Ratification. Mending the Family Kettle. The U.S. Senate passed the proposed amendment by the required two-thirds majority on June 8, 1866, and the House of Representatives passed it on June 13, 1866, which sent it to the states for ratification. No Virginians served in Congress when it submitted the amendment to the states.
The Father of American Railroads. John Stevens (1749-1838) was the scion of a prominent family in colonial New Jersey. During the Revolutionary War he served as state treasurer. In the postwar period he became intrigued by experiments in steam navigation by men such as John Fitch.
Railroads in the 1800s for kids: Timeline of the Trains, Inventors and Innovators. The timeline of the famous men, innovators and inventors who developed the railroads and the steam locomotives: 1814: George Stephenson constructed a locomotive that could pull 30 tons up a hill at 4 mph. 1  Stephenson called his locomotive, the Blutcher. He is considered to be the inventor of the first steam locomotive engine for railways.