Volume 18 , Issue 33

1894, Rioters Shot Down

In The Waterloo Press, Waterloo, Indiana, dated 12 July 1894, Thursday, page 6, we find: "Rioters Shot Down." Blood was shed in the great railroad strike. Mobs in a wild fury. State troops called to stop acts of violence.

Found on Newspapers.com

Thousand of Soldiers and police would oppose the law-breakers 0 deadly contests had already taken place - strikers madly desperate - authorities determined - President Cleveland resolved to crush out the rebellion - militia from other states would be ordered to Chicago if such a move be necessary.

The long expected armed conflict began in Chicago Friday morning. Human lives had been sacrificed. Blood stained the ground at the suburb Kensington, and the mob, in a frenzy of rage, rioted throughout the Illinois Central yards, committing unheard of depredations on the property of the company. A great force of police was dispatched to the assistance of the deputy marshals and deputy sheriffs, who, through using their revolvers with deadly effect, were unable to break the spirit of the mob. Four of the strikers were reported killed and many others wounded. Engineer Geogan, of an incoming Ft. Wayne train, was held up at 31st street and stoned almost to death. The rioting broke out early in the morning. With the opening of day returned the fury of the strikers which manifested itself so viciously at the stockyards Thursday night.

The scene of the principal tumult changed from Lake to Kensington. In the town which lies over against the town of Pullman and was inhabited principally by laboring men and their families the mob began to gather in force. Before the morning was half over it had grown to such size as almost to overshadow the large force of deputies on the ground. Then the outrages began. The officers stood in a frightful hail of stones and coupling pins. Bodies of the rioters charged repeatedly on the marshals and the sheriff's men. Freight trains were derailed and thrown across the tracks. Thousands of strikers came over from Pullman and engaged in the work of destruction. At 11 o'clock there was rioting and fighting from the Pullman buildings to the Chicago and Eastern Illinois crossing - a territory a mile and a half in extent. The mob seized the milk train of the Illinois Central and upset the cars after detaching the engine. Then a dare devil switchman leaped into the engine cab, pulled the throttle wide open and sent the locomotive flying with frightful force into the wreck. After this all trains were blocked.

At this point the position of the officers became unbearable. They were struck with heavy missiles. They drew their revolvers and fired into the mob. The firing became general, many of the rioters retaliating with shots from pistols. In a melee on the Cincinnati express four strikers were fatally shot by special officers of the Michigan Central.

The mob was in complete control along the lines of the railways and in the stock yards district. In packing town 10,000 men congregated and swore that not a train of any kind should pass them. And they kept their oaths. At fortieth street an engineer who attempted to drive his locomotive through the crazy multitude was dragged from the cab of the machine and beaten nearly to death. Along the Rock Island and Lake Shore track thousands of men congregated, overturning cars, wrecking switches and doing everything tin their power to prevent the passage of trains.
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