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Show . -A. Oront 2I!ii5iiioor. George Stephenson is emphatically emphati-cally the engineer to whose intelligence intel-ligence and perseverance we owe the introduction of railroads into England, and consequently into the United States. Ho was born at Wylam, near Newcautle-on-Tyne, June 9, 1781. His parents were in the lowest ranks in life, but were industrious, respectable and amiable. When he was au infant, his father noticed his fondness for every piece of machinery, and took delight in amusing him with it. The firsfc employment of George was to drive the crows from a wheat-field, his wag03 being twopence two-pence a day. Ha was now eight years old, and ninployed tlio interval inter-val of this occupation in making whistles out of reeds, and engines out of clar. He was nineteen years old befor? he learned to read,! and felt very proud when, he could write his own name. In 1801 hs married Fanny Henderson, Hen-derson, a young servant girl in a neighbor's farm house, and in 1803 his only son, Eobert, was born-one born-one of the few instances where a son inherits. the peculiar testes of his father. This son, who is a little less distinguished than himself, him-self, he educated by mending his neighbors' clocks and watches at night after his daily labor was done. On the 27th of tfeptamber, 1525, the Stockton and Darlington liail-way liail-way was opened for traffic, and George Stephenson drove the first engine. The train consisted of six wagons, laden with corn and Hour, then the passengers' coach, with directors and friends, followed by twenty-seven wagons in all, a train of thirty-eight carriages. He died on the 12th of August, 1848, at the age of sixty-seven. |