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Show RAILROAD CELEBRATES HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY Ihe "First Stone." 1'iwu occi Ci.rrnll said : "I consider thl Among the iCl. important, nets of my life, only to my signing lli(! Declarm; of Independence, if even it !. mid to Hint." The first stretch of the Baltic, s nnd Ohio railroad was oporm without steam locomotives. were drawn by horses unci dogs I . experiments were even inolety' the "sail cur." The first steam I, j, motive to lie bnilt In America, j smii'l engine with upright bolt whs put in operation lu 1829. The ruilrond pushed on stem over the Allcgehonys nnd read) its original chnrter objective, t Ohio river, in ISM. Mrs. W. 1). Wilklna has retutt V to her home in Cleveland nll Jl spending three weeks nt the honn her son nnd family, Mr. nnd ji. .1. F. Wllkins. I Lrown "to nke into consideration the best menus of restoring the City of lialtiniore that portion of the western trade which lms lately been diverted from it by (be introduction of sleani navigation and by other 'AM his meeting William Patterson was nulde chairman nnd David Winchester Win-chester secretary, and n committee consisting of Philip E. Thoinns, Benjamin C. Howard, George Iirown, Talbot Jones, Joseph . Patterson. Evan Thomas and John V. L. McMahon was appointed to F.AI.Tl.MiiKK. March 1 (IT) Slate and city officials joined with represent. Hives of the I'.alliniore & Ohio Railroad hero .esleribiy in the colouration of the hundredth anniversary an-niversary of the grant of a charter lo the railrn.nl to operate the first general freight and passenger line en this continent. (in l-'eli. US. 1S27, the state of Maryland authorized a newly organized or-ganized company to construct n railroad from the city of lialtiniore lo some point on the Ohio river. This grant was the beginning of rai'roading on the Western Hemisphere. Hemis-phere. Founders Far-Srcim; The founders of that first rail-read rail-read project were far-seeing enough to realize the value of a rail connection connec-tion between the sea at Baltimore and I lie great niiil-coiitiiiental waterways wa-terways transportation system which' they planned to tap at the Ohio river, l'.ot perhaps the most sanguine of those first railroad builders could not have dreamed that, the Cnited Stales was to fill the continent from Atlantic to the Pacific within less than a century wilh a speed that was largely due to the rapid development of rail faci'ities which were to bring F.alti-rjore F.alti-rjore almost as near to San Francisco Fran-cisco as it then was to Koston. Tile Haltimore & Ohio railroad project took shape as swiftly as any modern undertaking. A group of business men of liaitiinore, realizing that the city was losing sonio of its port advantages due to the development develop-ment of other lines of transportation transporta-tion such as the Erie Canal, met on Fell. 2, 1N27. Ten days after the first, conference confer-ence certain business men who were most interested were summoned to .licet at the residence of George consider the problem. Kcconiinemlntion Made (in Feb. II) the comnilltee recommended recom-mended that a railroad be built to connect Haltimore with the Ohio river. McMahon, a member of .Hie state legislature, was asked to draw-up draw-up a charter. This charter was adopted February 2K, just 20 days after the question was first considered. consid-ered. It is this same charter under un-der which the railroad is still operating. oper-ating. Capital stock in the company was eagerly purchased, there being 22.-dUU 22.-dUU subscribers in the city of Kalli-niore. Kalli-niore. Shortly thereafter' the slate of Virginia confirmed the charter and construction surveys and plans got under way. Construction was actually started on July 4, 1S2X. Charles Carroll of Carrolton, last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, assisted in the ceremony of laying I : |