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
A. The mob outside. I got out of the crowd and into the Union depot. I
found then that it was countermanded--that the fast line was not to go
out. I went into the depot, and I don't know who I found, now--but I
found out that the train was not to go. I found Mr. Pitcairn there, and
I told him I thought it was not a wholesome place for him, that he had
better leave. I told him I thought that some of the men were disposed
to do him some personal damage if they came across him, and from the
way in which the mob or the crowd felt, I didn't think it would be very
well for anybody to get in their way at that time. About nine o'clock
there was somebody came and asked for volunteers to take an engine out
to the outer depot, to take provisions up to the troops. I told them I
would, and I waited for some time, and then I found out that they had
come to the conclusion that it would not be safe to go up. I heard no
more of it until morning. I staid with the engine during that whole
night, and saw the fires getting brighter and brighter, and coming
closer down. I staid there at Union depot until eleven o'clock Sunday,
when I drew the fires out of the engine and left her standing there by
the orders of the depot-master, and went home by the way of the Fifth
avenue street cars. While waiting for dinner, my brother-in-law heard a
train, and I went out on the road, and I saw a train coming backward. I
gave a slight signal and the engineer stopped. It was not very hard to
stop a train then. The conductor inquired what I wanted; he said that
he was going out as far as Walls. I said I would like to go. It seemed
that some of the troops were coming in and came as far as Torrens, and
were ordered back. I went to bed early in the afternoon after getting
there. I came in on Monday, and was at our head-quarters at Fast
Liberty. I thought our foreman was there. I reported for duty. About
noon he asked me to run the Walls accommodation train. I said,
certainly, I will run the train. I run it--no, I did not go out that
trip, for the man who had the engine refused to get off, although he
had asked in the first place to get off. When I came he refused to give
it up. He pulled out a pistol and displayed it, and refused to give the
engine up, yet he had asked in the first place to be relieved. So I
told Mr. Whetman, our foreman of the round-house. Well, says he, let
him run it, but he told me sometime ago, that he was tired and wanted
to be relieved. I remained there until afternoon, when I got orders to
take the engine. I went down again, and said, I have orders to take
this engine. So I took her and run her sometime--I run her that night
from Thirty-third street to Walls and back on regular trips. But I
didn't make the last trip. In the morning I came in at the usual time.
When I came in, it appears that a committee had waited on Mr. Whetman,
and told him to take me off that engine. I believe the man Reynolds
told him that they would not allow me to run the engine.
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