Hellraisers Journal: “Fifteen Men Plunge to Death Down 1500-Foot Victor Mine Shaft; Engineer Lost Control of His Engine and Cable Broke at Top of Wheel”

28th January 202429th January 2024 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 28, 1904
Victor, Colorado – Disaster at Independence Mine Claims Fifteen Lives

From The Denver Post of January 26, 1904:

Wednesday January 27, 1904 – Victor, Colorado
– Horror at Stratton’s Independence Mine

A horrific accident occurred at about 2:30 a. m. Tuesday January 26th at the Independence mine when Engineer Gellese was not able to control the engine he was running. A cage carrying sixteen men hit the sheave wheel hurling the men inside to their deaths.

Mrs. Emma F. Langdon reports from Victor:

The victims were mostly men of family, and a majority of them were new men in the district. Early in the morning hundred of people rushed to the mine to ascertain if their relatives were among the victims…the military were hastened immediately to the scene and took complete control, not even allowing press representatives near enough to gain facts. As near as the writer could learn particulars they are as follows:

Frank T. Gellese, engineer from Cour D’Alene, was on duty during the night and had experienced no difficulty with his engine, he stated, and at 2:30 he started to hoist the machine men from the sixth, seventh and eighth levels. Sixteen men were on the cage and started for the top. At the seventh level the men noticed that the cage was acting peculiar, and it appeared as if the engineer had lost control of it as it advanced in an unsteady manner. They soon reached the top and were hoisted about six feet above the collar of the shaft and suddenly lowered about thirty feet, then up they went to the sheave wheel and the disastrous accident was the result.

It is believed that the men were thrown against the top of the cage, from the force of the sudden stop, that they were knocked unconscious and knew but little, if anything, after that took place; that in the drop of the cage the speed was so rapid that through the force of the air pressure they were thrown out against the walls of the shaft, which caused them to be literally torn to pieces. When the cage struck the sheave wheel it not only threw Bullock (the only one saved) out, but also threw out a man by the name of Jackson and killed him.

No one aside from the engineer saw the accident. A miner stepped into the shaft house just after the the accident and saw a number of hats laying around. He then looked up and saw Jackson in the timbers with the sheave wheel on top of him.

The military and Manager Cornish were immediately notified and hastened to the mine. Engineer Gellese was arrested and held for investigation.

The remainder of the force, numbering about 200 men in the mine, were obliged to be taken out on a small cage that would accommodate but two men at a time, and they did not all succeed in getting out until about 6 a. m.

Most of the men killed fell to the sump below and it was twenty-four hours before all the bodies could be found. There were portions of them found from the top to the 1,400 foot level The bodies were almost all beyond recognition, heads, legs and arms being torn from the trunks. It was a gruesome sight.

[Emphasis added.]

Coroner Doran will convene a coroner’s jury to investigate the cause of the accident. The Mine Owners’ Association and the Citizens’ Alliance are already spreading rumors placing the blame upon the striking miners of the Western Federation of Miners.

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: The Denver Post: “Siberian Exiling Scenes Re-Enacted at Telluride” and News from Cripple Creek

20th January 202424th January 2024 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 20, 1904
News from Colorado Strike Zones of Telluride and Cripple Creek

From The Denver Post of January 15, 1904:

SIBERIAN EXILING SCENES.

Telluride, Colo., Jan. 15-Tears, curses, maledictions and prayers were heard at the depot this morning when the train pulled out of the station having on board six union miners, who were being deported by the military. The men were given breakfast early, the meal being served from the Sheridan hotel, after which the wife of one of them was reluctantly permitted to visit her husband in jail. At 8 o’clock a bunch of blue-coats, under the command of Captain Scholz, marched to the court house and the prisoners were taken to the county jail and formed into line, ready for the march to the station.

A woman with a small child attempted to fall in line with her husband, but was brutally prevented by the soldiers, who forced her back on the sidewalk. With a face drawn with bitter agony and grief she endeavored to keep up with the soldiers as they marched down the streets, but the prisoners had reached the train long before she had gone a block.

At the depot the men were immediately put aboard the train and two soldiers stationed at the car windows. The relatives of the men were allowed to talk to them, and for a moment the air was filled with tearful good-byes and well wishes.

Fifteen minutes before the signal was given to start three women came running down the track. One of them , a Mabel Marchinado, a mere girl, hardly 17 years old, weeping bitterly, rushed over the icy platform to the window in which one of the men was sitting, and exclaimed: “oh, papa, what are they going to do with you?”

Her father, Tony Marchinado, endeavored to comfort her, but the girl continued sobbing pitifully. The sympathy of the entire crowd at the depot went out to this girl, and some turned away. Then the soldiers ordered her to move on.

The girl suddenly ceased weeping and, turning to those standing, and in a voice loud enough for the military to hear, said: “I think it’s living shame for men living in this country to be treated in such a manner.” She was not arrested.

The woman with the small child in the meantime reached the depot almost exhausted. She purchased a ticket and boarded the train on which her husband was about to be sent into exile. She cried bitterly and her baby was blue with cold. “I am too sick to work and look after our baby alone, and I am going with my husband, if it means the jail.” she moaned. If ever volumes of mute sympathy went out from a crowd, it went out greater as she bent down her head and fondly kissed the lips of her offspring, in vain endeavor to hush its cries from the biting cold. It was by far the saddest incident yet recorded in the military occupation of Telluride and the subsequent deportation of striking miners…

[Emphasis added.]

The names of the six deported men are: Tony Marchinado, Tony Sartoris, Louis Sartoris, F. W. Wells, Matt Lingol and Battiste Monchiando.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mass Arrests of Union Men Follows Upon Vindicator Explosion; Military Seizes Miners at Altman, Independence and Victor

27th November 202327th November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 27, 1903
Colorado Military Arrests Striking Miners at Altman, Independence and Victor

From The Rocky Mountain News of November 24, 1903:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mass Arrests of Union Men Follows Upon Vindicator Explosion; Military Seizes Miners at Altman, Independence and Victor” →

Hellraisers Journal: Major McClelland of Colorado: “To Hell With the Constitution, We Are Going by the Governor’s Orders.”

13th October 202313th October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 13, 1903
Major McClelland Explains Military Despotism in the Cripple Creek Strike Zone

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

“TO HELL WITH THE CONSTITUTION.”

“To hell with the constitution. We are going by the governor’s orders,” said Major McClelland, acting judge advocate and counsel for the military authorities, according to the statement of Attorney John M. Glover [published in the Victor Daily Record of October 4th]:

I was in the office of District Attorney Trowbridge when Tom McClelland and Willis V. Elliott were preparing information against Editor Kyner for libel. Referring to the seizure of the office of the Victor Record, I said to McClelland, “Your people apparently have not much respect for the constitution. That was a blow at the freedom of the press,” to which McClelland replied: “To h— with the constitution. We are going by the governor’s orders.” To which I replied: “We will have some of you fellows pleading for your liberty before a jury where the governor’s orders don’t go.” McClelland replied: “We will take care of that when we come to it.” Elliot was present and heard this conversation.”

Immediately upon the appearance of the foregoing, McClelland denied that he made the remark that he was not going by the constitution, which at once brought forth the following from Mr. Glover:

Cripple Creek, Colo.,
Oct. 5, 1903.

Editor of the Daily Record, Victor, Colo.:

Dear Sir:—The conversation reported in your issue of October 4, as having occurred between Thomas McClelland, judge advocate of the National Guard and myself, took place explicitly and exactly as stated by your correspondent. My version of the matter will be accepted by the people of this section and by any jury before which McClelland shall be tried. I repeat that this conversation took place in the immediate presence and hearing of Willis V. Elliott, also an officer of the National Guard, and I cherish the hope that Mr. Elliott has too much regard for his honor and his uniform to join in McClelland’s denial.

Very truly yours,
JOHN M. GLOVER

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

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

12th October 202312th October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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]

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: Force of Victor Daily Record Kidnapped by Military

11th October 202312th October 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 11, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – Victor Daily Record Kidnapped

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

The Victor Daily Record Kidnapped.

Tuesday night Sept. 29, at 11:05, the busiest hour on a morning paper, the Victor Daily Record, which had espoused the cause of the striking miners, was raided by the militia, and the entire force at work was “captured.” The linotypes were humming, ‘‘catching the elevator” on every line, the foreman was fuming and “rushing,” proofs, for “first side down” and first “forms” must go to “press” at 11:30. Suddenly the door of the composing room flew open and in stalked Tom McClelland with the air of a “conquering hero,” followed by a file of yaping yokels dressed in the garb of soldiers and armed to the teeth. “Halt!” yelled the fierce Tom. “Ground arms!” “Fix bayonets!” “guard the entrances!”

“What the h——!” says the foreman, “having a fit?”

The operators merely shifted quids, “brought down” a period and ‘‘sent in” the line.

“Private——— step forward!” roared “Thomas of the shining tin,” “identify the force!’’ A long, lank specimen of the genius homo, red headed, with a scraggly, three week’s growth of red fuzz that might have developed into red whiskers, had the soil from which they sprouted been fertile, shuffled from the ranks and in a hang-dog manner pointed his grimy finger at the foreman and the two linotype operators. This aforesaid specimen had been in the office the night before and had claimed to be a printer; and from his conversation he might have been at some time a janitor in a “print shop” or roller washer in a press room—but printer—oh, no. He was informed in plain, understandable English that if he had business to make it known, if not, conversation was a waste of time. He left and the “force’’ all said, “we’re spotted for the ‘bull pen’ sure.”

“You’re all prisoners of war!” bellowed Thomas, but the “mills” kept “turning over.” ‘Get up!” hissed the major of majestic mein.

“Who the —— are you?” calmly gurgled one of the operators.

“I’m Major Thomas E. McClelland, of the Colorado National guard!”

“Oh, my! does it hurt so very much?” In pitying accents from the operator, my husband [Charles G. Langdon].

“Sergeant seize that man!” gasped Thomas of the guard.

The “sergeant” pushed a wicked looking bayonet towards the operator’s neck and he had to “send in” a “short line.”

Mr. Kyner, the managing editor, then stepped into the composing room and asked what was wanted. McClelland stated that he had arrested the “force” and wanted him, too. ‘‘All right,’ said Mr. Kyner, “I guess you have me.”

“Me too.” said Mr. Sweet, the circulator.

That’s all,” said the “genius homo.”

“Well, it’s a clean sweep,” said Mr. Kyner, “May I telephone my wife?”

“You’ll have to hurry,” quoth pompous Mac.

“Who’ll get out the paper?” asked Richmond, the foreman.

“McClelland laughed and said, ‘“‘We’ll send printers down from the camp and get it out for you.”

“Oh no you won’t,” said Richmond, “It takes printers, and printers don’t bunch in your corral.”

With that the Record force was marched to the “bull pen” under an “honorary” guard of two companies of infantry, two troops of cavalry and, perhaps, the gatling gun, (late of Wyoming.)

At that time I was at home in bed and Mrs. Kyner came to my home and rapped at the door. I opened the door and she asked me if I had heard the latest. I replied that I evidently had not, and she informed me of the arrest of the Record force, and asked, “What shall we do?”

“Do!” said I, “get out the paper of course.” “Just the thing,” said plucky Mrs. Kyner. “I’ll notify Mr. Miller,” and away she flew in the darkness. We realized instantly that a strong effort had been made to suppress the liberty of the press, and determined forthwith that the entire military force of Colorado should not keep the Record from making its appearance as usual.

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Hellraisers Journal: Editorial from The Rocky Mountain News: “Adjutant General Sherman Bell should be relieved and removed from command of the troops at Cripple Creek.”-Dangerous and Unfit

29th September 202329th September 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 29, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – General Bell Unfit for Command

From The Rocky Mountain News of September 14, 1903:

Editorial Page:

BELL SHOULD BE REMOVED

ADJUTANT GENERAL SHERMAN BELL should be relieved and removed from command of the troops at Cripple Creek. His mental characteristics are such as to make him an unsafe and even dangerous person to hold that position. This has been shown by his conduct since he went to the district in his disregard of the law and the most ordinary rights of citizens.

The troops have been used to make domiciliary visits, to enter peaceable meetings by force of arms and to make arrests without warrant or indictment and without giving information to the persons arrested or to the public of the reasons of the arrests. Some even are being held forcibly in durance without charge of any kind against them.

Granting that the governor was sincere in the belief that the troops were necessary in the district, his first great mistake was to consent that the cost of sending them should be paid by one of the parties to the controversy. The officer in command looks upon himself and his troops as in a sense the employees of that party, and it is not to be doubted that the mine owners have driven Bell to do illegal acts which have marked his sway. He and they protest that there is no martial law; while martial law prevails in fact almost to the last extreme. When men are arrested and place in confinement without charges against them, solely by the order of the general commanding, it is martial law.

The troops of the state when called out on such occasion, should act solely as assistants to the civil authorities in preserving the peace. The officer in command has no right whatever to undertake to set aside civil authority and make his own whims the sole law.

The officer in command in Cripple Creek should be calm, self-controlled and responsible, and as Bell is not qualified in any of those particulars, the governor should repair, so far as possible, the harm already done by removing him at once. A man of demonstrated unfitness should not occupy a place of such great trust at a time when so much is involved as is the case in the Cripple Creek district at the present time.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Emma F. Langdon Reports on Military Despotism in the Cripple Creek Strike District of Colorado

28th September 202329th September 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 28, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – Military Despotism Dominates Strike Zone

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

Military Despotism in the Cripple Creek District

September 13 found the military in complete control of the entire district. The troops dominated everything. A “bull pen’’ was established. Men were taken from home and families at dead of night, made to get out of bed and go with the militia and placed in the “bull pen” without explanation. They were not allowed defense and there were no charges preferred against them. Union meetings were, from the date given, broken into and obstructed without apparent cause.

One among the first shocks dealt the people of the district was Sept. 12, when it was announced that the leaders of the military had ordered the arrest of Sherman Parker. It was learned that the order had been executed shortly after midnight, when Mr. Parker was at home asleep. At 12:20 [a. m. Saturday], Sept. 12, Mr. Parker was awakened by a knock at the door. He went to the door and answered the call. He was told that the gentleman calling had a note from a man by the name of Jack Minor to present to him in the way of introduction. Mr. Parker stepped nearer the door and was immediately placed under arrest and taken from his family without further explanation and lodged in the ‘‘bull pen,” which was established near the Strong mine.

Sherman Parker is and has always been a peaceable citizen. There is probably none better in the county, but he was a member of the strike committee, and after the troops were here at the instigation and for the assistance of the mine owners, they were to arrest anyone that stood in their way of running affairs with an unlimited high hand. He was forbidden consultation, it is stated, with an attorney, and was simply told to “lie there and take what he was given.”

The executive committee of District Union No. 1, Sept. 13, ran the following statement in its official organ in regard to Minford and Sherman Parker:

W.H. Minford, the man who was supposed to have been beaten by strikers at Goldfield, was in reality beaten up in a bawdy house fight at Cripple Creek. He is now under arrest for giving false information and is detained in the county jail.

Sherman Parker, secretary of Free Coinage Miners’ Union No. 19, was dragged from his bed at his home in Independence by a squad of soldiers at 12:20 yesterday morning. No charges have been preferred against him and he is a prisoner without warrant of law. We want all union men over the country to know how the military are treating our members. Several have been arrested and in no case have charges been preferred against them.

DISTRICT UNION NO. 1, W. F. M., EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

One of the most ridiculous things that occurred during the strike was the operating of a searchlight. The light was moved from one mountain to another and turned on the various little cities of the district. Another ridiculous thing was that the citizens of the law-abiding community was given the opportunity of seeing a gatling gun. One was taken from Camp Goldfield to Beacon hill in the afternoon of Sept. 11. It was probably the one that was borrowed from Wyoming to help out Colorado in the great war of the Cripple Creek district. At any rate the gatling gun was here and was hauled from place to place as the great “rebellion’’ went on.

Sept. 15 the militia aroused the people of the district when a company of cavalry marched to the residence of Patrick J. Lynch of Victor, and who is chairman of the board of county commissioners of Teller county, and, without doubt, as peaceable a citizen as lives in the state of Colorado, arrested and marched him to appear before Generals Bell and Chase. Nothing since the strike started so thoroughly aroused the people of the county as this outrage of September 15. Mr. Lynch was presented with no papers. He was given no reason for arrest. He was simply taken from his table while dining, and marched at command to Camp Goldfield.

A troop of about twenty men marched down Fourth street across Portland, where Patrick J. Lynch resides. They immediately surrounded his residence, going into the back yard and into the alley, then an officer approached the house and arrested Mr. Lynch. He was rudely seized and taken out forthwith. He was not allowed to return to his residence, but soldiers were sent back for some purpose.

Mr. Lynch was ordered to mount one of the horses and was surrounded by troopers. Two were kept on foot also to guard him. As the procession marched along the street to the camp hundreds of people lined both sides of thoroughfare and the expressions that were uttered were possibly the strongest that had been heard. Others laughed at the folly and the absurdity of the action was ridiculed from every source.

Mr. Lynch was immediately ordered before Generals Bell and Chase when he reached the camp. He was told that it had been reported to them that he had criticized the soldiers and exercised the privilege of every American citizen in urging men not to return to work. This Mr. Lynch denied emphatically, and, turning to General Bell and pointing his finger at him, said: “There is a man who has known me for ten years, and he knows that I am as peaceable a citizen as lives in the state of Colorado.” After a few other remarks Mr. Lynch was released and allowed to return to his home and partake of another meal by his own fireside, though the military bravos were still in the district.

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

13th September 202328th September 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

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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Hellraisers Journal: Emma F. Langdon Reports on Cripple Creek Strike: Citizens Protest Colorado’s Military Despotism

12th September 202312th December 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 12, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – Citizens Protest Against Military Despotism

Report of Emma F. Langdon of Victor, Colorado:

Citizens of Victor Protest

Emma F. Langdon

There was sent out in the district a few circulars announcing a meeting on the corner of Fourth and Victor avenue, Sept 5, at 4 o’clock for the purpose of making a formal protest against the outrageous proceedings and declaring against the threatened establishment of martial law, and for the purpose of placing the community of law-abiding Americans in the proper light before the world. The meeting was called for the purpose of passing a resolution that would express the sentiment of the people of the district. In answer to the few circulars sent out, hundreds of representative citizens gathered and held a rousing enthusiastic meeting.

J. E. Ferguson of Victor, was elected chairman of the meeting and delivered the following address:

It is a very extraordinary occurrence which has, on such short notice called out this vast assemblage of law-abiding citizens. We are today confronted with a condition which calls forth from the breast of every peace loving, law-abiding citizen expressions of condemnation such as he has never before felt.

Without any provocation whatever we have in our midst an army of soldiers but for what purpose has not yet been declared. Last night while the community was asleep this body of armed men were unloaded in our midst. Up to this hour, I am informed, they have not officially made known to the sheriff or any other peace officer that they are here. Why are we thus afflicted? Why this array of soldiery and munitions of war? It is said that the governor of this state has sent them here and that he has been notified of the existence of that necessity. What peace officer has called for the aid of the state militia? I hear the name of Mayor French mentioned. Whether he is guilty or not I am not prepared to say, but if he is his actions do not show that he has acted in good faith. Mayor French is the mayor of this city. His authority as an executive officer extends only to the limits of his municipality. If there existed in his jurisdiction a necessity for troops why has he not had them sent to Victor? Not a single soldier is stationed within the city limits or so far as I am informed in any other city of the county. Your sheriff has called for no militia. He has need of none. The constitution of the state of Colorado gives power to the governor to call out the militia to execute the laws, suppress insurrection or repel invasion. Can it be said that any of these constitutional conditions existed as a basis for his recent action?…

It is now over three weeks since the present strike was declared and such a condition has at no time existed. I want to say to you as a citizen of your city, and as an officer of the law, for I am an officer of the court, that in over four years that I have resided in Teller county, I have not seen three consecutive weeks that were fraught with as little violence, as little disturbance, as little breaking of the law as the past three weeks have been. It has been charged that the mayor has been guilty of assisting in perpetrating this wrong upon this city and county. If the necessity existed, when did he wake up to his duty? Mr. French was mayor of the city last April and at that time there was not a property holder or renter of property who was not nightly and daily in fear of incendiary fire. House after house was fired all over the city, many of which were burned to the ground. Murder was committed by the setting of the fire. Yet this law-abiding mayor did not think of calling in the militia.

The purpose of this meeting, ladies and gentlemen, is to adopt a set of appropriate resolutions which I am informed has been prepared. It is proper that you should do so. Some action should be taken at once to show the powers that reign over us that we have been misrepresented. That we have no need of martial law, and I hope that proper resolutions will be adopted.

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