Читать книгу The Inventive Life of Charles Hill Morgan: The Power of Improvement In Industry, Education and Civic Life - Allison Chisolm - Страница 19

He had a far longer journey planned, intending to “go west.” For a machinist in 1855 New England, that meant Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His destination? The Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s machine shop, where he hoped to find some work and learn more about railway engines.

After he sold his rooster to his father for 50 cents, and “let Hatty have $14.80,” Morgan began his westward journey with $35 cash on hand.

It took about a week to get to Pittsburgh. He travelled from Clinton to Worcester to New York in a day, crossing the Long Island Sound on board the steamship Connecticut with his friend Edward W. Goodale and his wife. After spending three nights together in New York, he continued on to Philadelphia, staying overnight at Girard College, north of the city line in what would have been open fields, known today as the Fairmount neighborhood.

He wrote to Hatty every few days throughout his journey. On March 31 he wrote in his diary that he was using “the roof of Girard College for my writing desk.” The 24-year-old Morgan must have climbed to the top of the school’s only building, Founders Hall, a huge Greek Revival classroom building completed only seven years earlier and already a tourist destination. Built to educate fatherless boys in academics and mechanical trades, the school was tuition-free, thanks to its benefactor, the late Stephen Girard, known as the richest man in America at his death in 1831. A bed for the night may well have been free.

Charles travelled on to Lancaster, where he met S.S. Spencer from the Conestoga Steam Mills, renowned as the country’s first steam-powered cotton mill, and discussed his need for tools (that Morgan’s colleague Frank Rice could supply). Later that evening he attended an anniversary event for the Methodist Tract Society.

The next day would be the first of two required to get to Pittsburgh on the train, stopping overnight at a railway hotel in Altoona. It took another five hours to arrive in Pittsburgh, where he found a hotel, got a haircut, and toured ironworks and a coal mine. On his second full day there, he visited the Pearl Steam Mills and then the Pennsylvania Railroad Shop.

After meeting the foreman, George W. Grier, he secured a drafting job not in Pittsburgh, but back in Altoona. It was Saturday, and he could start the following Thursday. That gave him a chance to visit the Armory, attend several church services and look in many of the city’s shops.

He arrived in Altoona Wednesday April 11, found a rooming house and as he noted, “commenced drawing for the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company.” For the next month, he drew locomotive trucks, pumps, and details of an Eagle Locomotive pump for a Wilworth engine.

The change of scenery did not help his health, however. Within a day of arriving in Pennsylvania, he complained he “was quite unwell.” After settling into Altoona, his indigestion returned. “My food soured on my stomach and distressed me,” he wrote on April 16. And the changeable weather, where he noted on April 18 the “thermometer stood at 2 p.m. at 90 and snow in sight...” led to a “severe cold which settled in my head and throat;” yet, he added, “worked all day for Pa. RR.” The next day, he worked again, but fell ill, as he described, “took physic, went to bed with a raging headache.”

Stomach issues continued to plague him for the duration of his time in Altoona. He found solace in walking and hiking. “Rambled all day with Mr. Howe,” he wrote on May 9, “went to the Kettle and on top of a high peak. Went without my Dinner and got very tired and felt better for it.”

Given his illnesses, he probably needed a few extra days to complete his assigned work, but after putting in a final five hours with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company on May 14, he began his lengthy journey back to Clinton. With checks in hand totaling $50 (almost $1,200 in today’s dollars), he travelled for the lowest possible cost, but not the most direct route. That first afternoon, he took a train to Harrisburg, using a pass from a colleague.

The next morning, after shipping his trunk ahead to New York City from Harrisburg, he proceeded to walk to Lebanon—a marathon trip of at least 28 miles, about four times as far as any Shrewsbury-to-Worcester walk. With some understatement, he wrote after arriving in Lebanon, “got very tired, went to bed or between two featherbeds very early.”

He opted to spend 44 cents on the next leg of his trip of about the same mileage, to get to Reading by coach, where he found a man willing to share a 75-mile journey northeast to Stroudsburg for a dollar, tolls and horse feed. Morgan and E.A. Brady of Carlisle travelled about eight miles to reach Maiden Creek for dinner. They continued to Trexler, another 17 miles, before stopping for the night. Schoenersville was the next day’s destination, close to 30 miles, and then Wind Gap the day after, where he paid four cents to water the horse after covering some 16 miles.

On the fourth day, they reached Stroudsburg by 11 a.m., which left Morgan plenty of time to locate lodging and a church service, as the next day was Sunday. Monday found him in two separate coaches, first to Easton and then connecting to New York City, where he picked up his trunk and stayed a final two nights before heading back to New England on a steamer to Providence. Altogether, he had spent $21.95 over eight days to get home, nearly half his $2-a-day earnings.

Having been away for close to two months, Charles understandably bought a few niceties for his family. Once he arrived safely in Clinton, he gave Hatty a new bonnet, a pineapple, and dinner in Worcester, hiring a team of horses for the occasion. Hatty’s younger sister, Marietta, received a gold ring. He bought steak, as well as seven pounds of rice and four pounds of wheat meal for the family.

New England has a very short planting season. Charles’ return in late May was just in time to help at the Plympton farm. For the next three weeks, he planted squash, “citrons,” beets, rutabagas and peas, picked stone, and hoed weeds with his in-laws. Sometimes there was an early harvest. When a dog chased a woodchuck on the property, he wrote, “helped the dog get a woodchuck out of the wall, dressed him and carried part to Clinton.” Two days later, he had claimed the dog’s prize and reported, “had a woodchuck stew for dinner.”