Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1879 — OVER THE RIVER, With Whistling, and Shouting. [ARTICLE]

OVER THE RIVER, With Whistling, and Shouting.

The Day Long’ Looked for, Come at Last. The Marrow Gauge Into the City. [From Delphi Journal.] June 28th, 1865, in the city of Indianapolis a handful of enterprising men met and organized the Indianapolis, Del phi and Chicago Railway Company. While it is true that other men and other places desired and earnestly sought the buildiDg of the proposed road yet it cannot be denied that its staunchest, most determined and untiring friends were iu this city. Since the organization of the original company fourteen years have quietly passed, and with their flight our people have sufiered defeat after defeat in their favorite scheme of placing our beautiful little city iu closer and direct communication with our capital and with the great city of Chicago. While that hope is not yet realized yet they do witness tangible evidences of the final realization of their aims. Last Thursday afternoon the first train ran into the corporate limits of the city. The Wabash bridge was so nearly completed as to salely bear the train, and so the track was quietly laid to a point about one hundred feet this side of the canal and a number of our citizens were invited to ride on the first train over the bridge and into the city. At 0 o’clock p. m. Col. Yeoman, the indefatigable manager and builder of .the road, announced to his invited friends that they were ready tor the trip. Two cars were speedily filled and Superintendent Millikan, who was, for the occasion, stationed at the throttle of the engine, gave the lever a gentle pull and the t rain with its anxious load of human freight moved slowly out upon the bridge which stands fifty feet above the river bed. Almost with bated breath the people stood quietly watching until the middle of the river was reached, when a feeling of security displaced the dread and fear of accident, and then a shout went up that will linger iu memory for many years with those who wore aboard the train. The bridge was safely passed and in a few minutes the train was standing inside the city limits ol Delphi. The bridge is of the Howe truss pattern, and is almost a marvel ol strength and grace, built by Messrs. Freeman & Co., of Toledo. No less substantial and good looking are the trestle approaches designed by Wili. Garis, chief engineer, and built under the supervision of George Markley, the efficient superintendent of bridges. Among the seventy five or more who had the courage to join iu the trial trip we noticed Ma}or Walker, Councilmen Knight, Lathrope, Graham, Fisher. Jackson and Haugli; Mrs. Knight, Mrs, Cox, Misses Ella and Stella Dimmick; Messrs. Dr. Richardson, James and Charley Kilgore, L. B. Sims, Judge Gould, James P. Dugan, Vine Holt, Isaac Jackson, A. M. Eldridge, A. B. Crampton, of the Times, J. W. Griffith, Isaac Griffith and Dr. Angel.

At eleven o’clock and thirty minutes, Monpay, the track was laid to a crossing of the Wapash railway, and the interesting event announced by a prolonged snort from the whistle of the Alf McCoy. Ana thus the question as to whether the road will ever reach Delphi is finally settled. It is here, and we believe it has come to stay. Monday afternoon Geo. Guiliford, Chss. Gros, Isaac Jackson, Col. Yeoman, C. M. Knight and C. Angel, Jr., went over to Rensselaer to receive the fatted calf tendered dy Messrs. McCoy, Thornp son, A. Parkison and Win. Parkison for the celebration to morrow. They returned with their charge yesterday at five o’clock p. m., and were met at the train by a large crowd of our people. The. calf was certainly a fine specimen. He was unloaded at the foot of Franklin street, trimmed with flowers and evergreens and led through the principal streets, after which he was led in front of Wollover’s gallery and a photograph taken of him. He seemed too fine an animal to kill, but then the day must be celebrated and the dinner committee is short of meat.