Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

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SFRINGFIELJJ, 1636-1SS6. 487
ing came Sheriff Kice from Springfield, with a Catholic priest, who guaranteed
that there should he no trouble that day or the next night. Wednesday, briglit
and early, Sheriff Rice returned with a posse and made three arrests. In the
afternoon Sheriff Wright took another man at the depot. Thursday morning the
six men were examined before Justices Briilgman and Hooker at Springfield,
and Thomas Long, Michael Brown, and James Connolly discharged, while James
Faherty, Thomas Fitzgerald, and Jeremiah Bresson were held in $60 each to
appear before the grand jur}-. After peace liad been thus established the
Springfield papers came near reawakening the sounds of strife on the banks of
the Connecticiit by innuendoes and sly allusions to a military company which
went 9 or 10 miles at midnight to quell a riot without taking any flints for its
guns.
Meantime the process of railroad consolidatiou liad gone on, and
by 1855 the Legislature passed an act authorizing tlie Western, the
Albany, the Hudson, and the Boston companies to unite, under the
corporate name of the Boston & Albany railroad, and business was
such that each year large sections of the road was being double-
tracked. The controversy attending the freight apportionment between
the Western and the Worcester roads does not properly concern us
here, but this angry contest delayed the consolidation for nearly
ten years.
In April, 1852, Kossuth visited Springfield, coming directh' from
New York. There were quite five thousand people present at the
depot to welcome him, and the constables had much trouble in clear-
ing a way for his passage to the Massasoit Hotel, at the balcony of
which the distinguished Hungarian presently appeared and made a
short speech. On the day following a public reception was held in
Dr. Osgood's church. His name thus ai)pears in the registry-book
at the Massasoit, — " L. Kossuth and Lady," and under the coluimi
of residence he wrote " Nowhere" ;
suite — "P. Hajnik, Homeless ;
Therese Pulszky, Homeless ;
AV. T. Coggeshall, Homeless."
then followed the names of his
Capt. George Grecheuek, Homeless ;
Francis Pulszky and servant. Homeless ;
George Merriam and two members of his family gave Kossuth