First Engineer
Mr. Albert Johnson h;in<llo«l llie
throttle on tlie first train that op¬
erated on tlie Itnlei^h A Gaston
Itailroad more than a hundred
years ago.
By WI1JJAM II.
К
l('ll A HUSO A
MANY of the older citizens
of Raleigh — men like Ed¬
gar Womble, William A.
Wynne, Willis G. Briggs, William
T. Harding, Sr., and others - re¬
call a little, stoop-shouldered, bald-
headed man who. even after he be¬
came an octogenarian, used to
walk from his home at the
corner of Hillsboro and Harrington
streets, to the Seaboard shops,
which he came to Raleigh to op¬
erate in 1840. The round house he
designed and had built is still
standing.
This little, old. man, who walked
with a long stick, ran the first
engine that ever operated over the
Raleigh and Gaston Railroad. Its
name was the "Tornado." His was
Albert Johnson, for whom Johnson
Street Station, in Raleigh, now a
nerve center in the great Diesel-
powered Seaboard Air Line Sys¬
tem, was named.
When Albert Johnson drove a
special train to Raleigh, opening
the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad,
coincidental with the dedication of
the state capitol, in June, 1840, he
was accompanied by the late Major
W. W. Voss, who rode in the cab
with him. according to an ancient
THE STATE. July 1. 19SO
picture. Or. if he did not actually
ride with the Raleigh and Gaston's
first engineer. Major Vuss posed
for a picture with him, standing
on the engine’s "running-board."
In the coaches were hundred of
distinguished guests, including
many from Virginia, here to help
Tar Heels celebrate.
Mr. Johnson not only was one of
the oldest railroad men in the
United States, having helped, ac¬
cording to his sketch of himself, to
"set up" the first engine ever op¬
erated over the Richmond, Fred¬
ericksburg and Potomac Railroad,
before coming to Raleigh, but he
knew how to make all kinds of
gadgets, ranging from wooden tops
for his great-grandchildren and
others about the neighborhood, to
a special kind of reading glasses,
which he rigged up by taking an
ordinary pair of "specs," and
shielding them with brass tubing
the size of the lenses and extend¬
ing for about two inches. This kept
the light from the eyes, threw it
on the material being read, and
insured a pretty good focus.
On one occasion, Mr. Johnson
was asked by a friend to prepare
a sketch of himself. This evidently
was early in the year 1892, as he
referred to the Centennial Expo¬
sition. which was to be held, and
was held, in Raleigh in the fall of
that year, celebrating the one hun¬
dredth anniversary of the found¬
ing of the Capital City.
This sketch has been preserved
by members of the family and
makes interesting reading. A copy
of it will be presented to the Hall
of History, for the archives.
But let's read what Mr. Johnson
had to say concerning his own ca¬
reer as a railroad pioneer:
"I was bom in the Parish of St.
John, County of King William.
State of Virginia. May 3, 1813.
"On May the first 1830 I was ap¬
prenticed to James Martin in the
City of Petersburg to learn the
machine business. He had a very
(Continnued on page 21 I
