I. J. Harvey House

     November 7, 1872, the day the first train was to come to Salinas, was an exciting one, and none in the village was any more excited than pretty Miss Jennett Cockrill, 16 years of age.  From her post at a window of the Diamond hotel, located where Johnson's Garage now stands, Miss Cockrill could see the shouting, jostling crowd that was gathered at the improvised railroad station.  Every citizen who could leave work, and many who should not have done so but did, were there to hail a red-letter occasion for the struggling town of sloughs and should-high mustard patches.

     The auspiciousness of the occasion made little impression upon Miss Cockrill on that November day, but she was interested in determining if any of the arrivals on the train were handsome-appearing men, she declared today while telling the story.  Miss Cocokrill of 1872 is now Mrs. Jesse Bardin of 340 Cayuga Street, Salinas.  Going on 79 years of age, she recalls vividly the unscheduled fireworks that accompanied the arrival of the Salinas' first train.

The railroad line extended form San Francisco to Salinas only.  Later the line was to be completed through to Los Angeles.  The first train was made up of a few cattle cars with a single passenger coach bringing up the rear.

The locomotive's whistle warned the crowd of the train's approach.  Soon smoke could be see above the horizon, the the locomotive came into view.  The crowd yelled, and the engineer waved his hand as he inched the throttle open wider.

Then something went wrong.,  The engineer couldn't stop the locomotive.  Instead of the train drawing to a stop in front of the crowd, what was all set for some extra-special ceremonies, it continue past, crashed through the bumper at the end of the line and began making its own tracks for Los Angeles. The engineer broke his leg Mrs Bardin declared and a large number of horses and cattle on the cars were destroyed.   Altogether it wasn't a very happy inaugural for the the first train to arrive in Salinas.  Two days later the arrival of the first passenger train made the citizenry forget the near tragedy of the November 7.