Black Dick: Astonishing Legend of a Disabled Railroad Hero
Black Dick: Astonishing Legend of a Disabled Railroad Hero (Black Dick Part #1)
Though, he was born in abject poverty, and spent all his days “without escutcheon or family tree, reared in no palace, tutored in no university, thus lived and died one of nature’s noblemen”—Who was Richard Smith? Who was this Black Man, whose death was reported from coast to coast in the National News? He was called “Black Dick,” a negro, a sable giant (they say he was nearly 7 feet tall before he turned 21!), an eccentric, insane, idiot, a simpleton, crazy, an angel, a king amongst men, a public benefactor, a noblemen, a hero to all…His story appeared in the papers in the far north, in The Portland Daily Press, the Rutland Independent, the Boston Evening Transcript, The Journal and Herald; to the far west, in the Contra Costa Gazette; from the prairies and the plains to the shores and the deep South, in the Wisconsin State Journal, South Kansas Tribune, Rockingham Register, The Baltimore Sun….all would remember Richard Smith. This is the Astonishing Legend of “Black Dick”, a Disabled, Destitute, African American Railroad Hero. This an amazing piece of Black History, lost and recovered by SOAL, the story of a legendary figure who lived in Harrisburg, PA.
He is buried in Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery.
Richard Smith made headlines from coast to coast in the years following the Civil War. His astonishing legend captured the imagination of the American public at a time when it was quite unlikely for a Black Disabled man to become famous, but he was a Railroad Hero. He saved countless lives.
“Black Dick” inspired poetry and artwork! And—though I have not found them—surely songs were sung! His photographic likeness was sold and reproduced for the masses, so that they might have a token to remember him by; so that they may look upon his unlikely visage, and be reminded of his saintly deeds, and be inspired to live better themselves.
He was often seen sleeping about the Harrisburg train station, and none who told his story professed to knowing where he lived after he left his mother’s house. In spite of his life-saving efforts, and his many successes, he was never paid for the service he proffered to passengers. He was never hired by the railroads, nor greatly rewarded, by the community at large, up until his death.
The following biography is a compilation of various contemporaneous accounts and impressions of Richard Smith, written during his lifetime or soon after his death. I drew primarily on historical newspaper and magazine articles to relay the details of Richard’s life, with the addition of historical photos I gathered, as well as annotated maps, diagrams, and artistic renderings created to give you a fuller picture of his life:
“He knew every Pennsylvania locomotive, and could distinguish each by their bell.”
Richard Smith, A Boy Who Loved Trains
“Judystown (also known as Judahstown), at the corner of Third street and Meadow lane, Harrisburg, just where the Cumberland Valley Railroad leaves Mulberry street by a graceful curve, was a colored quarter over whose destinies Edward, otherwise “King,” Bennett presided. The “King” was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, a close reader, and a clear debater. He was a man of splendid physique, indomitable will and autocratic rule.
In this autocracy, in a little cabin dwelt Rosa Smith and her son Richard. Day by day through cracked and grimy windows the child watched the railroad trains as they passed in front of the cabin door.“
It was his one occupation and entertainment, and his mind being intently bent in that direction a love for the locomotive as sincere and as ardent as that for an individual soon developed within and took possession of him.“
Mentally clothing the machine with human attributes, he sought its closest acquaintance, and one morning in 1856 emerging from the cabin, cautiously crossing the Cumberland Valley, and then the Harrisburg and Lancaster tracks, he made his way to the half roundhouse and machine shop, which was situated between the Mulberry street bridge and the present Pennsylvania Railroad Storage House, to see how his new friends lived at home.“
From that moment visiting the round house and locomotives became a passion with him, and no power could keep him away from them. He made the close acquaintance of all the locomotives running in and out of Harrisburg, became their self-appointed guardian, crooned to them, patted, petted, commended and scolded them.“
When an engine left the shop upon being repaired Dick would compliment it on its appearance, and admonish it to take good care of itself and not get dirty or broken. He acquired such an intimate knowledge of his friends that he could distinguish them by their whistles or bells. He would scold the engineers and firemen in charge if they were not kept clean and in good condition, and he seemed to know intuitively when a nut was loose or a bolt missing. This demand for cleanliness in the locomotive was not a freakish suggestion, for cleanliness was a religion with him from which he never departed. As applied to himself, in practice, he took a bath daily either in the canal or river, breaking the ice in winter to take it. It was this habit which eventually caused his death” (William Bender Wilson. n.d. From the Hudson to the Ohio).
The building of the new shops and roundhouse in the western part of Harrisburg, and the tearing down of the old ones, was the cause of the keenest grief to Dick. He thought it was a practical divorce of him and his beloved locomotives and some days passed before he became reconciled to the change. When he did, he changed his visiting place from the shops to the passenger station, at which point he thereafter received his locomotives on their inbound trips, or sent them outbound with a cheery Godspeed.
His field now broadened, and he became acquainted with the Cumberland Valley Railroad and Northern Central Railway engines”……
William Bender Wilson. From the Hudson to the Ohio. A Region of Historic, Romantic and Scenic Interest, and Other Sketches. HathiTrust Digital Library. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ssd?id=njp.32101072318098;seq=58;num=52.
This is the End of Part 1 of the story of Richard Smith’s Life
You can now read Part #2 of my microhistory of the life Richard Smith in Early Harrisburg!
Rise of a Railroad Hero: Black Dick’s Symphonies of Freedom
And that is how “Black Dick” became acquainted with the constant threat of danger that arriving and departing passengers faced at the Harrisburg Train Station!
Sources For “Black Dick: Astonishing Legend of a Disabled Railroad Hero”
Fyfe, Paul. “Illustrating the Accident: Railways and the Catastrophic Picturesque in ‘The Illustrated London News.’” Victorian Periodicals Review 46, no. 1 (2013): 61–91. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43663163.
Harrisburg Telegraph. “Accidents on the Pennsylvania Railroad.” May 29, 1866. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122262051/accidents-on-the-pennsylvania-railroad/.
Harrisburg Telegraph. “Deplorable Accident.” June 27, 1868. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122285791/deplorable-accident/.
Harrisburg Telegraph. “Foot Injured.” June 25, 1866. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122261536/foot-injured/.
Harrisburg Telegraph. “Killed On The Railroad.” November 23, 1871. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122262180/killed-on-the-railroad/.
Harrisburg Telegraph. “Railway Accidents.” October 30, 1872. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122262617/railway-accidents/.
Laskow, Sarah. “Railyards Were Once So Dangerous They Needed Their Own Railway Surgeons.” Atlas Obscura, July 25, 2018. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-did-railway-surgeons-do.
“List of Rail Accidents (before 1880).” In Wikipedia, March 18, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_rail_accidents_(before_1880)&oldid=1145350602.
Railway Work, Life & Death. “Home–the Railway Work, Life & Death Project,” April 3, 2023. https://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/.
The New York Times. “RAILROAD DISASTERS.” September 22, 1864. http://timesmachine.nytimes.comhttp://arch-timesmachine-fe-prd-40741-2-575473780.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/timesmachine/1864/09/22/78993968.html.
William Bender Wilson. From the Hudson to the Ohio. A Region of Historic, Romantic and Scenic Interest, and Other Sketches. HathiTrust Digital Library. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ssd?id=njp.32101072318098;seq=58;num=52.
