"Bitch on heels" (and "Hell on wheels")

Landau, James James.Landau at NGC.COM
Wed Mar 29 13:33:33 UTC 2006


Barry Popik (Bapopik at AOL.COM) quoted:

(OED)
e. hell on wheels:  someone or something regarded as resembling hell;
also attrib. or  quasi-adj.  
1843  Quincy (Ill.) Herald 10 Mar. 1/4  Hell-upon-Wheels!..the most
appropria te name for that craft  [sc. a steam-boat]. 1868  _S.  BOWLES_
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-b3.html#s-bowles)  in F.  L.
Paxson Hist. Amer. 
Frontier (1924) lii. 497 'Hell on  Wheels' was the appropriate name that
Samuel Bowles of the  Springfield Republican bestowed upon the town he
visited in 1868. 


According to several sources I have read on railroad history, "Hell on
Wheels" was the name of the construction train used by the Casement
Brothers, who were the contractors who built the Union Pacific Railroad.
Are there any contemporary citations for that claim?  

It is possible that the unspecified town that Samuel Bowles visited was
on the Union Pacific, in which case the Casement Brothers train acquired
its name from the town.  It is also possible that Bowles heard the name
of the train and bestowed it upon a town.  

     - James A. Landau

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