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First American Locomotive Source: History of Lexington Kentucky: its early annals and recent progress, George W. Ranck, Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1872, pp. 318-319. Lexington claims the honor of having constructed the first railroad in the West, and the second one in America. It was originally known as the "Lexington and Ohio Railroad," and was chartered by the Kentucky legislature, January 27, 1830; and the corporators were* Messrs. John W. Hunt, John Brand, Richard Higgins, Benjamin Gratz, Luther Stevens, Robert Wickliffe, Leslie Combs, Elisha Warfield, Robert Frazer, James Weir, Michael Fishell, Thomas E. Boswell, George Boswell, Benjamin Taylor, Elisha J. Winter, Joseph Boswell, David Megowan, John Norton, Madison C. Johnson, and Henry C. Payne. Elisha J. Winter was elected first president of the company. The second president was Benjamin Gratz, of Lexington, Kentucky. Engineers at that period, were not so lavish in their estimates of the cost of constructing railroads, as they have become in modern times, as it is a matter of history that the original estimate of the cost of the contemplated Lexington and Ohio road, from Lexington to Portland, was one million of dollars. Of this sum, about seven hundred thousand dollars was promptly subscribed by citizens of Lexington.+ The "corner-stone" of the road was laid on Water street, near the corner of Mill, with great display, on the 21st of October, 1831. Governor Metcalfe drove the first spike, and an address was delivered to the assembled concourse by Professor Charles Caldwell. Work on this pioneer road was then commenced. The road-bed was as unique as it was substantial, and consisted of strap-iron rails spiked down to stone-sills. The cars were, for a long time, drawn by horses. The first steam locomotive made in the United States ran over this road. It had been invented by Thomas Barlow, of Lexington, as early as 1827 or 1828, and was constructed by Joseph Bruen, an ingenious mechanic, also a resident of Lexington.# The original model of this locomotive is in the museum of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum of this city. On the night of December 21, 1834, a grand ball and supper was given at Brennan's tavern, in Lexington, to celebrate the opening of the road, and the rejoicing and festivity was great. An immense and excited crowd assembled at Lexington, on Saturday, January 24, 1835, to witness the starting of the first train for the "Villa." In the following December, the first through train arrived at Frankfort from Lexington.** During the session of the general assembly of 1847, the Louisville and Frankfort Railroad Company was organized and chartered, and at once became the purchasers of that portion of the road lying between Louisville and Frankfort. In 1848, the Lexington and Frankfort Railroad Company was organized, and in turn purchased from the state that portion of the road between Lexington and Frankfort. Regular trains were first run through from Louisville to Lexington in 1851. In 1857, the management of the Louisville and Frankfort and Lexington and Frankfort railroads was consolidated. The road is now known as the Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati Railroad. *Acts Legislature Transcribed by Pam Brinegar, February 2000 |