The evidence assembled by Nelson, though suggestive, is circumstantial. Records for John William Henry ended in 1873, suggesting that he had died. Nelson believes that John Henry's famous contest took place at one of the C&O tunnels, Lewis Tunnel, in West Virginia, where newspaper stories and records indicate prisoners worked beside steam drills night and day. To win the bet, Huntington had to find a way to tunnel through the Allegheny Mountain range - using manpower and/or steam-powered drills. Huntington wagered that if he finished by 1872, the railroad would belong to him if he failed he would give every inch of track to the state. The owner of the C&O Railway, Collins Huntington, had recently made a bet with the government of Virginia that he could build a line linking eastern Virginia to the Ohio River within six years. Arrested, and in all likelihood unfairly tried for burglary, he was among the many convicts leased to work on the C&O Railway. Nelson speculates that Henry, like man African Americans, might have come to Virginia to work on the clean-up of the battlefields after the Civil War. The 20-year-old New Jersey-born African-American freeman, John William Henry, was a working in the headquarters of the 3rd Army Corps in 1863. In the 2006 book, " Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend," Scott Nelson contends that the ballad was based on a real person. His story is immortalized in one of America's most famous folk songs. According to legend, Henry won a hammering contest in the 1870's against a steam-powered drill but died when his heart gave out after the race. To construct a railroad tunnel, the folk hero John Henry hammered a drill bit into rock to make holes for explosives. Nicknamed "John Henry" the little engine pays homage to the men that built the railroads. The Laurinburg & Southern Railway acquired the little engine in July of 1989 and operated it until July of 2015 when it was transferred to the Three Rivers Rambler. It was later sold to the Dana Corporation, then to the Toledo, Angola & Western Railway. 150 is named after America's famous "steel drivin' man." A 25-ton GE unit, No.150 was built in May of 1943 as a switch engine for the Bethlehem Steel Company. The enormous engine lost the contest against the efficient diesel and was scrapped in 1957. Though it performed well, coal dust and water got into the motors and the boiler controls were unreliable. 2300 weighed 409 tons and was 161 feet long. The Norfolk & Western Railway recognized this folk hero in 1954 when they purchased an experimental steam-turbine engine named "Jawn Henry." Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works, No. According to legend, Henry won a contest against a steam-powered drill but died when his heart gave out after the race. The African-American folk hero John Henry worked on a railroad construction crew in the 1870's.
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