Tag: Charles Kennison

Hellraisers Journal: “We all realize..if we open our mouths…we lay ourselves liable to the bullpen.”-Former Colorado Governor

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 23, 1904
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – Former Governor Fears Bull Pen

CO 1904 Striking Miners in Bullpen, Rastall p68, 1908

Things have come to quite a pass in the state of Colorado when even the former governor of that state suggests that he could end up in the military’s bullpen for expressing his opinion on military rule in the Cripple Creek District. Former Governor Charles S. Thomas is counsel for the Portland Gold Mining company, the mine recently closed down due to having committed the crime of employing too many union men. Governor Thomas, made this statement in Denver on June 14th:

We all realize that If we open our mouths about anything connected with Cripple Creek we lay ourselves liable to the bull pen or some other of the drastic measures that come under the head of military necessity.

Matters remain absolutely in statu quo. We have not decided fully as yet what course will be taken to reopen the mine. I suppose that if I talk too much I might get what Frank Hangs received. His only offense was acting as legal counsel for some men charged with crime several months ago. Perhaps if I should talk actively in regard to my client I might be burned at the stake.

Frank Hangs is the Attorney for the Western Federation of Miners who was arrested and taken to the military’s bullpen on Monday, June 13th. 

From The Omaha Daily Bee of June 15, 1904:

CITIZENS AFRAID TO SPEAK
———-
Former Governor Thomas of Colorado
Intimates Speech is Dangerous.
———-

DRASTIC MEASURES BY THE MILITARY
———-
Method In Vogue in the Mining Districts
Forces Men to Hold Their Silence
or Suffer Arrest.
———-

DENVER, June 14.-“I have nothing further to say about plans for reopening the Portland mine,” said former Governor Charles S. Thomas, counsel for the Portland Gold Mining company, today. “We all realize that if we open our mouths about anything connected with Cripple Creek we lay ourselves liable to the bull pen or some other of the drastic measures that come under the head of military necessity.

“Matters remain absolutely in statu quo. We have not decided fully as yet what course will be taken to reopen the mine. I suppose that if I talk too much I might get what Frank Hangs received. His only offense was acting as legal counsel for some men charged with crime several months ago. Perhaps If I should talk actively in regard to my client I might be burned at the stake.”

Test Kennison’s Arrest.

A hearing is to be given to C. G. Kennison, president of the Cripple Creek Engineers’ union. No. 82, and W. F. Davis, president of local Miners’ union, to test the legality of their arrest. The prisoners, who were arrested yesterday, will be taken back to Cripple Creek for trial if the court finds that they were legally arrested.

Eighty-seven warrants are out for miners who are accused of complicity in the explosion at the independence station and the rioting at Victor. These warrants have been placed in the hands of Under Sheriff Felix O’Nell here and will be given to his deputies to serve.

Leave Town to Avoid Arrest.

Among those wanted are the following: Sherman Harker, secretary of the Altman union, who was acquitted after having been held in the bull pen three months on the charge of having conspired to wreck a Florence and Cripple Creek train; B. L. Whiting, secretary of Engineers’ union No. 381 of Altman; Fritz Gorey and W. B. Easterly, members of unions in the district. It is said that some of the men for whom warrants have been issued in Teller county have left Denver for Butte, Mont., to avoid arrest and incarceration in the bull pen.

In each case the charge is murder based on the explosion of Monday morning of last week at Independence station. City Marshal L. S. Moore of Goldfield, who arrested President Kennison, said today:

I know all of the miners and have been their friend all along. I was a member of the union through the Bull Hill strike in 1894. I have sympathized with the union until the dynamiting and rioting.

Vice President J. C. Williams and Secretary W. D. Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners said today that the accused men were delegates to the federation’s convention and were in Denver at the time of the explosion. Officers of the federation have been requested by agents of the Mining exchange building to move the union headquarters from that building. The officers say this is petty spite work begun at the instance of the Citizens’ Alliance. They have numerous offers of quarters.

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Hellraisers Journal: Cripple Creek, Colorado-The Persecutions of Union Leaders Parker, Davis, Kennison and Foster Comes to End with Verdicts of Not Guilty

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 4, 1904
Cripple Creek, Colorado – Union Leaders Freed by “Not Guilty” Verdict

CO WFM Davis, Parker, Kennison, Foster, EFL 1904 p233, 234, RMN p8, Feb 26, 1904
W. F. Davis, Sherman Parker, C. G. Kennison, Thomas Foster
Leaders of Cripple Creek District of Western Federation of Miners

From The Denver Post of March 3, 1904
-Strike Leaders of Cripple Creek Freed by Jury:

Cripple Creek CO Strikers Freed by Jury, DP p1, 8, Mar 3, 1904

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Hellraisers Journal: Emma F. Langdon Reports on Cripple Creek Strike: Military Despotism, the Bullpen at Camp Goldfield

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Emma F Langdon, Miners Are My Brothers, EFL p244, 1904—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 12, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – The Military Bullpen at Camp Goldfield

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

[The Military Bullpen]

Victor Daily Record Staff in Bull Pen, EFL p153, 1904

Now I will invite the reader to take a trip to the military prison and see how fared the Record prisoners. 

These prisoners were marched unceremoniously to the bull pen. Armed thugs forced them into a filthy and squalid little tent, absolutely barren of furniture or bedding, where they were told to stay under penalty of having their heads blown off if they appeared an inch outside of the entrance.

The night was bitterly cold and on that frigid mountain side, under the intimidating guard of a horde of armed assassins, the working force of the Victor Record passed a night of torture equal to anything ever devised by the Spanish inquisitors. The entire force will bear testimony that the treatment accorded them was so inhuman and revolting as to surpass the belief of American citizens.

The “bull” tent had just been vacated by a number of drunken soldier prisoners, who had vomited all over the interior. The stench was sickening, but there they were forced to lay, without even so much as a gunny sack to protect them from the cold. Shortly after sunrise they were told to come to “breakfast.” Emerging from the filthy kennel they were escorted to the mess table a short distance away. A dozen guards kept them covered with guns loaded with riot ammunition while two grimy negro cooks dished out a little slop on tin plates and told them to eat. There were no knives, forks or spoons at hand. “Use your fingers,” said the head negro when remonstrance was made.

Beneath the table were a number of wash boilers and buckets filled with the accumulated garbage of several days and the stench arising therefrom was nauseating enough to insult the gizzard of a buzzard. It is quite needless to state that they had no appetite.

They returned to the tent hungrier and more distressed than ever. The day was raw and cold and they were chilled to the marrow. Faint and sick Mr. Richmond approached the captain of the guard and implored him for God’s sake to obtain some blankets. His appeal was cut short with an oath from that dignitary.

A little later a murderous looking gatling gun was drawn up, trained on the prisoner’s tent, and they were subjected to the nerve rending ordeal of posing as targets. The excitement attending this outrageous intimidation completely unnerved some of them. 

Attorney Tully Scott, formerly of Kansas, succeeded in getting them liberated through some legal procedure and after unwinding a few miles of military red tape the commanding general turned them over to Sheriff Robertson of Teller county, when for the first time they learned that they were defendants in a libel case. 

It was a deliberate plot to suppress a paper for telling the truth about the uniformed hirelings who were guilty of the outrages above mentioned.

The excuse for the taking of the Record force was that in the issue of the day before, there was an article of about six lines which referred to two tools of the mine owners as ex-convicts. It was learned that in the case of Vannick it was true, but Scanlon, with all his faults, had not, as yet worn the stripes. However, there was a correction coming out the following morning. The whole truth of the matter was that the military was watching every movement of the Record for a chance to raid the office. The real reason of the military raiding the office at that hour, was to suppress the official organ of the Western Federation of Miners. The district had only the one paper that stood up for the cause, and of course the enemy did not have a very warm feeling of friendship for the Record. The reader will at once realize that even had the editor been guilty of criminal libel the operators or the mechanical force could not legally be held responsible. But when the military endeavored to suppress the Record they reckoned without their host. Again the writer will quote: “The best laid plans o’ mice,” etc. The writer would advise the warrior Chase, when he again undertakes to suppress the press, to not only arrest the force at work, but every living printer in the county—and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to carefully guard the cemeteries, for the press is a hard game to beat—even by a warrior of the ability of Chase, as he has doubtless discovered.

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Hellraisers Journal: Emma F. Langdon Reports on Cripple Creek Strike: President of WFM’s Miners’ Union, No. 40, Arrested 

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 13, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – President Charles Kennison Arrested 

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

Charles G. Kennison Arrested

Emma F Langdon, EFL p8 of 274, 1904
Emma F. Langdon

Sept. 10 Chas. G. Kennison, president No. 40 Miners union, was arrested while riding on an early morning train. There was a number of men on the train on their way to work on some of the unfair mines. Kennison got into an argument with a man by the name of T. J. Sturdevant who was working on the El Paso and at that time was on his way to the mine. Sturdevant immediately became insulting to Kennison and finally struck him in the mouth and on the head. Kennison was reported to have drawn his revolver and attempted to strike Sturdevant over the head, when the gun caught in the bell cord in the car. Passengers on the car immediately interfered and stopped the trouble. Kennison got off the train at Elkton, where he was going, and attended to his business there and then went back to Cripple Creek and notified the sheriff’s office where they could get him. He made no attempt to get away or avoid arrest. General Bell had a detachment of militia out all the forenoon and part of the afternoon looking for Kennison. After he was placed in the county jail a detachment of troops was sent to investigate. They found him there but made no demand for him.

THEN CAME CONFLICT OF AUTHORITY.

Under Sheriff Gaughan said in relation to the matter that the military had no right to interfere with the procedure of the sheriff’s office and if they took Kennison into custody they would exceed their authority so far as he was informed. But as to authority, what authority had they in the district at all? This was only the “beginning of the end.”

Lieutenant Wahm, with a squad of six soldiers, rather surprised the miners at union headquarters in Cripple Creek by stationing his detail in front of the hall. Two of the men were deputed to go up stairs and make a search for the president of the union, but as he was not in evidence they soon repaired again to the street. Lieutenant Wahm was informed that a warrant had been sworn out by some person, unknown for the arrest of Kennison by the sheriff’s office and was asked if he would take Kennison in custody in any event.

“Certainly I will take him,” he answered, “even though he is released on bond. If he is not released on bond and is confined in the county jail I will go back to the camp and will secure sufficient force to get him anyhow.”

The Denver papers of Sept. 10 in speaking of the arrest of Mr. Kennison said in part:

C. G. Kennison, president of Miners’ Union No. 40, was arrested about noon today and placed in the county jail on the charge of carrying concealed weapons. In an interview with our correspondent he said:

“I am guilty of the offense charged. I carried a weapon for the sole purpose of defending my life. The guards at the El Paso mine said that they would stretch me up to an electric light pole. Manager Sam McDonald of the Strong and Gold King properties told me on Bennett avenue that I would be in my grave before the strike was over. I was brutally assaulted this morning and shamefully abused by a lot of scabs and I drew a revolver in defense of my life. I do not care to say any more about the matter at the present time. No, I am not a deputy sheriff. I had a commission but I surrendered it some days ago.”

Deputy District Attorney Cole, when told of the bull pen that had been established at Camp Goldfield said: “It is perfectly outrageous and General Bell has no warrant of law for arresting people and detaining them without a warrant. I shall look into the matter officially at once.”

Kennison was released Sept. 11 at 4 o’clock from the county jail on bond. The charge against him was assault with intent to kill. He gave bond in the amount of $500. Mr. Kennison was in jail just a day when released. The men who assaulted him were never arrested the reader will take note of that fact.

[Emphasis added.]

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