In December, 1853, a force of about four hundred and fifty men was employed on the embankment and excavations on the south end of the Central Rail Road bridge at La Salle. A misunderstanding existed between the contractor, Albert Story, and the men about wages. The latter had been employed at one dollar and a quarter per day, but the contractor, being unwilling any longer to pay more than one dollar per day, so informed the men and appointed a day--the 15th--when he would pay such as chose to quit work. The men, on their part, alleged that they had been allured from the East by handbills circulated by Story and his associates, announcing that one dollar and a quarter per day would be paid on the job; and that after they had expended all their means to reach the work, the promise was violated, and they were thrown out of employment, except at reduced wages, with families to provide for, at the commencement of winter. On the day appointed the clerk commenced paying. Soon an error was found in the accounts which was announced to the men, and the business of paying was suspended. This incensed the men, who rushed into the office and declared they would help themselves to their pay. One of them struck Story in the face. During the scuffle, Col. Maynard, a Superintendent of the work and a resident of Chicago, left by the back way to find and take care of Mrs. Story and her children. While he was gone the assailants were forced from the room and the door refastened, when the crowd commenced with axes, picks and shovels to break down the door. One succeeded in entering, when Story, who was armed, asked his clerks whether it was best to shoot. They said, "no, we had better be quiet." Mr. Story, not knowing that Maynard had gone to take care of his wife and children, went by the back way to the house. Finding his wife gone, he started for the stable for a horse on which to leave the place. The men, seeing him, rushed towards the stable, shouting "kill him! kill him! kill him!" and with picks, shovels and stones brutally and almost instantly murdered him, one man striking him with a stone on the head after he was dead. It has been asserted that Story did fire upon the crowd, wounding one man, but this did not clearly appear on the subsequent trials.