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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 15, 1899
Wallace, Idaho – Trial of Paul Corcoran, Secretary Burke Miners’ Union
From The San Francisco Call of July 12, 1899:
CLARK CHANGES HIS TESTIMONY
—–
Cannot Positively Identify Corcoran.
—–TELLS ABOUT WARDNER RIOT
—–ONE SENSATION SPRUNG AT THE MURDER TRIAL.
—–
It Is the Attempt of One of the
Owners of the Standard Mine
to Compel the Witness to
Stick to His First Story.
—–Special Dispatch to The Call.
—–
WALLACE, Idaho, July 11.—In the trial of Paul Corcoran for the killing of James Cheyne the prosecution this morning called John Clark as a witness. Clark testified that he had been recording secretary of the Burke union, but had not attended the two meetings prior to the day of the riot. On that day he was at Mace, where the Standard mine is located, and when the train bearing the men from Burke came along he boarded it and went to Wardner. He went up into the town of Wardner and did not witness the lawless acts perpetrated on that day, but returned to Burke on the train which bore the returning rioters.
Witness said that when the train was nearing Wallace on the return trip he believed he saw the defendant sitting on top of a boxcar. At the time the witness testified before the Coroners jury he swore positively to the identity of the defendant, but since that time he had come to believe that he might be mistaken, and could not now identify Corcoran as being the man he saw on the car, although he had been acquainted with the defendant for more than three years.
The entire morning session was occupied with the examination of Clark. In the afternoon the same witness told of his whereabouts since the day of the riot. He had been arrested and confined in a barn then used as a prison [bullpen] until after he had testified before the inquest, after which he was released, but was rearrested three weeks ago and was now held in custody by order of the representatives of the Government.
Somewhat of a sensation was created by the witness stating that he had been taken into a private room immediately after being brought to Wallace from the bull pen yesterday and there interrogated by Mace Campbell of the firm of Finch & Campbell, owners of the Standard mine, who told him that he had better stick to the story he told before the Coroner’s inquest and positively identify the defendant. Clark said that he had not been approached by any one in the interest of the defendant, but now he doubted that he had seen the defendant on the day of the riot because of the facts which had come to his knowledge since that time.
Manager Burbidge of the Bunker Hill Company testified to the troubles between that company and its employes, as did Superintendent Burch, who was under cross-examination when court adjourned.
That the State authorities have not ceased persecuting men is shown by the fact that Commissioners Simmons and Boyle were confined all night in the jail, preparatory to being removed to the bull pen, from which they were saved for the present by a subpoena from the defense. Simmons had not been arrested prior to yesterday, and there is no charge against him.
Governor Steunenberg to-day appointed J. E. Gyde of Wardner, Scott Anderson of Wallace and Fynis Gordon of Delta County Commissioners to fill the places of the deposed members [elected County Commissioners]. Gordon is a rancher, Anderson a merchant and Gyde the local attorney for the Bunker Hill Company.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Note: the three duly elected Shoshone County Commissioners, who were disposed on orders of the Mine Owners for being too friendly to the miners, are: Moses Simmons, William Boyle, and William Stimson.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/3
The San Francisco Call
(San Francisco, California)
-July 12, 1899
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1899-07-12/ed-1/seq-4/
IMAGE
Paul Corcoran, Sec Burke ID Miners WFM, Hutton p186, pubd 1900
https://archive.org/details/coeurdalenesorta00hutt/page/186
See also:
The Coeur d’Alenes; or,
A Tale of the Modern Inquisition in Idaho
-by May Arkwright Hutton
Wallace ID, 1900
https://books.google.com/books?id=TnNNAAAAYAAJ
https://archive.org/details/coeurdalenesorta00hutt/page/n6
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008599073
Chp 19-“Railroaded to the Penitentiary.”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=TnNNAAAAYAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA182
Tag: Paul Corcoran
https://weneverforget.org/tag/paul-corcoran/
Tag: Coeur d’ Alene Miner’s Struggle of 1899
https://weneverforget.org/tag/coeur-d-alene-miners-struggle-of-1899/
Tag: Wardner ID Bullpen of 1899
https://weneverforget.org/tag/wardner-id-bullpen-of-1899/
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Working Man (The Miners Song) – David Alexander
Lyrics by Rita McNeil