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. When the alarm came I was in bed. They fetched my wagon to me, and I
went out there, and when I got to Eleventh street--driving there--they
got in my way--certain parties--and called out: "You son of a bitch,
don't lay any hose--you son of a bitch." But I said to them, "you can
go to hell;" and I started on. It was on the street, and I went at a
pretty rapid gait. When I got out as far as the "Independent" house,
Mr. Coates, one of the fire commissioners, said to me: "Sam, drive in
here, quick." I drove then into the engine house, and then went to
Twenty-eighth and Liberty streets where the mob was. I looked up and
saw the fire. It was a car--it appeared to be an oil tank car. At
first, No. 7 was between Twenty-second and Twenty-third streets on the
right side of Penn, in the gutter. They had no fire in the engine, and
I said: "Where's your fire?" And they told me they had put a pistol to
the head of the fireman, and made him draw the fire. I told the
engineer then to turn her around and take her down to the house and to
fire up again. They went to the house, and I told them to stand there
so as to be ready to go into service if we could get into service. Then
they came up with a big gun on wheels--a cannon--pulling it along on
the street. After they got up to where a few hose carriages were, they
came to Twenty-third street--and I said, "what is the matter?" And all
they said was to point the gun at us and said: "If you don't get out of
that we'll blow you to hell." I said we had better come down here than
go there. While I was standing there, an alarm came from East Liberty.
I went out there, and when I went out there I thought probably it was
the stock-yards, but I found it was a solitary house away down on
Negley's run, a mile or a mile and a half from the railroad. Then I
told the engine company at East Liberty to stay there in case they
would burn Mr. Pitcairn's house, or set the stock-yards on fire, and
that we would manage to get along without them. So they did not come
in. Then I came in, and I think at eight minutes after three it was,
when they sent a signal in that the fire was out. There was a big crowd
on Liberty street, and somebody asked me to let them lay a line of hose
to save Mr. Hardie's stable, and some property belonging to Mr. Denny.
I told the foreman then of hose company No. 1, to lay a line of hose up
Liberty street from Thirty-first street, and that if any stables got on
fire, or any private property, to throw water on it. Then four men
stopped me with guns, and asked me what I was going to do, and I said I
was going to lay a line of hose; and they said, not a God damned line
of hose. But I said to them that I was going to save private property,
and then they said, that I could throw water on that, "but that if you
throw any water on the company's fire we will shoot you and cut your
hose," and everything else. While coming in they were carrying goods
away from the cars.
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