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A long-threatened strike of employees of the Wilkes-Barre Railway Company began in October 1915 when 350 street car men walked off the job refusing to accept an increase of $.2 cents per hour.
				The strike caused many issues throughout the Wyoming Valley as those who relied upon trolleys as their way of transportation to either shop in downtown Wilkes-Barre or work in the many coal mines were left stranded.
				Disturbances and fights erupted when replacement street car operators were confronted along the many miles of tracks, causing many trolley runs to stop.
				When the Luzerne County Sheriff Lewis P. Kniffen and his staff couldn&rsquo;t handle the tasks of keeping peace, mounted state police troopers were called in to protect trolley lines that remained open, including South Main Street to Market Street in Kingston, and up Wyoming Avenue to Harveys Lake, the Evening News newspaper reported Nov. 6, 1915.
				Plains clothes policemen were also put into service, mingling among crowds of people who gathered along the trolley lines.
				&ldquo;It is understood that the city policemen and the state troopers were under orders not to tolerate the slightest disorder and as far as could be observed, whenever there was the least sign of a disturbance, stringent measures were adopted to squelch trouble at the outset,&rdquo; the Evening News reported.
				Tensions were high but peace was kept for several months until a broadcasted boxing match the night of March 25, 1916, when riots broke out throughout the Wyoming Valley.
				A large crowd of several thousand people gathered in front of the Simon Long store on South Main Street, near Public Square, to hear a man on a megaphone announcing the boxing match between fighters Jess Willard and Frank Moran held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
				&ldquo;A megaphone man announced the details of the Willard-Moran fight round by round. The crews of each street car found it more and more difficult to get through the crowd. Snow balls had been thrown against the windows of a few street cars and one conductor had been pulled from the rear platform of a street car when rioting began in earnest,&rdquo; the Wilkes-Barre Record reported March 27, 1916.
				Policemen moved in and ended the megaphone man from announcing the fight, causing those in the crowd to become more unruly. Stones and bricks were thrown injuring policemen.
				&ldquo;All policemen in the city were called to Public Square for duty in dispersing the crowd of several thousand persons who thronged the park, streets and sidewalks,&rdquo; the Record reported.
				A policeman pulled the alarm at a fire box resulting in the fire department to respond, using its hoses to segregate the rioters.
				Having one rioter in custody, two policemen fought their way through the unruly crowd to Merchants Lane where they were struck by a piece of terra cotta.
				&ldquo;The terra cotta inflicted a deep gash on the sergeant&rsquo;s forehead and stunned him for a time,&rdquo; the Record reported.
				Rioting continued the next day, Sunday, March 26, 1916, in different parts of Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley.
				Street car crews were assaulted at Northampton and Hillside streets, on South Hancock Street near the Kripplein Christi Lutheran Church and on Brown Street in Wilkes-Barre, and in Duryea, Hanover Township, Plymouth, Sugar Notch and Warrior Run.
				&ldquo;Near Solomon Street in Hanover Township, an Ashley street car was attacked and the state troopers rushing from Ashley to the scene encountered at least 500 people,&rdquo; the Times Leader reported March 27, 1916.
				Troopers rode their horses into the crowd and swung their clubs right and left, with the result that many are nursing sore heads, reported the Times Leader.
				One person knocked to the ground by a trooper&rsquo;s club was stepped on by a horse.
				According to the state police annual report of 1916, mounted state troopers encountered rioters throwing rocks and bricks at passing street cars on Lee Park Avenue in Hanover Township on March 26, 1916. Two Hanover Township policemen were arrested by state troopers for joining the rioters.
				&ldquo;Numerous arrests were made in Lee Park, the police in Hanover Township apparently joining the riotous element in causing trouble, instead of keeping order. Two of the police force were arrested and put under bail for court with other rioters,&rdquo; the state police report states.
				Disturbances and riots throughout the valley began to subside late on the second day on March 26, 1916.
				The street car strike lasted 14 months before it ended with a contract in December 1916.

Lookback: Riot on Public Square in 1916