First train to arrive in Aberdeen — 4/1/1895 — #2256_1
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Photograph Copyright Anderson & Middleton Company
United States — Washington (State) — Aberdeen
Aberdeen, City of
Thanks to John Larson, Polson Museum, who adds this comment: "In 1889, Aberdeen and Hoquiam had a combined population of 400 people. When word spread of a new railroad terminus being built to Grays Harbor City to the west of Hoquiam, their populations quadrupled within a year. This population explosion, accompanied by wide-spread real estate speculation proved short lived. A year later in 1890, the Northern Pacific built a railway to Montesano but further expansion bypassed Aberdeen and Hoquiam when Ocosta was selected as its terminus on the Harbor’s south shore.
Determined citizens of Aberdeen were not ready to give up on their dream of prosperity so in 1894 they banded together to bring the railroad to them. Every able bodied man donated 10 working days or the equivalent in pay at $2.00 a day. Young men were given time off from school and the whole town came out on weekends to work. Local business men donated the rails which were salvaged off the British bark Abercorn that had sunk in 1888 just off the entrance to Grays Harbor. The rails were submerged in salt water for nearly 6 years and as a result were heavily pitted. It is said that passengers always knew when they were nearing Aberdeen by the clanking noise of the tracks. The two mile line was completed to the east edge of Aberdeen and on April 1, 1895 seven hundred people and a brass band welcomed the first passenger train into Aberdeen. It would be another four years before the railway would be extended to Hoquiam.
In 1898 the 4.6 mile extension was completed, linking Hoquiam to Aberdeen and included the building of two new bridges over the Wishkah and Hoquiam rivers. This was finally achieved by the determination of three men — Harry Heermans, George Emerson and Chester Congdon — who worked tirelessly to bring rail service to Hoquiam and personally backed the loan that was used to fund construction. A combined freight and passenger depot opened on October 1, 1898 and Hoquiam’s six tidewater mills finally gained access to lucrative Eastern markets.
By 1905, the Northern Pacific finished laying another 27.8 miles of track to a terminus in Moclips, a small beach town that consequently became a major resort destination. This further extension also made it possible to send logs to the mills from locations not easily reached by rivers."
A notaion on the photo assignment envelope reads "Train No 155 - Conductor John Stamper - Engineer Al Wood - Engine No 114 - April 1/1895".
