TRIAL OF THE ENGINE BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE.

Many of the members of the New Jersey Legislature were farmers.  The management of the Camden and Amboy Railroad was anxious to give these gentlemen and other prominent citizens an opportunity to examine a steam locomotive at work and to ride in a railway train.

Sixty years ago to-day, on the 12th of November, 1831, by special invitation, the members of the Legislature and other State officials were driven from Trenton to Bordentown in stages to witness the trial.  Among them were John P. Jackson (father of the present general superintendent of the United Railroads of New Jersey division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who afterward took a prominent part in the affairs of the New Jersey Railroad, whose termini were at New Brunswick and Jersey City); Benjamin Fish (director for fifty years for the Camden and Amboy Railroad), afterward president of the Freehold and Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad; Ashbel Welch, chief engineer and superintendent of the Belvidere and Delaware Railroad for many years, and president of the United Railroads of New Jersey during the years immediately preceding the lease to the Pennsylvania Railroad; Edwin A. and Robert L. Stevens, afterward managers of the road.

FIRST CARS.

Two coaches built so that they might be drawn by horses were attached to the locomotive.  These coaches were of the English pattern.  They had four wheels and resembled three carriage bodies joined together, with seats in each facing each other.  There were three doors at each side.  These cars were made by a firm of carriage manufacturers, M.P. and M.E.  Green, of Hoboken, and were thought to be very handsome.  The New Jersey law makers were somewhat dubious, it is said, about risking their lives in this novel train, but at last they concluded to do so and the train started and made many trips back and forth without accident or delay.  Madam Murat, wife of Prince Murat, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was then living in Bordentown, insisted on being the first woman to ride on a train hauled by a steam locomotive in the State.

In the evening a grand entertainment was given to the Legislature by the railroad company at Arnell’s Hotel, Bordentown, and it has been whispered that the festivities kept up until a late hour in the night.  Whether that be true or not, it is generally conceded that from that time to this the Legislature of New Jersey have always been more or less interested in the affairs of the Camden and Amboy Railroad and its successors, or vice versa.

This first movement of passengers by steam in the State of New Jersey was regarded as a success from every point of view, and in commemoration of the important events here enacted the boundaries of this first piece of railway laid between New York and Philadelphia, which were identified and staked out by Isaac Dripps a half century afterward, have been definitely marked for all time by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, who have erected these handsome stones.