Although steam engines became his absorbing interest, George soon realized that for him to go very far in the theory of steam engines, he would need more education than he possessed. And so, while still in his teens, George Stephenson entered school and began to attend night classes. After working twelve hours a day at the mines, George would then spend hours in school in the study of mathematics, mechanical drawing, and above all in the reading and writing of the English language. In due time this acquired knowledge enabled George to study current publications, specifications, and text books that dealt with his beloved engines, and the power to be derived from steam under pressure.

As time went by, the added skills and knowledge that George acquired resulted in higher wages, and so, by the year 1802, George Stephenson felt himself able to support a wife. In that year, when George was twenty one years old, he married Miss Frances Henderson. He was then living in Willington. A son was born to the Stephensons at Willington Quay in 1803, who they called Robert Stephenson.

Shortly after the birth of their son the Stephensons moved from Willington to Killingworth, a town some seven miles from Newcastle. At his new location George supplemented his income by repairing all manner of clocks and his skill was such that he became known throughout the area as an expert clock repairman and regulator. But misfortune was in the offing: a few years after the move to Killingsworth the health of Mrs. Stephenson began to fail and she died at her home in 1806. Sometime later George's sister, Eleanor, came to keep house for the family and to assist in the rearing of Robert who was about three years old when his mother died.

Some fourteen years later, in 1820, George married again. His second wife was called Elizabeth Hindmarsh and there were no children by this second union. Robert, the child by George's first marriage was the one and only child of George Stephenson.

In 1812 the owners of several coal mines banded together and hired George Stephenson as their chief engineer to supervise the operation of the engines and machinery at their separate mines. The mine owners furnished George with a good saddle horse to ride in making his rounds to the various pits and they set his starting wage at 100 pounds per year.

It was during that period, l812-1813, that George Stephenson began to think seriously about the possibility of building a steam locomotive to replace the horse drawn cars that were then used to haul the coal about the collieries. The horses were used to pull the cars loaded with coal along tracks made with wooden rails. At least in their general appearance the wooden tracks were somewhat like our modern railroad tracks.

The thought of a steam locomotive to draw the cars along these tracks was not entirely new with George. Several individuals had previously attempted to build a steam locomotive but their efforts seemed to lack any commercial value and were rather impractical for one reason or another. The engine called the "Puffin Billy" was one such early attempt. However, the extensive knowledge that George had with all features of steam engines and associated mechanical arrangements enabled him to see the shortcomings of those early locomotive designs and to see the possibility of building a really practical and useful steam locomotive.

George discussed the idea of building such a locomotive to replace the horses with the mine owners and found them very interested in such a venture.

Lord Ravensworth, one of the mine owners, offered to finance the building of the locomotive and to furnish George with a suitable place where the locomotive could be constructed. And so George Stephenson, with his drawings and calculations, set to work and in 1814 he completed his first steam locomotive. He named it the Blucher.

In July 1814 George made the first trial run with his now engine on the wooden tracks that were used by the horse drawn vehicles at the colliery. The trial run was an outstanding success and with that trial run George Stephenson ushered in the great age of rail transportation that was destined to revolutionize the industrial development of the nation. The Blucher was, in fact, the first practical and commercially feasible locomotive ever built.

Many developments and improvements followed the first model of George's locomotive. A model called the "Rocket" became a famous early design. Progress continued in the building of both the railroad track and in locomotive design until in George's lifetime he was able to see engines traveling at speeds approaching sixty miles an hour and hauling passengers and freight across a continent. George's talents were evident in other fields as well. For example, he invented and built safety lamps used by coal miners in their work underground.

While still a young man George became a rich man, principally from his locomotive and railroad building activity, and his reputation as a railroad builder soon spread beyond his native country. The King of Belgium invited George to plan a railway system for his country and then in due time the King honored George by bestowing on him the title of Knight of Leopold. Spain also had George lay-out a system for that country. George was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of England and was offered a Knighthood by the British Crown, but he declined that honor. George was the founder and the first president of the Society of Civil Engineers.

George Stephenson, that great man who had risen to the heights from such humble beginnings, died at his home at Tapton on August 12, 1848, aged 67.