Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 6, 1904 Denver, Colorado – Governor Peabody Plots to Hold On to Power
This week’s Duluth Labor World sounds the warning:
Governor-Elect Adams
Colorado is resting over a political volcano. Everyone is on the qui vive and following closely, and in most cases bitterly, the extraordinary antics of the [Colorado] Supreme Court.
Governor Peabody continues his machinations with the assistance of the Court to thwart the will of the people of the State of Colorado. The election of Alva Adams, Democrat, by a plurality of 11,000 votes has not deterred Peabody from his quest to hold onto power.
The latest twist in the plot involves the unseating of three Senators who have been elected from areas of the state where strikes have been conducted during the past year.
From The Labor World of December 3, 1904:
PEABODY’S PLOT TO
HOLD COLORADO GROWS
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“Czar” Seeks to Unseat Three Senators
Who Were elected From Strike Centers.
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Colorado Resting On Political Volcano
Outbreak Is Momentarily Expected.
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Governor Peabody
Denver, Col., Dec. 1.-The rounding out of the Peabody plot to retain the Gubernatorial chair was developed more clearly today by the renewed trial of men charged with contempt. Precinct Eight of Ward Five was the scene of operations. The men arraigned are prominent Democrats-Frank Kratke, Edward O’Mally, Joseph Ray and Charles Kofsky.
The defendants, half an hour before, were arraigned before the United States Commissioner charged with violating the federal laws in regard to the election. The commissioners postponed their hearings until the Supreme Court should pass upon the charges of contempt against them.
The trend is more and more toward a situation wherein the spectacle will be presented of two Governors ruling the same state.
At Pueblo the grand jury will begin consideration of the alleged Republican frauds tomorrow.
A banquet will be given here tomorrow night in honor of Adams’ election, and next day the Republicans will ask the Supreme Court to begin throwing out Democratic precincts.
Colorado is resting over a political volcano. Everyone is on the qui vive and following closely, and in most cases bitterly, the extraordinary antics of the Supreme Court.
Each hearing of cases by that body develops in which direction the efforts of the Republicans are tending, indicating what returns are to be attacked and what valuable precincts are to be thrown out.
To Control Senate.
Upon the face of the returns received from every county in the state, the Democrats elected ten members of the State Senate, without counting any of the members from this county. These, with the nine holdover Democratic Senators, would give that party the control of the Senate.
The Peabody managers have daily asserted that they would be able to organize the Senate. The basis of their claims was not apparent until yesterday when they announced that they contemplated unseating Martin of Pueblo, Ward of Boulder and maybe Beshoar of Trinidad, all Democrats.
The state canvassing board is looked to to do the work. The official canvass in Boulder County was completed several days ago and showed the re-election of Senator Ward by a small majority. No charge of fraud was made in that county until yesterday. In Las Animas County the canvass showed that Dr. Beshoar was elected if every contested ballot were counted for Barela. In Pueblo [County] the official canvass is not competed, but both sides concede that it will show Mr. Martin’s election. It is not charged that Mr. Martin’s supporters committed fraud, but the Peabody managers assert that Republicans voted for him and this is to be made the ground of contest.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 9, 1914
Colorado Coalfield War – Don MacGregor Lays Down His Pen and Picks Up a Gun
April 27-29, 1914 – Battle of the Hogback Above Walsenburg
Don MacGregor Leads the Redneck Miners’ Army
Striking Miners at Camp Beshoar, Ready for Battle
The Battle of the Hogback between the strikers and the mine guards raged for three days on the ridge above Walsenburg with losses reported on both sides. The Hogback extends west from the northern edge of downtown Walsenburg. Here the miners were led by Don MacGregor, dressed in “top boots and bandoliers.” From their position on the Hogback striking miners attacked the Walsen Mine and the mines near Toltec and Picton. They established their headquarters at the Toltec Union Hall.Sheriff Farr declined to participate in the battle. He and his guards barricaded themselves within the granite courthouse as the miners took control of parts of Walsenburg, including 7th Street. The miners ran supplies from there out along the Hogback to their embattled comrades.
Don MacGregor, Reporter for the Denver Express
We can only speculate as to what caused MacGregor to lay down his pen to join the fight of the miners. He had been covering the strike from the beginning for the pro-union Denver Express. He was there that first day of blowing rain and snow as the evicted miners and their families came down from the hills and began to set up camp at the Ludlow Tent Colony. He reported:
No one who did not see that exodus can imagine its pathos. The exodus from Egypt was a triumph, the going forth of a people set free. The exodus of the Boers from Cape Colony was the trek of a united people seeking freedom.
But this yesterday, that wound its bowed, weary way between the coal hills on the one side and the far-stretching prairie on the other, through the rain and the mud, was an Exodus of woe, of a people leaving known fears for new terrors, a hopeless people seeking new hope, a people born to suffering going forth to new suffering.
And they struggled along the roads interminably. In an hour’s drive between Trinidad and Ludlow, 57 wagons were passed, and others seemed to be streaming down to the main road from every by-path.
Every wagon was the same, with its high piled furniture, and its bewildered woebegone family perched atop. And the furniture! What a mockery to the state’s boasted riches. Little piles of rickety chairs. Little piles of miserable looking straw bedding. Little piles of kitchen utensils. And all so worn and badly used they would have been the scorn of any second-hand dealer on Larimer Street.
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