The "The Start Of The Railroad Through Lancaster, Pennsylvania" Story

It was an ordinary day.  The woodcut titled "Railroading In Old Lancaster" on page 12 of the Lancaster New Era from Monday, July 19, 1920 showed Downtown Lancaster with a railroad car from the Lancaster & Columbia Railroad coming across the bottom of the sketch.  The article was part of the "Travels In Old Lancaster" column which is a series of  historic facts and illustrated with reproductions of rare photographs, drawings and woodcuts.  Pretty neat to look South on North Queen Street toward center city and the Courthouse which at one time stood in the center of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  

A woodcut showing North Queen Street, looking South, after
the completion of the Lancaster & Columbia railroad. Click to enlarge.

The story that went with the sketch talked of the large eight-wheel train car that passengers can now take via the Lancaster & Columbia Railroad.  The fast and comfortable rail car is not excelled by any other in the United States.  It now takes only two days to make the journey from Lancaster to Pittsburgh, PA.  But, after reading the next sentence of the story, I realized it wasn't meant to be for 1920.  The story about the new train was from an advertisement in the Lancaster Examiner of eighty years before that, in 1840.  "Back in those days Lancaster was the most important inland city in the Union and had a population of 8,000.  The rail line was said to be the most costly and valuable public line ever made in the United States.  The city of Lancaster paid for most of the construction of the part that ran from the bridge on the Big Conestoga through the city along the right of way now used by the Pennsylvania Railroad (as of 1840).  In the woodcut that was featured in the article, the station would have been found in the North American Hotel, where the Brunswick now stands (in reference to 1920).  Close by the locomotive in the woodcut stood the "Pioneer Hotel" and directly south where the drug store looms up, once the Museum, was the car office.  It was in 1831 that the railroad was brought to Lancaster after several meetings yielded a petition to the Pennsylvania Legislature for and on behalf of the citizens of Lancaster, to alter the present route of the railroad so as to make the City of Lancaster a point according to the directions of he act of General Assembly.  It was in 1934 that the fight was won and at a council meeting on October 3, 1834, 'it was resolved by both councils that a committee be appointed to wait on the governor at Columbia and invite him to the hotpitalities of the city.'  According to the files of the Lancaster Examiner the Governor was 'waited on' and the whole party took a trip to Philadelphia on a car drawn by one of the old engines, 'John Bull.' It was during the World's Fair in 1893 that the 'John Bull' passed through Lancaster once again under its own power to Chicago where it made one of the most interesting of the exhibits."  In the same newspaper of July 19, 1920 was an article by "The Scribbler."  Many of my stories in the past have referenced Jack Brubaker who is today's "The Scribbler" in the Lancaster Newspaper.  The 1920 Scribbler wrote of "Getting Up" in the morning and how aggravating it can be.  "But, it's nicer to lie in bed" he tells his readers.  He then goes on to tell of Samuel Clemens and how he wrote of rising early to see the sun rise.  He also said that if Samuel Clemens would have had the chance to rise early in Lancaster County, he would have made the Garden Spot his permanent residence.  "He would have enjoyed the rattle of wagon taking the milk to the creamery, the crowing of the roosters, the lowing of the cows, the barking of the dogs, the crying of the baby in the next house, the scream of the whistle of a distant locomotive, the jolting racket of the heavy team taking the grain to the mill for chopping, the morning songs of the birds and the laughter and chatter of the children would have banished sleep from the city dweller no matter how drowsy.  And, once awake the sting in the nostrils from the smoke of the fresh-made fire in the kitchen and the appetizing odor of the morning meal would have spurred even the lazy Mark Twain into dressing.  Samuel Clemens would have loved the Red Rose county had he been able to visit our town."  "The Scribbler" has been a part of our newspaper since the early 1900s and the stories of today are just as intresting as they were back then.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.