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
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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. Was the crowd on Friday morning composed of the same men as on
Thursday--were the same men leading the crowd?
A. I cannot say whether they were leading it or not; the crowd was so
big they were all mixed up through it.
Q. Did you see any of the same men in the crowd on Friday?
A. I don't remember that I did. Some of the leaders of the crowd there
on Thursday night had gone to Lawrenceville on Friday.
Q. Did you have any conversation with the train men on Friday about
starting the trains.
A. No.
Q. Did you try to raise any crew on Friday?
A. We had a yard crew still there and two or three crews already to go
out, provided they would let them go.
Q. Were you able to take any trains out on Friday, or if not, what
hindered them from going out?
A. The mob at Twenty-eighth street----
Q. Were you able to take any trains out on Friday?
A. No; on account of the crowd at Twenty-eighth street making threats
to the men--what they would do.
Q. State the condition of the crowd during the day, whether it was
increasing or not, and whether it was demonstrative and boisterous or
not?
A. Later in the day it appeared to increase.
Q. Did they allow the passenger cars to pass?
A. They allowed them to go. Some of them were stopped, but they let
them pass afterwards.
Q. What means did they take to stop those trains?
A. Some of them would halloo and make threats, and others would get up
and spring on the engines, and the engineers would have to stop to see
what was the matter.
Q. Did they turn any of the switches?
A. Not that I remember of.
By Mr. Larrabee:
Q. They just piled on the trains?
A. Yes; they filled the engines and cars.
Q. Did they attempt any violence on the men running the trains during
the day of Friday by throwing stones or clubs?
A. Not there, they didn't.
Q. Did they anywhere along the road?
A. I don't know whether they did outside of Pittsburgh or not. We
didn't move anything on Friday except live stock. They agreed that we
might move that, but nothing else.
Q. You say the live stock was moved?
A. Yes; on Friday. First in the morning--then they stopped it. Then Mr.
Garrett, the train master, and me went up and saw them, and he talked
to them. There was a big run of stock coming off the Fort Wayne road,
and some of them said they would let him have one engine to haul it. He
said that they ought to know better, that one engine was not
sufficient, and they agreed to let him have two. So we got engines
enough to move the stock to East Liberty.
Q. They said you could have one engine. Who was it that told this to
Mr. Garrett?
A. I don't know who it was.
Q. Did you hear the conversation between the men and Mr. Garrett?
A. I was with him in the crowd. We had to go right into it like a
wedge.
Q. Were they railroad men?
A. Some of them were railroad men.
Q. Men then in the employ of the company, or who had been up to the
morning of Thursday?
A. Yes; they were still in the employ of the company, so far as I know.
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