topping to inquire whether it be genuine or
apocryphal. He says, 'This was the first steam locomotive engine ever
made in America.'

Mr. Barlow sold the miniature engine, Car and wooden rails to Mr. Samuel
Robb, of this county, who exhibited the workings of them in 1827 in the
cities of Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Vicksburg, New Orleans, in
which city it was consumed by fire during the year 1828. Mr. Barlow
built another miniature engine for Mr. Rockhill who used it for
exhibition. I wish it distinctly remembered so as not to confuse dates,
that the first mattock struck and the first stone laid on the Lexington
and Louisville Rail Road were done in Lexington June 3rd, 1831, the
citizens, the Free Masons and the Military assisting in the ceremonies
which took place at the corner of Water and Upper Streets, not ten feet
from the present storage house of Hayman and Wooley. Prof. Charles
Caldwell, of Transylvania Medical School, made the address on the
occasion.

I remember again, that the model engine of Mr. Barlow and Mr. Bruen was
run on the miniature Rail Road _three or four years before_ the first
rail was laid on the track which was a flat iron rail on a stone sill.
The great danger occurring continually from the ends of the flat rails
turning upwards causing what was then called 'snake heads,' and the
disintegration of the stone sills induced the directors to change both
sills and rails to their present form.

I recollect the old horse car running from here to Frankfort and back to
Lexington.

It was in 1835, in company with my deceased friend, John J. Crittenden,
who with myself was watching a splendid comet in the North West during
our ride, the horse cars were four hours in running the distance of
twenty-four miles, or six miles an hour. Upon arriving upon the hill
near Frankfort the passenger trains were sent down an inclined plane
drawn by horses. Several accidents occurred which afterwards induced the
Directors to change the route to a more circuitous and safer place, the
road now in constant use. At Frankfort the passengers for Louisville
took seats in five and six four-horse coaches, eighteen to twenty-four
passengers each. The necessities of travel and commerce finally
culminated in finishing the Rail Road to Louisville. Lexington and
Frankfort with the counties of Fayette, Woodford and Franklin did their
parts nobly, and Louisville with that symptom of haggling so usual with
her, finally was induce