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. Of laboring men, and railroad men, and business men, and women and
children.
Q. All mixed together?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Were the railroad men noisy and boisterous?
A. Not that I saw.
Q. Were they stopping the trains?
Q. The only one I saw stopped was at Twenty-eighth street.
Q. What time was that?
A. I heard the men saying it was three-forty, schedule time.
Q. They stopped it?
A. They started out, and three or four officers were put on the engine.
After they started, some parties got on the track and waved their
hands, and the engine stopped and the engineer jumped off. The officers
were still on the engine after the engineer got off.
Q. You simply called for volunteers when you went out to hunt up those
men?
A. Only one man refused to go.
Q. Was any demand made on the night force that afternoon?
A. The mayor instructed me to hunt up all the men I could find, both
the men on duty and the men dropped, and I did so.
Q. The men on regular duty went out, did they?
A. Those that I found. At that time we only had one hundred and twenty
men, including lamp-washers and station-house keepers.
Q. How many men did you get that afternoon on actual duty--the night
force?
A. To my best recollection, five or six, but I won't be positive. I
only sent in the bill for the men not on regular duty--twenty-nine the
company paid for--for those men on duty we sent in no bill at all. It
was only for the men not paid by the city.
Q. How long were those men on duty there?
A. Until morning. They reported at the office between seven and seven
and a half o'clock.
Q. Friday morning?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. All of them?
A. Some went home for breakfast.
Q. Were they sent on duty again?
A. They were sent out to the depot in the morning, but they came back
and said they were not wanted, that Officer Fox had all the men he
wanted.
Q. Who was he?
A. He has charge of the officers around the depot.
By Senator Reyburn:
Q. He is an employé of the railroad?
A. I think so.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Did he tell you that he had all the men that they wanted?
A. The men I sent up to the depot reported that to me.
Q. Who reported that?
A. Officer William Johnson. Several of them, I think. Officer Crosby.
The men came back and they said that they were not wanted. He kept
three at the depot, M. A. Davis, Matthew Goddard, and Ernest Ehring.
Q. Where was the mayor during the night?
A. When I came back in the evening, about seven o'clock, I brought the
men to supper, and after they had supper, I sent them out again, and I
went to the office. I am not positive whether I saw the mayor there or
not. I am not positive about that. The next time I saw him, was in the
neighborhood of twelve o'clock, at the office.
Q. Thursday night?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where did he remain during the balance of the night?
A. In the office. I stayed there also all night.
Q. Were you out during the night?
A. I went out and stayed until about ten o'clock, and then I came back.
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