In 1890, Clark Bryan wrote the “A New Book of Berkshire.” In it he describes the daily railroad trips from New York to Stockbridge to Pittsfield. He enthuses about the luxurious appointments of the Pullman cars that rolled through Berkshire County. The advertisement read, “Pullman… luxury for the middle class.”
For 101 years, from 1867 to 1968, the Pullman car, built by engineer and industrialist George M. Pullman, was the epitome of luxury. The Pullman sleeper or “palace car” was first built in 1864 when Pullman was 33 years old. One year later, Pullman became a household word.
When President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Pullman arranged to have Lincoln’s body carried from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill., in a Pullman sleeper car. The trip and the railroad car became front page news. As hundreds of thousands of people lined the route in homage to the fallen president, pictures of the Pullman car were everywhere from coast to coast.
Orders for the luxurious new Pullman car poured in. Even sleeping cars, which cost five times more than a regular railway car, sold successfully.
In 1880, wages were not commensurate with rising costs. Pullman built a company town for his workers.
According to the National Parks Service:
He purchased 4,000 acres, near Lake Calumet 14 miles south of Chicago, on the Illinois Central Railroad for $800,000. He hired Solon Spencer Beman to design his new plant there. Trying to solve the issue of labor unrest and poverty, he built a company town adjacent to his factory; it featured housing, shopping areas, churches, theaters, parks, hotel and library for his factory employees. The 1,300 original structures were designed by Beman. The centerpiece of the complex was the Administration Building and a man-made lake. The Hotel Florence, named for Pullman’s daughter, was built nearby.
Pullman hoped the “perk” of having a company town would quiet agitators and be a leading attraction for visitors. He was correct, until 1894. In 1894, when demand for his cars fell off, Pullman tried to meet the challenge and stay afloat. He cut jobs and wages but did not lower rents or prices at the company store. He increased the hours for the workers. The result was longer hours for less purchasing power. In 1894, the workers went on strike.
The strike and boycott shut down much of the nation’s freight and passenger train traffic west of Detroit. Enter Eugene Victor Debs. Under the leadership of Debs, sympathetic railroad workers across the nation tied up rail traffic to the Pacific. Strikers and Debs gave Pullman five days to respond to the union demands, but Pullman refused to negotiate.
On June 26, all Pullman cars were cut from trains. When union members were fired, entire rail lines were shut down and Chicago was besieged. Federal mail was blockaded. Violence broke out between rioters and federal troops who were sent to protect the mail.
When violence broke out, Pullman appealed to President Grover Cleveland. Cleveland granted the use of U.S. troops on American soil and against citizens. By the end of the July, 34 people had been killed, the strikers were dispersed, the troops were gone, and the courts had sided with the railway owners. Debs was in jail for contempt of court.
Pullman’s reputation was soiled by the strike. In 1894, in an effort to conciliate organized labor after the strike, President Grover Cleveland and Congress designated Labor Day as a federal holiday. Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress six days after the strike ended.
In 1897, George Pullman died of a heart attack at the age of 66, only three years after the strike. In his will, Pullman bequeathed $1.2 million to establish the Pullman Free School of Manual Training for the children of employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company and the residents of the neighboring Roseland community. The model planned community became a leading attraction for visitors who attended the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and an idea that spread throughout the country.
Those were not his only legacies. During its heyday, the Pullman Company hired Black men to staff the Pullman cars. They became known as the Pullman porters—widely respected for providing exceptional service.
In 1867, Pullman introduced his first “hotel on wheels,” the president, a sleeper car with an attached kitchen and dining car. The food rivaled the best restaurants of the day, and the service was impeccable. The company hired freed Black men as Pullman porters.
Philip Randolph, a Pullman porter, read W.E.B. Du Bois’ “Souls of Black Folk.” Convinced that he should dedicate himself to social equality, he wrote a letter to W.E.B. Du Bois. Influenced by his father, a minister who wrote that a man should be judged by his character and conduct not the color of his skin, Randolph fought for better wages and working conditions.
By 1925, Pullman porters formed the Brotherhood of Sleeper Car Porters, the first recognized Black labor union with the American Federation of Labor under the leadership of Randolph.
