Under martial law - The state of affairs in the Tonawandas, article with photos, transcription (Buffalo Morning Express, 1893-06-25)
Dublin Core
Title
Under martial law - The state of affairs in the Tonawandas, article with photos, transcription (Buffalo Morning Express, 1893-06-25)
Description
The dispute between unionizing lumber shovers and lumber men has boiled over. Peacekeepers are billeted at the former Stephen White mansion on Tonawanda Island. They (and the press) take to calling the abandoned old building "Camp Haunted."
[Transcriptions by AI]
**THE LUMBER WAR**
**UNDER MARTIAL LAW.**
**The State of Affairs in the Tonawandas.**
**SCENES ON THE DOCKS.**
Photographic Evidence of the Military Occupation of the Big Lumber Suburb The Haunted Camp - The Labor Situation.
Buffalo's great lumber suburb of Tonawanda has had a week of military rule. The difficulties between the union and non-union men employed in unloading lumber became so threatening that on the 17th inst. President Stanley of North Tonawanda issued a proclamation warning all persons against assembling for unlawful purposes or disturbing the peace. The Tonawanda and Niagara Falls militia, which had been called out were relieved on Sunday by the 65th Regiment from Buffalo, who have since been on guard. Up to present writing there has been no outbreak, but the presence of the troops is considered necessary to protect the non-union men from assault and intimidation by the union men.
A few pictures in this issue give some idea of the state of affairs early in the week. Some of the yards and docks were idle and deserted. At others, the work of unloading barges was carried on slowly by green hands. Everywhere the blue-coats were on guard. The headquarters of the 65th Regiment was at Smith & Fassett's lumber office on Tonawanda Island, the old White Mansion at the head of the island being turned into barracks for the soldiers. This house is one of the historic landmarks on the Niagara. It was built in 1833 by one Stephen White, at a cost of $15,000. The place was called Beechwater, and commanded a beautiful river view. The woodwork is of solid cherry and black walnut, and the marble mantels were imported from Italy. Mr. White's daughter married Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel Webster, and a grand bridal reception was given them in this house. Daniel Webster and other celebrities were frequent visitors, and N.P. Willis has described the place in his writings. After passing through several hands the property was bought, with the rest of the island, by Smith & Fassett, and has long stood empty among the piles of lumber which cover the once beautiful lawn. In some way the place gained the pleasant reputation of being haunted. That it has not lacked for spirits the past week, one picture bears evidence.
Fifteen years ago, when a few struggling mill owners and lumbermen of Tonawanda applied to the Federal Government for an appropriation of $10,000 towards dredging the harbor, they were put to a good deal of inconvenience, delay and trouble to convince the Washington legislators that there was such a place as Tonawanda on the map. And the New-York Sun reviled the lawmakers, charging them with gross ignorance in possessing so little knowledge of their own country as not to know something of "the second largest lumber city in the world."
For many years Tonawanda struggled against difficulties of all sorts and it was not until the organization of the Lumbermen's Exchange Association in 1873 that any facilities were afforded the lumbermen. The railroads did not care to handle their lumber and the rates were excessive. There were no such cars as the lumber cars of today. One length of 12-foot lumber filled a car and 8,000 feet was a load. To Paterson, N.J., a great market then, as it is yet, the rate was $70 a car. The present rate is about $25 for a carload of 15,000 or 16,000 feet. Dockage was limited to 100 feet in 1873; now there are six miles of the finest docks on the lakes, with a harbor that is unsurpassed.
The Hon. John Simson established a sawmill and planing mill at Tonawanda in 1840 and laid the foundation of the Lumber City. Progress was slow, however, and it was only with the revival of business after the War that the town became a lumber center of importance. Statistics prior to the organization of the Lumber Exchange cannot be obtained. Since 1873, however, the growth of the lumber trade at this point has been enormous.
that year the receipts by lake transportation were 104,000,000 feet. These figures steadily increased until 1880 when the lake receipts reached a total of 718,650,000. The railroads also brought in over 35,000,000 feet, making a grand total of 753,672,000 feet of lumber brought into the Lumber City in one season. During the same year Tonawanda lumbermen imported 52,232,300 shingles and the local mills manufactured 100,000,000 more, one mill turning out 62,000,000. The lake receipts included, also, 13,000,000 pieces of lath. The number of vessels reporting was 909.
Since 1880, the receipts have fallen off very considerably, and various reasons are alleged by different men as the cause. Some attribute it to a general depression in the trade. the country. Others declare, without any hesitation, that the lumbershovers' strikes have unsettled the lumber business of the city and that the present retrogression will continue until the difficulty is settled upon a basis
(Continued on page 8.)
--
[Page 13:]
**More Fights.**
**Tonawanda Lumber-Shovers Out for Blood.**
A Party of Buffalo-club Men Figure as Rescuers of One Attacked Gang.
**Ran for Their Lives.**
One Crowd of Union Men Stoned a Party of Soldiers and Were Arrested at the Point of the Bayonet—A Member of an Attacked Party Who Fired a Revolver Arrested and Sentenced to the Erie-county Penitentiary—The Union Repudiates the Agreement to Settle.
The Tonawandas may yet be in a greater state of siege than they have experienced so far. As reported in The Express yesterday, a settlement had been reached, through the mediation of a citizens' committee, and it was supposed the lumber-handling troubles, which have existed all the season, would be at an end and that the men would go to work tomorrow. Yesterday, however, the Lumber-shovers' Union repudiated the agreement, and now the situation threatens to become worse than ever. The lumber-dealers are not likely to listen to any further arguments in behalf of their locked-out employees, who by reason of the desperation of the latter will carry them only the future can tell. If yesterday's events are any indication, very severe measures will be necessary before the lumber business can be safely carried on in the Tonawandas. The talk of removing the yards to Buffalo is again revived. If this should be done, it would be a blow from which the twin villages would not speedily recover. The lumbermen say they will at once secure the necessary forces from Buffalo and Pittsburg to handle their lumber this season and will let the Tonawanda union men sit out in the sun. With the permanent introduction of a large foreign laboring element in the Tonawandas the material for frequent and serious rows between employed and unemployed will be right at hand. Three quite serious fights occurred yesterday, in all of which union men were aggressors. In one of them a party of Buffalo-club men figured as rescuers.
All talk of withdrawing the troops already on the scene is abandoned, to the disappointment of the soldiers, who were joyfully anticipating a speedy return to their homes. Sheriff Beck has come to the conclusion that everything is not as quiet and peaceful at the Tonawandas as he had supposed, and he may see the justice of the demand of the lumber-dealers of Tonawanda that they be given the same adequate protection that the dealers of North Tonawanda have been given by the Sheriff of Niagara County, who, a week ago called for military aid. When informed last night of the afternoon's fights and the indications for more trouble, he expressed the intention of swearing in a lot of deputy sheriffs. If he can get men he can rely upon, he will be content with their aid; if not, he may call out the militia. There are now four barges untouched and a half dozen partly unloaded. Six more are expected to arrive tomorrow.
--
**Starting the Fight.**
Union Men Were the Aggressors—Four of Them Arrested—One of the Assailed Also Fined.
Special to The Buffalo Express.
North Tonawanda, June 24.—This afternoon, about 5 o'clock, a canal-boat gang, having finished loading a boat, were returning home down North Canal Street. They were set upon by the following union men: Ben Robbins, Ike Chamberlin, Ed. Summers and Billy Goodwin, who grabbed Meader Beardback about the neck and exclaimed: "You're the man we want!" They threw him down and began pounding and kicking him. Beardback is the non-union man who punished union man named Bye last season so severely.
Daniel Miller of Adam Street, with his son John, was working in this gang. He used his dinner-pail as a weapon and tried to help Beardback, but was set upon by the union men, who knocked him down and kicked him in the face several times. He called to his son, who had a revolver, but the young man, instead of giving it to his father, fired one shot and then rushed down the street toward Scrifner's yard, where he found Deputy-Sheriff Peters, who came to the relief of the assaulted men. The four attackers were arrested at once and taken before Justice Rogers, who sentenced Ben Robbins to 90 days in the Erie-county Penitentiary and fined Chamberlin, Summers and Goodwin $20 each.
The union men began the row by yelling at them and throwing stones, and told Miller if he went to work again they would kill him and burn his house. Robbins told young Miller to "fire away;" he wasn't afraid.
Soon after, another fight occurred. This time on the south side of the canal and near the union headquarters. James Halliway, a union moulder from Buffalo, was standing near the entrance to St. Louis Hall and somehow enraged a union man, who at once assaulted him, aided by several others. They kicked him in the face after he was down, and he then got away.
Union men had young Miller arrested for firing the revolver while union men were assaulting his father. He was taken before Justice W. J. Rogers at 9.30 o'clock this evening and fined $30 and sentenced to 60 days imprisonment in the Erie-county Penitentiary. The charge against him was carrying concealed weapons.
--
**Racing for Life.**
Sixty Strikers Pursue 28 Poles Up the Canal—Rescued by a Buffalo-Club Excursion.
Special to Buffalo Express.
Tonawanda, June 24.—Strikers tonight, maddened by the summary punishment meted out to their men in the afternoon, boldly attacked a body of Poles who had been unloading lumber, wounded two with stones and went so far as to fire revolvers, but without hitting anyone. Deputy sheriffs were at the scene of the attack, but were powerless against the infuriated men. Law and order were openly and boldly defied.
A body of 28 Poles had been taken down from Buffalo in the morning by Fassett & Bellinger. All day they worked on the river unloading boats. At 6 o'clock a tug was to take them back to the mainland and they were promised protection to the station, where they expected to catch the 6.20 train back to Buffalo. Six o'clock came, the boats they were at work on was unloaded, but no tug appeared. Deputy-Sheriffs James Willis, William Katzel, William Egenbrod and Samuel Hoffman were with the Poles and telephoned for the tug. Time went on, darkness fell and the Poles began to shake and shiver in their boots. Visions of rocks and bullets crazed their minds and they demanded to be taken to Buffalo. So the deputies started with them to walk, as there was not one seat in the entire party of laborers. Peacefully they went their way for a mile and a half up the towpath towards Buffalo. Not a striker was in sight. The way was as deserted as a Western prairie. Thinking the danger line had been passed and nothing was to be feared, the deputies wished the Poles bon voyage and turned back. But they had gone barely 100 rods. When the strikers came down upon them. Across the canal, along the river road, at least 60 strikers were in hot pursuit of the Poles. On they came on horseback, in buggies, spring-wagons, on bicycles and on foot. The Poles had seen their danger and away they went, running for dear life. After them started the deputies on a run. But the Poles had a long lead and were spurred on by fear. For a mile the wild race was on, the Poles on the towpath with the deputies following, the strikers on the river road.
It is only a stone's throw across the canal, and all the time after the strikers came up with the frightened Poles a running fire of stones was kept up. Three pistol shots were fired, but no one was hit. One Pole was hit in the back by a stone and another on the hand.
After a mile of this mad race, the deputies reached a lock and hailed a passing tug. Detectives Willis and Katzel boarded her and steamed after the Poles.
Two more miles the race was run, and finally, the Poles were cornered. A bridge crosses the canal at this point, and over it poured the strikers. The Poles took to the river and crowded on to a raft of logs, where they were at the mercy of their enemies for nearly 15 minutes. A great deal of shouting and cursing was done, but no actual hostilities had broken out when the tug with the deputies on board reached the scene.
For some time a party of 45 Buffalo-club men on the steamer Riverside had been witnesses of the unequal contest. They had been down the river on an excursion and were returning when they saw a motley crew of men plunging along the towpath waving dinner pails and gesticulating frantically. In another minute a cloud of dust appeared and out of it issued men on horseback and on foot in hot pursuit of the first lot. The riders were firing revolvers and the footmen picking up stones and flinging them. It did not take long to see what it all meant. The boat came to a stop just as the Poles took to the raft of logs. The leaders began to wave for the boat to come in, but the water was too shallow and she had to lie off.
But just in the nick of time the tug with the deputies came up. It was plain sailing then. The tug steamed to the raft and took off the Poles, who were transferred to the Riverside, the strikers were left to curse and the party of Buffalo-club men and Poles started for Buffalo, the tug returning to Tonawanda.
Never did a Buffalo-club man or anyone else see such a badly scared lot of Poles as these. Some were trembling like leaves, others offered up prayers of thanks for their deliverance; and it was a deliverance from what might have been death.
At Amherst Street the Poles were landed and, given their street-car fares for their homes in East Buffalo. But before they left they heartily thanked their deliverers.
Thirty-eight Poles had started from Tonawanda, but the count on arrival at Buffalo showed only 33. The last seen of the missing men they were running across the bridge when the strikers had crossed and were making for the open country.
--
**Stoning the Guard.**
Four Union Men Arrested at the Point of the Bayonet and Placed in the Guard-house.
Special to The Buffalo Express.
Camp Haunted, North Tonawanda, June 24.—In the camp there has been excitement, too. Last night four union men spent the night in the guard-house. They were stoning the guard about a barge that was being unloaded, and were arrested at the point of the bayonet. They showed fight, and one had his clothes ripped open by a bayonet. Corporal Morrison had charge of the squad which made the arrest.
---
**No Settlement.**
The Union Yesterday Refused to Sign the Agreement—Lumbermen Are Disgusted.
Special to The Buffalo Express.
North Tonawanda, June 24.—Last night's work undid the settlement between the lumbermen and the union lumber-shovers, which was supposed to be final.
Today a settlement was looked for in vain. The lumbermen signed the proposed contract, but the union refused because last evening after certain advice, said to emanate from Matt Scanlon, they decided to stick to the union.
The contract read as follows:
These are the same men who accepted one proposition so willingly yesterday. It is because of such unreliability that the lumbermen dare not trust the union to control their lumber-handling exclusively.
The lumbermen say that they pay heavy taxes and know how to run their business better than the lumber-shovers and that these union men have forfeited all right to work on the docks. They say they have made it possible for these laboring men to buy homes and raise their families and that this sentiment about their grinding the union men down and asking them to disband their union out of spite is all misrepresentation. They have tried the union thoroughly and found it wanting and its members irresponsible, therefore they cannot afford to give in to them and thus ruin their business.
It is quite probable now that the lumbermen will have no more to do with the union men and will at once engage outside men for the rest of the year.
The citizens' committee, after laboring two days to bring about a settlement, came to the conclusion of the lumbermen, that the union could not be depended upon and gave up the work in disgust. Up to this time they had been in sympathy with the union.
President William L. Cramer of the Lumber-shovers Union was seen at St. Louis Hall tonight. He stated in answer to the question by The Express reporter that the men were willing to abandon the union as a lumber-shovers' organization but they positively refused to abandon the benevolent feature. "We will go to work at once as individuals," said he, "but we will not give up our insurance. The lumbermen have had the rope way out and now they want to pull it away from us entirely."
A. A. Bellinger of the firm of Bellinger & Fassett said tonight: "I do not believe the union men should be asked to give up the benevolent feature of their order. I would be willing to join that part of it tomorrow. They are a lot of good fellows and bright men among the lumber-shovers."
[Transcriptions by AI]
**THE LUMBER WAR**
**UNDER MARTIAL LAW.**
**The State of Affairs in the Tonawandas.**
**SCENES ON THE DOCKS.**
Photographic Evidence of the Military Occupation of the Big Lumber Suburb The Haunted Camp - The Labor Situation.
Buffalo's great lumber suburb of Tonawanda has had a week of military rule. The difficulties between the union and non-union men employed in unloading lumber became so threatening that on the 17th inst. President Stanley of North Tonawanda issued a proclamation warning all persons against assembling for unlawful purposes or disturbing the peace. The Tonawanda and Niagara Falls militia, which had been called out were relieved on Sunday by the 65th Regiment from Buffalo, who have since been on guard. Up to present writing there has been no outbreak, but the presence of the troops is considered necessary to protect the non-union men from assault and intimidation by the union men.
A few pictures in this issue give some idea of the state of affairs early in the week. Some of the yards and docks were idle and deserted. At others, the work of unloading barges was carried on slowly by green hands. Everywhere the blue-coats were on guard. The headquarters of the 65th Regiment was at Smith & Fassett's lumber office on Tonawanda Island, the old White Mansion at the head of the island being turned into barracks for the soldiers. This house is one of the historic landmarks on the Niagara. It was built in 1833 by one Stephen White, at a cost of $15,000. The place was called Beechwater, and commanded a beautiful river view. The woodwork is of solid cherry and black walnut, and the marble mantels were imported from Italy. Mr. White's daughter married Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel Webster, and a grand bridal reception was given them in this house. Daniel Webster and other celebrities were frequent visitors, and N.P. Willis has described the place in his writings. After passing through several hands the property was bought, with the rest of the island, by Smith & Fassett, and has long stood empty among the piles of lumber which cover the once beautiful lawn. In some way the place gained the pleasant reputation of being haunted. That it has not lacked for spirits the past week, one picture bears evidence.
Fifteen years ago, when a few struggling mill owners and lumbermen of Tonawanda applied to the Federal Government for an appropriation of $10,000 towards dredging the harbor, they were put to a good deal of inconvenience, delay and trouble to convince the Washington legislators that there was such a place as Tonawanda on the map. And the New-York Sun reviled the lawmakers, charging them with gross ignorance in possessing so little knowledge of their own country as not to know something of "the second largest lumber city in the world."
For many years Tonawanda struggled against difficulties of all sorts and it was not until the organization of the Lumbermen's Exchange Association in 1873 that any facilities were afforded the lumbermen. The railroads did not care to handle their lumber and the rates were excessive. There were no such cars as the lumber cars of today. One length of 12-foot lumber filled a car and 8,000 feet was a load. To Paterson, N.J., a great market then, as it is yet, the rate was $70 a car. The present rate is about $25 for a carload of 15,000 or 16,000 feet. Dockage was limited to 100 feet in 1873; now there are six miles of the finest docks on the lakes, with a harbor that is unsurpassed.
The Hon. John Simson established a sawmill and planing mill at Tonawanda in 1840 and laid the foundation of the Lumber City. Progress was slow, however, and it was only with the revival of business after the War that the town became a lumber center of importance. Statistics prior to the organization of the Lumber Exchange cannot be obtained. Since 1873, however, the growth of the lumber trade at this point has been enormous.
that year the receipts by lake transportation were 104,000,000 feet. These figures steadily increased until 1880 when the lake receipts reached a total of 718,650,000. The railroads also brought in over 35,000,000 feet, making a grand total of 753,672,000 feet of lumber brought into the Lumber City in one season. During the same year Tonawanda lumbermen imported 52,232,300 shingles and the local mills manufactured 100,000,000 more, one mill turning out 62,000,000. The lake receipts included, also, 13,000,000 pieces of lath. The number of vessels reporting was 909.
Since 1880, the receipts have fallen off very considerably, and various reasons are alleged by different men as the cause. Some attribute it to a general depression in the trade. the country. Others declare, without any hesitation, that the lumbershovers' strikes have unsettled the lumber business of the city and that the present retrogression will continue until the difficulty is settled upon a basis
(Continued on page 8.)
--
[Page 13:]
**More Fights.**
**Tonawanda Lumber-Shovers Out for Blood.**
A Party of Buffalo-club Men Figure as Rescuers of One Attacked Gang.
**Ran for Their Lives.**
One Crowd of Union Men Stoned a Party of Soldiers and Were Arrested at the Point of the Bayonet—A Member of an Attacked Party Who Fired a Revolver Arrested and Sentenced to the Erie-county Penitentiary—The Union Repudiates the Agreement to Settle.
The Tonawandas may yet be in a greater state of siege than they have experienced so far. As reported in The Express yesterday, a settlement had been reached, through the mediation of a citizens' committee, and it was supposed the lumber-handling troubles, which have existed all the season, would be at an end and that the men would go to work tomorrow. Yesterday, however, the Lumber-shovers' Union repudiated the agreement, and now the situation threatens to become worse than ever. The lumber-dealers are not likely to listen to any further arguments in behalf of their locked-out employees, who by reason of the desperation of the latter will carry them only the future can tell. If yesterday's events are any indication, very severe measures will be necessary before the lumber business can be safely carried on in the Tonawandas. The talk of removing the yards to Buffalo is again revived. If this should be done, it would be a blow from which the twin villages would not speedily recover. The lumbermen say they will at once secure the necessary forces from Buffalo and Pittsburg to handle their lumber this season and will let the Tonawanda union men sit out in the sun. With the permanent introduction of a large foreign laboring element in the Tonawandas the material for frequent and serious rows between employed and unemployed will be right at hand. Three quite serious fights occurred yesterday, in all of which union men were aggressors. In one of them a party of Buffalo-club men figured as rescuers.
All talk of withdrawing the troops already on the scene is abandoned, to the disappointment of the soldiers, who were joyfully anticipating a speedy return to their homes. Sheriff Beck has come to the conclusion that everything is not as quiet and peaceful at the Tonawandas as he had supposed, and he may see the justice of the demand of the lumber-dealers of Tonawanda that they be given the same adequate protection that the dealers of North Tonawanda have been given by the Sheriff of Niagara County, who, a week ago called for military aid. When informed last night of the afternoon's fights and the indications for more trouble, he expressed the intention of swearing in a lot of deputy sheriffs. If he can get men he can rely upon, he will be content with their aid; if not, he may call out the militia. There are now four barges untouched and a half dozen partly unloaded. Six more are expected to arrive tomorrow.
--
**Starting the Fight.**
Union Men Were the Aggressors—Four of Them Arrested—One of the Assailed Also Fined.
Special to The Buffalo Express.
North Tonawanda, June 24.—This afternoon, about 5 o'clock, a canal-boat gang, having finished loading a boat, were returning home down North Canal Street. They were set upon by the following union men: Ben Robbins, Ike Chamberlin, Ed. Summers and Billy Goodwin, who grabbed Meader Beardback about the neck and exclaimed: "You're the man we want!" They threw him down and began pounding and kicking him. Beardback is the non-union man who punished union man named Bye last season so severely.
Daniel Miller of Adam Street, with his son John, was working in this gang. He used his dinner-pail as a weapon and tried to help Beardback, but was set upon by the union men, who knocked him down and kicked him in the face several times. He called to his son, who had a revolver, but the young man, instead of giving it to his father, fired one shot and then rushed down the street toward Scrifner's yard, where he found Deputy-Sheriff Peters, who came to the relief of the assaulted men. The four attackers were arrested at once and taken before Justice Rogers, who sentenced Ben Robbins to 90 days in the Erie-county Penitentiary and fined Chamberlin, Summers and Goodwin $20 each.
The union men began the row by yelling at them and throwing stones, and told Miller if he went to work again they would kill him and burn his house. Robbins told young Miller to "fire away;" he wasn't afraid.
Soon after, another fight occurred. This time on the south side of the canal and near the union headquarters. James Halliway, a union moulder from Buffalo, was standing near the entrance to St. Louis Hall and somehow enraged a union man, who at once assaulted him, aided by several others. They kicked him in the face after he was down, and he then got away.
Union men had young Miller arrested for firing the revolver while union men were assaulting his father. He was taken before Justice W. J. Rogers at 9.30 o'clock this evening and fined $30 and sentenced to 60 days imprisonment in the Erie-county Penitentiary. The charge against him was carrying concealed weapons.
--
**Racing for Life.**
Sixty Strikers Pursue 28 Poles Up the Canal—Rescued by a Buffalo-Club Excursion.
Special to Buffalo Express.
Tonawanda, June 24.—Strikers tonight, maddened by the summary punishment meted out to their men in the afternoon, boldly attacked a body of Poles who had been unloading lumber, wounded two with stones and went so far as to fire revolvers, but without hitting anyone. Deputy sheriffs were at the scene of the attack, but were powerless against the infuriated men. Law and order were openly and boldly defied.
A body of 28 Poles had been taken down from Buffalo in the morning by Fassett & Bellinger. All day they worked on the river unloading boats. At 6 o'clock a tug was to take them back to the mainland and they were promised protection to the station, where they expected to catch the 6.20 train back to Buffalo. Six o'clock came, the boats they were at work on was unloaded, but no tug appeared. Deputy-Sheriffs James Willis, William Katzel, William Egenbrod and Samuel Hoffman were with the Poles and telephoned for the tug. Time went on, darkness fell and the Poles began to shake and shiver in their boots. Visions of rocks and bullets crazed their minds and they demanded to be taken to Buffalo. So the deputies started with them to walk, as there was not one seat in the entire party of laborers. Peacefully they went their way for a mile and a half up the towpath towards Buffalo. Not a striker was in sight. The way was as deserted as a Western prairie. Thinking the danger line had been passed and nothing was to be feared, the deputies wished the Poles bon voyage and turned back. But they had gone barely 100 rods. When the strikers came down upon them. Across the canal, along the river road, at least 60 strikers were in hot pursuit of the Poles. On they came on horseback, in buggies, spring-wagons, on bicycles and on foot. The Poles had seen their danger and away they went, running for dear life. After them started the deputies on a run. But the Poles had a long lead and were spurred on by fear. For a mile the wild race was on, the Poles on the towpath with the deputies following, the strikers on the river road.
It is only a stone's throw across the canal, and all the time after the strikers came up with the frightened Poles a running fire of stones was kept up. Three pistol shots were fired, but no one was hit. One Pole was hit in the back by a stone and another on the hand.
After a mile of this mad race, the deputies reached a lock and hailed a passing tug. Detectives Willis and Katzel boarded her and steamed after the Poles.
Two more miles the race was run, and finally, the Poles were cornered. A bridge crosses the canal at this point, and over it poured the strikers. The Poles took to the river and crowded on to a raft of logs, where they were at the mercy of their enemies for nearly 15 minutes. A great deal of shouting and cursing was done, but no actual hostilities had broken out when the tug with the deputies on board reached the scene.
For some time a party of 45 Buffalo-club men on the steamer Riverside had been witnesses of the unequal contest. They had been down the river on an excursion and were returning when they saw a motley crew of men plunging along the towpath waving dinner pails and gesticulating frantically. In another minute a cloud of dust appeared and out of it issued men on horseback and on foot in hot pursuit of the first lot. The riders were firing revolvers and the footmen picking up stones and flinging them. It did not take long to see what it all meant. The boat came to a stop just as the Poles took to the raft of logs. The leaders began to wave for the boat to come in, but the water was too shallow and she had to lie off.
But just in the nick of time the tug with the deputies came up. It was plain sailing then. The tug steamed to the raft and took off the Poles, who were transferred to the Riverside, the strikers were left to curse and the party of Buffalo-club men and Poles started for Buffalo, the tug returning to Tonawanda.
Never did a Buffalo-club man or anyone else see such a badly scared lot of Poles as these. Some were trembling like leaves, others offered up prayers of thanks for their deliverance; and it was a deliverance from what might have been death.
At Amherst Street the Poles were landed and, given their street-car fares for their homes in East Buffalo. But before they left they heartily thanked their deliverers.
Thirty-eight Poles had started from Tonawanda, but the count on arrival at Buffalo showed only 33. The last seen of the missing men they were running across the bridge when the strikers had crossed and were making for the open country.
--
**Stoning the Guard.**
Four Union Men Arrested at the Point of the Bayonet and Placed in the Guard-house.
Special to The Buffalo Express.
Camp Haunted, North Tonawanda, June 24.—In the camp there has been excitement, too. Last night four union men spent the night in the guard-house. They were stoning the guard about a barge that was being unloaded, and were arrested at the point of the bayonet. They showed fight, and one had his clothes ripped open by a bayonet. Corporal Morrison had charge of the squad which made the arrest.
---
**No Settlement.**
The Union Yesterday Refused to Sign the Agreement—Lumbermen Are Disgusted.
Special to The Buffalo Express.
North Tonawanda, June 24.—Last night's work undid the settlement between the lumbermen and the union lumber-shovers, which was supposed to be final.
Today a settlement was looked for in vain. The lumbermen signed the proposed contract, but the union refused because last evening after certain advice, said to emanate from Matt Scanlon, they decided to stick to the union.
The contract read as follows:
This agreement, made this 24th day of June, 1883, between the citizens and a committee of men representing the members of the Lumber-shovers' Protective Union of the one part and the Tonawanda Lumbermen's Association of the other part, witnesseth as follows: That in consideration of a proposition made by John W. Robinson (this was given in yesterday's Express), the members of the Tonawanda Lumber-shovers' Protective Union hereby agree to disband immediately their organization and to accept the proposition of the said John W. Robinson, and they will faithfully perform the work that he may have for them; they also agree to form themselves into 12 gangs of 30 men each, and from the 30 men in each gang the said John W. Robinson shall select a foreman for each gang.This was signed by the lumbermen, but the union men, who held off all day, announced at 4 p.m. that they had changed their minds. They then held another excited special meeting, closing about 5 o'clock, at which time it was decided they had voted "No." They said they would stick to the union if they never got work.
It is further agreed that the members of each gang shall sign a contract as individuals with John W. Robinson, and it is further agreed that the foreman of each gang shall furnish a satisfactory bond to the said John W. Robinson in the sum of $500.
It is further agreed that the contract shall be signed by the executive committee and the officers and board of directors of the Lumber-shovers' Protective Union of the one part and by the president and secretary of the Tonawanda Lumbermen's Association of the other part. The contract to be binding as soon as all the above conditions are complied with.
These are the same men who accepted one proposition so willingly yesterday. It is because of such unreliability that the lumbermen dare not trust the union to control their lumber-handling exclusively.
The lumbermen say that they pay heavy taxes and know how to run their business better than the lumber-shovers and that these union men have forfeited all right to work on the docks. They say they have made it possible for these laboring men to buy homes and raise their families and that this sentiment about their grinding the union men down and asking them to disband their union out of spite is all misrepresentation. They have tried the union thoroughly and found it wanting and its members irresponsible, therefore they cannot afford to give in to them and thus ruin their business.
It is quite probable now that the lumbermen will have no more to do with the union men and will at once engage outside men for the rest of the year.
The citizens' committee, after laboring two days to bring about a settlement, came to the conclusion of the lumbermen, that the union could not be depended upon and gave up the work in disgust. Up to this time they had been in sympathy with the union.
President William L. Cramer of the Lumber-shovers Union was seen at St. Louis Hall tonight. He stated in answer to the question by The Express reporter that the men were willing to abandon the union as a lumber-shovers' organization but they positively refused to abandon the benevolent feature. "We will go to work at once as individuals," said he, "but we will not give up our insurance. The lumbermen have had the rope way out and now they want to pull it away from us entirely."
A. A. Bellinger of the firm of Bellinger & Fassett said tonight: "I do not believe the union men should be asked to give up the benevolent feature of their order. I would be willing to join that part of it tomorrow. They are a lot of good fellows and bright men among the lumber-shovers."
Date
1893-06-25
Collection
Citation
“Under martial law - The state of affairs in the Tonawandas, article with photos, transcription (Buffalo Morning Express, 1893-06-25),” North Tonawanda History, accessed December 4, 2024, https://nthistory.com/items/show/3999.