Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1894 — RODE ON THE FIRST ENGINE. [ARTICLE]

RODE ON THE FIRST ENGINE.

Which Was Ever Run In the United States. By the death of John Torry, iq Honesdale, Pa., recently, Otis Avery becomes the sole survivor of those who rode on America’s first locomotive on the first day it ran, Aug. 8, 1829. Mr. Avery was born Aug. 19, 1808, in Oneida County, New York. He removed to Bethany, Pa., when he was 20 years of age. Later he removed to Chenango County, New York, and still later to New York City, where he learned the profession of dentistry. Then he removed to Honesdale. He was Associate Justice for eleven years retiring from the bench about ter years ago. Mr. Avery says that Horatio Alien a civil engineer and the agent of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, who had gone to England to superintend the construction of the first locomotive, the “Stourbridge Lion,” was the only man to ride on the engine upon its first run, because it was not known whether the road was strong enough to bear the weight of the 1< comotive. Mr. Allen ran the engine about a mile and then returned to the place of starting. Immediately after its return several of those assembled made short trips on it, but Mr. Avery says that there was little inclination among those present to risk their lives on board, especially as part of the distance traversed was over a risky-look-ing trestle. The track of this first railread was constructed with hemlock stringers keyed to the top of “bents,” with a flat rail spiked to the inner edge. This was pressed by the weight of the engine completely into the wood. Anthracite, coal was the fuel used. The engine had no cab and no place to sit down. He was wholly unprotected from the weather.