the California Southern Railroad is officially chartered. Unknown date events Summer – The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, later to become part of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, begins construction west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Eugene V. Debs becomes the Grand Secretary of American labor organization Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. The Richmond and West Point Terminal Railway and Warehouse Company is chartered as a holding company to acquire railroads that the Richmond and Danville Railroad itself couldn't. Lima Machine Works ships the first Shay locomotive to Ephraim Shay's design to a logger in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Alonzo C. Mather forms the Mather Stock Car Company to build stock cars of his own design. The Peninsular Car Company delivers the first refrigerator cars to Swift and Company, forming the basis of Swift Refrigerator Line. The Merchants Despatch enters the refrigerated transit business. Mexican President General Manuel González grants a rail concession to Albert Kinsey Owen to build the Chihuahua al Pacífico. Southern Pacific begins service to the Hotel Del Monte; the service will in turn become known as the Del Monte. Births June births June 21 – Josiah Stamp, Chairman of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1926–1941 (d. 1941). Deaths January deaths January 1 – Morris Ketchum, partner in Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor, director of Illinois Central Railroad (b. 1796). December deaths December 1 – Thomas Seavey Hall, American inventor of railroad signalling systems (b. 1827). References Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. Retrieved July 18, 2005. Railroad History Timeline 1880. Retrieved March 23, 2005. Reitwiesner, William Addams, The Ancestors of Julia Stimson Thorne. Retrieved October 11, 2005. Santa Fe Railroad (1945), Along Your Way, Rand McNally, Chicago, Illinois.