Trouble was not long in following. The engineers objected to the new order of things, particularly to Rule 6 of the McCallum code, which declared that every engineer would be held responsible for running off a switch at a station where he stopped, whether he should run off before or after receiving a signal to go forward from a switchman or any other person. The engineer, under this rule, was expected to see for himself whether the switch was right or not, and take no person's authority for the same at stations where trains stopped. The engineer, however, had a right to run past stations where he did not stop at a rate he was willing to hazard on his own

a capable railroad man, his withdrawal in favor of the strict disciplinarian, McCallum, was agreeable to that element in the Board in more ways than one--but it was costly to the Erie. Minot went from the Erie to the Michigan Southern Railroad, as general manager, a place he held until December, 1859. Then he was recalled to the general superintendency of the Erie. He remained at the head of the operative department until December 31, 1864, when he was succeeded by Hugh Riddle. For a time Mr. Minot held an office with the Company known as consulting engineer, but he retired from that and returned to his native place, where he died.

D. C. McCallum took charge as general superintendent May 1, 1854, and his new rules were at once put in force.

H. RIDDLE,

CHAS. MINOT,
Gen. Supt. Supt. Del. Div.

H. HOBBS,

H. G. BROOKS,

Supt. East. Div.

Supt. West. Div.

account, the Company reserving the right to decide whether such running was reckless or not. "The road must be run safe first and fast afterward," the management declared.

The engineers also protested against the alleged "posting rule" of the Company, under which notices of dismissal of engineers was at once posted with other railroad companies to the injury of the men.

An abrogation of the distasteful rules was requested, June 15th, by a committee, consisting of John Donohue, William Schrier, and John C. Meginnes. Superintendent McCallum's explanation and reply not being satisfactory, the engineers struck on June 17th-the first strike in the history of the railroad. The Company gave notice to all the men that all who returned to work within three days after June 20th would

SUSQUEHANNA DEPOT, June 26th. D. C. McCallum, Esq., General Superintendent N. Y. & E.R. R.: At a meeting of the engineers of the New York and Erie Railroad, held at the United States Hotel, to hear the report of the committee, upon hearing which report and reading the letter of D. C. McCallum, it was unanimously

Resolved, That the letter of D. C. McCallum, Esq., to this committee, as read before our committee this day, in addition to the verbal statement of Mr. McCallum to the committee, we decide satisfactory.

Resolved, That we present to our committee our warmest thanks for the constant manner in which they have performed all the arduous duties imposed upon them.

Resolved, That we make every effort to resume our work. Resolved, That the committee immediately inform Mr. McCallum of our action at this meeting.

It was an easy matter to return to work, and thus the first strike on the Erie was settled after ten days' paralysis of the business of the railroad, and a loss of many thousands of dollars to the Company.

The engineer over whose case the strike resulted was Benjamin Hafner of the Eastern Division. On the evening of June 10th he ran off a switch at Turner's. He was dismissed. After he was dismissed Hafner was sent for by Superintendent McCallum to talk about the incident. Hafner refused to go unless he was reinstated first. reinstate him without a consultation. up by all the leading engineers on the divisions, with the above result.

McCallum declined to The matter was taken Delaware and Eastern

Some of the engineers did not join in the strike, among them Joe Meginnes. W. H. Power was then superintendent of the Delaware Division (division agent, it was then called), and he himself acted as engineer in efforts to run a train over that division, and succeeded in doing so in spite of the strikers, who assembled in crowds at the Port Jervis station, and had compelled every engineer who attempted to go out to dismount from his engine, except Joe Meginnes, who stuck to his engine through it all. He was opposed to strikes on principle.

1856.

Notwithstanding the assurances Superintendent McCallum. had given the engineers in settling the strike in 1854, they professed to see strong evidences that he was not keeping faith with them. During a little more than two years following the strike twenty-nine engineers had been discharged for running off switches, which convinced the engineers that Rule No. 6 was being enforced in a way that violated the understanding of 1854. At last, one day about the middle of September, 1856, Samuel Tyler, an engineer on the Western Division, while in the Hornellsville yard with his engine, was given the "all right" signal by a switchman, and moving his locomotive in answer to this signal, found the switch wrong and backed off of it. Samuel Jillson, superintendent of the Western Division, chanced to be there, saw the mishap, and discharged Tyler on the spot. This brought the feeling of dissatisfaction among the engineers to a climax. A meeting at which delegates from each division were present was held at Hornellsville September 19th, to discuss the situation. The result of the meeting was the drafting of a bill of grievances, and the appointment of a committee to go to New York and lay it before the Board of Directors. The members of this committee were William Schrier, John C. Meginnes, John Hall, E. F. Whalen, H. G. Brooks, Henry Belden, Joseph York, I. C. York, Edward Tinney, and J. F. Olmstead.

They went to New York September 24th, and met six of the Directors, who asked for a week's postponement. The committee went the second time, October 1st, and were received by other Directors. Besides the obnoxious Rule 6 of the McCallum code, the engineers had a grievance in the fact that their pay while their engines were in shop undergoing repairs had been stopped under the McCallum superintendency, although they were ready for duty, and they asked that it be restored. They also asked that engineers from other railroads travelling over the Erie be allowed the same privilege as was allowed conductors of other railroads, which was free transportation when satisfactory credentials. were shown to the train conductors. The engineers likewise took up the cause of their firemen, and asked that their pay be advanced to $1.50 a day.

The document setting forth the grievances of the engineers was discussed at a meeting of the Board of Directors, and referred to a committee consisting of Richard Lathers,

Don Alonze Cushman, William E. Dodge, Cormelius Smith, and E. J. Brown.

October 3d they made a voluminous report to the Board, disapproving of the petition of the engineers, and refusing their requests, "the most emphatic of which," said the report, “ seems to be the abrogation of Rule 6, supplementary to general instructions of March 6, 1854, said demand being made by the persons upon whom it is intended to operate, which is as follows: Every engineer will be held accountable for running off at a switch at any station where his train stops, but will not be held responsible for running off at a switch at a station where his train does not stop.'"

In giving their reasons to the Board why no concessions should be made to the men, and in defending the rule complained of, the committee said that under the rule "the engineers were instructed that switchmen were placed at stopping stations for their convenience only, and were not to be relied upon for the safety of the train, and that engineers would be expected, in all cases, to see that the switches were right before they passed over them, and were also especially enjoined to take all the time necessary to run safe; in other words, to run safe first, and fast afterwards ;' that they should always run into stopping places under the assumption that every switch was out of place, and a train standing on the main track. . In view of this state of things

we beg leave to advise that you instruct our general superintendent to immediately discharge from the company's service the ten engineers representing themselves as a committee in this act of insubordination, and to fill their places with men who are willing to obey rules, and leave to the proper authority the duty of making them; and also to cause to be discharged all employees who refuse to serve the Company under and in complete obedience to the rules as they are, filling their places in like manner."

The report of the committee and the following were made public on the same day :

NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD, OFFICE OF GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT, October 4, 1856.

WANTED-One hundred and fifty LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS, immediately. Applications to be made to the several Division Superintendents, or at this Office.

D. C. MCCALLUM,
General Superintendent.

The grievance committee being promptly discharged, they telegraphed the fact to the different divisions, and most of the engineers along the line quit work. The striking engineers published a reply to the report of the committee of Directors. The following extract from it throws much interesting light on the methods of railroading on the Erie fortyfive years ago:

First, of rule sixth, they say this is a rule of safety, etc. Now let us say, as engineers, that this rule has not made the least particle of difference in our speed in approaching a station. We have shut off our steam at the same points, and, so far as we know, the brakemen

have applied their brakes just the same as before this rule went into effect. We ask you to look into this matter carefully, and see if this rule faithfully executed would not involve the Company in some hardship, if it did not the engineers. We will take some stations where there are from six to ten switches. It is night, and in the winter. The switch lights have gone out and we cannot see the targets. The first switch is a mile or three-fourths of a mile from the station. We stop still at that switch and get off our engines if we cannot see the rail (which, of course, we cannot, if there is from six inches to a foot of snow on it), and feel to see if the rails are right. After satisfying ourselves of that fact, we jump on to our engines again and jog along to the next switch, and go through with the same performance, and so on till we get within the limits of the station.

Will some practical man inform us whether we are allowed the time that this fol de rol would take up on the time-tables issued by the superintendent ? And further, if this were done, or if we were to run slow enough over all switches at all stations between Jersey City and Dunkirk to stop our trains from running off the track, providing those switches were wrong, what kind of connections should we make with the Western trains at Dunkirk? We mean, of course, all stations where our trains stop. For it would be preposterous to suppose that passengers should get injured if our trains should run off at the rate of fifty miles an hour, at stations where our trains do not stop. Therefore, there being no danger of getting hurt at fifty miles an hour, we are not held responsible. There is no road in this country where this rule coul' be lived up to in the light Mr. McCallum holds us responsible, without ruining the business of the Company. Now we ask a fair and impartial answer to this question. Do the public really think that passengers would be likely to be injured any less by running off the track forty or fifty miles an hour at stations where our trains do not stop, than they would by running off five to twenty miles an hour at stations where our trains do stop?

This reply was signed by twenty-five of the leading engineers of the Western Division, eight from the Buffalo Divi sion, and twenty-five from the Susquehanna Division. So few of the men remained at work that traffic on the railroad came to a standstill, contrary to the expectation of the Erie management. On the 6th of October, Superintendent McCallum advertised that the Company would pay a bonus of $25 to every engineer who would resume work, and to engineers who would come new on the railroad. Very few responses were received to this offer. The result was that soon the engines were in charge of all sorts of artisans-stationary engineers, firemen apprentices, and any who had the least smattering of knowledge of a locomotive. Some competent men came from other railroads to take the places of the strikers, but not many. The striking engineers and their friends harassed the Company in many ways. There was developed a number of water supplies that were so impregnated with grease, soap, sal soda, or other substances so entirely at variance with the heated surface of the fire-box and flues as to be incapable of being kept in contact therewith, and being repelled therefrom, took the form of ether; in short, the boiler "foamed," and if the engine was in charge of an inexperienced man, the crown-sheet and flues would be ruined, while if the attempt, at that period of affairs, to inject water into it was successful, it was an almost certain thing that the boiler would be blown into fragments. Another peculiarity, not noticed before, was developed: a tendency on the part of bolts and nuts to work loose where

they were most needed to be tight and snug on the locomotives. This failing particularly affected the set-screws of the eccentrics, so that an engine would rarely travel over one or two miles before being incapacitated. Almost every locomotive with which the Company attempted to run trains, for a long time, the strikers managed to disable in some such way, in spite of the watchfulness of those who were put in charge of the Company's interest, until "able-bodied" engines were the exception. The cost to the Erie in this damage to property was enormous.

After a time, the Company persisting in its strike, although its railroad was nearly paralyzed at a critical time otherwise in the Company's affairs, many of the old and best engineers went to other railroads throughout the country, where they gave the Erie a name that cost it thousands of dollars in loss of patronage. One of the prime movers in the strike was Horatio G. Brooks. He went to the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad as master mechanic, and when Charles Minot returned to the Erie as superintendent in 1859, Brooks came back also, and became later superintendent of the Western Division, and subsequently master mechanic of the entire road.

Most of the other old engineers returned when Minot was reappointed. It may be said that the strike never was settled, but after six months of almost constant disturbance and interruption to traffic, Superintendent McCallum resigned. The loss to the Company in actual outlay because of this strike was nearly half a million dollars. The damage to the Company by loss in traffic was incalculable, and was one of the main causes of its bankruptcy in 1859, it never having recovered from the direct and collateral consequences of the unfortunate conflict.

Daniel Craig McCallum was born at Renfrewshire, Scotland, in 1814. His father, Peter McCallum, who was a tailor, emigrated to this country in 1822, and settled in Rochester, N. Y. Not liking his father's trade, he left home with his entire wardrobe tied up in a handkerchief. He walked his way to Lundy's Lane, where he apprenticed himself to learn the trade of carpenter. He became a skilful architect, designing St. Joseph's Church, Odd Fellows Hall, the Mansion House Block, the Waverly Hotel, the House of Refuge, and other prominent buildings in Rochester. He developed a strong taste for mechanical engineering, and made rapid strides in his profession. He invented an inflexible arch truss for bridges, the use of which on various railroads brought him later an income of $75,000 a year.

He entered the employ of the New York and Erie Railroad Company in 1848, and was appointed superintendent of the Susquehanna Division in October, 1852. As stated above, he was made general superintendent in May, 1854. February 25, 1857, he tendered his resignation, because “a respectable number" of the Directors differed with him in regard to "the discipline that had been pursued in the superintendence of the operations of the road." The resignation was accepted, but the Board of Directors gave him a letter of regret at parting with him, and President Ramsdell addressed

him a long personal letter, assuring him, in substance, that he was not one of the number in the management that did not approve of his discipline.

Ex-Superintendent McCallum devoted himself to his private business until 1862, when, February 1st of that year, he was appointed by Secretary Stanton military director and superintendent of the military railroads of the United States, with authority to take possession of all railroads and rolling stock that might be required for the transportation of troops, arms, military supplies, etc. He ranked as a colonel. He found only one railroad in possession of the Government— the one running from Washington to Alexandria. He speedily changed the state of affairs. His work in establishing the network of railroads that forwarded so materially the efforts of McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and Grant, respectively, in the Peninsular campaign, at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and other fields, belongs to the history of the Civil War, where it is amply recorded. During his memorable work of hurrying troops forward to the rescue of Grant when he was cornered at Chancellorsville, he placed Gen. Carl Schurz under arrest for officious meddling with his plans. McCallum saved Grant at Chancellorsville, and was made a Brigadier-General by Stanton as a reward for his services on that occasion. General McCallum built 2,105 miles of new railroad and twenty-six bridges, and rebuilt 640 miles of old railroad, to meet the necessities of the Union army during the war, besides confiscating and opening to the service of the Northern generals the great network of old railroads without which our armies would have been powerless against the enemy. He expended $42,000,ooo of the Government money in his work, and accounted for every cent of it.

After the war, in 1865, he retired to private life, making his home at Glen Mary, at Owego, a place made famous by Nathaniel P. Willis, who lived there at one time, and where he built an elegant residence.

General McCallum was a poet of no mean order, one of his poems being "The Water Mill," known everywhere as a perennially popular one, the rendering of the refrain of which, "The mill will never grind again with the water that is past," has brought fame and dollars to many an elocutionist. When the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad was building he became consulting engineer. He subsequently removed to Brooklyn, where he died, December 27, 1878. The introduction of iron bridges had relegated his wooden truss bridge to practical uselessness in railroad construction, and his income from that source had been reduced to a small amount

during the later years of his life, and he left but a modest fortune to his family, which consisted of four sons and two daughters.

1857.

Tuesday, December 1, 1857, by order of President Charles Moran, a reduction of wages and salaries of employees went into effect, owing to the hard times and the critical condition of the Company's affairs.