Charles Dickens rode on Allegheny Portage Railroad

BY DAVE SUTOR

DSUTOR@TRIBDEM.COM

GALLITZIN – Internationally acclaimed author Charles Dickens passed through Cambria County 183 years ago today, on March 27, 1842, during his six-month exploration of North America.

The experience merited a two-paragraph description in his 1000,000-word travelogue, “American Notes for General Circulation.”

Dickens, a native of Landport, England, did not mention any local spots by name in the book, not even Johnstown, where he visited a dining establishment, according to his secretary’s writings. Nor did he point out his visit was on Easter Sunday. But he clearly described his experience riding on the Allegheny Portage Railroad that used inclined planes to carry passengers over the mountains, as part of their cross-state journey on the Pennsylvania Canal system.

The railroad covered terrain between Hollidaysburg and the Johnstown canal basin 36 miles to the west.

“On Sunday morning we arrived at the foot of the mountain, which is crossed by railroad,” Dickens wrote.

“There are ten inclined planes; five ascending, and five descending; the carriages are dragged up the former, and let slowly down the latter, by means of stationary engines; the comparatively level spaces between, being traversed, sometimes by horse, and sometimes by engine power, as the case demands. Occasionally the rails are laid upon the extreme verge of a giddy precipice; and looking from the carriage window, the traveller gazes sheer down, without a stone or scrap of fence between, into the mountain depths below. The journey is very carefully made, however; only two carriages travelling together; and while proper precautions are taken, is not to be dreaded for its dangers.”

He further wrote about being able to “look down into a valley full of light and softness; catching glimpses, through the treetops, of scattered cabins; children running to the doors; dogs bursting out to bark, whom we could see without hearing: terrified pigs scampering homewards; families sitting out in their rude gardens; cows gazing upward with a stupid indifference; men in their shirt-sleeves looking on at their unfinished houses, planning out tomorrow’s work; and we riding onward, high above them, like a whirlwind.”

And then onto Pittsburg, as it was spelled at the time, and westward.

Dickens, although only 29 years old when his journey began, was already a celebrity when he came to the United States.

He wrote several books, including “Oliver Twist” and “The Pickwick Papers,” over the previous years.

So he decided to visit North America for an extended trip from January to June 1842, during which he turned 30.

“It was quite a fashionable thing (to visit the United States) at the time,” Frankie Kubicki, deputy director of programs and collections at the Charles Dickens Museum in London, said.

“Obviously, America was a very new republic. It was just sort of an exciting new frontier. And for Dickens, as sort of a radical, he was really excited by the idea of going to America, and seeing this republic and seeing what in his mind was the future. That was a really big thing for him as well.”

Kubicki explained that “Dickens really loved travel and he loved to see things for himself. I think one of the things people forget is that he was a journalist. He was an excellent journalist. He really wanted to see it and write about it. In many ways, that kind of fanned his love of travel.”

Dickens saw small towns and many metropolitan areas, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Richmond, St. Louis, Toronto, Montreal, Niagara Falls and Quebec. He even met with President John Tyler in Washington, D.C.

Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site Park Service Ranger Doug Bosley compared his visit to the wild reactions The Beatles received when they first came to the United States in February 1964.

“That’s how much everybody just went crazy over him,” Bosley said. “Everywhere he went, people were pulling on his clothes, and trying to pull his hair out, and trying to steal his hat, and things like that.”

He had many positive experiences.

But “American Notes for General Circulation” also offered some harsh critiques of the United States.

Dickens wrote about slavery, commercialism, violence, distrust, a scandal-seeking press, and even smaller day-to-day aspects of life, such as the prevalence of tobacco chewing and spitting.

“What’s so interesting about it is I think it turned out to be something very different from what Dickens thought it was going to be,” Kubicki said. “I think he thought it was going to be this amazing book celebrating America, and the more that Dickens traveled around America the more difficult he found certain aspects of what he found there. So actually by the time he publishes it it’s quite contentious with the American public.”

Part of his journey included riding on the canal system that was built from 1826-34 and operated until being supplanted by the Pennsylvania Railroad later in the 19th century.

“He gives some pretty good descriptions of what it was like to travel on a canal boat across the state,” Bosley said.

“He was impressed by the scenery in Pennsylvania, not as much by the people that he met. He thought the scenery was quite nice. He was intrigued by how cramped the canal boats were. While he was on the boat, he commented about the eating manners of Americans, the way they ate so quickly, shoving things down their throats.”

In Johnstown, he stopped at a local dining establishment, believed to likely be the American House in what is now the Old Conemaugh Borough neighborhood.

“He didn’t record which (establishment) it was,” Bosley said.

“But the American House, which still stands today, was highly likely because that’s the first one he would have gotten to where the Portage Railroad ended and the canal started. He very may well have eaten at a building in Johnstown that is still there.”

Dickens went onto be one of the most well-known people in Victorian England.

He wrote books that have become classics, among them “A Christmas Carol,” “David Copperfield,” “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Great Expectations.”

In the larger context of his life, a few words in a journal about riding on the Allegheny Portage Railroad are not of great significance.

But, regarding local history, those sentences help keep alive the memory of the railroad that operated from 1834 until 1854, including at the national historic site located on the border between Cambria and Blair counties.

“One of the big ways we tell the story is by the travel descriptions that people have left behind,” Bosley said.

“It really gives that personal connection. Everyone can relate to traveling. There are always common things no matter the time period.”

Dave Sutor is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 814-532-5056. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_ Sutor.