Q. When was the Trainmen's Union organized?
A. On Saturday evening, June 2, 1877.
Q. Were you a member of the body?
A. I was the first man that ever took an oath in it.
Q. What was the purpose—what were the objects of that Union?
A. The purpose and object of the Trainmen's Union was to get the trainmen—composing engineers, conductors, brakemen, and firemen, on the three grand trunk lines of the country—into one solid body. We knew that a reduction over the three grand trunk lines was going to take place, and we thought if we could combine into one body all the men, at a certain hour on a certain day, if the railroad magnates did not accede to our demands we would strike, and leave the trains standing just where they were, and go home. That was the object of the Trainmen's Union.
Q. Do you know how far and wide it extended?
A. Yes.
Q. Please state?
A. It extended over the Baltimore and Ohio, the road from Pittsburg to Baltimore, the Fort Wayne road from Pittsburg to Chicago, and I think the last division was organized at Valparaiso, or Fort Wayne. It was on the Northern Central and its leased lines, and all the leased lines of the Pennsylvania company were in it.