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

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HISTORY OF THE FIRST LOCOMOTIVES IS AMERICA.
SO small a machine, a part only was attached to the ' De "Witt
Clinton,' and the remainder were drawn each car by a horse, making
a very amusing-looking cavalcade. I think i Fulton would
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have done better and have been more at home upon the Hudson
Eiver than on the stand upon the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad,
However, on that occasion the little 'De Witt' acquitted herself
well, and got to the end of the road long before her companions by
horse-power arrived, and did the same in returning. Mr. Brown's
sketch was taken on the first excursion with the ' De Witt Clin-
ton,' before the time of this second excursion, and the arrival in
this country of the first locomotive from England, the
' Fulton,' for
our road. The second locomotive which came from England ar-
rived nearly, a year after— ^perhaps not so long, but I remember it
was late in the fall of the year. This second engine came withput
a tank or a tender. A temporary arrangement was made for supply-
ing this English engine with water by means of a cask with the capacity
of about three hundred gallons, made in the usual form and
manner of a cask, and resting on saddles of wood fastened to a frame
. of the same material ; and the whole, being mounted on four light
cast-iron wheels, presented a very novel appearance.
" This English locomotive was called the ' John Bull,' and had
four driving-wheels of four feet diameter. The hubs and naves
of the wheels were made of cast-iron, the spokes and rim or felloes
were made of wood and secured by wrought-iron flanged tires. It
is, perhaps, needless to say that after this engine was put in use,
those parts of the wheels made of wood gave audible complaint of
hard service. The ' shrieking ' of the machine caused no little
merriment among the knights of the whip, who were yet reluctant
in believing that the beautiful tandem teams which they had the
honor of driving formerly over the road, at the rate of twelve
miles an hour, ' could ever be superseded by such a cursed-looking
iron concern as that, as it was broken-winded already !
" The first regular trip for the public with a locomotive was on
the 9th day of August, 1831, with the 'De Witt Clinton.' A few
experiments had been made with her previous to that date.
" Mr. John B. Jervis was chief engineer of the road, and the
undersigned was resident engineer and superintendent of trans-
portation ; and he had the honor and satisfaction of receiving, with
his own hands, the first fifty cents for regular established passen-
ger-fare ever received on any railroad in the United States, as he
believes. The names of the first three engine drivers employed by
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