{"id":189,"date":"2008-07-14T10:49:21","date_gmt":"2008-07-14T15:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/?p=189"},"modified":"2014-01-15T15:49:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T21:49:58","slug":"the-little-engine-that-did-another-first-for-davenport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/2008\/07\/14\/the-little-engine-that-did-another-first-for-davenport\/","title":{"rendered":"The Little Engine that Did—another first for Davenport!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, we are celebrating the upcoming anniversary of the first locomotive in Iowa, which arrived in Davenport on July 19, 1855.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This was a pretty big deal\u2014most people were counting on reliable overland transportation to be as much of a gold mine west of the Mississippi as it was to the east.\u00a0 <\/span>By 1855, the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad had already laid tracks through Davenport towards Des Moines in one direction and Muscatine in the other–and they\u00a0 <\/span>just couldn\u2019t wait to get things running.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, as we all know from a previous entry on this humble blog, the first railroad bridge over the Mississippi River wasn\u2019t completed until a year later.\u00a0 <\/span>So how did the train get here?<\/span><\/p>\n

By boat, of course.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Sunday<\/em> Democrat-Times– <\/em>which ran a 100th<\/sup> anniversary article on August 17, 1955–the M&M railroad hired a special barge to ferry the small locomotive over to where nearly all of Davenport had gathered to welcome it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>A few hours later, the engine had been fed a load of pine wood and enough steam had been built to take its inaugural run.<\/span><\/p>\n

Twenty-five prominent citizens took that first crowded train trip\u2014the first train trip in the state.\u00a0 <\/span>The whistle blew at every intersection, drawing cheers from the crowds.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Alas, the trip was cut short at the west border of the city by a low-hanging branch over the tracks.\u00a0 <\/span>Loathe to risk damage to the brand new locomotive, the engineer took her back to the business district, where everyone could take a gander before it was put to work.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The engine was named the Antoine LeClaire, after one of Davenport\u2019s founders and leading citizens.\u00a0 <\/span>Mr. LeClaire had supported the railroad all along, not only by helping to finance the M&M, but by donating his former house\u2014the Treaty House, which was built on the spot where the Blackhawk Treaty was signed– as a railroad station.<\/span><\/p>\n

Railroading caught on as well as those early supporters would have wished.\u00a0 <\/span>By the 100th<\/sup> anniversary of that first train, Iowa had about 8,600 miles of track covering the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

(posted by Sarah)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, we are celebrating the upcoming anniversary of the first locomotive in Iowa, which arrived in Davenport on July 19, 1855.\u00a0 This was a pretty big deal\u2014most people were counting on reliable overland transportation to be as much of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[123,416,414,412,89,413,415],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-history","tag-antoine-leclaire","tag-blackhawk-treaty","tag-bridge","tag-locomotive","tag-mississippi-river","tag-train","tag-treaty-house"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXc-33","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1685,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/1685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}