A Neighbor’s Plea: John Gwinn and the Iron Horse

“I dont wash to do aney thing to inger the progrese of its Bilding but I onley Look to my Just rights & intrust”

Come sit a spell and let me tell you about a piece of history I found tucked away. It is a letter from May of 1872, written by a fellow named John Gwinn to a railroad contractor, Mr. William Waller. John sounds like a man you’d want as a neighbor—honest, hard-working, and not looking for trouble, but he sure was having a rough go of it. He’d made a handshake deal for the railroad to come through his land near the Scull Lick branch, but instead of the progress he was promised, he ended up with burnt fences, corn-munching mules, and a messy culvert that was washing away his bottom land.

When you hold this letter—or look at it closely—you can see the history in the very fibers. It is written in a lovely, looping cursive with blue ink on simple lined paper. You can still see the horizontal fold lines where John likely tucked it away before it was delivered. There are a few stains here and there, the kind of marks left by a man who spent his days working the earth. His spelling is a bit unique, written just like he would say it, which only makes his voice feel more real and his frustration more relatable.

Back in 1872, the C & Ohio Railroad was the big talk of the town. It promised to bring the world to our doorstep, but as John’s letter shows, that progress often stepped right over the little guy. It is a classic story of the big machine meeting the local farmer. John calls himself a railroad man, meaning he supported the growth of the tracks, but he was not about to let his livelihood be trampled under a mule’s hoof or washed away by a poorly placed drain.

Reading John’s words today reminds us that even when the world is changing at lightning speed, some things stay the same. We all want to be treated fairly and have our hard work respected. It is a testament to the human spirit to see a man standing his ground, asking for nothing more than his just rights. It reminds us that behind every big historical milestone, like the building of a railroad, there are thousands of personal stories and quiet struggles just like John’s.

Original Transcription

Mr Wallon Dr Sir
I went Down to your please This morning
To See you a bout fixing up that fence & other materz
Sum time a go Mager McKendre & you & my Self
Came to an understarng a bout The right of way from
The River To where you now Stay or live him and you
agreeable to my Recollexon was to make the road
up the Scull Lick branch make the road a crost the
Railroad & so forth for these priveleges (pay $35 for
my crop & house move The fence below the Railroad wher
you Did & keep your Stock from doing me aney harme
in my crop) The fence has bin burnt down three times
your mules have destroyed lots of my corn The road
Is not maid and you have bilt a culbert under
The Railroad Which will destroy the peace of Land
Next the river & is going on diging up my botom out
Side of your piveliges which I would not have dun
for one thousand Dollars under all These Surcomstanes
I become a complaint & want my fence Rebill now
So I can plant my corn at once and a dammage for
all the reast set fourth a bove & for all you may
Hear after do on my permses I am a Railroad man
I dont wash to do aney thing to inger the progrese of its
Bilding but I onley Look to my Just rights & intrust

Day of
6, may 1872

Respetfully yours & c

John Gwinn

Mr William Waller
Contrecter on The C & Ohio R R Road