Eagle Feathers #166 – Railway Tales
By Bob (Monty) Doherty
The first railroad in North America was constructed in 1826 between the granite quarries of Quincy, Massachusetts and a wharf on the Neponset River. It was known as the Quincy Tramway or Granite Railroad and was a three-mile track that hauled the building stones for the Bunker Hill Monument.
Four years later in 1830, some members of the same group received a charter to build the Boston and Lowell Railroad, the first major railroad in the state and one of the first major railroads in the county. The initial trip over the 26-mile track took place on June 25, 1835. After leaving Lowell, it arrived in Boston one hour and 17 minutes later. Three celebrities were on this inaugural ride with many following throughout its future years. They were business friends Patrick Tracy Jackson, George Washington Whistler, and James Baldwin, all prominent men in Boston and Lowell.
Patrick Tracy Jackson was a United States manufacturer, co-founder of the Boston Manufacturing Company, and founder of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. He was considered the heart of early Lowell.
James Baldwin was a civil engineer and the son of Colonel Naomi Baldwin. Colonel Baldwin was a Revolutionary War hero and the builder of the Middlesex Canal that carried historic Concord River water through Somerville for over fifty years. James surveyed and designed the new Boston and Lowell Railroad.
On his way to Lowell, Author Charles Dickens rode this line and stopped in Somerville during her inaugural year of 1842. This stop was to visit the Mclean Hospital at Cobble Hill. Drawing inspiration from this trip, he wrote A Christmas Carol one year later.
This year, 2018, the city of Lowell celebrates the 200th anniversary of their favorite son, Benjamin Butler’s birth. He was a successful lawyer, businessman, politician, Massachusetts Governor, and legendary Civil War General. General Butler declared slaves were contraband of war, thereby freeing thousands of African Americans long before President Lincoln’s proclamation. He was a frequent rider on the Boston and Lowell Railway’s smoking car and was often seen with his gentle giant Mastiff dog at his side. He was active in legal cases involving the Middlesex Canal that ran through Somerville and also represented the Ursuline Nuns after their East Somerville convent’s burning. In 1853 his efforts postponed Charlestown from being annexed to Boston for twenty more years until 1873.
George Washington Whistler built the train engine used in the inaugural ride. He named it, The Patrick, after Mr. Jackson. They used his first name because they didn’t want to honor the sitting President Andrew Jackson. Whistler also invented the train whistle. His son, James McNeil Whistler who was the famous international artist who painted his mother’s image, was born in Lowell. Thus, the man who drove the first train through Somerville was “Whistler’s father.”
The Somerville Times Historical Fact of the Week – November 14
Eagle Feathers #166 – Railway Tales
By Bob (Monty) Doherty
The first railroad in North America was constructed in 1826 between the granite quarries of Quincy, Massachusetts and a wharf on the Neponset River. It was known as the Quincy Tramway or Granite Railroad and was a three-mile track that hauled the building stones for the Bunker Hill Monument.
Four years later in 1830, some members of the same group received a charter to build the Boston and Lowell Railroad, the first major railroad in the state and one of the first major railroads in the county. The initial trip over the 26-mile track took place on June 25, 1835. After leaving Lowell, it arrived in Boston one hour and 17 minutes later. Three celebrities were on this inaugural ride with many following throughout its future years. They were business friends Patrick Tracy Jackson, George Washington Whistler, and James Baldwin, all prominent men in Boston and Lowell.
Patrick Tracy Jackson was a United States manufacturer, co-founder of the Boston Manufacturing Company, and founder of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. He was considered the heart of early Lowell.
James Baldwin was a civil engineer and the son of Colonel Naomi Baldwin. Colonel Baldwin was a Revolutionary War hero and the builder of the Middlesex Canal that carried historic Concord River water through Somerville for over fifty years. James surveyed and designed the new Boston and Lowell Railroad.
On his way to Lowell, Author Charles Dickens rode this line and stopped in Somerville during her inaugural year of 1842. This stop was to visit the Mclean Hospital at Cobble Hill. Drawing inspiration from this trip, he wrote A Christmas Carol one year later.
This year, 2018, the city of Lowell celebrates the 200th anniversary of their favorite son, Benjamin Butler’s birth. He was a successful lawyer, businessman, politician, Massachusetts Governor, and legendary Civil War General. General Butler declared slaves were contraband of war, thereby freeing thousands of African Americans long before President Lincoln’s proclamation. He was a frequent rider on the Boston and Lowell Railway’s smoking car and was often seen with his gentle giant Mastiff dog at his side. He was active in legal cases involving the Middlesex Canal that ran through Somerville and also represented the Ursuline Nuns after their East Somerville convent’s burning. In 1853 his efforts postponed Charlestown from being annexed to Boston for twenty more years until 1873.
George Washington Whistler built the train engine used in the inaugural ride. He named it, The Patrick, after Mr. Jackson. They used his first name because they didn’t want to honor the sitting President Andrew Jackson. Whistler also invented the train whistle. His son, James McNeil Whistler who was the famous international artist who painted his mother’s image, was born in Lowell. Thus, the man who drove the first train through Somerville was “Whistler’s father.”