I am sure that if I knew the rest of this couplet it would
rhyme and also express the humility with which I approach the
task of recording the historical and factual account of people
and events associated with the building of the first commercial railroad in the United States.
Since I first became interested in the Granite Railway, ten
years have elapsed, ten years of intensive research marked by
the frustrations and setbacks, but also by solutions and by the
continued encouragement from courteous, patient and well-informed
people. Many of these can be called "old-timers" and I spent
many pleasurable hours in their company listening to tales of the
Gay Nineties. To them and to all the friends, librarians,
historians and new acquaintances who assisted me over the years
go my sincerest thanks.
It is impossible for me to present those who aided me in the
order of their importance as each contributed some lead or
information that led to the other and new areas of exploration.
My contacts became an endless chain of interesting and
instructive consultants, some of whom I shall mention in the
order of their appearance after acknowledging the indispensable assistance my daughters and others gave me in correlating data
and typing notes.
Mrs. Jessie Baxter of East Milton whose assistance with
numerous pictures and notes helped me in the beginning to start
this work. Mr. Robert Faxon gave freely of his time and
assistance, especially in the use of the original plans. Mr.
Louis Badger let me use his pictures and notes as well as
enlightening me with his most interesting talks. Mr. Badger's ancestor, Mr. Ezra Badger, was foreman for many years at the
Bunker Hill quarry site. Mr. Ezekial Sargent of Quincy put me on
the track of the original site and told me much of Quincy's early history which was his hobby. Miss Gertrude Callahan, librarian at
the Thomas Crane Public Library, placed the facilities of the
library and especially the Parker collection at my disposal, and
her assistant, Miss Dorothy Newton, devoted time and patience to
my research. Messrs. McDonald, Flynn, Gray, Charles and Belanger
spent many hours with my photography. Mr. Frank Lewis guided me
over the years on my project and collaborated on this book, as
well as being the artist who drew the original of the picture
used in the frontispiece. Last but by no means least, I
introduce Mr. Richard Muzzrole of Quincy, an amateur
archeologist. Through my talks with him and the time spent at
the site of his excavations I learned and saw a great deal, and without his excellent excavations much of the information
contained in this project would not have been known.
To all these people and to those I have not been able to
mention in this brief introduction I remain profoundly grateful.
It is my earnest desire to present this historical discourse
on the first commercial railroad and its associated enterprises
in such a way as to stimulate interest in this forerunner of our
great railroad system. The notes and pictures contained in this
book are to be used for reference purposes and will not be
published. One copy is to be presented to the Thomas Crane Public Library and the other to the Quincy Historical Society. I have presented the facts as I found them and believe them to be true
in all respects. If anything has been omitted, it is through
error and not intentional.
In compiling this reference book it has not been my
intention to detract from any sources of information derived from books or newspaper articles for my own purposes, but rather to consolidate the facts in one book for easier reading.
Of interest to the reader, let me state that I have omitted
the majority of reference notes in this work for the specific
reason that most of the general information, records and notes
are about the same and can be found in all the reference books
used which appear in the bibliography. Any records or notes of a specific nature will be so marked throughout the text with an identifying number and the reference will also be found in the bibliography instead of using footnotes.
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