Hellraisers Journal: Sorrow and Grief at Calumet, Michigan, on March to Cemetery: “Little White Caskets Borne by Strong Men”

—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 30, 1913
Calumet, Michigan – Mourners Carry Little White Caskets Two Miles to Cemetery

From The Altoona Times (Pennsylvania) of December 29, 1913:

PATHETIC INCIDENTS BRING TEARS
TO BYSTANDERS EYES
———-
Afflicted Mothers and Fathers Overcome
by Appalling Grief as Cortege Passes
———-

CALUMET, Mich., Dec. 28. -The Western Federation of Miners buried its dead today. Fifty-nine bodies, including those of forty-four children, were carried through the streets down a winding country highway and laid in graves in a snow-enshrouded cemetery within sight of Lake Superior.

Thousands of saddened miners formed an escort to the funeral parties and passed between other thousands who as spectators testified to the grief that has oppressed the community since seventy-two men, women and children were killed in the Christmas eve panic in Italian hall.

For hours the Sabbath calm was broken by the tolling of bells and the sound of voices intoning burial chants. In half a dozen churches services were held earlier in the day and the mourners went about the streets, passing from their homes to the churches, back to their homes after brief respites and again to the churches to prepare for the last sad trip to the grave sides.

UNION HOSTS ASSEMBLED

Delegations of strikers began coming to Calumet early in the day. The special train of nine coaches brought hundreds of Federationists from the iron mines of Negaunee and Ishpeming and every town and mining location in the copper country sent members and friends of the union to swell the ranks of the marchers in the afternoon.

By noon the union host was assembled. Months of experience in demonstrating their numbers by parading had taught the men to form ranks quickly and with little delay they lined up four abreast.

The supply of hearses was inadequate and there were only fourteen of these vehicles in the van. Then came three undertakers’ wagons and an automobile truck, the latter carrying three coffins. These vehicles contained the adult victims and the older children. Beside one marched eight women, who acted as pall bearers, for members of the Women’s auxiliary of the Western Federation.

It was this woman’s organization which was distributing gifts of candy, shoes, caps and mittens to the children of strikers when the panic broke out.

STRIKERS CARRY COFFINS

Behind the hearses was a section of the procession which brought tears and sobs from onlookers. Thirty-nine white coffins, their size testifying to the short lite of the little forms within, were carried by relays of strikers. Four men bore each coffin, and as their arms grew weary or feet stumbled on the slippery roadway, companions relieved them of their burden.

Persons drawn to Calumet solely by curiosity became mourners as this contingent passed them. Men turned away to brush tears from their cheeks. Women,especially the mothers in the crowd, sobbed openly, and dozens, unable to endure the sight, rushed from the streets, taking refuge in homes whose Yuletide had been directly saddened by death. Others, too, were in evidence among the toil-hardened men who carried the coffins. They bore the bodies of their companions’ children and many a rough sleeve was brushed hurriedly across downturned faces, the eves of which were concealed by peaked caps drawn far forward.

CORTEGE TWO MILES LONG

Fifty singers chanted hymns in the wake of the children carriers. Most of these men were English miners, who had learned in Cornwall to chant Christmas carols in the streets and years ago brought this old custom to the copper country. Today, however, they didn’t sing songs of a new life born. “Jesus Lover of My Soul,” “Rock of Ages” and “Nearer My God to Thee” came from throats thick with emotion. But the harmonies were full and rich.

The last marcher had scarcely started from Calumet before the head of the profession had reached the cemetery gates two miles away. All but a dozen of the burials were in common graves dug yesterday by members of the union. The ground belongs to the Federation, and it was stated that a monument would be erected there, the formal dedication to take place a year hence. Only brief addresses were delivered in the cemetery. Eugene A. McNally, a local attorney, eulogized the dead in English and George Strezich, of St. Louis; Frank Aaltonen, of Negaunee, and other federation leaders delivered addresses in Austrian, Finnish and Croatian.

MARTYRS TO UNION CAUSE

McNally made only passing reference to the deportation of President C. H. Moyer, of the Federation, predicting that his absence, whether temporary or permanent, would result in the development of leadership as effective as his.

All the speakers termed the victims of the Christmas eve catastrophe martyrs to the cause of unionism. They argued that had the mine managers not refused to recognize the union, the industrial warfare would have been settled months ago and there would have been no need for the celebration in Italian hall.

Nine of those who were killed have not yet been buried. Fathers and husbands who left the copper country to seek work in Arizona and Montana have not yet arrived in Calumet, but it is expected that Tuesday will see the last of the funerals. Four were held yesterday.

The coroner’s inquest into the circumstances of the tragedy is to convene tomorrow.

[Photograph added.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SOURCES & IMAGES

Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/6

The Altoona Times
(Altoona, Pennsylvania)
-Dec 29, 1913
https://www.newspapers.com/image/270408489/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/270408682/

“Photos from the 1913 Italian Hall Disaster”
-by Tanda Gmiter, Dec 19, 2017
https://www.mlive.com/news/2017/12/photos_from_michigans_italian.html

See also:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1913 Singers – Rock of Ages

1913 Singers – Nearer My God to Thee