^
��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
��303
��cars, drawn b}- horses, were used, as the loco- motive could not be brought over the space occupied by the '• deep cut."
Speaking of the grain and produce ti-ade of that date, Mr. Drennan says :
I shipped the first wheat in September, and enjoyed for that day a good trade. The deep cut was not finished so that cars passed through until spring : but south of the deep cut. from Plymouth to Mansfield, on the McConnell & Leyman conti'act " — the part wholly in this county — •' the road was in a forward condition, and nearly ready for the cars, could they have been put on the track. The deep cut was com- pleted, and a train passed over the road in Maj' of the next spring [1846]. This,' says Mr- Drennan,, ••' was the first train over the road. It came on down to ^lansfield in accordance with a previous aiTangement with the Shelby and Plj'mouth people, to lie taken to jNIansfield to a war convention called to raise troops for the Mexican war." By some curious arrange- ment, these two events, lioth of importance to the eit}' and county, happened at the same time ; but. what is stranger still, no one can be found w^ho can tell what day in May they oecuiTed. As near as can now be ascertained, they happened about the middle of the month."*
Considerable difficult}' was experienced in the endeavor to solve this question. Judge Dirlam, when at one time engaged in a law-suit in which the question arose, found in the diary of E. P. Sturges, Sr., under date of May 16 he thinks, a reference to the advent of the first train of cars. The}' came, however, no nearer the cit}' than the site of the present water-works build- ings. This is doubtless correct, and coincides
- Mr. J. H. Cook statei, that he was conductor on one of the fir:;t
trains that came to Man fifield, when the stopping-place was out by the water works. He saj> : " As we came around the hill, the en- gineer allowed the train to come slowly down. An immense assem- blage of citizens stood on the hillside ne,\t the tract, to view its approach. There must have been a thousand persons anxiously watching the train. Just as the engine came near the crowd, the engineer blew a shrilling blast upon the whistle — a loud and sharp one. The effect on the crowd was electric and amusing. They scampered up the hill like frightened sheep, greatly to the amuse- ment of the train-men.'" This may have been the first train to come to town.
��with "Sir. Drennan's and others" recollections. This was not, however, info the town. Mr. John Eicketts, in a communication to the writer of the history on this subject, states that the train came into the town the 19th day of June, 1846. His son Greorge, now a policeman in the cit}', was born about 4 o'clock oif the afternoon of that day, and Mr. Ricketts states he well remem- bers the coincidence of these two events. Dr. Teegarden was his family physician at the time, and was so excited over the arrival of the train, hourly expected, as to forget his patient for a time, and rush to the window to get a glimpse of the cars as thej' came up to the foot of Wal- nut street. An immense crowd was there to meet them, and a second hour of rejoicing passed, as one more step in the extension of the road had now been made.
Mr. Ricketts says that the construction en- gine was called the '• Vigilant," and that, while used, it was run by Samuel Idler, who, he thinks, also ran the engine Empire," used to draw the first regular trains. He says he and many others often walked up the track as far as Spring Mills, where they would willingly assist to load and unload raili<oad supplies for a ride on the fiat-cars. His first ride on a train, as well as that of many other citizens, was ol)tained in this manner.
The advent of the cars was the greatest event of the day to most people. "War and its attend- ant parades were more common afiTairs. Militia musters had familiarized the people with such scenes ; l)ut few of them had ever seen an engine and cars. A great crowd assembled at both places where the train stopped to see the novel sight. .The train would, indeed, be a novel sight now. The locomotive, the ■ Empire." was of the prevalent pattern of the da}' ; small, doubt- less devoid of a cow-catcher, and. mayhap, with onl}' one dri\'e-wheel on each side. The cars were small, square, open box cars, on which the first mei'chandise Avas brought that was un- loaded at the depot in Phanouth, in this county.
��-K
�� �
