Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1889 — DEFENDED BY THE ORDER. [ARTICLE]

DEFENDED BY THE ORDER.

The K. of L. Charged With Upholding the Wyandotte Train Wreckers. It will- be recollected that during the great strike on the Missouri Pacific rail* road system in 1886 a freight train was wrecked near Wyandotte, Kansas, and two of its crew killed, and that a number of K. of L. strikers were arrested, charged with the act. One of the arrested men, George Hamilton, was tried and acquitted, and the other cases were nolle pressed. Subsequently Mike Leary and Robert Geers, two of the arrested knights,brought suit against the Missouri Pacific company for damage for malicious prosecution and : Friday depositions were taken in St. Louis !in this case by B. P. Waggoner, of Atchi" son, Kas.,attorney for the Missouri Pacific. These depositions are given by knights said to be more or less dissatisfied with the order, and it is alleged that they show that the order took the Wyandotte train wreckers directly under its protection, and spent some $30,000 of its general fund in their defense; also, that in a spirit of revenge over the failure ot the strike> the Missouri car works at St. Charles,Mo., and the Vandalia freight depot in East St. Louis wore destroyed by fire, and that a plan was devised to blow up the St. Louis bridge by floating a dynamite laden barge against it, but this was not carried out. The names of the actors in these events were given, and it was stated that men much higher in the ranks of the knights knew much about these things. In view of these statements, it is said that Master I Workman Powderly and Secretary Hayes, i when they arrive in St. Louis next week,' will be put through the affidavit mill, and that other members of the executive board will be compelled to tell what they know.