Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
History
Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877: Read in the Senate and House of Representatives May 23, 1878
Pennsylvania. General Assembly. Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877
Q. All refused to go out on the double-headers?
A. Yes; except the first train. The conductor was willing to go out,
but not the crew.
Q. What classes of men refused--conductors and brakemen?
A. Yes; they refused to go, and I went then to get up the yard crews to
put on, and brakemen to go in the place of conductors. I got an engine
out. We were just going to make a coupling. I had got two crews and
brought them up, and I had told a brakeman named W. S. Gerry to couple
the engine. He made an effort to do so, and while doing so, they threw
at him with pins and links and stones. One of the pins struck him on
the side, and he had to run for his life to the Philadelphia fast
passenger train, which was standing on the track where he was, and he
jumped on it. Had it not been for that they would have been very apt to
have caught him.
Q. Who threw those missiles?
A. I cannot say who threw them, but the whole crowd apparently made a
rush.
Q. How large was the crowd?
A. Not over twenty.
By Senator Reyburn:
Q. Were they train men?
A. Yes.
Q. What time was that?
A. It must have been between nine and ten o'clock.
Q. Thursday?
A. Yes.
Q. The crowd was composed of about twenty men?
A. Yes.
Q. Who were those men?
A. Some of them I don't know the names of. Some are up in court, and
they are now trying them. One of them is "over the river."
Q. Name as many as you can?
A. One was Andrew Hice; another Alonzo Milliner, and several more of
them. I can't just remember their names now.
Q. Were they all railroad employés?
A. As far as I saw, they were at that time.
Q. Men in actual employment at that time?
A. Yes.
Q. Were there any men there at that time who had previously been
discharged?
A. None that I know of.
Q. What was the next incident that occurred that came under your
observation?
A. The next thing, I went to Twenty-eighth street with Mr. Watt, and
tried to get engine seven hundred and eighty-five out--Conductor S. K.
Moore.
Q. What time was that?
A. Pretty close to twelve o'clock. I told him to bring his engine out,
and he told me that they would not allow him to turn the switch.
Q. Who do you mean by "they?"
A. He said all of them--the crowd. They would not let him turn the
switch. Mr. Watt said he would turn it. While he was stooping to turn
it, one of them struck him. They arrested him, and after they arrested
him I turned the switch and brought the engine out on the track and
down the yard, and coupled her to sixteen cars, and sent her to
Wilkinsburg with them.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Was that the same crowd that had assembled about ten o'clock?
A. Yes; it was Twenty-sixth street, and they went to Twenty-eighth
street. The second engine was at Twenty-eighth street. It was the same
crowd.
Q. Had it increased in numbers?
A. Yes; in the meantime.
Q. Who were the men that joined them? Were they railroad employés too?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account