Annals of the great strikes in the United States

The Beginning of the Trouble—A Militia Company Arrives—Exasperated Strikers—Business Suspended—The Railways all Cease to Transport Freight—Threatening Outlook—Governor Robinson’s Proclamation—Military Movements—The Strike Collapses.

The trouble at Hornellsville did not immediately effect the regular course of business at Buffalo. But it became manifest from the movements among the workingmen, that the city was not to be so fortunate as to escape an infliction of tumult and business stagnation such as other cities were suffering. It came to Buffalo rather suddenly, although not wholly unexpected.

About nine o’clock, Monday evening, July 23d, a Lake Shore train having on board a company of militia from Westfield, was stopped at Tifft’s Station, just out of the city, by a party of strikers. They swarmed into the cars and began to take the soldiers’ muskets away from them. This brought on a fight, in the course of which there was some pretty brisk firing at close quarters. The result was that the militia fled, leaving ten muskets in the hands of the strikers. Only one of the latter, Michael Lyon, is known to have been killed. Following is the list of wounded: William Berrigan, right side; Patrick Breen, mouth and neck; John Clay, switchman, through the lungs, afterward died; W. J. L. Hickey, in the leg; Paul Lang, right thigh, badly; M. Murphy, knee, badly. None of the soldiers were killed.

The morning passed without serious disturbances. Gangs of men and boys made the rounds of the factories, urging the hands to quit work, but they accomplished nothing. Nearly all the engines were in the shops and yards, which, with the depots, were heavily guarded. No freight trains had been started during the day, and only one passenger train—that for Niagara Falls, over the Central road. Two Falls’ trains arrived, and the Erie mail. On all the crossing switches white flags were displayed with the words, in black letters, “We will let the mail go.” The strikers were quiet but resolute.

Travel was stopped on every one of the ten lines touching Buffalo, and the only way out then was by boat. All day the depots were surrounded by the mob, numbering about two thousand men and boys—a very large proportion of them roughs, with whom the real strikers did not sympathize. No hostile demonstration had been made against railway property since the preceding night, when the mob numbered nearly three thousand, being much larger at night than in the day. The mob later in the evening began to collect in large force in various parts of the city. It became a vast multitude before ten o’clock at night.

The railroad yards at Buffalo stretched nearly ten miles eastward, and the rioters were scattered along this distance, thus making no great show at any one point. The arrangements for the defense of the city were wholly inadequate. There were only seven hundred soldiers there. Of these, one company was thoroughly thrashed by the mob Monday night, seventeen of its men being wounded or missing; another, an artillery company, was armed with muskets, and a third was an unmounted cavalry company. There were only three hundred police, aided by a few specials sworn in Monday. Several of the wounded Westfield soldiers came out of hiding at noon the next day to have their wounds dressed.

There was great annoyance and some suffering from the embargo on travel. Women travelling with funds sufficient only for the journey were left in bad straits, and some required the assistance of the charitable. Ten “drummers” hired a tug Tuesday afternoon and started for Rochester by the canal, hoping to reach that city by the following morning. Many passengers from the East had come from Niagara Falls, twenty-three miles, in carriages. There were miles of freight and passenger cars on the tracks, and, it was estimated, more than a million dollars worth of freight.

The few soldiers who were at Buffalo spoke with great repugnance to firing into the mob. Many of them sympathized with the strikers, and many women and children followed their husbands and fathers into the crowds. A mail train for Elmira was allowed to go out on the Erie, Tuesday morning, and several Canada Southern passenger trains were permitted to pass, but at a late hour in the evening everything was shut tight.

Hot work was anticipated. The air was full of rumors of an attempt to burn the roundhouse of the Lake Shore Railroad. General Rogers was making all possible preparations. Some three hundred special police were sworn in, and the Board of Police issued the following notice:

“The Board of Police desire each and every citizen of Buffalo who believes in the supremacy of the law, to call at the headquarters of the Police Department and take the oath and responsibility of special patrolman, without pay, for the maintenance of order and the protection of the property of our citizens.”

The Sheriff also issued a call to over five hundred citizens for a meeting at his office. The citizens were fully aroused to the urgency of the case.

A mob from the Lake Shore and Erie Railroad, Tuesday morning, took the firemen and brakemen from the New York Central trains, and unloaded the stock and warned employes from further work. No disposition was shown on the part of the New York Central employes to join the strikers.

The Lake Shore and Erie shops were closed. The mob was in quiet possession and undemonstrative. Lake Shore live stock trains were stopped at Collingwood and unloaded indiscriminately. Stock was being received regularly by the Canada roads.

At seven o’clock Tuesday evening, the mob reinforced by large numbers, called at the car shops of the Lake Shore and Erie Companies and ordered all workmen to quit, which they did with the greatest alacrity.

About four in the afternoon of that day, a Buffalo and Jamestown train, which departs from the Erie depot, on arriving at Compromise crossing, two miles from the depot, had the passenger coaches blocked and stoned on the central track, and the fireman forcibly taken from the engine. Superintendent Doyle, who was on the train, remonstrated with the strikers, stating that there had been no reduction of wages on the road since its inauguration. The effect of the statement resulted in bringing back the coach by the strikers, who coupled it on and assured the Superintendent that nothing would be done in any way to interfere with the working of his road.

Early in the afternoon an assault was made by nearly two thousand rioters on about two hundred soldiers, who were guarding the Lake Shore roundhouse. The military were obliged to leave the building, which was barricaded by the mob, who proceeded to place cars in position as a defence against attack. Colonel Flack, of the Sixty-fifth Regiment, with about thirty men and three officers, exhibiting a total want of judgment, proceeded to the roundhouse to retake it from the mob. They were met with yells of derision from the crowd, and, under a shower of stones, were obliged to retreat with precipitate haste and force their way through an angry multitude at the point of the bayonet. Some soldiers were seriously cut on the hands with knives, and many others were clubbed. Four soldiers lost muskets, which, however, were afterward recovered. Colonel Flack, who was severely beaten and twice knocked down, fled across the canal, and was obliged to take refuge in the Lake Shore paint-shop.

The engineers of the Erie and Lake Shore roads signed an agreement with the firemen not to run with green hands; New York Central engineers followed by agreeing to the same pledge that evening.

During the night the excitement in Buffalo was very great. The situation was critical. No number of troops sufficiently strong to contend against the vast multitude of rioters, was within easy distance of the city. The experience of Pittsburgh, had the effect of intensifying the general feeling of apprehension. All business was suspended. Banks refused to discount drafts on New York, and the consequence was a stringency in the money market, which had a most depressing effect upon the people. Meanwhile the number of the rioters was increasing, and the workingmen in other industries than railroad operations had quit their employments. The tramps from a wide section of the adjacent country, were concentrating in the city.

The managers of the New York Central and Lake Shore Railroads declined to forward the mails unless permitted to send out passenger trains also, to which the strikers objected, and a deputation of strikers visited the postmaster the afternoon of the 24th, and asked him to forward the mails, stating that they would see them safely through. A mail car was sent East that morning, and another went the next morning on the Erie Road.

The citizens organized as special police, and arrangements were made for the protection of the city. The military were on guard at the Exchange street depots all day, and notwithstanding large crowds filled the streets in the vicinity, no serious collisions occurred. At ten o’clock Tuesday evening the police charged upon the mass on Michigan street, and succeeded in clearing an open space. A gang during the day visited many of the large manufactories, and attempted to drive out the workmen, but in only a few places were they successful. Whenever the police found them in force they were promptly dispersed. The Westfield company, who were set upon and scattered the previous night by the strikers, came into the city Tuesday morning with only thirty-six men and seventeen guns. They left Westfield with fifty seven men. The following were the names of the wounded belonging to that company. Corporal James C. Hale, Privates, Orville Ogden, William Rickenbro, Dell Barber, George Hursted, W. J. Harvey and Walter H. Dixon.

The members of the Grand Army of the Republic residing in Buffalo, numbering about one hundred and seventy-five, organized as a company, and tendered their services to the Mayor for the protection of the lives and property of the citizens. Mayor Becker, Tuesday evening, issued his proclamation ordering all saloons to be closed during the evenings, until order could be restored. He also called upon the citizens to enroll as special police for the protection of the city.

The arrest of B. J. Donohue, who was apparently the organizer of the strikers at Buffalo, as well as Hornellsville, and indeed throughout Western New York, was an episode in the history of movements in that section of no little interest, and considerable importance. To this man, more than any other, was due the completeness and effectiveness of the strike on the Erie and Lake Shore roads. He organized it, not only at Hornellsville, but throughout the Western Division of the Erie Railroad. He managed it in his own way, establishing his headquarters with all the confidence of a military chieftain taking command of his forces. His orders were the law of the strikers and possibly the cause of the strike. He showed himself as much a favorite among trackmen, brakemen and firemen on the road as was Jack Kehoe, the King of the Mollies, among the miners of the anthracite region. And as Kehoe was not a miner, so Donohue, properly speaking, was not a railroader. Sometimes he served as a brakeman, but then only as a substitute; and once he kept a saloon. His real business was that of the “timer,” or “buyer of time,” and he made large profits out of the people whose champion he assumed to be, by advancing them money at a high interest—as much as fifteen per cent. it is asserted—in anticipation of the paymaster. When the strike, which impended because of the reduction of wages at the beginning of July last, was ordered, Donohue was made chairman of the committee having the matter in charge. In this way he naturally became the leader when the strike actually came; and more than this, it may be said that the strike was his own creation.

At Buffalo, the strike had almost spent its force. The failure of the strikers to engage the employes of the New York Central and other roads, having termini at that city, prevented a thorough organization of the labor forces. A few regiments of men had been sent to Buffalo from other points, but their services were not needed. By the 25th of July, the main trouble was over. But for several days society was more or less disturbed. The police authorities made numerous arrests—indeed the prisons were for a time crowded, but, as in other cities, they were nearly all subsequently released, and even those against whom charges of overt acts were preferred, were enabled to secure acquittals and dismissals in the courts.

During the first days of the troubles at Hornellsville and Buffalo, Governor Robinson of New York, who had gone to Elmira, issued the following proclamation:

In the name of the State of New York,

Whereas, The Receiver appointed by the Supreme Court of this State to take care of the management of the Erie Railway and its properties has made known to me that a conspiracy has been formed to prevent his discharging his duty as such receiver under the orders of said court; that the business of said road and the running of trains has been interrupted by violence, which the civil authorities are unable to suppress, and

Whereas, The honor and good faith of the State require that it should protect the said court and its officers in the executions of its order.

Now, therefore, I, Lucius Robinson, Governor of the State of New York, by virtue of the authority imposed upon me by the Constitution and the laws, command all persons engaged in such unlawful acts to desist therefrom, and I call upon all good citizens and upon all authorities, civil and military, to aid in suppressing the same, and in preventing breaches of the peace.

The law recognizes and protects the right of all men to refuse to work except upon terms satisfactory to themselves. But it does not permit them to prevent other men from working who desire to do so. Unless the State is to be given up to anarchy, and its courts and laws are to be defied with impunity, its whole power must be exerted to suppress violence, maintain order, and protect its citizens in their right to work, and the business of the country from lawless interruption within our borders. It is no longer a question of wages, but of the supremacy of the law, which protects alike the lives, the liberty, the property, and the rights of all classes of citizens. To the maintenance of that supremacy the whole power of the State will be invoked if necessary.

Given under my hand, at the City of Elmira, in the State of New York, this twenty-second day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.

By the Governor,

The last expiring throes of the mob-spirit was exhibited at Buffalo on the 26th, when a mob of idlers marched through the streets, visiting manufactories and other establishments where large numbers of men were employed, for the purpose of inducing the laborers to strike. In these movements they were unsuccessful, and were easily dispersed at a later hour in the day by a troop of mounted policemen.

By the close of the day on the 26th trains had resumed on all the roads, and the City of Buffalo had assumed its ordinary appearance, the people having returned to their customary avocations. The days of excitement were past, the strike had ended.