From the September 20, 1885 issue of The New York Times
DANIEL F. KENYON'S CAREER ON THE RAILROAD. AT THE TRIAL TRIP OF AMERICA'S FIRST LOCOMOTIVE—THE FIRST TO RUN A TRAIN OVER THE ALLEGHANIES.
Among the many "Knights of the Foot-board" still in the employ of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad, few if any are held in higher esteem by the company or more universally respected by its employes than Daniel F. Kenyon, who "pulls the throttle" on Engine No. 111 over the Newark Branch of the road between Paterson and Jersey City.

Mr. Kenyon was 7 years old when on Aug. 8, 1829, Horatio Allen, at Honesdale. Penn., ran the first locomotive that ever turned a driving wheel on a railroad track in America. He also remembers 'distinctly' the first trial trip of a locomotive on the Boston and Worcester Railroad in March, 1831, and the formal celebration of the opening of the road to Worcester a year later. At that time the freight house of the company in Boston could accommodate but two cars. Three trains a day in Summer and two in Winter (Sundays excepted) made the run between Boston and Worcester—a distance of 44 miles—at an average of 15 miles an hour. At Worcester the ringing of a bell suspended from a tree alongside the track was the signal for a train to start. Before the introduction of bell ropes, which was not until several years later, when the conductor wanted to stop the train to recover a lost hat or pick up a belated passenger, the only means of communicating this fact to the engineer was by messenger, unless the wind happened to be favorable to carrying the sound of a man's voice to the engine. In those days conductors—or "captains," as they were sometimes called—considered passengers their guests, and frequently inconvenienced themselves in this and other ways to accommodate them on their journey.

Although Mr. Kenyon was not connected with this road at that time, the foregoing facts are mentioned as an instance of the remarkable progress he has observed in railroads from the time of their inception in this country down to the present day. The precise year in which he commenced his railroad career he is unable to recall. After holding various minor positions in the shop and upon the road, he was made an engineer on the Norwich and Worcester Railroad in the early part of 1845, when he was given charge of an engine named the Uncas. She, like her sisters the Concord, Worcester, Norwich, Nashua, John Hancock, and Daniel Webster, was built especially for passenger service. In those days these engines were considered the finest of their class in the New England States. Yet they had neither cabs, whistles, pilots, headlights, nor the various other improvements so essential to the locomotive of the present day. The water capacity of their tanks was about 800 gallons; their fire boxes held about as much fuel as an ordinary washtub. The tank was often supplied with water taken from a neighboring creek in buckets. Some of the engineers, Daniel Kenyon among them, carried a buck and band saw over the road and, when occasion demanded it, they sawed their own wood. Upright boards in which two bull's-eyes wore fitted afforded the engineer and fireman a view ahead and protected their faces from the chilling blasts of Winter, but in the Summer these were removed, leaving them exposed to the sun and rain. A flat car covered with sand, on the top of which pitch pine knots were piled and lighted, coupled on ahead of the engine, served the purposes of a headlight. To increase the adhesive power of the engines (they had single drivers) the fireman was frequently obliged to get off and sprinkle the rails with sand. In the absence of whistles a call for brakes and other signals from the engine was made by raising the scales and allowing the steam to escape from the dome.

After running on this road a few months Mr. Kenyon resigned to accept a position as machinist in the locomotive shops of the late Ross Winans at Mount Clair, Baltimore. Here he remained but a few weeks when failing health, caused by too close confinement, compelled him to resign his situation and return to railroading. Preparatory to accepting a position as engineer on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the early part of 1846 he fired for about six months for the purpose of becoming familiar with the road. In the latter part of that year Mr. Winans finished a hard coal burning engine for the Boston and Maine Railroad to be used in hauling heavy freight trains. Some time after her arrival at Boston the company notified the builder that the engine failed to meet the requirements in not being able to make steam with hard coal. They therefore considered her practically useless and had her set aside. Satisfied that with proper management she would do all that he claimed for her. Mr. Winans requested the Baltimore and Ohio Company to spare Mr. Kenyon for a few days for the purpose of giving the locomotive a trial. Leave being granted, Mr. Kenyon, accompanied by a fireman named Coleman, went to Boston. During their sojourn there their expenses at the old National Hotel, Haymarket-Square, were defrayed by Mr. Winans.

The series of trial trips lasted 10 days. They were made at Lowell, Mass. in the Spring of 1847. On this occasion Mr. Kenyon ran the first hard coal burning locomotive that ever turned a driving wheel out of that city. This engine, which was a camel-back, had neither name nor number, but on account of her remarkable strength was known as the Tom Hyer. In the hands of Engineer Kenyon and Fireman Coleman she made without apparent effort a sufficient quantity of steam to cover the several trips successfully. Pitted against her was a Hinckley wood-burner named the New Hampshire. Wood Agent Henry Hobbs, afterward Superintendent of the New York, Lake Erie and Western's Eastern Division, and now a resident of Paterson, selected the fuel for the latter engine, and was one of the judges of the competition. While this contest was conducted on scientific principles, it was not without its novel features. One of these was that each engine should haul a heavy train up the grade out of Lowell without throwing enough sparks to set on fire bales of cotton loaded on flat cars and coupled next to it. In this respect, as well as in others, the Tom Hyer was victorious. While the New Hampshire, in her efforts to outpull her opponent, broke pins, links, and drawheads, the Tom Hyer performed the work with apparent ease. According to the statements of the referees — Messrs. Slade, of the New Hampshire, and Currier, of the Tom Hyer — the latter engine effected a saving in expenses of at least $2 per day over that of her rival. At the conclusion of the contest the company accepted the engine. They afterward sold her to the Philadelphia and Reading Road, in whose service she was used for many years.

Before returning to Baltimore, Mr. Kenyon, at the invitation of the engineer, rode from Boston to Worcester on the "Carroll of Carrollton," the speed of which, it is claimed, exceeded the flight of a pigeon. Her drivers were 7 feet in diameter, of chilled tread without tires. Over them steam cylinders were placed for the purpose of either increasing or diminishing adhesion. So near her front end was the engineer stationed that with one hand on the throttle he could touch the smokestack with the other. On returning to Baltimore Mr. Kenyon resumed his old position on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Before doing so, however, he received from Mr. Winans a very substantial present enclosed in an autograph letter of a commendatory character in recognition of his services. This letter, among other highly prized documents, is still in his possession.

In 1848 Master Mechanic Thatcher Perkins transferred Mr. Kenyon to engine No. 78, and assigned him to a run between Baltimore and Cumberland. This engine, which even then had seen considerable service, was still in excellent condition, notwithstanding the fact that she was the first "camelback" ever built in this country. After remaining on this route until the latter part of 1849, Mr. Kenyon, together with his engine, was transferred to that portion of the line then being constructed between Cumberland and Oakland. Upon its completion, in 1851, he, as the pioneer engineer, was selected by Trainmaster Joseph Brown to break in trains on the Alleghany Mountains. To him, also, credit is due for being the first engineer that ever conducted a train from Oakland to Cumberland down these mountains. The train, consisting of 18 cars, laden with cattle, was in charge of but two brakemen. Its control, therefore, devolved in a great measure upon the ceaseless vigilance and good judgment exercised by the engineer. Blocks of wood, sometimes covered with leather, but frequently not provided with lining, and securely attached to the brake beams, served the purpose of shoes. As these were frequently ignited by friction they were a source of annoyance to trainmen. To obviate this difficulty as far as possible, Mr. Kenyon, before starting the train, directed the brakemen to be guided as to the proper application of the brakes by the motion of his hand from the engine. Raising his hand once was the signal to let off one brake and no more; lowering the hand once was to set up one brake. So thoroughly were these directions understood by the men that upon the train's arrival at its destination an examination showed the cars to be in almost as good order as when they started. Not once in the descent was it necessary to blow the whistle.

Resigning his position in 1852, Mr. Kenyon went to Piermont, N.Y. at that time and for several years afterward the eastern terminus of the New York and Erie Railroad. Applying to Master Mechanic Jacob Brandt for a position, he for the first time realized that his name and fame as an engineer had extended beyond the limits of the road on which he had so long been employed.

"A position? Yes, Sir," said Mr. Brandt. "I could give ready employment to a dozen such men as you are. Take the No. 111 on the Otisville milk to-morrow."

At that time the track was about as smooth as the face of a currycomb. For a train to make schedule time under such circumstances was not always an easy matter. Leaving Otisville several minutes late one night Mr. Kenyon determined to put the train into Piermont on time, if possible, so as to avoid detention to the steamboat Erie, which brought milk to New York. The attempt was successful. He came in on time. The next day word reached Piermont that upon its arrival in the city almost the entire cargo was found to be worthless. The explanation of the phenomenon that it was entirely due to the churning process it received on the railroad was very generally accepted as true. When, therefore, one of the boys in the roundhouse, in referring to the circumstance, facetiously applied to the name of Daniel Kenyon the sobriquet of "Buttermilk," it sounded go strikingly appropriate that its adoption soon became universal. Indeed, some of the commuters and not a few employes of the road have become ao accustomed to the expression as to forget his Christian name. In connection with this incident it may not be inappropriate to note that the engine then used in the steamboat Erie is still in an excellent state of preservation and usefulness in the ferryboat Pavonia, plying the North River.

In 1854 the Wilmuth Locomotive Company, of Boston, Mass., built for the New York and Erie Road 18 engines. As the gauge of this road was much wider than that of Eastern roads over which they were conveyed, extremely low, flat cars had to be specially built with a view to preventing their contact with bridges. The entire lot was shipped via Worcester, Fitchburg, Bellows Falls, Rutland, and Saratoga to Schenectady, and thence over the New York Central to Canandaigua. where they were received by Mr. Kenyon. He then put them together and ran them to Elmira, from which place they were subsequently transferred to the Eastern Division. These engines all "died young," the last one being buried in the scrap pile several years ago. Quite a number of their bells, however, are still in use upon engines of recent birth.

When in 1856 the arbitrary ruling of the D.C. McCullom administration precipitated what is known in railroad circles as the "big strike," scores of their best men, Daniel Kenyon among them, left their positions to seek employment elsewhere. Many of these men are still in active pervice on the various railroads, North, South, East, and West, whither they drifted in that memorable year. Mr. Kenyon, securing employment on the Central Railroad of New Jersey, remained with that company 11 years. In 1861, while on a flying trip to Philadelphia, he paid a visit to the Reading Railroad shop to inspect a new engine they had just built. Her name was Fawn, and to her was attached the first Sellers injector introduced upon locomotives in this country. Before their introduction it was considered impossible to keep a live coal fire in an engine while it was laid up for the night. Mr. Kenyon, however, with the aid of dampers in the smokestack to regulate the draught, succeeded in doing so several years before he ever heard of an injector. Upon hearing of this the late D.W. Wiman — who solved the problem of rapid transit on the old Ninth Avenue elevated road and demonstrated its practicability by the introduction of steam motors — in company with H.O. Brooks, the well known locomotive builder, at that time master mechanic of the Erie Railway, visited Mr. Kenyon on the Jersey Central Road, and by personal observation satisfied himself that it could be done. Prior to the adoption of injectors on the Erie Road the engines were provided with dampers made from drawings submitted to the Erie's representatives by Mr. Kenyon.

In 1867 be resigned his position on the Jersey Central Road to accept a better one with the Grant Locomotive Works, Paterson, N.J. Shortly afterward, upon the completion of the Montana — an engine built for the Columbus and Cleveland Railroad — he was detailed to accompany her to her destination. Transported on trucks to Buffalo she was there unloaded and placed upon the track of the Lake Shore Road. After receiving water and fuel he ran her by way of Cleveland to Columbus, where she was delivered in good order to her consignees. His next trip from Paterson was to take four Boston and Albany engines to Springfield, Mass, Returning home he re-entered the shop, where be remained until 1868, when he resigned to accept a position as engineer on the Erie Railway. While strolling through the long house one morning on the way to his engine he was hailed by Mr. Onslow with the remark:

"Dan! The 152 [which had been altered to burn hard coal] cannot make her running time on the Orange County. She went into Port Jervis last night 11 minutes late. She hasn't done better in a week. The men who have run her claim she won't steam. Try her to-night, and if you can put her in on the dot (meaning: on time] I'll give you a regular job." He got it.

Many of the old employes of the company remember that, in order to admit Mr. Kenyon's portly figure into and out of the cab the doorway leading to the running board had to be enlarged. Upon the completion of this job the carpenter was heard to remark that he thought it would be money in the company's pocket to either build large cabs or hire small engineers.

When Oliver Ennis was stricken with paralysis Mr. Kenyon succeeded him in charge of "the 215" on trains Nos. 1 and 2. One night, when train No. 2 was several minutes late in reaching Port Jervis, he received an order to "make Jersey City on time." Everything looked favorable to its being done. The light on the tall signal pole at Newburg Junction, near Greycourt, showed "white," and the waiving of a lantern in the hand of the signal man denoted the track was "all right." A sudden presentiment of danger, however, so took possession of Mr. Kenyon that, after passing the junction, he reduced instead of increased the speed as he approached the grade on Oxford. Situated about midway between the bottom and the summit of this grade is a bridge. Although the track was apparently clear, every revolution of the ponderous driving wheels seemed to indicate danger. Unable to dismiss this feeling he shut off steam. A moment later be sighted an object upon the track that caused him to reverse his engine. His fireman, Andrew Rockett, ready to jump, was on the step when she stopped. Less than 40 feet ahead of her was the bridge, directly in the centre of which stood a freight car upon its end. Back of it, amid the debris of others, were two engines tightly embraced. The one bound east, in charge of Joe Burch, had taken the westward bound track to avoid train No. 2; the other, having lost control of the train on account of defective brakes, had run into him. Harry Jones, engineer of "the 158," hauling the latter train, had an arm broken, besides sustaining other serious injuries. Col. A. P. Berthoud, then Superintendent of the Eastern Division, was on board train No. 2, and was among the first to compliment Mr. Kenyon for his presence of mind in stopping in time to prevent a more disastrous wreck.

In features Mr. Kenyon closely resembles the Hon. James G. Blaine; in figure he is larger, weighing perhaps 290 pounds. Since its opening he has run on the Newark Branch. His present run averages nearly 3,000 miles per month: for several years he ran a train that covered 4,000 miles in the same period. Estimating 2,500 miles per month as a fair average for the 38 years he has run an engine, it will be seen he has traveled 1,140,000 miles, equal to 45 and 3/5 times the circumference of the earth. And in all this time he has never met with an accident nor received a discharge.