Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 18, 1898
Bitter Strike of Miners at Virden Ends in Victory
From the Chicago Daily Inter Ocean of November 16, 1898:
VIRDEN STRIKE ENDS
—–
Mine Operators Agree to
Meet Demands of Men.
—–
TO PAY UNION WAGES
—–
Conference Is Held at Company’s
Chicago Offices.
—–
Leaders of Coal Miner’s Organization
Rejoice at the Outcome of
the Bitter Fight.
—–
Striking Miners Gather at O’Neill House after Battle of Virden
The conference between the representatives of the Chicago-Virden Coal company and the striking miners, held yesterday, resulted in an agreement which ends the Virden strike. The demands to the miners have been acceded to in full. The scale agreed upon is 40 cents per ton for hand mining and 33 cents for machine mining.
A formal agreement will be drawn up this morning, which will be signed by President Loucks of the coal company and President Hunter of the Illinois Mine-Workers’ union. The men who have been idle at Virden since April will return to work immediately.
See that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters
the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden…
I hope it will be my consolation when I pass away
to feel I sleep under the clay with those brave boys.
-Mother Jones
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Men in a locked car are not free men, but prisoners.
These men were prisoners without authority of law.
They were under no criminal charge, had not been tried,
and were entitled to go and come at their pleasure.
-Governor John Riley Tanner
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 15, 1898
Birmingham, Alabama – Miners Recruited as Scabs Were Deceived
That the miners recruited in Birmingham, Alabama, to mine coal in Virden and Pana, Illinois, were deceived by the coal operators into becoming strikebreakers is made plain by the fact that the men were transported into Illinois in locked cattle cars, many of them, and were kept under the watchful eye of armed company guards. When the Alabama miners became aware of the situation, most of them resisted being turned into scabs. However, according to reports, the company guards threatened to shoot down any who attempted escape.
From the the the Chicago Public
-of August 27, 1898
The sheriff of Christian county, Ill., seems to think it his duty not only to threaten to shoot white miners who try to reach the imported negroes at Pana to explain the trick that has been played upon them by the operators, but also to threaten to shoot the negroes if they attempt to leave the operators’ employment. It is the business of the sheriff to preserve order, but it is not his business to act as a private detective for coal operators, which is a distinction that the sheriff of Christian county ought to know, and one which, if he doesn’t know it, he ought to be made to learn.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 14, 1898
Springfield, Illinois – Two Miners Breath Their Last
From the Springfield Illinois State Journal of October 14, 1898:
TWO MORE ARE DEAD
—–
Miners Injured in Virden Battle
Die from Their Wounds.
—–
[…..]
Brother E. F. Long
Two of the miners who were shot during the Virden riot Wednesday died yesterday [Thursday October 13th] in St. John’s hospital. The names of the two men who swelled the list of fatalities to a dozen are: Ernest Long, aged 19 years, of Mt. Olive, and William Harmon, aged 49, of Girard.
Earnest Long breathed his last at 12:07 o’clock yesterday afternoon and William Harmon expired at 5:30 o’clock in the evening. Long was shot in the bladder, in the left leg, and twice in the right hip. His comrade, Harmon, was shot through the spine and lungs. Long is survived by his father, four sisters and two brothers. The remains were taken to Blach’s undertaking parlors where they were prepared for burial. Last night the body was taken to Mt. Olive for burial. the deceased was a member of the A. O. U. W., which order will have charge of the funeral service.
Th remains of William Harmon were taken to Foster’s undertaking parlors and prepared for burial. They will be taken to Girard at 6:45 o’clock this morning. A son of the deceased will accompany the remains home. Harmon was 49 years of age and is survived by a wife and five children.
Its a sad blow to us. Father was
the head of a family of nine of us.
I don’t know what we will do now.
It will break their hearts at home.
-Young Son of Abe Breneman
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 13, 1898
Virden, Illinois – Striking Miners Shot Down by Company Guards
From Springfield’s Illinois State Journal of October 13, 1898:
(By J. E. Vaughn, Staff Correspondent.)
Virden. Oct. 12.-(Special.)-Mid-night.-Ten dead, one fatally wounded and twenty-five carrying gunshot injuries of a more or less serous character, is the result of Manager Fred Lukins’ determination to run the Chicago-Virden coal mine in his own way and the counter determination of the striking miners not to permit non-union men to operate the plant.
In battle, fierce and sharp and attended by an unusual number of casualties, the striking miners today came into contact with the men who are supporting the operator and drove them from the town, but at a cost which makes the victory a bitter one. Six of the strikers were killed by the superior weapons of the armed guards, while three of the guards, two on the train that conveyed them to the town, and one within the stockade, lost their lives…..
[…..]
SCENES AFTER THE BATTLE.
—–
Virden, Oct. 12-(Special.)-The scenes that attended the removal of the dead miners from the field east of the stockade were pathetic in the extreme as soon as the firing had ceased and while there was still the greatest danger of a resumption of the fire from the stockade, shrieking, bare-headed women, their hair flying in the air, ran from the houses in the vicinity and rushed for the place where the miners had fallen, looking for their husbands and fathers. As they run they shouted curses at the men in the stockade and shook defiant fists at the grim tower from which had come the shower of lead.
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