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Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 1, 1920
New Kensington, Pennsylvania – Monument Erected for Mine Workers’ Martyrs
From the United Mine Workers Journal of October 1, 1920:
A beautiful monument was unveiled in memory of the late Fannie Sellins and Joe Starzeleski at their graves in Union Cemetery, New Kensington , Pa., Sunday, September 12, 1920.
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 29, 1920
United Mine Workers to Honor Fannie Sellins and Joe Starzeleski
From The Pittsburgh Post of August 26, 1920:
Memorial Planned
—–Organized Labor to Honor
Mrs. Sellins and Strezleski.
Organized labor in the Allegheny valley is planning to observe the first anniversary of the deaths of Mrs. Fannie Sellins, organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, and John Strezloski, a miner, which occurred August 26, 1919, during a battle between strikers and deputies at the mine of the Allegheny Coal Company in West Natrona, by the dedication of a granite monument in New Kensington, Monday, September 6, it was announced yesterday by J. H. Munn of Tarentum, president of the Allegheny Valley Trades Council.
The dedication of the memorial will be preceded by a parade in which more than 8,000 workers from various Western Pennsylvania towns are expected to march. The monument, which cost more than $2,500, was bought by members of the United Mine Workers of America throughout the United States.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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From The Woman Today of September 1936:
Fannie Sellins
-by Lillian Henry
Gold flows down the Alleghany [Allegheny] and Monongahela Rivers and up the Ohio river to coffers in tall buildings in downtown Pittsburgh. There is a steady stream from the coal mines and steel mills-from the coal mines and the steel mills-from the plants of Jones and Laughlin, Bethlehem Steel, Carnegie, U. S. Steel, Alleghany Steel, Alleghany Valley Coal. These and many other sources fill the banks and strong boxes in Pittsburgh.
Blood has flowed along these rivers-shed at the command of the owners of the strong boxes in tall buildings, and one of their victims was Fannie Sellins, mother of four children.
Fannie Sellins’ grave stands in New Kensington on the Alleghany River. The tombstone, erected by the United Mine Workers of District No. 5, stands as a monument to those “killed by the enemies of organized labor”.
We went to see Fannie Sellins’ daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Broad, to learn about the life of this heroic woman.
[Said the former
Dorothy Sellins:]My father died when I was two years old, and mother went to work in a garment factory in St. Louis to support her four children. We all come from the South.
Grandfather was a painter-had a regular job painting Mississippi River boats. He used to take mother and the children around to union meetings. I’ve heard union talk ever since I was a baby.
Mother worked hard to organize, not only the men, but also their women. She used to go around to the women to tell them how important it was for them to organize. She was jailed for six months in West Virginia for doing that.
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 28, 1919
West Natrona, Pennsylvania – Fannie Sellins & Joe Starzeleski Murdered
From the Pittsburgh Gazette Times of August 27, 1919:
Note: We caution our readers to remember that the enemies of organized labor, through the kept press, are often the first to tell the story of labor disturbances. Already, the day after the murders of Mrs. Sellins and Joe Starzeleski, we find the kept press charging that the two died in a “mine riot.” Other accounts, from the strikers side, indicate that there was no riot until Deputized Coal and Iron Gunthugs attacked Miner Starzeleski. When Fannie attempted to save him, she was beaten and shot. We will continue to report on this story that the truth may be told of the deaths of these two labor martyrs.
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Two persons, one of them Mrs. Fannie Sellins, organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, secretary of the Allegheny Valley Trades Council and a woman labor worker of national repute, were shot to death and five others wounded in a strike riot at the entrance of the Allegheny Coal and Coke Company near Brackenridge late yesterday.
THE DEAD
Mrs Sellins, aged 49, of New Kensington: shot in the head and instantly killed.
Joseph Strzelecki [Starzeleski], aged 58, of West Natrona, a miner: shot in the head and instantly killed.
