Tag: Margaret Means

Hellraisers Journal: Gilson Gardner: Mothers and Babes Locked Up in Rat Infested Jail at Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, PA Strike Greensburg Women Sing Jail, Ab p146, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 22, 1911
Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Mothers and Babes Locked Up in Rat-Infested Jail

From the Arkansas Democrat of June 20, 1911:

MOTHERS AND BABES TO JAIL
———-
In Famous Westmoreland Coal Strike,
Which Has Been in Progress Nearly
18 Months, Company is Said to be
Taking Severe Steps to End Trouble.
———-

(By Gilson Gardner.)

PA Miners Strike Westmoreland Women n Babies in Jail crpd by G Gardner, Ark Dem p6, June 20, 1911

Greensburg, Pa.-(Staff Special.)-The famous Westmoreland coal strike, which has been in progress nearly a year and a half, has reached a new stage. To win, the coal companies now find it necessary to send mothers with babes and little girls to the county bastile.

A little crippled girl, 14 years old, was sitting on the front porch of her home when the village scab went by on his way from work. The little girl began to laugh at the scab and to sing, “Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown?” For this the town constable, Pat McDonough, in behalf of the Westmoreland Coal Company, swore out a warrant and had it served by the deputy constable. The little crippled girl was arrested, taken to Irwin, a village two miles away, where she was brought up before the local justice of the peace-“Squire” H. L. Meeroff. Tho squire found the cripple girl guilty of “breaking the peace” and sentenced her to the county jail for 20 days. So the prisoner was taken 10 miles to Greensburg, where she was locked up in a jail provided for hardened criminals.

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Hellraisers Journal: Miners’ Wives, with Babes in Arms, Arrested for Serenading Scabs, Sing on Their Way to Jail

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, PA Strike Greensburg Women Sing Jail, Ab p146, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 4, 1911
Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Miners’ Wives Sing on Their Way to Jail

From the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader of June 2, 1911:

MINERS’ WIVES ARE JAILED WHEN
THEY SHOUT AT WORKERS
———-
Eleven Torn from Families on Complaint of
Coal Company Officials at Greensburg. 
———-

TWO WERE CARRYING BABES 
—–
Prisoners Will Have to Spend Thirty Days
in Jail Unless Judge Changes Mind.
—–

PA Miners Strike Westmoreland Irwin Greensburg, Women Sing Jail, Ptt Dly Pst p4, June 2, 1911

GREENSBURG, Pa., June 2.-With tearful faces, but defiant in their stand for their husbands, who are striking miners in the Irwin coal fields, eleven women were torn from their husbands and children, who had accompanied them to the Westmoreland county jail, and locked up to serve thirty-day sentences, imposed for disorderly conduct.

The women are from Westmoreland City, and it was alleged by the prosecutors, who are officers of the coal company, that the women had made the night hideous for the inhabitants with their shouting and had been a menace to the men who were working for the company [scabs].

They were arrested on warrants issued before Squire H. A. Meerhoff, of Irwin, who sentenced them.

Two of the prisoners, Mrs. Margaret Means and Mrs. Dot Smith, carried babies in their arms. A crowd gathered around the jail when it became known that a band of strikers wives were being locked up.

Judge A. D. McConnell ordered twenty strikers who were brought before him from Latrobe and Bradenville, charged by the Latrobe Connellsville Coke Company with violating the court’s injunction, to pay the costs or stand committed. They were also ordered to remove their camp at Superior No. 2 within the next five days or be sent to jail.

This is the second bunch of strikers who were ordered to pay the costs for violating the court’s injunction issued a year ago restraining them from marching “by or near” company property. There is some talk among the United Mine Workers of making an appeal from the court’s decision, especially in the matter of ordering them to remove their camp, which is located on private property which they have leased.

—————

[Newsclip added from Pittsburg Post of June 2, 1911]

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