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The ''DeWitt Clinton'' of the
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) * Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...
(M&H) was an American steam locomotive and the first working steam locomotive built for service in New York state. The locomotive was built in 1831 and began operations the same year. It was named in honor of
DeWitt Clinton DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the seventh governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely re ...
, the governor of New York State responsible for the
Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing ...
, a competitor to the railroad. Portions of the steam engine were cast at the
West Point Foundry The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and oth ...
in
Cold Spring, New York Cold Spring is a village in the town of Philipstown in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 1,986 at the 2020 census. It borders the smaller village of Nelsonville and the hamlets of Garrison and North Highlands. The cen ...
. The ''DeWitt Clinton''s first run was from the city of
Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Cit ...
, to
Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Yo ...
, a run of 16 or 17 miles. Its passenger cars were made of stagecoach bodies in which riders would sit either inside or on outdoor rumble seats. The cars were known as Goold cars and were named after coach builder James Goold of Albany. The locomotive was scrapped in 1833. The M&H became part of the
New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mi ...
(NYCR) system in 1853. The New York Central Railroad built a replica of the locomotive for display at the
Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
in 1893. This replica would continue to be used for promotional purposes until it was purchased by
Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
in 1934. Since then, it has been on display at the
Henry Ford Museum The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection contains ...
in
Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States per ...
.


Design

The original ''DeWitt Clinton'' was a 0-4-0 locomotive which measured 12 feet 10 inches in length and weighed 6,758 pounds, while its 1893 replica was heavier at a weight of 9,420 pounds. The locomotive had a design very similar to future locomotive designs with a horizontal boiler and a smokestack at the front. The top of the smokestack rested at about 12 feet off the ground. The locomotive also had an early flatbed tender to store its fuel.   


DeWitt Clinton (Governor)

DeWitt Clinton was born on March 2, 1769, in Little Britain, New York. Clinton entered politics in 1790 and for the next five years worked as a secretary for his uncle, Governor George Clinton. DeWitt Clinton served in the New York House of Representatives from 1797 to 1798, the
New York Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan compo ...
from 1798 to 1802, and the
United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...
from 1802-1803. From 1803 to 1815, Clinton was the
mayor of New York City The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...
. From 1810 to 1824, Clinton was New York Canal Commissioner. Construction of the Erie Canal under Clinton would begin in 1817 and continue until 1825, when the Canal was officially opened. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company (the owner of the ''DeWitt Clinton'' locomotive) would be founded two years later in 1826. During the construction of the Erie Canal, Clinton was governor of New York State. He held from office from 1817 to 1823 and was re-elected in 1825. After 38 years of political service, DeWitt Clinton died on February 11, 1828, at the age of 58. The steam locomotive named in his honor would be completed in 1831 or three years after his death.     


Mohawk and Hudson Railroad

Incorporated in 1826 at Albany, the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Company was the first railroad company in the state of New York. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was named after the two rivers the company hoped to connect; the Hudson river in Albany and the Mohawk river in Schenectady. The state of New York had a set of waterways between the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
and the
Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
which had been used for transport since before colonization. These waterways would become the basis for the Erie Canal between Albany and Buffalo in 1825. It was during this time that railroads were being considered as a faster, more efficient alternative to waterways. The construction of the M&H was overseen by its two directors,
George William Featherstonhaugh George William Featherstonhaugh ( /ˈfɪərstənhɔː/ '' FEER-stən-haw''; 9 April 1780, in London – 28 September 1866, in Le Havre) was a British-American geologist and geographer. He was one of the proposers of the Albany and Schenectady Ra ...
and Stephen Van Rensselaer, with no other directors being identified in the charter.   Due to its increasing urban population, a route alongside the Erie Canal was considered the most logical option for the first New York railroad. In order to construct the new railroad, the railroad company had to overcome political opposition fueled by the popularity of the Erie Canal; opposition which would only cease by the 1860s, as canals were becoming obsolete in favor of the more efficient railroads. The canal distance between Albany to the south and Schenectady to the north was about 22 or 23 miles. With a railroad, goods and passengers would be able to travel from one city to the other in a straight line, or a distance of only 16 or 17 miles. Featherstonhaugh argued that the railroad would reduce the travel time between Albany and Schenectady from 2 or 3 days to 3 hours. On March 27, 1826 a bill was passed in Congress and Featherstonhaugh and Rensselaer were granted a sum of $300,000-$500,000 for the construction of one of the first chartered railroads in American history.


Original ''DeWitt Clinton''

In 1831, the M&H constructed its first locomotive, the ''DeWitt Clinton''. The locomotive was then delivered by boat on July 25, and given its first test run on July 30. The test showed that the ''Clinton'' was unable to make much heat from its supply of Lackawanna coal, and only reached a top speed 7 miles per hour. To solve this problem, the railroad decided to replace the coal with coke. On August 3, another test was conducted with the substitute fuel. This time, the ''Clinton'' made the run between Albany and Schenectady in an hour and 45 minutes. This equates to an average speed of about 9–10 miles per hour. August 9, 1831 was the day ''Clinton'' made its first passenger run on the same line. The locomotive was attached to a train of three coaches from Goold works in Albany. These three coaches were part of a collection of six specifically designed by James Goold for the M&H. The so-called “Goold Cars” were built from six stagecoach bodies and sold to the M&H for $310 a piece. Each coach could accommodate between 15 and 18 passengers. During its inaugural run, the locomotive impressed its passengers by completing the run in a record 38 minutes, with an average speed of 25–27 miles per hour. A similar trip on the Erie Canal, by comparison, would have taken hours due to a longer route and boats being slowed down by more than a dozen locks. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was officially opened on September 24, 1831. After 2–3 years of continued service, the ''DeWitt Clinton'' was eventually scrapped by the railroad in 1833.     


''DeWitt Clinton'' replica

After the original ''DeWitt Clinton'' was scrapped, the M&H’s successor, the New York Central Railroad (NYCR) built a full-scale, operational reproduction of the ''DeWitt Clinton'' for the 1893
Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in Chicago. The fair was held that year to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. This replica was accompanied by replicas of the original Goold cars. Since its first appearance at the World’s Fair of 1893, the ''Clinton'' replica continued to work as an engaging promotional device for the railroad in many subsequent locations until it was purchased by Henry Ford in 1934 with the condition that it still travel periodically to fairs and expositions on behalf of the NYCR. After being purchased by Ford, the replica would continue to make appearances at NYCR fairs, expositions and other promotional events up until the 1950s. The ''DeWitt Clinton'' replica, along with the replicas of the Goold cars, has been kept on display at
the Henry Ford Museum The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection contains ...
in
Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States per ...
, since its removal from service.


See also

* History of Albany, New York


References

{{Reflist Individual locomotives of the United States Early steam locomotives Steam locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1831 Scrapped locomotives