Hellraisers Journal: Company Guards Open Fire on Miners at Virden, Illinois; Scene of Carnage Follows Fierce Battle

Its a sad blow to us. Father was
the head of a family of nine of us.
I don’t know what we will do now.
It will break their hearts at home.
-Young Son of Abe Breneman
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 13, 1898
Virden, Illinois – Striking Miners Shot Down by Company Guards

From Springfield’s Illinois State Journal of October 13, 1898:

(By J. E. Vaughn, Staff Correspondent.)

Virden. Oct. 12.-(Special.)-Mid-night.-Ten dead, one fatally wounded and twenty-five carrying gunshot injuries of a more or less serous character, is the result of Manager Fred Lukins’ determination to run the Chicago-Virden coal mine in his own way and the counter determination of the striking miners not to permit non-union men to operate the plant.

In battle, fierce and sharp and attended by an unusual number of casualties, the striking miners today came into contact with the men who are supporting the operator and drove them from the town, but at a cost which makes the victory a bitter one. Six of the strikers were killed by the superior weapons of the armed guards, while three of the guards, two on the train that conveyed them to the town, and one within the stockade, lost their lives…..

[…..]

SCENES AFTER THE BATTLE.
—–

Virden, Oct. 12-(Special.)-The scenes that attended the removal of the dead miners from the field east of the stockade were pathetic in the extreme as soon as the firing had ceased and while there was still the greatest danger of a resumption of the fire from the stockade, shrieking, bare-headed women, their hair flying in the air, ran from the houses in the vicinity and rushed for the place where the miners had fallen, looking for their husbands and fathers. As they run they shouted curses at the men in the stockade and shook defiant fists at the grim tower from which had come the shower of lead.

The train which had incited the riot had hardly passed out of view before the dead and wounded in the field had been surrounded by their friends and in a remarkably short time wagons, their teams decked with foam, dashed onto the battlefield. Their drivers had received the word that they were wanted almost before the firing ceased and they had driven with all haste to the aid of the injured men. Tenderly the wounded miners were lifted into the big wagons and, then slowly and sorrowfully, the return to the town was made.

Two of the men who fell were not dead when their companions reached them. These were Joseph Kilale [Joseph Gitterle] of Mt. Olive and Edward Welch of Springfield. A messenger was immediately sent for Father John Clancy and the good priest arrived in time to administer the last rites of the Catholic church to the dying men. Under the shade of the clump of trees on the blood-dyed field, and directly beneath the guns of the stockade, the minister performed his sad office and said a fervent prayer for the souls that were fast leaving the mangled bodies.

Both of the men to whom the priest administered, died before they were removed, with the clergy man kneeling at their side and surrounded by the men who had been at their side when they fell. There was not a dry eye in the assemblage as these men gasped their last breaths and their eyes were closed by their companions, but through the tears of many glistened the fire of desired revenge and bands that held firearms grasped them tighter.

While the men were still looking upon the ghastly faces of their dead, the alarm was given that Manager Lukins was on his way from the stockade to Virden with a force of deputies and a rush was made for the direction of the town where the second tragedy of the day occurred. Many of them however, remained on the field to aid in removing the dead bodies and care for the wounded men.

Some of the latter were carried to houses in the vicinity and were taken in charge by the neighboring women, who, in the absence of physicians, dressed the injuries as best they could and administered to them. Messenger after messenger was sent for physicians but they all came back with the intelligence that the doctors had been taken to the stockade or were busy elsewhere and it was late in the afternoon before the men who remained in the houses near the battlefield could be cared for.

The home of John Parriah, directly in range of the guns of the coal shaft tower, soon became an improvised hospital. Here Dave Dix, a Centralia miner, whose right arm had been shattered by one of the bullets from the barricade, was carried in a fainting condition. following him came A. Ona and George Striegel, two Mt. Pulaski miners, both of whom carried bullets in their left legs. These men were not badly wounded and they were content with a place on the porch, declaring that the rooms should be reserved for the more unfortunate men.

Warren Russell, a thin faced boy from Centralia, whose drawn lips told of his suffering, was carried into Parrish’s yard. He had been shot through the hips and was sorely hurt, but he never murmured. “I was shot from the train,” he said, “for the train was between me and the stockade. The man who shot me was on the end of one of the coaches.”

Dix said he thought the bail that struck him came from the tower of the coal shaft. He was lying on the ground and the bullet came from above, striking the bone squarely and splintering it.

William Harmon, a Girard miner, who was shot in the back, was taken to the home of Mrs. Carrie Teeters. Harmon’s wound was an agonizing one and the poor fellow could not move without suffering the most excruciating pain. He begged piteously for a doctor, but it was a long time before one could be found to care for him. Harmon was with his three sons, Ollie, Oliver and Willie, when he was struck. His son Ollies’s head was grazed by one of the rifle balls and a forrow was plowed through his hair. He was only stunned by the bullet.

Similar to the escape of young Harmon was the narrow call Ben Allen had. He was on the railroad track midway between the depot and the stockade when a ball whizzed through the crown of his old felt hat and almost stunned him. Allen was lying down at the time and had just raised his head as the bullet came by. “There was a perfect shower of bullets poured over us,” he declared.

A GUARD STARTED IT.

M. Turner was the man who started the battle which resulted in the loss of so many lives. Turner was one of the guards for the miners and was stationed at the south guard line. He had been instructed to signal the waiting men at the depot as soon as the train came in, ten shots to designate the approach of the men.

“As the train came in,” said Turner, “I fired my gun in the air as the signal to our men and this was followed by the required number of shots to show that the negroes had arrived. The train dashed by and the first thing I knew, the deputies were firing into the men and the miners were replying. It was a terrible thing, the shooting right into the crowd around the depot. How they failed to kill more people than they did, I can’t understand.

“I am certain that the men on the train fired before there was any shooting into the train. The shots we fired were also fired in the air. The fellows on the train seemed to be frightened to death as soon as they heard the first guns and they commenced pumping into the crowd as soon as they reached the depot. It was plain that the guards had come here for bloody business and had been instructed to shoot to kill, for the marks of their bullets tell the tale.”

[…..]

TOM BURKE’S ESCAPE.

Tom Burke, who had charge of the [U. M. W.] delegations from Springfield which suffered so severely during the fight, said he was not expecting a battle when the first shots were fired up town. He supposed the coal company was only making a bluff for the purpose of getting troops sent to Virden and he did not realize that they were already prepared for action. One of the shots from the train struck his gun as the stop was made and the weapon was knocked out of his hands.

[Said Burke:]

But I got off lucky, for poor Eddie Welch and Frank Bilyeau [Bilyeu] are dead and two of the other boys, Edward Upton and Tom Jennings, are hurt. Upton was shot through the shoulder and hand. Jennings was shot through the right arm and his little finger on that hand was shot off. But it was a desperate piece of business, you can bet. I never want to see anything more like it.

One of the Springfield men who was with Burke told of the killing of Abe Brennaman [Breneman] of Girard. Brennaman was shot through the body and died almost instantly. His young son came upon the field soon afterward and the grief of the boy was most pitiable. When the lifeless form of his father was lifted into the wagon the boy took his place beside it and rode to the improvised morgue at the O’Neil boarding house.

[The boy said:]

Its a sad blow to us. Father was the head of a family of nine of us. I don’t know what we will do now. It will break their hearts at home.

[…..]

[Emphasis to names added.]

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SOURCE
The Illinois State Journal
(Springfield, Illinois)
-Oct 13, 1898, page 1
(not used as source, but see also pages 2 & 3)
https://www.genealogybank.com/

Note: correction for names of Martyrs taken from
-FindaGrave:
Joseph Gitterle
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67697150/joseph-gitterle
George Franklin Bilyeu
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116091029/george-franklin-bilyeu
Abram Hale Breneman
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73722640/abram-hale-breneman

“Remember Virden, 1898”
-by Rosemary Feurer,
Illinois History Teacher, Volume 13:2, 2006
https://www.lib.niu.edu/2006/iht1320610.html
Pubd as pamphlet:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/remember-virden-1898/oclc/42272050

Virden Masacre wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Virden

Virden Mine Riot of 1898 Newspaper Articles
-with articles from the Macoupin County Enquirer
from Oct 5-Nov 16, 1898
https://macoupin.illinoisgenweb.org/mines/m_riot3.html

re Battle of Virden from:
Wayne’s World of History and Genealogy
=photos + newspaper articles from Oct 12-13, 1898
http://hinton-gen.com/coal/macoupin_virdenriot.html

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Video below by Charles Sanson shows:

Monument at Virden
https://legallegacy.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/october-12-1898-ten-killed-in-miners-riot-in-campaign-for-eight-hour-workday/

And Mother Jones Monument at Mt Olive, Union Miners Cemetery
-It was her request to be buried near the
“…miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden…”
http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/labor-day-remembrance-and-inspiration-mother-jones-virden-massacre-3729