Pullman Palace Car Company

views updated

PULLMAN PALACE CAR COMPANY

One of the last industrialists to operate a company town, George Mortimer Pullman (1831–1897) entered adulthood fueled by ideas and ambition. Pullman stepped into his deceased father's business of raising the foundations of dwellings that were built in the low lying flood areas of Chicago. In 1858 Pullman faced the challenge of lifting and rotating the stylish Tremont Hotel. He successfully supervised this tremendous feat, which involved the simultaneous turning of five thousand jackscrews by twelve hundred men. With a $20,000 stake made from the elevation business, Pullman turned his hand to more luxurious ideas.

George Pullman's first overnight train ride was as memorable as it was uncomfortable. Travelling from Boston to Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1851, he attempted to rest on a rough mattress. Sharing the discomfort with fellow travelers and unable to sleep, Pullman decided there had to be a better way to travel. Although sleeping cars on railroads were not new, passengers were accustomed to little more than cots or mattresses and little privacy. Many who sat up all night suffered back-jarring rides on stiff benches in cars filled with dust in the summer and wood smoke in winter. With the growing number of businessmen traveling between cities, Pullman realized there was a market for comfort.

Pullman formed a partnership with Benjamin Field, who had the rights to operate sleepers on the Chicago and Alton, and the Galena and Union railroads. Pullman rebuilt two oversized coach cars, dividing the space into 10 sleeper sections with curtains. He hinged the upper berths so they could be opened at night and did the same with the chairs, so that they could swing back up out of the way. For extra convenience, linen closets and toilets were built at both ends of the car. Most importantly Pullman paid enormous attention to details. Lining the berths with rich cherry wood, and upholstering the seats in plush fabrics, all basking in the soft glow of oil lamps. Such luxury in George Pullman's sleepers was met with modest success in 1858. Business grew slowly but steadily as the country headed into the American Civil War (1861–1865).

In 1862 while running a trading store in Colorado, Pullman continued to develop plans to build an even more luxurious sleeper. His idea to raise travel to an unimagined level began in a shed near Chicago's Union Station. The "Pioneer" sleeper would be 54 feet long and 10 feet wide, with accommodations for 50 passengers. Each car would contain thick Bussel's carpeting, heavy curtains, French plate mirrors, black walnut woodwork, oil chandeliers, and fine linens that would be changed daily. Porters would carry baggage and attend to the riders needs. The cost to build one car totaled $18,000, four times more than any other competitive sleeper did. The two-dollar fares for an overnighter in Pullman's Pioneer soon emptied the conventional sleepers of other producers, which charged $1.50. Within a year, Pullman owned 48 sleepers. Within 10 years, Pullman held a virtual monopoly on luxury train travel in the United States.

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865) on April 15, 1865, prompted arrangements for his body to be transported back to Springfield, Illinois. Part of the funeral procession was by rail from Chicago. The Pioneer, touted "the wonder of the age," was chosen to carry Lincoln home. The size of the Pioneer would not fit on some tracks; nor could it be used in some railroad stations. Rail lines had to modify the tracks to accommodate the Pioneer to complete the last leg of the presidential journey. The Pioneer secured its reputation as the pearl of railroad cars because of this event.

The Pullman Palace Car Company was incorporated in 1867. The addition of a kitchen and tables from which to order delicacies such as oysters and rum omelets, led to the unveiling of the first dining car (known as the "Delmonico") in 1868. In 1875, the first parlor car was introduced, sporting upholstered swivel reclining seats. Each new unveiling of an even better or more novel idea in the next Pullman car was met with greater fanfare. Accepted by the inner circle of U.S. corporate barons by 1880, George Pullman had become a rich, powerful, and respected man. Yet he viewed his power through the filter of Old World values.

When it came time to expand, Pullman decided to build a state-of-the-art factory and a town to go with it, at the cost of five million dollars. His idea was to build a community for the factory workers, about 15 miles outside of Chicago. He wanted a special place, workers' utopia, to be built with the same attention to detail as his cars. Pullman envisioned his town as a model of efficiency and healthfulness. A company brochure promoting the town of Pullman stated, "all that is ugly and discordant and demoralizing is eliminated, and all that inspires self-respect is generously provided." In 1884 families began moving into Pullman, Illinois.

By the winter of 1893, recoiling from plummeting orders and economic pressures, George Pullman had laid off more than half the workers living in his town. The wages of the rest were cut by more than 25 percent. However, rent was not cut. Moving to a cheaper neighborhood was not an option for Pullman tenants— if they moved they weren't likely to remain Pullman employees. In desperation many workers joined the American Railway Union (ARU), an organization created by a young labor leader named Eugene Debs (1855–1926). The workers organized a boycott to which Pullman responded by having all the shops in his town cut off credit to all the workers. At the request of the Pullman workers, the ARU took the strike national. Within a week, 125,000 railroad workers refused to work on a train carrying a Pullman sleeper. Very soon after, rail traffic in the West and Midwest shut down.

The railroad strike of 1894 turned very ugly. The strike stopped mail delivery, freight and passenger traffic plummeted, and the stockyards were at a standstill. Hundreds of rail cars were set ablaze. President Grover Cleveland (1885–1889) sent almost 2000 federal soldiers to the Chicago area, at the request of the U.S. marshals. When National Guardsmen fired upon a mob trying to block a train, four people were killed and another 20 were injured. Before the strike ceased, 20 people were dead and 60 were injured. This, the last major strike in the United States in the nineteenth century, ended in September 1894. The boycott was lost, and the ARU was broken.

George Pullman tried to hold on to his model town fantasy. He never evicted any workers from his community, as he hoped to be remembered for what he thought was his greatest contribution to U.S. life—the town of Pullman—but he never recovered from the strike. Three years later at the age of 66, George Pullman died of a heart attack. The community of Pullman was dismantled by the state of Illinois in 1898, with the state pointing out that the corporation's charter did not give it the right to run a town in the first place. What had started as a dream of travel in comfort ended in violence, unemployment, and despair.

See also: Labor Movement, Pullman Strike, Railroad Industry