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.
You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday February 19, 1914 Trinidad, Colorado – Mary Petrucci Testifies on “Insults” to Women
Men, Women and Children at Ludlow Tent Colony
During the afternoon session of February 17th, the Congressional Investigating Committee heard testimony from Mary Petrucci, a resident of the Ludlow Tent Colony. Few, if any, newspapers seem interested in the plight of the women at the hands of soldiers, especially after their husbands are taken away by these very same militiamen. We, therefore, offer the entire testimony of Mrs. Petrucci as a small glimpse into the lives of the coal mining women as they cope with the military occupation authorized by Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado.
———-
Testimony of Mary Petrucci
-afternoon session, Tuesday February 17th, Trinidad.
Mary Petrucci was called as a witness, and having been first duly sworn testified as follows:
Direct examination by Mr. Clark [Attorney for the Miners]:
Q. State your name ? — A. Mary Petrucci.
Q. Where do you live ? — A. At Ludlow.
Q. In the tent colony?— A. Yes, sir.
Q. I will ask you if, at any time recently, and about when, you attempted to come to Trinidad on the 6.10 morning train — A. On the 1st day of February it was in the morning, and I come to take the train for Trinidad, and my sister was sick.
Q. You say your sister was sick ? — A. Yes, sir; my sister was sick.
Q. And who, if anyone, was with you, and did you have any children with you or not? — A. Yes; I had two babies.
Q. How old were they?— A. One 4 months, the other one 2 years old.
Q. Was your husband with you ? — A. Yes, sir.
Q. How many people tried to board the train that morning ? -A. There were two from the tent colony and they were stopped there by the soldiers.
Q. Was there a big crowd there that morning? — A. Not so very.
Q. How many? — A. Oh, about two.
Q. Two or three people besides yourself and your family ? — A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now, what happened — you say you were stopped?— A. Yes, sir; we went to go to the depot and the soldiers told us that we couldn’t come to town this morning, and we asked them why, and they told us they didn’t know why; and the other woman asked them if they wanted to come to see the doctor, and they had to come to telephone to the headquarters of the militia here in Trinidad, and they let them pass and we had to turn back.
Q. Did you talk to the brakeman or the conductor about it? — A. When we were turning back, he asked us what was the matter, and I told him the soldiers would not let us go to the depot, and he asked us why and I told him I didn’t know, and he told me to get onto the last coach, and the soldier says, “Halt, before you get a bullet in you.”
Q. What was it he said ? — A. Before I got a bullet in me.
Q. Did you have your babies with you at that time ? — A. Yes, and my baby very nearly frozen.
Sept 15, 1913 – Trinidad, Colorado
Convention of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America
The delegates opened their convention by singing The Battle Cry of Union:
We will win the fight today, boys,
We’ll win the fight today,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union;
We will rally from the coal mines,
We’ll fight them to the end,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.
The Union forever, hurrah boys, hurrah!
Down with the Baldwins and up with the law;
For we’re coming, Colorado, we’re coming all the way,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.
The miners faced the grim prospect of going out on strike against the powerful southern coalfield companies, chief among them, John D Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. The coal operators had steadfastly refused to recognize the Union and had ignored all attempts at negotiation.
The miners had had their fill of dangerous working conditions, crooked checkweighmen, long hours, and low pay. They lived in peonage in company towns, were paid in company scrip, and were forced to shop for their daily needs in high-priced company stores which kept them always in debt. But, mostly they hated the notorious company guard system. Every attempt to organize had been met with brutality on the part of the coal operators.
Mother Jones addressed the convention for over an hour, urging the men to:
Rise up and strike! …Strike and stay with it as we did in West Virginia. We are going to stay here in Southern Colorado until the banner of industrial freedom floats over every coal mine. We are going to stand together and never surrender…
Pledge to yourselves in this convention to stand as one solid army against the foes of human labor. Think of the thousands who are killed every year and there is no redress for it. We will fight until the mines are made secure and human life valued more than props. Look things in the face. Don’t fear a governor; don’t fear anybody…You are the biggest part of the population in the state. You create its wealth, so I say, “Let the fight go on; if nobody else will keep on, I will.”
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 17, 1919
Mother Jones News for April 1919, Part II
-Found Speaking in Peoria, Illinois
On Sunday April 6th, Mother Jones spoke at the Peoria Coliseum on behalf of Tom Mooney. She shared the stage with Duncan MacDonald and T. H. Tippett, both of whom also delivered addresses.
Sunday April 6, 1919, Peoria, IL
Mother Jones Speaks at “Mooney Day” Event
Friends, fellow workers, we are living today in the greatest age the world has ever passed through in human history. The whole world is ablaze with revolt. The uprising among the unfortunate workers is suppressed in the daily press. I took a clipping while in New York the other day, out the New York World, which said that the human race has never in human history passed through an age like this.
There was once back in Greece, a young man, two hundred years after the world’s greatest agitator was marred, crucified, hung, maligned, vilified, by the powers there. There arose in Carthage an agitation and the courts became uneasy. They sent down to Carthage in those days a force that arrested all those who were in the agitation movement which was eighteen hundred years ago. We have not changed the program very much since. We have talked a lot about Christianity, but we have never seen any Christianity yet. There has never been any Christianity on the earth and there is not going to be any for a while yet! They held them in slavery or sold them, if they did not need them, and so, they brought them into court.
Among those was a young man and the judge said to him “Who ar you?” He said, “I am a man,” a member of the human family. The judge asked, “Why do you carry on this agitation” The boy replied, “Because I belong to a class that in human history have always been crucified, robbed, murdered, jailed, maligned, vilified, starved and because I belong to that class, I feel it is my duty to awaken that class to their power and their duty.” He was sentenced, of course.
Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 7, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado – Magnificent Monument Unveiled on Memorial Day
The unveiling described:
Mrs. Mary Pertucci [Petrucci], who lost three of her children in the massacre, unveiled the monument while the great crowd of miners and sympathizers paid their silent respect to the memory of the dead.
On the barren plain where once stood the humble tent colony of the Ludlow strikers, the monument towers, an impressive landmark. Down through the years that are to come it will mark the scene of a dastardly crime. More eloquently than any spoken word it will tell the tragic story of the poor murdered women and the innocent babes of Ludlow who died for democracy.
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 2, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado -United Mine Workers Remembers the Martyrs
From The Fur Workers of June 1, 1918:
MONUMENT AT LUDLOW
Ludlow, Col.,-A magnificent monument was dedicated here May 30, by the United Mine Workers in honor of the 33 men, women and children who were killed by a detachment of the Colorado state militia on April 20, 1914. The militia were gunmen imported into the state by the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, a Rockefeller subsidiary.
The miners and their families had been evicted from their homes by the coal company and were living in tents when they were fired upon by the thugs, who afterwards burned the tents. The United Mine Workers later purchased the site of the tent colony and erected the monument.
At the base of the monument is the figure of a worker, upstanding and resolute, while beside him is the figure of a woman clutching a babe. On the monument is this inscription:
In memory of the men, women and children who lost their lives in freedom’s cause at Ludlow, Colorado, April 20, 1914. Erected by the United Mine workers of America.
I can’t have my babies back.
But perhaps when everybody knows about them,
something will be done to make the world
a better place for all babies.
At least, I like to think so.
It is the only thing which gives me any comfort.
-Mary Petrucci
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 20, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado – Monument to be Unveiled on Hollowed Ground
Let it be recorded in the annals of organized labor that those who perished on Ludlow field on the 20th day of April, 1914, died for a great cause, and let us who now do honor to their memory, so live and act that they may not have died in vain.
From the United Mine Workers Journal of May 16, 1918:
IN REMEMBRANCE
On the 20th day of April, 1914, the darkest chapter in the industrial life of America was written.
On the field of Ludlow, Colo., a tented city had been erected by the United Mine Workers of America to house the striking miners and their families after they had been evicted from their homes by the coal company gunmen at the commencement of the great strike in the southern coal fields.
Under the leadership of one E. K. Linderfeldt, a detachment of the Colorado state militia that had been recruited from gunmen imported into Colorado by the Rockefeller and other large coal corporations, deliberately planned the dastardly deed of shooting up and exterminating the peaceful tent colony at Ludlow. On Monday, April 20, 1914, the unspeakable crime was committed, and 33 men, women and children were brutally slain and their poor tented homes were burned to the ground.
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 7, 1915 New York City – Mrs. Petrucci Tells Harrowing Story of Ludlow Massacre
On Wednesday morning, February 3rd, Mrs. Mary Petrucci sat listening to Mr. Jerome Greene, Secretary of the the Rockefeller Foundation, give his testimony before the Commission on Industrial Relations. She heard this man speak of the vast amounts of money donated to worthy causes by the foundation bearing the name of the man who controls the condition under which the Colorado miners and their families work and live. Pennsylvania’s New Castle Herald described her response to that testimony:
“The Rockefeller way of philanthropy,” he said, “is a far better way than if he [Mr. Rockefeller] were to blow it in on his own amusement or give his money away in an ostentatious manner.”
Mrs. Mary Petrucci seated in the front row, threw her arms about Mother Jones and, in an audible whisper, said:
My God! What do you think of that, and we and our families facing starvation in Colorado.
That afternoon, Mrs. Petrucci followed Mrs. Dominiski to the witness stand and recalled that terrible day when her three youngest children perished in the Ludlow Massacre. Her eldest had died just a few weeks earlier of illness.She described fleeing her burning tent, carrying the baby and pulling her little daughter by the hand while her four year old son ran along behind:
Well, in the evening when the fire started I came out of my tent; it was all on fire, and I came out of my tent, and as I was coming out of my tent under that tank there was a lot of militiamen, and I was running out and hollering with my three children, and they hollered at me to get out of the way and they were shooting at me and I ran into this place [the cellar where the children died].
She awoke early the next morning and made her way to the Ludlow depot, and from there to Trinidad. She lay ill with pneumonia for the next nine days, and only when she recovered did she learn that all of her little children were dead.
—————
—————
———-
———
———-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
