USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 33
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But there was a step taken at length to dispense with the services of Mr. Frost. One day in the latter part of January, Messrs. Thompson & Grant received a telegram from the office of the attorney general at Harrisburg to arrest the United States marshal. The process was a writ of capias in trespass vi et armis for illegal arrest and false imprisonment. No sooner was the message received than the attorneys set out to obey the command it contained. They waited only long enough to put on coats and hats. To their astonishment the street in front of their office on Park row was filled with people. They told no one what they were about to do, but the people formed a procession in their wake. At every street crossing there were accessions to their ranks. When they had reached the furnaces (Eleventh and State streets) on their way to the station the men had all thrown down their tools and quit work to go along and witness the arrest. Thomas B. Vincent was sheriff at
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the time, and he was a Shanghai, but he was in duty bound to carry out the orders of the attorney general. The United States marshal was accordingly arrested, taken down to the county jail and locked up.
The speed with which such a crowd could be gathered in those exciting times was thus again exemplified. It is said that before three strokes of the court house bell could be struck a thousand people would be collected in the park. No doubt this was pretty near true. But the case of the arrest of the U. S. marshal was a little different because there was no ringing of the bell and every effort had been made to keep the business secret. News flew on the wind in those days and seemed to penetrate walls.
At that time there was published in Erie a newspaper called the Constitution, owned by J. B. Johnson, a learned and prominent member of the bar of Erie county. Mr. Johnson, was a Shanghai, and his paper, vigorously conducted, was a thorn in the flesh of the Rippers. Not only did Mr. Johnson wield a caustic pen, but there were others who wrote strong stuff for the Constitution.
Mr. Johnson had from the first incurred the hatred and hostility of the leaders of the Rippers by his able defense of the railroads, as well, as has already been remarked, as by his caustic manner of ridiculing the men and methods of the opposition. This finally led to a violent encounter and the first real bloodshed of the war. The story is related by an eye witness:
One day, he says, as he was coming into the Constitution building he observed Morrow B. Lowry and Arch Kilpatrick entering Mr. John- son's room. Their only business there, he knew, was to make trouble ; therefore he decided to see what went on. So he followed them in. Mr. Lowry carried a heavy whip and Kilpatrick was armed with a big cane. The words of introduction by Mr. Lowry were few and to the point, and alnost before Mr. Johnson had time to see what was on he was given a sounding blow over the head that dazed him and sent his spectacles flying. David B. McCreary was present and immediately took a hand. Looking about for a weapon of defense, Mr. McCreary found a stout stick used for a poker for the big wood stove. Seizing this and swinging it with all the force he could he struck Lowry behind the ear, bewildering him for the moment and cutting a big gash from which the blood flowed freely.
Turning to Kilpatrick, Mr. Lowry called to him to attend to Mc- Creary, but, not understanding what his orders were, Kilpatrick ad- vanced upon Johnson with his cane drawn to deliver a blow that might have been fatal. In this emergency McCreary seized a heavy chair near-by and swung it with such good aim that it struck Kilpatrick square in the face, stunning him and knocking out two of his teeth. Kilpatrick's cane was dropped in the melee, which Mr. McCreary secured, and finally Mr. Lowry, finding that Kilpatrick was really out of the fight Vol. I-19
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and the odds were thus against him, but hurling invective at Johnson and McCreary, with Kilpatrick quitted the field. That law office, said the witness, looked like a slaughter house, for the blood was fairly spurting from the wound in Lowry's head and had stained his ruffled shirt front and fallen in a stream to the floor, while Kilpatrick was bleeding but little less.
This was not the only sanguinary incident of that memorable cam- paign. One April morning in 1855 John H. Walker, one of the leading Shanghais, was on his way to the court house and was almost to the steps of the building when he was met by Rodney Cochran, a prominent Ripper, Mr. Walker was one of the principal lawyers of Erie and, the day being raw and cold, was muffled up and holding his wrap close about him, while at the same time he held his law books in his arms. Meeting him there by the steps Mr. Cochran demanded of Mr. Walker that he at once stop proceedings in the suit for damages which he had brought against Cochran. Mr. Walker promptly refused to do so. Just as promptly Cochran struck him a violent blow that felled him. Arising after a brief interval, his hat battered and his face bloody, Mr. Walker passed into the court house, Judge Agnew presiding at the time, and made a statement to the court in detail of what had occurred and entered a formal complaint which resulted in the judge ordering the arrest of Cochran.
But the incident had its sequel, and a decidedly melodramatic sequel it was! At the time of the assault upon Mr. Walker, his son John W., now known as Major Walker, was teaching school in the south. He was then a young man of splendid vigor and a veritable athlete, skilled among other things in the art of boxing. A year later, John W. was at home, and somehow it became known that he had it in for Rodney Cochran in retaliation for what had been done to his father. The antic- ipated occurrence was witnessed by General McCreary and the facts are obtained from him.
John Walker and Joseph R. Ferguson were standing in front of the Constitution office, in which building was the office of General McCreary. They were engaged in conversation. Soon Mr. Cochran came along from the bank with which he was connected, evidently intending to call at the Constitution office on business, for he held in his hand a draft. It appeared as though neither Walker nor Cochran had seen the other until they were face to face, less than an arm's-length away. However, as soon as Walker saw and recognized Cochran he aimed one blow at him with such good effect that, taking him on the ear it landed him all in a heap in the entry-way. Mr. Walker was on the point of following up his advantage when Mr. McCreary and his companion in the office hastily dragged the fallen man inside and, locking the door urged Ferguson to get Walker away.
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This was done. Standing on the corner that the city hall now occupies, there was in those days a small two-story building called the Park hotel, towards which Walker and Ferguson went. Meanwhile, Mr. Cochran had gathered himself together and he was furious. He stormed about until he was permitted to depart. Once outside he seized a brick and pursuing his late assailant until he had nearly overtaken him, threw it with all the force he could command. It struck only a glancing blow, but spoiled Mr. Cochran's equilibrium, and before he could recover his balance he was again stricken such a blow that he was thrown, dazed and bleeding through the door of the Park Hotel. This time Mr. Walker followed him up and throwing him across a table beat him without mercy.
This was not the end, however. That night, eager for revenge, Mr. Cochran addressed a mass meeting and told the excited citizens how he had been decoyed into the Constitution office by a gang of railroad hirelings and his life had been attempted. At once a movement was made toward the newspaper office. The doors were broken open, the books carried out and burned in the street, then the type was thrown out into the street, the press dismantled and finally the building was torn down and next day only a heap of ruins marked its site. After the demolition of the printing office, the crowd visited in turn the residences of Mr. Walker, Mr. Tracy and Mr. Johnson, all of which were bom- barded with stones, but unable to do more than batter the shutters which had been closed in anticipation of such an event (for by that time it had been learned what was going on the park), nothing was accom- plished.
Nor was the trouble confined to the men ; the women were equally infected with the fever, and they tried a weapon as cruel and deadly in its effect as any that could be employed. The Tibbals dry goods store was one of the principal stores in that line in Erie in those days. Mr. Tibbals, without taking any active part in the controversy became known as a Shanghai. It was so with a number of other merchants. For the purpose of punishing these men all the women of the town were called to meet to take action. Not all the women came, but the great majority of Erie women were in attendance. The action was quick and sum- mary. They voted not to trade with the Shanghai merchants, and each of the merchants was named as he was put under the ban.
Then there was another grievance. The railroad controversy at last got into the pulpit. It cropped out in the sermons, it was present in the prayers. Allusions, of an unpleasant nature were made to those who were selling their birthright and to the powerful who were oppressing the weak. At length it could no longer be borne, and the result was that a number of members withdrew from the old church, and that is how the Park church originated. For many years it was known as the
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Shanghai church, and it was so until a new generation came upon the scene.
The last surviving member of the councils of that stormy time was WVm. G. Arbuckle, who died recently at the old family home over in Jeru- salem. He remembered well to the last the incidents of the time, and he, too, remarked the facility with which crowds would be brought together, and the rapidity with which intelligence of the doings of even an execu- tive session spread to the people-as though the walls of the council chamber leaked. That day when the ordinance was passed which made resistance effective was memorable. Before the meeting, as Mr. Arbuckle related it, the members were "seen" by a prominent citizen connected in a business way with the railroads. It is not known that he was a stockholder, but he was a spokesman. He, having gotten the members of Select Council together in a retired place before the meeting, laid the matter before them. The lay-out was in the nature of a temptation. The company is rich, said the emissary. They do not care for the matter of a few thousand dollars.
"Now, I am not saying what the rest of us might have done under such pressure," said Mr. Arbuckle at an interview. "This I do say, that there was not money enough nor human power sufficient to move A. P. Durlin. He was a rock. Even if all his coadjutors in council had joined with the tempter, he was not to be moved. We let Mr. Durlin speak for the rest of us."
In the process of time the scales of justice swinging now up one side and again up another, brought about the trial of the mayor and members of the Erie council in the U. S. Court at Pittsburg. It was no small undertaking to proceed to the scene of the trial, for the Erie men had to traverse a hostile country. The route laid out was by rail to Cleve- land and thence to Pittsburg. But it was dangerous for a party of Erie councilmen to appear in the city of Cleveland, so strong was the feeling against them. Therefore, the train was stopped some distance east of Cleveland, and the Erie party proceeded in wagons across the country to a station on the C. & P. road. That the arrangement afforded great relief to the Erie men, Mr. Arbuckle relates in his reminiscence of the times. The city fathers of 1853 were vindicated by being acquitted in court.
The councils of Erie had sent an invitation to Gov. Bigler to come to Erie, and he did, arriving here on Jan. 31. Meanwhile the matter had come before the state legislature and upon the lines proposed in Mr. Kelso's address and resolutions approved by councils at their meeting of December 19. An act was passed by an almost unanimous vote an- nulling the charter of the Franklin Canal Company and investing the governor with plenary power to make such disposition of the road as in his judgment would best promote the interests of the state.
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It was in furtherance of the requirements of this act as well as in response to the appeal of the people of Erie that Gov. Bigler came here. He was received by a vast throng of people. Eleven hundred men on horseback escorted the governor from the train and a larger number than that in the cavalcade followed in its wake. He was quartered at Brown's hotel, and the reception that night was a memorable occasion.
The governor promptly took over the road as state property, and proceeded to operate it. The road here referred to, let it be understood, was the line extending from Erie to the Ohio state line. It was now out of the hands of the company, but the arrangements made were that it was to be run in connection with the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula road, under proper restrictions to protect the interests of Erie and of the whole state.
It was the beginning of the end. The matter was quickly carried into the supreme court of the state, by whom William M. Meredith, Edw. M. Stanton, afterwards Lincoln's secretary of war; W. G. Hearst, J. H. Walker and Judge James Thompson were commissioned to bring about a settlement. Briefly the terms were that the Erie & North East Railroad was to contribute $400,000 to the construction of the Erie & Pittsburg Railroad ; the C. P. & A. road, or the Erie county extension of it, was to contribute $500,000 to the Sunbury & Erie (now Phila- delphia & Erie) road; both roads were to build lines to the harbor and the charter was to be restored to the Franklin Canal Company. The con- ditions of this agreement were accepted promptly by all parties con- cerned and the railroads became what they are today .- developing in time into the Buffalo & Erie and Cleveland & Erie, and at length into divisions of the great Lake Shore & Michigan Southern and New York Central route.
For a time during its progress it appeared as though the trouble might assume a really warlike attitude. It is doubtless true, as Col. Thompson points out, that because the situation was so one-sided, the Rippers being so strong numerically, there were no serious casualties nor loss of life. But for a time it seemed as though there might be a change in this respect, for a movement was made to induce the government at Washington to take a hand. Representatives of the railroad interest sought the national capital and laid the matter before the president, praying for the assistance of the war department, all other means tried having failed.
It was in vain, however, as the president, after carefully considering the matter, decided that the question at issue was for the state of Penn- sylvania to dispose of. The theatre of action was altogether within the confines of Pennsylvania, and there was not then the same feeling with reference to obstructing the carriage of the mails that there is now. So
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the effort fell through and the dispute was permitted to go before the legislature and the courts of the commonwealth.
But it was an anxious and a trying time, especially for those in official position, and the mayor and others in Erie had many sleepless nights. I remember hearing Mr. King state that even years afterwards if there was a ring at his doorbell in the night it brought him to his feet before he was awake. During the whole of that troublesome period he was in a state of high nervous tension. It was not so much fear of what the railroad people would do, though in the minds of the public the Shanghais were the invaders. The apprehension was lest certain ele- ments among the citizens would take advantage of the troubled state of affairs and commit serious depredations. Such occurrences did take place, the stoning of the homes of railroad sympathizers and the demol- ition of the Constitution office being examples. With the purpose of maintaining order along these lines, the militia were called into service, and there was a prohibition of discussing the railroad trouble in public places. While all these precautions were well meant they were not always understood or duly appreciated. No doubt they aggravated feel- ings of hostility that developed into hatred. It was a lamentable state of affairs that endured for years, and that was finally softened by the interposition of a more serious matter, the great War of the Rebellion.
And yet, even after the close of the war, the feeling had not en- tirely died out. I well remember the answer given the enterprising editor of the Sunday Gasette as late as the middle of the seventies. Maj. Gideon J. Ball was a frequent visitor at the office of the Gazette. He often spent the greater part of an afternoon reading the exchanges and chatting with the editor. One day he was asked by Mr. Frank A. Cran- dall to give some particulars about the railroad war. The response was prompt, short and emphatic :
"If you place any value on your standing in this community," said Maj. Ball, "never say a word about the railroad war. Do not even mention it."
And that was all that Maj. Ball, than whom no one probably was more familiar with the subject, ever said to the Gasette man about that famous trouble. And the editor did want to get that story to print. There were many instances of personal encounter, some of a violent nature, one upon the court house steps, all indicating the depth of feeling that prevailed. It is related by a citizen yet prominent in business affairs in Erie that on the evening of Gov. Bigler's visit to Erie there was an informal public reception at Brown's Hotel. The corridors were filled with people, and of course nearly all were of the Ripper party. While proceedings were at their height Mr. Frank Tracy came in, and pressing his way through the crowd, passed up the stairway. His appearance created a stir throughout the whole of the assemblage, and my informant noticed that several after passing signs between them, quietly slipped out. At
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once their purpose was conjectured. They had gone for a few baskets of rotten eggs with which to pelt Mr. Tracy when he was leaving the hotel. It would be a catastrophe, with the governor present, to permit any such outrage. How could it be stopped? My friend thought a moment and then proceeded to act. Finding Mr. Nottingham, of the C. P. & A. Railroad, who was present, he quietly told him what was on the tapis, and urged him to get Mr. Tracy out by some other way. It was done. The incident, however, will illustrate the state of feeling at the time.
But after the greater trouble came upon the people the spirit of rancor and hate gradually subsided. Men could not keep step in the ranks of the army of the Union and cherish the old enmity. For a time the terms Shanghai and Ripper continued to have sinister meaning, but now they are but ghosts conjured up from the distant past.
The railroad war was not without its beneficent effect upon Erie. But for that war perhaps the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad would not have been built. The railroad disturbance here opened the eyes of the people of the rest of the state and especially of Philadelphia. That city itself subscribed for a million dollars of the stock of the new line, at that time the longest line of railroad in the state and by many looked upon as too great an undertaking ever to be realized. The road was eventually built and has done marvelous work in developing the com- merce and building up the harbor of Erie. The railroad war was not entirely useless. Let us not therefore vainly consider the might-have- beens, that we cannot be so sure of.
CHAPTER XXVII .- THE RAILROADS BUILT.
THE PHILADELPHIA & ERIE .- LAKE SHORE ROAD .- ERIE & PITTS- BURG .- THE ERIE, AND ROADS TO THE OIL AND COAL REGIONS.
One of the principal motives on the part of those called Rippers, in the Railroad War, for the attitude they assumed, was the belief that if the railroads that then existed at Erie were permitted to adopt a uni- form gauge, that would mean the death of the Sunbury & Erie Rail- road. The railroads did carry out their purpose of establishing a uni- form gauge and the Sunbury & Erie Railroad did not die. But it came so near to it at one time that there were many who believed there was no life left in it.
But it will be necessary here to tell about the Sunbury & Erie Railroad. From the very beginning of the history of the State there existed in Philadelphia a strong interest in the northwestern cor- ner of Pennsylvania. Indeed if it had not been for Philadelphia's strong interest there would not have been any northwestern corner worth speak- ing of. It was through the interest felt in Philadelphia that the Tri- angle came to be purchased and made a part of the Commonwealth. Nor did the interest end when the adornment of a triangular chimney was put upon the drawing of the State where it appeared on the maps. The interest endured. No sooner had sales begun under the Pennsyl- vania Population Company-a Philadelphia corporation-than the sub- ject of communication by turnpikes and stage lines was taken up, and among the earliest roads surveyed were a series, connecting with one another, that led from the city on the Delaware to the harbor on Lake Erie. When the era of canals succeeded, communication between Phila- delphia and Erie again came up, and at length it was really brought about that canal service from tidewater at the eastern end of the state to the great fresh water seas of the interior was established. Then, when the culmination of transportation methods, the railroad, was reached, again the subject of connecting the two remotest corners of the state came forward among the very first of the projects to receive attention.
As early as the year 1830 the building of a railroad, or series of railroads, between Philadelphia and Erie was projected, and along prac- tically the same route as that which was finally adopted, but the project
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did not materialize. In 1833 Stephen Girard, who had landed inter- ests in this county, organized a company with a view of building a railroad to extend from Philadelphia to Erie, and began at Sunbury to build a road eastward that was to be a link in the chain, his route being by way of Pottsville. The enterprise was halted, however, after a few miles were built, owing to a financial depression, and when the cen- tral link in the chain was eventually built it was by an altogether dif- fcrent route. It extended from Sunbury to Harrisburg, and was part of what came to be known afterwards as the Northern Central Railroad.
The Sunbury & Erie Railroad was chartered by the legislature in 1837. An organization was at once effected, the stock of the new company was taken by the United States Bank, and engineers were engaged to survey a route in 1838 and 1839. Of course the survey re- vealed problems and disclosed the fact that the building of a railroad of such great length, far greater than had ever before been attempted in Pennsylvania, would be a costly-a very costly-undertaking. The survey, however, served to show that the enterprise was feasible, and an available route could be found. But the cost of the road was the principal obstacle, so from practically the beginning the progress of the proposed road was halted. But it was never abandoned, so that from time to time enough work was done upon it to keep its charter alive. But the work on the route could not always continue unless there was money with which to pay for it, and in the course of time the money was exhausted for the amount of the subscription by the bank, far from being enough to build and equip the road, was not even sufficient to procure final surveys, the result being that in 1853 all work was stopped and the entire force of engineers, including the chief, were discharged. This was the year in which the Railroad War at Erie was begun.
It was also the year of the resurrection of the Sunbury & Erie Railroad. for many of its supporters had believed it to be dead-an undertaking too great to warrant hope in its being successfully carried out. Its restoration to life and activity was so sudden and complete that it came to be marveled at. And yet it was not at all strange. When the news of the upheaval at Erie reached Philadelphia, and the cause of the trouble came to be known, immediately there was awakened a powerful interest in behalf of the railroad that was to give communi- cation between that city and the lake, and this interest grew so rapid- ly that early in 1854 the city of Philadelphia subscribed $1,000.000 toward the construction of the Sunbury & Erie Railroad. Intelligence of this was telegraphed to Erie, when the city went wild in a delirium of joy. For an entire night there were goings-on of the most extrava- gant character to testify the delight of the people. The city of Erie subscribed $300,000 to the enterprise, besides 150 water lots for dock accommodations, and the county of Erie subscribed $200,000. A little
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