Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 1 (1961).pdf/67

 52 rived in Hempstead and found Snediker and Pusey and a constable with a few hired men asleep in their car. Mettler, the lone engineer, was on his engine, readying it. Very quietly Litchfield and Goetchius, with some employees loyal to them, detached the engine and proceeded with it some distance down the tracks so that it could not be secured. The noise awakened Snediker and Pusey, who rushed out and threw sticks and stumps on the track to stop the engine but in vain. Pusey ordered Mettler to return and attach his engine to the coach but instead of doing so, he ran up and down the tracks several times and refused to heed Pusey's orders.

Litchfield then advised Mettler to back into the station to pick up the passengers for the first trip out; the usual number were waiting and wondering what was going on. As the engine approached the platform, Pusey suddenly produced a pistol and fired two shots, one of which dented the dome in front of the engineer. Pusey was excited and claimed that he was aiming at the engine and not the crew. The passengers were upset by the unexpected gunplay and the cry arose to lynch Pusey. Calmer heads cooled the fight and the dispute was settled by the passengers who brought the train to Valley Stream themselves.

Pusey stayed behind and returned on a later train to New York but a warrant was issued for his arrest and a constable took the next train in pursuit. Things had reached such a point of confusion that a conference was arranged of all interested parties. The trust company was taken to task for appointing a receiver without court approval; when Snediker realized his false position, he turned over moneys and tickets in his possession to Goetchius, the treasurer. This ended the "war" and trains again ran peacefully and regularly.

In February 1872 Electus B. Litchfield resigned the strenuous presidency of the road and was succeeded by Henry M. Onderdonk, editor of the Hempstead Inquirer. Onderdonk was succeeded in turn by Abraham Wakeman in September 1872.

In the spring of 1872 the contractor for the west end of the road, Mr. Louis Broad, died, and for some months thereafter work was suspended. On August 15, 1872 work was again resumed on the Bay Ridge end, and on the eastern extremity of the road surveyors Cornelius and Seaman completed the line of