Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-11
BEATEN BY THUGS
Son of Mr and Mrs Edward
 Bergen Assaulted.

William J. Bergen, son Of Contrac-
 tor Edward and Mrs Bergen of Bald | win street, for some time past a CIVIL
 engineer for the Nickel Plate railroad,
 is suffering from the effects of an as-
 sault made upon him near Cleveland,
 in which he was kicked into insensl- bilty and then robbed of everything
 of any value in his possession.
 Mir Bergen started for the Union | depot at Cleveland to take the Lake
 Shore train for Elyria, which leaves
 about o'clock in the evening, his
 objective point being the residence
 of MT and Mrs N. A. Cooney, where his wife was making a call When
 he had reached a point near the sta ton where there is a high embanS-
 ment, four rough appearing men sud. denly emerged from behind pile or sand, one of whom inquired of MT Bergen what time 1t was, but before he had chance to answer the ques- ton another of the thugs who had stepped directly behind the engineer seized him by the throat and tried to choke him. Bergen shook him off and the gang seeing that their man
 was going to give them battle, rushed
 for him and before he knew where
 he was, he was bound hand and foot, and that was the last he knew until he regained consciousness some time
 later and heard his assailants dis cussing whether they hadn't better throw him down the embankmen1. The cut they had reference to is | about forty feet deep and if Bergen had been hurled down he never again would have any use use for d theodolite. Before they had reached
 conclusion something must have
 scared them and they scampered
 away, leaving their victim to make
 the best he could of himself. Bergen
 managed to get to the depot and took a train for Elyria and finally reached the Cooney residence. tired and | weary and battered and torn, but
 fortunately not seriously injured, al | though at first it was thought that his condition was critical.
 The footpads made off with S10 in
 cash, $400 worth of Nickel Plate stock and some railroad passes which
 they found in MT Bergen's pockets. Transfer of the stock has been
 stopped and anybody attempting 10
 use the passes will be placed under
 arrest. It is believed that the men who committed the assault though. Bergen had the weekly payroll for his men and expected to make quite
 a haul, but as a matter of fact a'l
 they got that amounted to anything
 was the s10 change.
 Mir Bergen is well and favorably
 known in Waterbury. He is a 1a-
 tive Of this town and was graduated
 from the Waterbury high school m 1 the class of 1889. He spent three years in the office of the city en- l gineer under MT Weld, after which he entered Rensselaer, Polytechnic institute at Troy, N. r., where he
 was graduated in 1890 at the head of class of fifty-two. Soon afterward he accepted government position and was stationed at Montana, where
 he remained until about a year ago, when in competitive examination he won his way to the position of chief engineer and supervisor on .he New York, Chicago and St Louis railroad. Few Waterbury people know Mir Bergen as an engineer, but many will remember him as musi- clan. At the age of 15 he was CO.,
 netist in the AHerican band, the youngest person who ever held that position. He came of family ct musicians, but even at that it is said that he outranked the whole of them at the business.
 Mr Bergen is expected home for the Christmas holidays and it is safe to predict that he will be a welcome visitor at the old homestead.