The Strike at Hornellsville—The Road Completely Blockaded at that Point—The Demand of the Strikers—Action of the Officers of the Road—The Situation at the Home Office, New York—Apprehensions of Further Complications.

The strikes were extending rapidly all over the country. The railroads in Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, New York and New Jersey were all liable to be blockaded at almost any moment by the action of the employes.

The situation on the Erie road was far from reassuring as early as the 17th. The next day, the difficulty commenced, the firemen and brakemen of the Western Division of the Erie Railway decided to strike at one o’clock the morning of the 20th. At Hornellsville, the night express leaving there at midnight, was the last train permitted to pass. All trains, both ways, were stopped at Hornellsville. The train due in New York at eight P. M., left Buffalo, via the Rochester division, that morning, but went no further than Corning. A train was made up at Elmira to run on the regular time to New York. No intimation that there would be a strike was had until the action of the men was made known. Railroad communication was cut off, only telegraphic communication being had with the place up to a late hour Saturday. About four hundred men were in the strike. They demanded that the pay of the firemen be increased to the amount received before the late reduction; that brakemen and switchmen receive $2.00 and head switchmen $2.25 a day; that $1.50 be the wages of yard trackmen, and $1.40 for section trackmen; that monthly passes be given firemen and brakemen, and passes be issued to switchmen and trackmen, and that the Company give a free lease of all property occupied by trackmen, a large majority of employes of that class being squatters on Erie land. These demands the Company emphatically rejected.

By prompt action the Erie officials struck a severe blow against the strikers. As soon as the news of the strike was received they ordered all trains bound for Hornellsville to stop. Passenger trains were sent over other divisions, and freight trains were held all along the line. This kept hundreds of men, ready to act with the strikers, away from Hornellsville. These men resorted to various means to get there, some seizing hand-cars and thus reaching that point. A fireman, named Pratt, risked his own, with the lives of hundreds of passengers by seizing a locomotive at Andover, twenty miles west, and running it in the face of advancing trains between that place and Scio, picking up men to run them into Hornellsville. The peril of the undertaking led to its abandonment, although Pratt was anxious to carry out the plan. A train arrived at ten P. M., having been stopped at Olean by the Company, thus preventing an army of sympathizers from joining the strikers. The train went no further. The train that left New York at 9:15 Saturday, arrived at Hornellsville the same evening. General Superintendent Bowen, and O. Chanute, his assistant, went up with it. Its westward passengers were transferred at Corning to the Rochester division. The train went to the yard and no attempt was made to move it farther. The strikers were on guard in large force.

J. S. Beggs, Superintendent of the Western Division, started for Dunkirk to proceed to Hornellsville Saturday morning. At Salamanca he found the men had struck. They cut the locomotive loose from the train, but finally allowed the Superintendent to proceed. He was stopped again at Andover, when the train was boarded by a crowd of boisterous sympathizers with the strikers, but was permitted to go on its way after some delay. The Sheriff of the county, with a number of deputies, proceeded to Hornellsville with the intention of arresting the principal leaders.

Passengers who left Buffalo Saturday evening for New York on the Erie, narrowly escaped detention by the strikers at Hornellsville. The train was within a few miles of that station when the conductor was notified by telegraph of the situation, and ordered to return to Attica with the train. The train was sent over the Attica branch to Avon and thence over the Rochester division to Corning where it was held until the afternoon of the 20th, when it started for New York to make the stops of local trains held at Hornellsville. General Superintendent of Transportation Wright, and Division Superintendent Cable, were at this time in Hornellsville. General Superintendent Bowen was on his way to that point. There were fears in Elmira that the strike would extend to the divisions east of that place. The demonstration at Hornellsville was not crushed. Traffic was entirely suspended west of Hornellsville, and the yards of every station were filled with freight, stock and other trains.

All passenger and freight trains on the Erie Railroad, except on the Falls branch, had been abandoned. Tickets issued by that road were honored by the New York Central, and tickets issued by the Erie road over the Atlantic and Great Western were honored by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern and the Buffalo and Jamestown road. Orders were sent to Buffalo to the Erie Railway shipping office to take no stock for shipment East on account of a railway strike in the vicinity of Hornellsville.

It was late Thursday night when the officials of the road at the New York headquarters, received information that a riot was in contemplation by the firemen and brakemen of one of the Western divisions of the road, but nothing definite as to the extent of the demonstration, or the demands of the strikers was reported, and business was resumed Friday morning as usual. The regular evening express from Buffalo, left that city at 9:45 Thursday, and ran to Hornellsville, ninety-one miles distant, on regular time. Hornellsville is the point at which the Buffalo division ends, and the Susquehanna division begins, and there the engineers, firemen, and other train hands “lay off,” and are replaced by another team, who take the train to the end of the division in Susquehanna, and are in turn relieved. The engineer was on hand Friday morning to take the regular train to Susquehanna, but the fireman and brakemen refused to work, and the train was kept standing on the track. The switchmen and trackmen joined the strike, and the business of the road was at a complete standstill throughout the entire length of the division—one hundred and thirty miles.

After four hours’ delay the train was allowed to pass. The express and mail train was also stopped, but was held only forty minutes. The first reached New York three hours, and the second seventeen minutes late.

The express which left New York on Thursday night, proceeded as far as Corning, and was there tied up by the strikers, but the passengers were brought back to Elmira, and were sent over the Northern Central Road to Canandaigua, and thence by the New York Central to Buffalo.

By the policy adopted by the strikers, trains were permitted to run both ways as far as Hornellsville, but none were suffered to return either way, and in the course of the day some seven hundred freight cars were blockaded there, the strikers taking out the coupling-pins and throwing them away, as soon as a train arrived. Two or three passenger trains were run into the town by order of the railroad officials, for the purpose of demonstrating the fact that they could not get through, but most of the passengers were sent by the Central Road, by which Erie through tickets were received. After the extent of the strike was known in the Chambers street office, in New York, orders were telegraphed the agents of the road to suspend the sale of through tickets until further notice.

The officers of the Erie Railway, with Mr. Jewett, the receiver, included, appear to have made a mistake in regard to the nature of the strike at Hornellsville. They believed that the strike there was a part of the demonstration inaugurated at Martinsburg, and continued at Pittsburgh. It was supposed that all three were ordered by the supreme authority in the organization of brakemen and firemen, to which nearly all the employes on all the great lines in the United States belong, and it was feared that the strike would spread all along the line from Omaha to New York, and that the Western and Southern roads would share the same fate. The facts that the Hornellsville strike was begun without due notice, that the grounds of the strike were not presented to the Company until late in the afternoon, and when presented, proved to be the old issues that were settled three weeks before, strengthened this belief.

In the Company’s yards in Communipaw, the men professed entire ignorance of the affair. They declared that they did not know the causes which led to the strike, and pretended that the organization to which the strikers belong had no existence east of Port Jervis.

These men were in all probability right. The officers were evidently wrong. If the strike at Hornellsville had been the part of a great movement among railroad men all over the country, it is not probable that the disturbance on the Erie Railroad would have been confined to the Western division. Simultaneously with the movement at Hornellsville, the firemen, brakemen, and switchmen at Salamanca, on the Western division, quit work, and when Mr. Beggs, the Superintendent of that division, who had started out from Dunkirk for Hornellsville, arrived at Salamanca, his engine was cut loose from the train and put into the engine-house, and the strikers notified him that no engine or train would be permitted to pass Salamanca.

It was claimed by the officers of the Company that when a committee of the train men visited New York, late in June, in relation to the reduction of July 1st, they were kindly received by Receiver Jewett, and the necessity and propriety of the reduction explained to them, which, after a few days’ deliberation, they apparently accepted, and the men continued at their posts, with the exception of the known promoters of the discontent, who were discharged.

It was also claimed that all classes of men on the Erie Railway had been treated by the Company with consideration. Their pay was not only reasonable but liberal for the times, and if there were any employes expressing dissatisfaction, the receiver was ready to pay them off promptly and hire other men to take their places, and expressed his determination to carry out the order of July 1st to the letter.

But the strike had assumed formidable proportions. There can be no doubt that a riot existed at Hornellsville, and that the rioters had things for a time pretty much in their own hands. They had assembled in force sufficient to control the railroad communications at Hornellsville, and trains were not allowed to pass either east or west. There are two lines between Hornellsville and Buffalo, one, the main line, and the other a branch line between Hornellsville and Corning. At Corning the branch line connects with the Rochester and Buffalo division. So far the strikers had not interfered with the movement of trains on the branch line, but they could have cut off communication at any moment. Practically as far as the traffic on the road was considered, intercourse was cut off between New York City and Buffalo. Only a small portion of the business of the road could be conducted over the branch line in any event, and in the present case it might as well be left out of consideration entirely. If the strikers considered it important to do so, they could undoubtedly have blockaded the trains on that line also.

A Brakeman named Donahue was understood to be the chief instigator of the movement. Donahue was discharged a few weeks before from the service of the Company, and he had been going about secretly since to stir up the brakemen to make a strike. He is the brother of the President of the Brakemans’ Association, and is a man of considerable influence. By his agency and the assistance of his brother the strike was no doubt organized. It was the opinion of Receiver Jewett that Mr. Arthur, the President of the Engineers’ Protective Union, had taken an influential part in organizing this as well as the strikes on other lines. He had not been in the neighborhood, but the movement had been probably guided to some extent by his directions. The engineers were not inclined to unite in the movement, at least directly. The only support they would give it would be by objecting to the new brakemen and firemen taken on in the place of the strikers, on the ground of inexperience, but they would not strike themselves.

Already an informal application had been made by the officers of this road to Governor Robinson of New York for protection.

During the morning of the 21st an effort was made by the Erie officials at Hornellsville to start a train East, carrying a mail car. The strikers on guard would not permit anything to leave the yard but the mail car. They also prevented any one getting aboard but the mail agents and an insane woman, who was being taken to Elmira. Everything was quiet after that till a later hour in the day. Then the Pacific express, which left New York the previous evening, arrived with a mail car and a passenger car. The sleeping coaches and westward-bound passengers were sent over the Rochester division at Corning.

The strikers took possession of the trains, the passengers had to get out, and when the baggage was unloaded the cars were pushed to a siding by the strikers. The mail car was permitted to start, the men first placing a fireman and brakeman of their own on the engine and car. An effort was made by the Company to attach the postal car to the passenger coaches at the lower end of the yard. The strikers suspected a move of this kind, and two hundred rushed to that part of the yard and took possession of the switch. The effort was thus defeated, and the engine and postal car were left on the side track.

The Erie officials refused to recognize any of the committees of the men, and issued orders forbidding B. J. Donahue, chairman of the Brakemen, Switchmen and Trackmen’s Committees of the Buffalo, Western and Susquehanna division, and leader of the strike, from coming on the grounds. He established headquarters in the Titusville House near by, and directed the operations of the men. The great grievance the men complained of, was that the Company broke faith with them in discharging from its employ members of the Grievance Committees sent to New York in the matter of the reduction of July 1st, after agreeing not to do so if the men accepted the reduction. General Superintendent Bowen positively denied that there ever was such an agreement made in the first place, and insisted that no man had been discharged in consequence of his having been on a committee, the Company having approved of the men waiting upon the manager by representatives to state any grievance they might have. The men discharged were dismissed for absenting themselves from their posts without leave, and for violating the discipline of the Company. Donahue declared that the firemen struck because they were pledged to the brakemen, and that the engineers were pledged to them, too, but did not strike. Representative engineers denied that their body ever made any pledges to the brakemen.

The proclamation and orders of Governor Robinson, had called out a very large force of the New York National Guards. The Erie Company knew of their movements, the fact became known at Hornellsville, the afternoon of the 21st, that the receiver had appealed to the state authorities for military assistance, and the men held a secret meeting. They believed that no militia could be brought to that place, a majority of whom would not be in sympathy with their movement. It was not generally known at what time the militia ordered then would arrive, but the Company was kept informed of their progress. The Fifty-fourth Regiment New York State Militia, Colonel G. E. Baker commanding, left Rochester in the morning, and marched four hundred strong, arriving at Hornellsville during the evening. The approach of the train was so quiet that few of the strikers were at the depot, but in a brief time the yard was blocked with men shouting and deriding the soldiers. Immediately after the arrival of the train another came in from Elmira with two hundred men from the One Hundred and Tenth Regiment, Colonel Smith commanding, and Battery A of the Twentieth Brigade, Captain Walker. Great excitement prevailed. The men affected to treat the matter as a joke and loudly ridiculed the idea of the movement being suppressed by a few soldiers with empty guns. The Elmira troops were formed in line and marched through the yard, driving out all with whom they came in contact. The Rochester troops were subsequently formed, and lines were placed all about the Company’s yards. Every approach was guarded. No one could enter without a countersign. The battery of two guns was planted in Loder street, and commanded the yard and surroundings. The excitement was intense. No attempt was made by the Company to move trains.

The strikers held meetings and unanimously resolved to resist the Company even in the face of the bayonet. They were in receipt of telegrams from Elmira, Susquehanna, Port Jervis, Corning and other places calling on them to be firm, and saying that meetings were being held that would result in the men in these places joining in the strike. The leaders in the movement threatened a bloody time next day.

B. J. Donahue, the leader of the strike, warned all engineers against going out with trains, as they would go at their own peril, the track having been “fixed” by the strikers. In spite of the guards, the strikers had disabled all the switch engines in the yard. Two demonstrative strikers were arrested and quickly rescued by their friends. There was great familiarity between the militia and the strikers. General Brinkerhoff and W. W. MacFarland, counsel of the Erie, arrived from New York in a special train. They held a consultation with D. C. Robinson, the Governor’s Private Secretary, to which they were escorted by a guard of soldiers.

All was quiet at Port Jervis. There was considerable excitement among the employes of the Erie road, but nothing to indicate that a strike would occur on the Eastern or Delaware division. All trains on these divisions were moving regularly, no stoppages occurring on that side of Hornellsville.

A second special train, in charge of General Wylie, with ammunition and camp equipage arrived before morning.

Three reasons existed why Hornellsville should have been selected as the scene of the origin of the strike: First, it is the most important junction on the road; second, it is far from the large cities where unemployed labor is plenty and the municipal authorities are strong, and third, it is filled with bad and dangerous men. It is purely a railroad town, although it contains some seven thousand inhabitants, and a considerable amount of business is done there. It is the termini of three divisions of the road—the Susquehanna, Buffalo and Western—and consequently there have congregated and settled there a large number of the worst class of men, those who have been employed on railroads—chiefly the Erie—in various capacities, and discharged for many causes. They comprised the best possible material for strikes, riots and violence of all kinds, partly because of their natural predilection to disorder, partly from motives of revenge for their dismissal, and partly to get the men employed discharged, so as to make room for themselves, the Company had evidence that some men, not connected with the road, were secretly inciting train hands to strike in the expectation that the Company would be forced to reinstate them in the positions from which they were formerly dismissed.

But two cases of violence on the road had yet occurred. Some Buffalo firemen stole a locomotive and ran out to the junction of the Falls branch at East Buffalo, with the intention of blockading the trains arriving from Utica, but a squad of police was sent out from Buffalo and the firemen were quickly dispersed. The other case occurred at Hornellsville, where General Superintendent Bowen made a personal attempt to take out a mail train, but was stopped by the strikers.