Not a great deal is known of the early history of the Mississippi ([figure 48]), which is now exhibited at the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago. Originally it was used on a pioneering railroad operating east out of Natchez in the late 1830’s. Some writers have contended that it was imported from England. Others, including Angus Sinclair, the railroad historian, have stated that it was probably built by the New York firm of H. R. Dunham and Co.
Figure 48.—Mississippi, probably built in the 1830’s, with tender of a later period. Photo may have been taken after locomotive was rebuilt for exhibition at World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893.
The Mississippi, however, has none of the characteristics of English locomotives of its period, and it is well known that a representative of Dunham took several locomotives from New York to Natchez in late 1836. It is most probable that the Mississippi is a Dunham-built locomotive of the middle 1830’s.
Its first recorded service began in April 1837, between Natchez and Hamburg, Miss., a distance of about 19 miles. A violent storm lashed Natchez on May 7, 1840, and destroyed considerable railroad property. From this and subsequent financial blows the little railroad shortly succumbed, and the Mississippi passed to other owners. Among these were the Grand Gulf and Port Gibson Railroad, the Mississippi Valley and Ship Island Railroad, and the Meridian, Brookhaven and Natchez Railroad. The latter road was acquired in 1891 by the Illinois Central Railroad Co.
In the spring of 1893 the locomotive was rebuilt at the McComb, Miss., shops of the Illinois Central and then was taken under its own power from McComb to Chicago, a distance of 815 miles. There it was exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition. It has since been seen in many places, including the old Field Museum at Chicago, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, the Semicentennial of Wheeling, W. Va., held in June 1913, and the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933 and 1934. The tender usually seen with the locomotive and marked “Natchez & Hamburg R. R.” is not the original one, but is of a considerably later period.
The Mississippi is a wood burner, weighs 7 tons, has wheels 43 inches in diameter, and, according to Sinclair, has cylinders with a bore and stroke of 9½ and 16 inches. Its tractive force is said to be 4,821 pounds.
A One-Armed Billy
Figure 49.—Full sized operable replica of Lafayette, built in 1927 by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co.