USA > California > Placer County > History of Placer county, California > Part 62
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4. The first locomotive built in America for a northern road was called the " De Witt Clinton," and was the third American locomotive. It was for actual service on the Mohawk and Iludson Railroad. This engine, like the others, was built at the West Point machine shops, and was also fitted up by Mr. Matthew; and when it was completed he took it to Albany, June 23, 1831, and made the first excursion with a train of cars over the road August 9, 1831. According to Mr. Matthew's statement. the "De Witt Clinton" weighed three and a half tons, and hauled a train of three to five cars at the speed of thirty miles an hour. It is especially noteworthy that both the cab and the tender of the " De Witt Clinton " were covered to protect the engineer from the weather-a " happy thought " of honest David Matthew, for which all American engineers at least ought to hold him in kind remembrance. About the middle of August the English locomotive, " Robert Fulton," built by the younger Stephenson, arrived and was placed on the Mohawk and Hudson road for service in the middle of the following September.
The locomotives had been used and fairly tested both on the southern and northern railroads, and the necessity for a radical change in their construction had become evident. Very soon John B. Jervis devised the plan of putting the truck under the forward part of the engine to enable it to turn sharp curves easily and safely. The machine so constructed was called the " bogie " engine. The first of these engines ever built was for the Mohawk and Hudson
road, and was ealled the " Experiment." It was put on the road and run by Matthew, who says it was " as fleet as a greyhound." The " Experiment " had been built to burn anthracite coal solely; after a while it was rebuilt and adapted to the use of any kind of coal, and its name was changed to the " Brother Jonathan." Shortly after these changes had been made the English locomotive " Robert Ful- ton," belonging to the same company, was also rebuilt and furnished with the truck, and named the "John Bull." The "Brother Jonathan " was a remarkable machine for those pioneer days. Mr. Matthew says of it: " With this engine I have crossed the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad from plane to plane, fourteen miles in thirteen minutes, stopping once for water. I have tried her speed upon a level, straight line, and have run a mile in forty-five seconds by the watch. She was the fastest and steadiest engine I have ever run or seen, and I worked her with the greatest ease." This is certainly wonderful speed, and may be, as Matthew earnestly maintains it is, the fastest time, at least on the American railroad record.
In comparison to the splendid and efficient engine of to-day, our first locomotives, built after the English model mainly, were clumsy and crude machines. Since then our improvements have been manifold and extra- ordinary, and the American locomotive is now pro- nouneed the most " perfect railroad tool in the world." Its exquisite symmetry and flexibility, and its extra- ordinary power must till the mind of a veteran like Matthew-who has watched its growth from its infancy in this country-with feelings of generous admiration and pride. The English and the Amer- ican railroads and locomotives are strikingly con- trasted by a writer in Harper's Magazine for March, 1879. English roads are short, solid, straight and level, and laid with the best rails in the world; and their massive and powerful, and rigid-framed engines are thoroughly adapted to those perfect roads. On the contrary, the American road is generally of great length, and being necessarily cheap it " goes as you please." Over these eccentric roads the American locomotive adjusts itself to every change of level both across and along the line; it takes curves that would be impossible for the rigid English engine; and, finally, it runs over a crazy track, up bill and down, in perfect safety. It has been well said that all that the English engine can do on a perfect road the American engine will do; and much more than this, it will do work on any road, however rough, billy, curved and cheap. The name of the first Amer- ican locomotive seems to have been inspired, for it has in the largest sense proved our " Best Friend."
This locomotive was of different form from the Stephenson locomotive, resembling the steam fire engine of the present day, being an upright boiler with smoke-stack rising from the upper end, the carriage being an open frame-work, and four wheels of equal size, the pistons and connecting rods reael- ing to the forward wheels. The Stephenson loco- motive was a horizontal boiler with steam chest, fire-box and smoke-stack attached, as at present, the carriage and driving wheels being the same as in the ' Best Friend."
A HISTORICAL RAILROAD EXCURSION.
There is a painting in the possession of the Con- nectieut Historical Society representing an excursion train on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, from
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Albany to Schenectady, New York, in 1831, often claimed to have been the first steam train in America, but the correct history regarding priority has undoubtedly been given in the preceding extract. The train, in comparison with the trains of the present day, was a unique affair, consisting of the toy-like English locomotive, a car carrying water in a closed tank and wood in barrels, and two stage- coach bodies set on car wheels. The venerable Thurlow Weed was one of the venturesome excur- sion party, of whom there were sixteen in all, and he has given descriptions of the ride. The cars were connected in train by chains from one to the other leaving quite a space between each. When starting, if the connecting chains were slack, the jerking threw the passengers off their seats, and when slacking or stopping the engine, the collision threatened destruction. "Necessity is the mother of invention," so a remedy must be had or the railway trial for passengers would be a failure. The train was stopped near a convenient fence from which rails were taken and fastened between the coaches, tender and locomotive, thus making the whole rigid and preventing the furious bumping. Thus "bump- ers" were invented. Stage-coach bodies were the first passenger cars, and these, somewhat enlarged, but very slightly different, continucd in use, some remaining on American roads as late as 1848, by which time the people of the East were becoming quite familiar with the iron road and its flying train.
FIRST CALIFORNIA RAILROADS.
The isolation of California retarded the adoption of any extended railroad system for many years. A few mining railroads, which, however, cannot be classed as being part of the system, were constructed as early as 1853, and of these Placer County claims the pioneer. In that year Capt. John Birston and a company of miners built a railroad of a mile or more in length from Virginia Hill to Auburn Ravine, for the purpose of transporting the gold- bearing earth from their mine to the water of the stream. This was used successfully for several months, when the better plan was conceived of con- ducting the water to the mine by means of a ditch, and the pioneer railroad was abandoned.
The success and novelty of this enterprise led to the organization of the first railroad company in the State. This Virginia and Bear River Railroad was intended for carrying " pay dirt" from Auburn Ravine to Bear River, where was an abundance of water, the essential element to the mine in separating the gold from the earth. The company created a sensa- tion on "great expectations," but built no road, the ditch superseding the necessity for any railroad.
The inland trade and travel through Placer County was large from the earliest period of the golden era. This was carried on by means of teams and stages, which were slow, toilsome and expensive. The demand for the building of railroads was incessant.
Sacramento was the depot of the northern mines. The principal road from it leading up the American River, supplying the counties of Amador, El Dorado, Placer and Nevada. The Sacramento Valley Rail- road was built to supply this demand. This was accomplished in 1855 and '56, being completed in February of the latter year. This was the first steam traveled railroad in California, and was the first ever seen by many of the pioneer immigrants, so rare were railroads in the States west of the great lakes in 1849. The road extends from Sacramento to Folsom, a distance of twenty-two and a half miles, on the south side of the American River, termin- ating near the junction of the South and North Forks of that stream. The projectors of this road claimed to have in contemplation its extension through the valley of the Sacramento northward, and to be a part of the transcontinental railroad when that should be made, but running so near the river it had, at Folsom, entered a cul de sac from which it could only be extended by doubling on itself. This short piece of road cost in construction and equipment about $1,100,000; rates of labor being high, and all the material, but the ties, in the track being imported from the Atlantic States and Europe. So great was the cost that it deterred capitalists from undertaking such enterprises. During that period freights to the Pacific Coast were very high, there being little return cargo, it being before the days of wheat, wool and wine productions, for which the ships of all the World now seek our har- bors, often coming in ballast, thus reversing the order of olden times.
RAILROAD EXTENSION.
Immediately upon the completion of the road to Folsom, and the rise of that place, which was built as the result of the railroad at its terminus, a demand for its extension was made by the people of Placer. The argument urged is shown in the follow- ing editorial in the Placer Ilerald of February 23, 1856 :-
The Sacramento Valley Railroad is now completed from the city of Sacramento to Folsom, on the American River, and in a few days our stages will be running regularly from this town to the upper depot. With scarcely any advantages over any mining town in Placer County we find the village of Folsom, upon our border, springing as it were in an hour, into a place of commercial importance, by vir- tue of the advantages it derives from being the tem- porary terminus of the railroad. It is estimated that the stock of the road, incomplete as it is, will shortly pay two per cent. per month upon the capital stock invested. Stage routes are being established. radiating from the depot to every section of the mountain country contiguous to it, and a feverish anxiety on the part of the business men and travel- ing publie generally to adopt this road for their uses, is daily made more and more manifest. These facts are worthy the serious reflection of our citizens, for they are the mathematical conclusions of experience. This railroad enterprise is no longer a matter of
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doubt-it is reduced to a practical certainty-a pay- ing investment.
The destination of this road is said to be ulti- mately the City of Marysville. In its passage it will traverse the County of Placer along the line of the foot-hills where they break into the plains. This will be of incalculable advantage to the ranchmen and farmers along the line, and perhaps to the county at large. Something is wanted to connect us with the great marts of California trade and develop the resources of this mountain county. We have exten- sive forests of fine timber, numerous streams for the use of machinery, limestone and marble quarries, and many other resources of which mention could be made. Shall we continue to trundle along in cum- brous, obsolete stage coaches, through dust and mire, as usual ? Drag our stores with painful toil, in heavy jolting wagons and ox-teams ? Or would it become us as men to make some move tending, if possible, to draw to ourselves the benefits of this railroad? We are not ambitious of Auburn; it is a village now, and will be nothing more, in all probability, during our day anl generation. Great cities are built now only where necessity requires them, and in this rela- tion commerce is a necessity. San Francisco is by nature the city of California and the Pacific, unless, indeed, these earthquakes should knock our calcula- tions in the head. Be that as it may, we want a branch of this road to pas- from its present terminus through Auburn to Grass Valley and Nevada. This, from what we can understand, is physically feasible. Auburn is about seventeen miles from Folsom; the rise from there to this point is no more than thirty- five feet to the mile. [The average is seventy feet to the mile .- ED ] From this to Grass Valley there is a succession of valleys, which will probably give about the same grade. Perhaps Nevada is equally acces sible, but of that we cannot speak from personal knowledge. Upon some of the roads in the Atlantic States the grade at some points is as much as 110 feet to the mile. If, then, it is as we represent it. the scheme is entirely practicable. As to the means to be taken to obtain this desired result, we con- l'ess ourselves at a loss to advise. It would seem proper for our citizens to hold a meeting and take some action. No doubt our friends in Nevada County and Sacramento would lend us their support, and assist in the work. They are quite as deeply interested as we of Placer.
We have made these suggestions at this time, and though crude as they are, believe we have discharged one among our many duties in calling public atten- tion especially to the matter. In the future we shall have more to say about it, and will probably be better prepared with reasons in support of the meas- ure.
This appeal was followed by others, arguing vebenently in favor of building an extension to Auburn. The people were aroused, and on the 13th of March a preliminary meeting was held, at which it was resolved to call a general meeting of the citi- zens of Auburn and vicinity, to take steps towards procuring the building of a railroad to connect Auburn with the Sacramento Valley Railroad at Folsom. The meeting was held on the 20th of March, 1-56, and an executive committee appointed. to which was intrusted further movements.
As an argument why the railroad should be built, the Placer Press, in April, published statistics show-
ing the advantage it would be in saving freight, stating that 2,700 tons of freight was brought into Placer County monthly from Sacramento, and that the average rate paid was $30.00 per ton, making the enormous outlay of $81.000 per month for freights. By the same estimates it was shown that freight could be delivered at Auburn by railroad at $5.00 per ton, making a saving to the people of the county of at least $50,000 per month; and lumber there cost- ing $15.00 per M. freight to Sacramento could be sent for $5.00. Such arguments and inducements were held out to the public.
The Legislature of 1856 passed an Act " to enable the County of Placer to take and hold stock in any company having for its object the extension of the Sacramento Valley Railroad to the town of Auburn." The proposition to vote $100,000 was submitted to the people at the clection in November, 1856, and was defeated by a vote of 3,432 against it, and only 319 in its favor.
In showing the profits arising from such a road, the Placer Herall of January 24, 1857, quoted from the report of the Directors of the Sacramento Valley Railroad the following: " The total earnings of the road for 1856 were $177.266; running expenses, 896 000; balance over running expenses, 881.266. The freight increases daily, particularly down freight, consisting of granite, cobble-stone, wood and gen- eral merchandise. It is estimated that the gross earnings for 1837 will be $216,000; running expenses, 884,000; clear balance of earnings, $132,000. The compromise effected with the contractors was entirely favorable, and fixed the debt due to them on the 1st of November at $430,000, for which they receive 8200.000 in bonds of the company at eighty cents on the dollar, leaving a balance with accrued interest of 8273.500, which bears interest at the rate of three per cent. per month from the 1st of November. There are 8700,000 due from stockholders in unpaid assessments on their subscriptions to stock, which, if promptly paid, the road in a few months will be free from embarrassments, and thenceforth pay large dividends. During the past year 82.000 passengers and 17,000 tons of freight passed over the road. The distance run by trains was 50.000 miles; wood consumed, 1,200 cords; oil consumed, 500 gallons; witer. 1,000,000; and the whole number of running diy -. 335." The foregoing is given as a sample of railroad management and finance in California in 1856-a reason why railroads could not be built with hopes of prosperity.
CALIFORNIA CENTRAL RAILROAD.
In the spring of 1857 a company was formed in Marysville. under the title of the " California Central Rii road Company," to build a railroad from Folsom to Marysville. Col. Chas. Lincoln Wilson, who had been a contractor on the Sacramento Valley Rail- road, was sent Eist to procure funds for building the road. This object he effected, and the construc-
BORLANDS HOTELI
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BORLAND'S HOTEL JAMES BORLAND PROP AUBURN STATION AUBURN. PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
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tion commeneed forthwith. The road connected with the Sacramento Valley at Folsom, on the south side of the American River, going on that bank a few hundred yards up the stream, and erossing on a wooden bridge; then going down the stream about one mile, when it gained the level of the bluff bor- dering the river, where it took a north westerly course along the foot-hills to Lincoln, in Placer County-having a total length of nineteen miles, of which fourteen were in this county. The Saera- mento Valley Railroad builders had shown the poor judgment of running into a cul de sac, while the builders of this, having the ultimate object of reach- ing Sacramento, constructed a mountain road, cross- ing the river at Folsom by an expensive bridge, making a course from Roseville to Sueramento of thirty-two miles, when the direct and easy line was only eighteen miles in length. The road was com- pleted to Lineoln, October 31, 1861, and the passen- ger travel of Placer, Nevada and Yuba, and much of the freight of the two former counties, passed over it. The construction of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1863 to Roseville destroyed the usefulness of that portion of the California Central extending to Fol- som, and business on it ceased. The section from Lincoln to Marysville was not completed until 1869, then under the name of the Yuba Railroad Company, and the same year it became the property of the Central Pacific Company, under the title of California and Oregon Railroad Company, but shortly after- wards designated as the Oregon Division of the Central Pacific. This has twenty-one miles in Placer County-from Roseville to Bear River-passing through the towns of Lincoln and Sheridan.
AUBURN BRANCH RAILROAD.
The year 1858 opened brightly for the railroad hopes of Auburn. The construction of the California Central was commenced, which would pass through the western portion of the county, and offered oppor- tunities for easy connection by rail with Auburn; or at least the open country, the gentle slopes and broad ravines seemed free of all obstacles to railroad building. An instrumental survey, however, devel- oped most serious difficulties to overcome before the iron-borse could stride with ease, and in triumph to the town.
On the 21st of July, 1838, T. D. Judah, Chief Engineer of the California Central, commenced at Auburn the survey of the " Auburn Branch Railroad," which was to join the Central at the most feasible point. The report of this survey is dated Folsom, August 13, 1858. It says :-
The line as run commences at Auburn near the Placer Herall printing office, running thence down and upon the easterly side of Auburn Ravine about two miles. Thence crossing over into Dutch Ravine, it runs down the same to a point three and two- thirds miles below Auburn, where the main road branches off to the Mountaincer House. Here, cross- ing over the divide between Dutch and Buckeye
Ravines, it runs into Buckeye Ravine, passing a few rods in the rear of Newcastle. To this point, which is four miles from Auburn, is found a fair line, requiring no grade of over eighty feet per mile. From the point opposite Newcastle, the line con- tinues down Buckeye Ravine to its intersection with Secret Ravine, near Preston & Worrell's quartz- mill six miles from Auburn, thence down Secret Ravine, passing near Bishop's quartz-mill, the Oaks House, Indian Valley House, Pine Grove House and Hawes, keeping in Secret Ravine to its intersection with the line of the Califorma Central Railroad at a point sixteen and two-thirds miles from Auburn, eight and forty-four one-hundredths miles from Folsom, and thirty and sixty-two one hundredths miles from Sacramento vi Folsom.
The only serious difficulty on the whole line oeeurs on the mile immediately below Newcastle, the fifth mile from Auburn, which falls 240 feet, so that an eighty foot grade continued down does not strike the surface again until it reaches a point eleven and a half mites from Auburn.
The great difference of elevation below Newcastle, and the long and high trestle-work required in cross- ing Dutch and Baltimore Ravines were the fatal objections to the route, and the " Auburn Branch " was not constructed.
SACRAMENTO, PLACER AND NEVADA RAILROAD.
While the obstacles developed by Judah's survey were serious, they were not regarded as insurmount- able, and the determination was still maintained of having a railroad. People of Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Counties were earnest in the enterprise, and books were opened for subscription to the stock of a railroad company, and by July, 1859, stoek to the amount of $50,000 had been taken. On the 2d of July, notice was given for subscribers to the stock to meet at Auburn on the 23d of that month, to form a preliminary organization. On that day, July 23, 1859. the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad Company was organized for the purpose of constructing a railroad from some point on the California Central to Auburn, Grass Valley, and Nevada City. James E. Hale was elected President of the company, John O. Jackson, Treas- urer, and F. B. Higgins, Secretary.
This was to be the long-hoped- for railroad to Auburn, for which its enterprising citizens had struggled and organized at various times since 1852; for which conventions bad been held, laws enacted, subsidies voted and many columns of newspaper matter printed in its advocacy. The most laudable ambition of a public-spirited and energetic people was to be gratified.
Surveys and reconnoissances were made by County Surveyor S. G. Elliott and by engineer M. M. Stan- groom, preceding the complete survey by Sherman Day, who commenced operations on the 11th of October, 1859, and made his report March 26, 1860, which was published in full in the Placer Herald, March 31, 1860. The line was divided into two divisons, the first extending from Auburn to Secret
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HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Ravine below Newcastle, embracing the acknowl- edged most difficult part. In this division great difficulty was encountered in maintaining a practi- cable line in entering Auburn from below, and leaving it in the extension towards Nevada. The Placer Herald printing office was taken as the initial point, and it seemed to be regarded as a sine qua non that the road should pass centrally through the town.
The line from Auburn to Secret Ravine required the crossing of Banvard Ravine by a trestle 1,200 feet long and 135 feet above the bed of the stream at the highest point. Then a trestle-bridge across Balti- more Ravine 950 feet long, and 161 feet above the bottom of the ravine. Duteb Ravine was crossed by a bridge 800 feet long and seventy-eight feet high at the center. Other ravines to cross, and deep cuts to make made this section the most difficult of the line, and as the subsequent history of the road will show, was never utilized by any railroad. By a scintillation of genius, encouraged by a disregard of others wishes, or by independence, a later and greater enterprise found a practicable route to and past Auburn without running through its main street.
The route selected by Engineer Day over the second division continued along the western slope and summit of the lower dividing ridge between the sources of Secret and Miners Ravines, afterwards crossing the latter half a mile southwest of the Franklin Ilonse. then followed nearly the stage route from Auburn to Folsom, passed near Rose Spring, then near Beals Bar. then entered Big Gulch, which it descended by a grade of eighty feet per mile to its junction with the American, then to the junction with the California Central at a point nine- teen and thirteen one-hundredths miles from Auburn, and immediately at the northern end of the railroad bridge at Folsom.
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