The history of the first locomotives in America. From original ...

FURTHER TRIALS. 147
shipped to Charleston, South Carolina, for the Charleston and
Hamburg Railroad, in the fall of 1830, and was put upon that
road during the winter.
" It was the first locomotive built in America, was exhibited
at our shop under steam for some time, and visited by many.
She was shipped to Charleston on board of the ship Niagara, in
October, 1830."
Prof. Samuel Henry Dickson, of tlie Jefferson
Medicial College of Philadelphia, in a recent letter to
the author, describes his visit to the West Point Foun-
dery-works in New York, in 1830. At this time the
" Best Friend of Charleston," the first locomotive ever
bmlt in America, for actual service upon a raiboad, was
just completed, and about to be shipped to Charleston.
Prof Dickson writes as follows
:
"Philadelphia, May ZO, 1871.
""Wm. H. Beow^, Esq.—
" Deae Sir : In reply to your courteous letter of inquiry, just
received, I regret that lean give you nothing better than general
though very definite reminiscences. Dates, circumstantial details,
and printed statements, such as would best suit your purpose, have
faded from my mind, and all written memoranda of that distant
time have perished amid the general ruin at the South.
" But I recollect that, being on a tour among my Northern
friends in the summer of 1830, I was written to on the part of
the board of directors of the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad
(the South Carolina Railroad), and requested, as one of that body,
to visit the foundery of Mr. Gouverneur Kemble, to look at a loco-
motive-engine which he was building for our road, and report as to
it- general appearance, and the prospect of its completion by the
appointed time.
" Our contract had been made with Mr. E. L. Miller, who en-
gaged with Mr. Kemble to build the machine. Mr. Miller accompaniiid
me to the workshop, where I saw with intense interest and
great satisfaction, not unmixed with some pride too, the £rst loco-
motive constructed in this country. Never having seen a loco-
motive, and being neither engineer nor mechanic, I could not of
course presume to pronounce upon its merits, and was as curious
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