Traveling And Transportation.

In the fall of 1883 a new organization, the Chester Steamboat Company, was formed, and the steamboat "Artisan" placed on the route, running as a freight-boat between Chester and Philadelphia.

In 1882 the steam barge "Sarah," of which Capt. Deakyne was manager, began running daily between Chester and Philadelphia, but after a few months' service withdrew.

In the spring of 1883, R. W. Ramsden, who was proprietor of the Pioneer Stage Line from Chester to Upland, started a freight line from Chester to Philadelphia, running the steam barge "M. Massey." He continued in this enterprise until the fall of that year, when his boat was burned at the foot of Edgmont Avenue.

Railroads. - That part of the Pennsylvania Railroad which passes through a small part of Haverford, and diagonally through Radnor township, was originally the Columbia Railroad, built by the State. That part of it nearest to Philadelphia was not completed and opened to trade and travel until 1834. The cars at first were propelled by horse-power, the distance between Columbia and Philadelphia, eighty-two miles, requiring nine hours for the trip, the horses being changed every twelve miles. The cars were built after the form of the old stage-coaches, only larger, the entrance door at the side, and the driver seated on an elevated box in front.

The first locomotive put on the road was the "Black Hawk," which had been built in England. As the eastern end of the railroad for steam purposes was not completed, the engine was drawn to Lancaster over the turnpike road. When the wonderful curiosity was to perform the trial-trip between Lancaster and Columbia, Governor Wolf and most of the State officials were present to witness the novel sight. The "Black Hawk," however, disappointed the audience, who had been informed by an Irishman employed by the road to keep the track clear of the crowd. "Get out of the track!" he shouted; "when she starts, she'll go like a bird, and ye'll all be kilt!" But when the moment came, and the engineer applied the lever, the locomotive would not move, and did not until by pushing the train was started.

The eastern end of the road having been completed, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 1834, the first train of cars from Lancaster to Philadelphia passed over the road, drawn by "Black Hawk," the distance between Lancaster and the head of the Inclined Plane having been traversed in eight and a half hours. Levi G. James, of Chester, who then resided in Radnor, can recall the excitement along the railroad on that day, the people flocking for miles around to witness the novel spectacle, and how the crowd cheered when the laboring engine, groaning, passed along with the train. The experiment had been successful, and so superior to horses did the locomotive demonstrate itself, that in 1837 there were forty engines in use on the road, and the horses, as a power, ceased to be used.

The extension from the Pennsylvania Railroad to West Chester, which was opened Dec. 25, 1833, aroused a rivalry in Old Chester, and a number of citizens of Delaware County procured the passage of the law of April 11, 1835, incorporating the Delaware County Branch Railroad Company, authorizing the construction of a railway from Chester, along the creek of the same name, to intersect at West Chester with the extension road there. The movement first received shape in November, 1833, when a meeting was held at the Black Horse Hotel to ascertain the probable cost of the proposed road; and as there were then nine cotton-mills, eight grist-mills, two paper-mills, three iron-works, and eleven saw-mills along the proposed route, it was believed the freight from these industries would pay a handsome profit on the costs. The capital invested in manufacturing was then a million of dollars, while the estimated cost of the road - eighteen miles - was twenty thousand dollars per mile, or three hundred and sixty thousand dollars for the road laid.

After the passage of the act, on June 18, 1835, subscription-books were opened at the Coffee-House, kept by John Bessonett, Jr., No. 86 South Second Street, Philadelphia, and no person was permitted to subscribe for more than ten shares on any one day. The books were to remain open for three days. A survey was made and stakes driven, but beyond that the project languished.

It was revived in the spring of 1848, and a survey was again made. The stakes driven at that time by the engineers were much the same course as those of twelve years previous, and those which followed twenty years afterwards, when the Chester Creek Railroad was built. The flicker of hope of 1848 was only a forerunner of the time when such a work must, in the necessity of public accommodation, be constructed. The latter was built under the provisions of the acts of Assembly of April 16, 1866, and April 17, 1867, and by the aid and assistance given to the enterprise by Samuel M. Felton, the public believed it must be pushed forward to completion. And it was.

The first time the whistle of a locomotive was heard on that road was Nov. 4, 1868, when the engine attached to the construction train passed some distance along the line, and the horses and cattle in the neighborhood, unused to such screeching, scampered from the roadside in alarm. In the spring of 1869 the road was completed and opened to public travel.

On April 2,1831, the Legislature of Pennsylvania incorporated the Philadelphia and Delaware County Railroad Company. The charter lay dormant until