Cesar Chavez at Lattimer, 1972

In 1972 a monument to the Lattimer Massacre was dedicated at the corner of Quality Road and Main Street Lattimer. A massive memorial gathering commenced with over 700 people in attendance. Among the speakers was Cesar Chavez, a major figure in the efforts to organize the farm workers of the country. Chavez was busy at the moment advocating a boycott of grapes all over the country, zipping across the country zipping from interview to rally to speech. After attending the 117th annual memorial service we became interested in whether we might be able to find a copy of Chavez’s speech. We were specifically interested in how Chavez would have related the plight of the Eastern European laborers who struck in 1897 to the organizing movements of his time.

Chavez giving a speech at Lattimer, 1972

In the time since Chavez’s visit, Hazleton has become host to a large Spanish-speaking population, many of whom work in the warehousing and manufacturing jobs in the region. How would this visit by this great figure in America’s recent history resonate with their everyday life? Namely, how might it serve to connect their lives to the long history of work and struggle in the region?

We found a copy of Cesar Chavez’s handwritten notes to the speech he delivered at Lattimer in 1972 on microfilm from the archives of the United Farm Workers. We have transcribed them below. Below that are scans of the handwritten notes. An earlier draft was also found which contains some additional marginalia notated at the bottom:

Cesar Chavez — Speech Notes at Lattimer Massacre Monument

1) (Greetings to leaders present)

2) (Thanks to memmbers of Monument Committee for inviting me—- for work they are doing—-

3) In this — 75th year —- We come to [Lattimer] to honor
-the past
-pay tribute to the present
-Organize for the future

4) In their 75th year — gather at site where good men
Peaceful Union Men —-
Seeking bread + Justice —- were massacred
in an unprecedented Act of Brutality
—endowing all working men + women
— Inheritance—- Generation

5) No Better treatment to Power of Non-Violence +
Might of Sacrifice to be
Found anywhere in this land

6) These Martyred Immigrants
-only crime at the time
their poverty —their strange sounding names —
their foreign tongues.

-If could speak to us today
They would tell us plainly
-in the words of another labor martyr
-DONT MOURN FOR US, ORGANIZE.

7) It [is] fitting + proper, unveil memorial plaque commemorating the 75th year at Tragic Event
— For only in Preserving Labor’s Past, can we preserve labor’s future.

8) We Know Only Too Well
— Hardships + Sacrifice of these
mineworkers
September 10, 1897
— Group of workers in America today
— lives so closely parallel
lives of those miners
— they too are immigrants
— they too– have strange sounding names
— they too — speak a foreign language
— they too — trying to Build a Union
— they too — face hostile sheriffs
and recalcitrant employers
— they too — had powerful employers
— they too — Are Non-Violent, As
these men were

9) Let there be Strength +
Unity in the Ranks of Labor
throughout this land
–Let there be only one voice
–Let there be only one Lattimer
–Let there be Peace.
–Let there be Justice.
Let there be Love
Amen.

[an earlier draft contains some memos in the margins that Cesar may have addressed in the speech. Some text is inscrutable, but what is readable is transcribed below]
*Companies who ???? Promote violence
*violence & frustratingstriking lettuce workers with injunctions and unconstit. laws
*farmworkers have their martyrs
*Pixley Cotton – grape strike
“Pixley massacre” 1931
*(3)(13)? strikers shot down during union meeting in Pixley

Massacre Site Survey/ Newpaper Article

On the 13th and 14th of November the Lattimer Massacre Project surveyed the site of the massacre to determine if archaeological remains still exist on the land.  We know this is sacred ground in all cases, but we are interested in seeing if archaeology might offer further insight into the events of September of 1897.  There are many historical and word-of-mouth accounts that already exist of the massacre, and part of our project will be to compile them and compare them to the archaeological record. You can read a bit more about our survey in an article in the Hazleton Standard Speaker (http://standardspeaker.com/news/are-bullets-lattimer-massacre-s-smoking-gun-1.1066887) that came out November 21st.

We were aided in our investigation by the Battlefield Restoration and Archaeological Volunteer Organization (BRAVO), an organization experienced in examining battlefields across the country. (http://www.bravodigs.org/)  

The second reason for exploring the site is to ensure that the events of that day are never forgotten: to make them news again.  In this way we hope to expand new discussion of the events, the conditions that resulted in them, and their effects on everyday life in Hazleton.  For this reason we hope you will comment on our project either through the blog, through email or on the newspaper article that came out in the  on the 21st of November.  Through our work in the community of Lattimer we have come to know that many people are connected to the history of the massacre, through work, family commnity or personal interest.  We even heard some second- and third-hand accounts of the event.   

In the coming weeks we will post photos from the survey on the blog.  Meanwhile, we are hoping to hear from you!

Historic Newspaper Images

Annie from the Greater Hazleton Historical Society turned me on to a really great historic American newspapers database (Early American Newspapers, Series I-III), which turned up some of the articles mentioned and quoted in previous posts.  While many of them leave scenes up to the imagination in a pre-photojournalist age, a few of them included really telling, sometimes powerful images.  I hope you enjoy or are inspired by a few of them here:

(click on an image to enlarge)

Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 September 1897

“Firing on the Miners.  An Accurate View of the Field Where the Tragedy Took Place” by a Philadelphia Inquirer staff person, 12 September 1897, front page.  It looks like the deputies were amassed just north of the massacre monument, across Main St.

Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 September 1897

Again, a staff drawing from the 12 September 1897 Philadelphia Inquirer, this time page 4: “Identifying Bodies in the Stable of Undertaker Boyle”.  I can’t imagine what that must  have been like; although, I gather from talking with people in the region that this is possible more humane than usual.  It used to be that the coal companies would just drop a dead body off at their home when someone died in a mine accident, right on the front porch.

Philadelphia Inquirer, 14 September 1897

“Crowds in Front of St. Stanislaus Church While Funeral Services Were Going On” in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 14 September 1897, front page.

New York Evening Journal, 10 March 1898

From the New  York Evening Journal, 10 March 1898, p. 5 (the signature appears to read “Davenport”).  Granted, the New York Evening Journal’s articles were a little more sensational than other newspapers’ at the time; however, there must have been some sense that money and power came before justice, and public sentiment around the country must have in part been that the deputies were guilty of murder despite their acquittal.   Of course, the other trial, which seemed certain for Sheriff Martin, never happened.

NY Evening Journal, 17 March 1898

The title and date of this are really interesting – “Lattimer Deputies Again Carrying Arms, Ready to Murder More Strikers” in the New York Evening Journal, 17 March 1898 (I think the artist’s signature reads J.A. Williams).  It must have looked like the deputies were still riled up against the miners, and again, that the deputies were in fact guilty of murder.

Narodny Kalendar, 1899

What a great image!  Two years after the massacre this rendition of a not-so-blind justice appears in Narodny Kalendar, a Slovak publication.  I’m working on trying to find an original copy, but meanwhile the image shows up in the journal Pennsylvania History: 2002 vol. 69 (1), p. 41.  It’s in an article called “A Slovak Perspective on the Lattimer Massacre” by M. Mark Stolarik.

These and still more images are in the gallery, below.

– Kristin

(click on an image to enlarge)

Narodny Kalendar, 1899

Sheriff Martin. Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 Sept. 1897, p.4

Officers of Troops. Philadelphia Inquirer 19 Sept. 1897, p.7

Lattimer Breaker. The Century, April 1898 (p. 819), by Jay Hambidge

Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 September 1897

Main St. Lattimer. The Century, April 1898 (p. 817), by Jay Hambidge

Philadelphia Inquirer, 14 September 1897

Milnesville Hotel. Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 September 1897

New York Evening Journal, 10 March 1898 p. 5

Map of the Middle Coal Fields. Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 September 1897

Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 September 1897

An Italian Quarter by Jay Hambidge. The Century, April 1898 (p. 823).

The Pay Line by Jay Hambidge. The Century, April 1898 (p. 812-13).

12th Regiment. Philadelphia Inquirer, 19 Sept. 1897

NY Evening Journal, 17 March 1898

Lattimer in International News

The Lattimer massacre was not (and arguably is not) just a regional or national issue.  Aside from the strike and shooting reaching all corners of the U.S. (newspapers carried the story in Utah, New Mexico, Louisiana, New York, the Dakotas, Texas, etc.), sentiment was stirred up in Europe as well.

Austria-Hungary in 1911, from U Texas Libraries

The strikers were nearly all from Southern and Eastern Europe.  Those who died were largely from what was then Austria-Hungary (see map, left).  Only one of the victims had applied for citizenship by the strike (Michael Cheslock); none were yet U.S. citizens.  As such, the Austro-Hungarian Empire took issue with the killing of its citizens, and demanded indemnity from the U.S.  Quite a bit of fear revolved around what would happen with international relations.

Following are a few newspaper accounts of Austria-Hungary’s demands, and reactions thereto:

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Source: The Enquirer-Sun, Columbus, GA. 16 September 1897, p.6:

“Vienna’s View of Our Riots :Austria Will Demand Indemnity From Us for the Rioters Who Were Killed

London, Sept. 13 — A dispatch to the Daily Telegraph from Vienna says that much excitement has been caused there by the news of the shooting by deputy sheriffs at Lattimer, Pa., of a number of Austrian and Hungarian subjects.  Consular reports of the affair that have been received characterize the conduct of the deputies as unjust and unneccessary.  The foreign office will demand strict compensation from the United States.”

Source: The Sioux City Journal, Sioux City, Iowa. 14 October, 1897, p. 1

“PROTEST BY AUSTRIA: Claims Rights of Her Subjects Were Violated in the Lattimer Affair

Harrisburg, Pa., Oct. 13 — Gov.  Hastings has received a letter from Secretary Sherman, stating that the Austrian minister at Washington has filed a communication with the department of state, claiming that there was a violation of the rights of Austrian subjects in the firing on the mob at Lattimer, Pa., when a score of miners were killed.  Secretary Sherman requests the facts and status of affairs in relation to these cases.  Gov. Hastings has referred the communication to Sheriff Martin and Gen. Gobin, with the request that they enlighten Secretary Sherman as early as possible.” (this article was also carried by the Wilkes-Barre Times (Wilkes-Barre, PA) as “The Lattimer Shooting” and The Sun (Baltimore, MD) as “The Shooting at Lattimer”)

Source: The Wilkes-Barre Times, Wilkes-Barre, PA.  21 October, 1897

“THE LATTIMER SHOOTING: Sheriff Martin’s Story of the Affair Prepared for Gov. Hastings (by Associated Press)

Harrisburg Oct 21 — Sheriff Martin of Luzerne county was in Harrisburg yesterday with his attorney Geo. S. Ferris, to confer with Governor Hastings, who was unavoidably absent.  The executive wrote to the sheriff recently asking for a statement of the shooting at Lattimer to be used by Secretary of State Sherman in making reply to the Austrian government, which has instructed the minister at Washington to get all the details of the affair.  The sheriff has prepared a statement giving his side of the story which will be submitted to the governor in confidence on his return from Philadelphia.  The statement in brief recites that the sheriff and his deputies were in the discharge of their duty as public officials when the shooting occurred.”

Source: The World-Herald, Omaha, NE. 20 March, 1899

“NO QUARREL WITH AMERICA: Austria Will Have No Trouble With Us Over Lattimer Affair

London, March 19 — The Vienna correspondent of the Standard referring to the recent editorial allusions by the Politiasche Correspondez, to the Hazelton shooting and its announcement that the Austrian foreign minister intends to press the ‘just claims advanced in half of Austrian subjects,’ says, ‘I have reason to believe that the Austrian government has not the slightest intention to seek a quarrel with the United States.  The press however, is constantly accusing the government of neglecting its duty in the Hazleton affair, and the government will not let the matter drop until Count Goluchowski (the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister), gets an opportunity to explain to the delegations that the standpoint of the American government indicated by the latter note of February 4 is legally and morally incontrovertible, though the sheriff of Lattimer might have waited longer before giving the order to fire on the excited strikers.” (also carried by The Butte Weekly Miner (Butte, MT) as “The Hazleton Shooting”)

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA. 12 August, 1899, p. 8

“There Was nothing to Arbitrate

The refusal of the United States Government to accede to the request of Austria-Hungary to submit to the arbitration of a claim for the payment of an indemnity on account of the killing of Hungarians in the memorable Lattimer riot is entirely justifiable, and it is indeed surprising tha the request should have been made.  The killing in question was the subject of judicial proceedings, the result of which was to vindicate its legality.

It will be recalled that the rioting occurred in connection with a strike of coal-miners.  In the course of that strike, and as a means of intimidating the employers, a number of men, among whom were the Hungarians on account of whose death the claims were made, had assembled and had begun to act in a threatening and disorderly manner.  Called upon by the Sheriff of the county to disperse, they refused to do so and they suffered as a consequence of their refusal.  The verdict of a jury confirmed the rightfulness of the Sheriff’s action and there is not the slightest basis upon which to found a claim against the United States.

There is no parallel between this case and that of the Italians who were taken from a New Orleans jail and lynched, and for whom this country did pay a compensation.  The Lattimer rioters had no one to blame but themselves, and as the facts are undisputed and undisputable, there is absolutely nothing to arbitrate.  The Austro-Hungarian Government could hardly have been serious in its request.”

____________________________________________________________________________________

So – what do you think?  Did the Austro-Hungarian Government have a case?  The “facts” of the case are certainly disputable, although the Sheriff was acquitted.  Should the government have received payment?  Victims’ families?  Anyone?

Lattimer is one of the “Five of the Greatest Strikes in America” in 1901

Going through historic newspapers, I found this in the Grand Forks Daily Herald (Grand Forks, ND), 08 September 1901, p. 3.  It lists five of what it considered the greatest strikes in America.  These are:

PA Coal Map, from http://www.leo.lehigh.edu/

1. “Irons against Gould In a Famous Struggle” (1886)
2. “Homestead Bloodshed in Campaign of 1892”
3. “Railway Strike of 1894 Against Pullman Works”
4. “Coal Miners’ Strike Ending with Lattimer” (1897)
5. “Men Won 1900 Strike in Anthracite Mines”

Here’s the section about Lattimer (#4):

“Coal miners in eleven states struck on July 4, 1897, on order of President Ratchford of the United Mine Workers.  Nearly all the bituminous miners went out and a large portion of the men in the anthracite region.  At high tide in the strike 110,000 men were idle.

This strike was successful.  The men went back to work in September at an increase in wages and with an agreement with their employers to arbitrate.  They gained in wages, it was figured by teh World at the time, over $13,000,000.

In September there was a small correlative strike at a colliery at Lattimer, near Hazleton, Pa., in the anthracite district.  This strike held on for several days and gained recruits from other colleries [sic] in the neighborhood.

Following their custom the strikers marched from mine to mine to urge other miners to join them.  On the road near Lattimer, on Friday, Sept. 10, Sheriff Martin of Luzerne county, with 102 deputies specially sworn in, met a body of these miners.

There was a trifling clash and the deputies fired on the marchers, who had no firearms.  Twenty-one miners were killed and forty wounded.  Several others fled.  The marchers were all foreigners.

Troops were called out at once and there was no further trouble.”

PA Historic Context Study: Anthracite Resources

I recently found out that there’s an historic context study done on the anthracite region of Northeastern PA.  These sorts of studies document why certain resources are historically or culturally valuable, why they’re significant to a community, state, or the country.

PHMC logo

Anyway, in case anyone is interested in such a thing, I wanted to put a link here (to the downloadable .pdf file): Anthracite-Related Resources of Northeastern Pennsylvania, 1769-1945 from the Bureau for Historic Preservation in Harrisburg, PA.  The PA Historical and Museum Commission submitted signed the report the day after the Lattimer massacre centennial.

Here’s an excerpt from the report’s section about Lattimer (p. 60-61):

“The UMW [United Mine Workers] recognized that organization of the entire region could not occur until the new immigrants joined the union.  This required a shift in the thinking of many union members, who believed that Slavs and Italians were ‘wage-cheapening laborers easily controlled by management.’  Slavs and Italians were relegated to low status jobs.  While large numbers of these immigrants worked and resided in the anthracite region in the 1880s, few had become contract miners, the elite of the laboring class, by the late 1890s.

A major turning point in the history of organized labor within the anthracite region occurred in 1897, during another nationwide economic depression.  Beginning with the Panic of 1893, the country had experienced massive unemployment and personal suffering.  The economic downturn triggered a merciless price war among businesses seeking to raise revenues simply to pay off their creditors.  Cartel and pooling arrangements collapsed in this hyper-competitive climate.  With the coal market depressed, many workers could find only half-time work.  Much of the little income they earned was siphoned back to the operators in the form of deductions for rent and company store bills.  Companies ignored a law stating that workers were to be paid bi-weekly and paid workers monthly, forcing many deeply into debt.

It was under these conditions that the Lattimer incident occurred, marking a turning point in the labor history of the anthracite region.  The violent confrontation between workers and operator agents that took place near the Lattimer mine in September 1897 initiated the long, slow process of building cooperation between all mine workers.  This cooperation led to the development of a solid labor front in the anthracite region, which the UMW nurtured in the late 1890s and early 1900s….

The Lattimer incident brought together the various immigrant communities within the anthracite region and dispelled old myths that Slavic and Italian workers were docile pawns of management.  The new immigrants were recognized as an important force within the region.  Fellow miners expressed their shock and outrage over the killings by joining the UMW.  Within four months, over fifteen thousand anthracite workers had joined the UMW.  Lattimer insured the UMW a future in the region, though it would take several more strikes before the union could take advantage of its new found strength.  On a national level, Slavic organizations through the United States contributed money to relief efforts for the Lattimer victims and their families, while at the international level, the Austrian-Hungarian ambassador demanded, but did not receive, compensation for the killings from the United States government.”

Your thoughts – accurate?  Missing something?  Other?

(here’s the link again to the context study: Anthracite Resources Context Study)

Reports of the Immigration Commission: Immigrants in Industries

I just picked up Vol. 16 of the 1911 Reports of the Immigration Commission: Immigrants in Industries (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office).  Unfortunately it doesn’t look like it’s up on Google Books yet, but your local university library should be able to get a copy.

Anyway, the report comes from a 1907-1910 investigation by the U.S. Immigration Commission into immigration trends and statistics.  Volume 16: Immigrants in Industries looks in part at anthracite coal mining.  It looks at mining as an industry, and the industry in a representative community, “Community A” from the middle coal field (shown in red, below).

The Anthracite Fields of Pennsylvania (from Barendse (1981) Social Expectations and Perception: The Case of the Slavic Anthracite Workers. University Park: Penn State Press)

The more general overview focuses on nameless collieries from the upper and lower fields (orange and blue, respectively, right)  as cases with which to examine numbers of workers, working conditions, workers’ occupations and wages, literacy rates, home ownership trends, and perhaps most importantly, what it calls “race.”  Race is a concept applied to nearly every section of this report (in all volumes), equated by the Commission with an immigrant’s country of origin (e.g. Poland, Lithuania, etc.).  There was great concern over recent immigration at that time (largely from Southern and Eastern Europe), so the Commission examined just about all aspects of Industrial-era American life through a racial (i.e. ethnic or nationalistic) lens.  “White” people seem to have been native (i.e. American)-born people with native-born fathers.  Generally these were people of British, Irish, Welsh, and sometimes German descent.  Non-white people, in this report, are foreign-born people–“Polish, Ruthenian [Ukrainian?], Slovak” and so forth.  The term “negro” is used for African Americans, although they are rarely mentioned.

What the report tells about its concept of race and racial tension in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania says a whole lot about the conditions that existed at the time of the Lattimer massacre.  The victims were, of course, “non-white” and largely non-English speaking, while the Sheriff and deputies were all “white” English-speakers.  Lattimer was generally a sort of microcosm of the larger Immigrants in Industries story.  Unfortunately the immigration issues addressed by the Commission (below) were just fuel for the fire caused by hard work for low wages and other miseries that accompany coal mining.

So, I thought it might be interesting to share a few pieces of the Commission’s report here, to serve as a backdrop for the Lattimer massacre, and maybe a bit of a backdrop for today as well….

Source: U.S. Immigration Commission (1911) Reports of the Immigration Commission: Immigrants in Industries. Vol. 16, part 19.  Presented by Mr. Dillingham. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

“The most remarkable process from a sociological view point which is occurring in Community A is the rapid displacement of the earlier by the more recent settlers of the community.

The displacement is taking place through the operation of two forces–the pull of industrial and social ambition and the push of racial friction.  Distaste for mine work since the immigrants entered it, as well as dissatisfaction with wages, is inducing the English-speaking miners to change their occupations, and is preventing them from allowing their children to enter the industry.  The prosperous miner educates his children for softer-handed work, and they have to move away from Community A to find it.  The well-to-do storekeeper and the professional man moves away to find a more suitable environment for his growing children.

A night-working immigrant shoemaker or thrifty saloon keeper busy close in between two ancient householders, and they, disturbed by the nocturnal hammering of the vociferous joviality, quickly place their property on sale and as quickly find foreign buyers, whereupon they leave the community” (pp. 661-2).

"The inevitable result to the American workingman of indiscriminate immigration" (by Victor, from the Southern Labor Archives at GSU)

“The social and moral deterioration of the community through the infusion of a large element of foreign blood may be described under the heads of the two principal sources of its evil effects: (a) The conditions due directly to the peculiarities of the foreign body itself; and (b) those which arise from the reactions upon each other of two non-homogeneous social elements–the native and the alien classes–when brought into close association.

Among the effects under the first-named class may be enumerated the following:

1. A lowering of the average intelligence, restraint, sensitivity, orderliness, and efficiency of the community through the greater deficiency of the immigrants in all of these respects.
2. An increase of intemperance and the crime resulting from inebriety due to the drink habits of the immigrants.
3. An increase of sexual immorality due to the excess of males over females. …
4. A high infant mortality, due largely to the neglect and ignorance of hygiene and sanitary surroundings on the part of the immigrant mothers. …

Before discussing the effects due to the heterogeneity of the social elements, it may be well to mention the more striking characteristics which separate the recent immigrants from the natives and earlier settlers.  These may be roughly catalogued as follows:

(a) Differences of language, religious faith, and degree of literacy. (b) A lower standard of comfort and a less fastidious manner of living…. (c) A different standard of modesty…. (d) A different manner of observing Sunday…. (e) A greater possession of sheer physical strength and a greater willingness to accept employment requiring nothing but brawn. (f) A more habitual indulgence in intoxicating beverages with apparently less permanent physical injury.

The chief effects of a social and moral character arising from the friction and interactions between the native element and the large foreign body possessing the above peculiarities may be summarized as follows:

1. A general loosening of the forces of social cohesion.  The inability, owing to the lingual and educational barriers, of understanding the other’s viewpoint prevents the development of sympathy and engenders a disintegrating hostility….
2. A civic demoralization of the ruling class.  The venality of the immigrants overcomes the scruples of the politically ambitious and they succumb to the temptations of bribery.  This reacts upon the efficiency of the local government.  The more scrupulous citizens shrink from participation in municipal affairs, which are controlled largely by the worst element in the community.
3. An enfeeblement of the power of public opinion through the weakness of the public press.  There is only one English daily in Community A….
4. A general stimulation of the cupidity and avarice of the local business and professional men by the tempting prey of the ignorant foreigner.
5. A growth in the number of saloons…to satisfy the immigrant appetite….
6. A coarsening of the fiber of the native-born through contact with the immodesties of the immigrant” (pp. 671-2).

I would love to read your thoughts about how this informs your thoughts on the Lattimer massacre, and/or on immigration today!

– Kristin

Women and the Lattimer massacre: Mary Septak

A bit more on the interesting but perhaps not unusual women of the Lattimer massacre–this time, “Big” Mary Septak, a Polish immigrant, miner’s wife, mother, and caretaker of several boarders.  Evidently she not only took care of all these people, but the men in the mines, too.  She seemingly had no fear of the National Guard and local police, leading women on marches, and calling men up from the mines to fight for their rights.

I’ll report more in on Mary as I find it – she’s quite the character and is bound to appear again.  This entry comes from The Century Vol. 55(6), April 1898: “A Pennsylvania Colliery Village. An Artist’s Impressions of the Colliery” by Jay Hambidge (available online at the Cornell University Library).  Mr. Hambidge also illustrated an article before this in that edition of The Century. I recommend reading and looking at it to get a feel for the local sentiment at that time.  It’s interesting stuff!  Anyway, here’s a bit about “Big Mary”:

Mary Septak by Jay Hambidge

“‘Big Mary’ is for the time the object of our search, and we finally find her cleaning a goose for her Sunday dinner.  Mary is by far the most forcible and picturesque character in all the mining region.  In her peculiar way she is a queen, and rules things with a high hand.  During the strike Mary was the most troublesome of all the foreigners.  No professional agitator had half the force for mischief that this woman exerted.  One day she led seventy-five women of the patch in a charge on the troops.  At that time these amazons were armed with clubs and pieces of scarp-iron, and they stopped only when they felt the bayonets of the immovable line of soldiery.  One would not imagine her such a character from the smiling greeting she gave us.  With her husband, she keeps a sort of boarding house for other miners; and in the living-room of the shanty were seven beds and eight trunks.  Probably from twelve to fifteen men occupy the same room with this man, his wife, and daughter, a large-boned girl of fourteen.  …

In a bed at one end of the room two men are sleeping with their clothes on.  They work on the ‘night shift’ in the mines, and sleep during the day.  These men belong to the class which was most active during the strike.  Mary the mother rattles along in conversation with her husband and daughter, her talk being punctuated with profanity.  Suddenly she turns to me with a demand to know if I eat meat on Friday.  I answer in the affirmative.  ‘Jesus kill you some day,’ she says, and laughs.

The amazon loves her husband, she asserts, and the affection is evidently mutual, for as he passes  her from time to time, he says some pleasant words or pats her cheek.  They have been married thirty years, and the daughter Mary is the only living one of ten children.  ‘When I ‘way from my man I cry all time, and when he ‘way from me he cry all time’ is the way the woman puts it.  In all their  years of married life he had never once struck her.

This is the woman who has the reputation of being a veritable tigress.  The men in the mining company’s offices are afraid of her, and give her a wide berth.  The trolley-car conductors tremble when she hails a car, and not one of them has ever been known to collect a fare from her except when she felt disposed to pay.  She has a contempt for American women.  They are not strong, she says, and cannot work in the fields.  The food they eat is too sweet; they would be better off if they ate sour soup and sour cabbage.” – p.826

Women and the Lattimer massacre: Mrs. Gallagher

1890s Woman (from http://www.nypl.org/blog/2009/06/18/original-steampunk)

There are some really interesting female figures associated with the Lattimer massacre trial and aftermath.  They showed a great deal of strength in the face of authority at a time when women couldn’t even vote.  Take for example Mrs. Mary Gallagher of Harleigh, who lived about a mile from Lattimer.  In the Hazleton Plain Speaker (02/21/1898) Mrs. Gallagher made quite a stir when she turned the defense into a laughingstock with her damning testimony and wit:

“Mrs. Gallagher seemed somewhat annoyed at [Defense Attourney] Lenahan’s questions and her tilt with Lenahan caused some amusement.

She replied to Lenahan’s laughter: ‘I did not think I came to a theatre.  You seem to be the principal actor.’  The woman said: ‘The wounded man lay about 500 feet from where the deputies stood.  I did not see any weapons on the man.  Going down farther I saw another wounded man.  He was about 400 feet away from the deputies’ position; the man was terribly wounded in the stomach.  He was dying.’  She continued: ‘The next man was lying near by, and was wounded directly in the back.  he was about 400 feet away from the deputies.  I saw a man lying on the embankment.  He was bleeding from the arm.’

Lenahan and the woman had another tilt and she seemed to have the best of it, so the attorney appealed to the court to compel her to respect his objections.  Their tilt caused considerable amusement in the court room.

Mrs. Gallagher continued:  ‘I furnished bandages for that man and then went down and found another who was lying along the trolley tracks.  He was only about 19 years old and all my sympathy went out to him.  I said it was red handed murder.’

Lenahan objected again and there was more laughter.  Referring to a man she said: ‘He was not the sheriff.  He was a very respectable looking man.’ (Loud laughter)

She said: ‘I spoke my mind rather freely and denounced them all.  I suppose I am not allowed to tell what I said.’

During her testimony there was frequent bursts of laughter and even the court smiled.

Lenahan seemed afraid to cross examine the witness and said: ‘You can go Mrs. Gallagher.’

There was more laughter as the witness swept out fo the court room.  As she passed she said: ‘It was a massacre, Mr. Lenahan.  Thats is what it was.  You are a very good lawyer for a damn bad man.'”

Hazleton Plain Speaker & Wilkes-Barre Record, 1898

Source: Hazleton Plain Speaker, 02/02/1898, p. 10 (available on microfilm at the Hazleton Public Library)

“While the prosecution will be impaired by a lack of funds, the defense, backed by the coal companies, is prepared to stay here all summer.  The deputies are not hampered in the least, for they stay at a first class hotel, attend the theatre during the evenings and circulate among the Wilkes-Barreans in the saloons and restaurants.”

“District Attorney Martin [for the prosecution/strikers] asked that the witness be allowed to answer through the interpreter when the cross examination began but this was not allowed on the ground that it would be unfair to have the question asked in one language and answered in another language.”

Wilkes-Barre Record, 09/11/1897 (not quoted here)

Source: Wilkes-Barre Record, 3/10/1898, p. 4 (available on microfilm at the Osterhout Free Library, Wilkes-Barre, PA)

“The jury the Lattimer case required very little time to reach a verdict.  That the sheriff and his deputies would be acquitted very few persons doubted….  It can never be truthfully alleged that this trial was not fairly and impartially conducted.  Every particle of evidence presented by the prosecution that could properly be admitted was allowed to go to the jury….  The ignorant foreign elements that have become so numerous in some sections of the State [PA] must be disabused of the false theories, instilled into their minds by both political and labor leader demagogues, that all authority in this land is controlled by corporations and capitalists and is therefore the enemy of labor and of the poorer classes generally.  They must learn that the civil authority recognizes neither class nor condition, creed nor color, and that it compels all alike to be obedient to law.”