force to the small
group of Baltimoreans who had the
courage to be the first to start rail-
road, was that the city of Baltimore
was losing its grip on trade to and
from the west. Baltimore had held its
own with other cities of the seaboarc
until the canals were built to the
north if it and to the men, who hac
Baltimore's best interests at heart
came the realization that they mus
do something to meet the situation OF
permit their city to fall away to the
rear as a market.
"Lord Baltimore" was not made Of
the stuff that would permit him to sit
idly by and see his prestige slipping
away. Neither ware his descendants
So, the first general meeting OF tht
citizens of the Queen of the Chesa
peake" to confer upon the propel
manner of undertaking the building
of railroad was held in Baltimore
February 2, 1927. Ten days later fol
lowed a call to certain business mel
most interested in the project to NEE
at the residence of George Brown ant
"to take into consideration the bes
means of restoring to the City of Bal
timore that portion of the Western
Trade which has lately been diverted
from it by the introduction of steam
navigation and by other causes"
Of this second meeting, William
Patterson was made chairman an
David Winchester secretary, and
committee was appointed to meet tn
following week. The committee in
cluded Philip E. Thomas, Benjami'
C. Howard, George Brown, Talbo
Jones, Joseph W. Patterson, Eva
Thomas and John V. L. Malone.
At the third meeting, on the l9t
of February of the same year, tn
committee made its report and recon
mended that measures be taken t
construct a double railroad betwee
the city of Baltimore and some sulta
BILE point upon the Ohio River by tn
most eligible and direct route; that
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