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———-
WE NEVER FORGET
The Martyrs of the McKees Rocks Strike
Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause
on Bloody Sunday, August 22, 1909
Funeral of Joseph Hruska, Russian Striker, Age 20
-from The Pittsburg Press of August 24, 1909:
FUNERAL OF HRUSKA
The funeral services for Joseph Hruska, aged 20 years, of Shingiss street, McKees Rocks, who died as a result of a wound received during the riot Sunday evening, were held this morning in the Greek Catholic church on Helen street, Stowe township.
Hruska was unmarried and is survived by a father and mother living in Russia. The mass was celebrated by the Rev. Father Anton Knoseskes, pastor, the body being carried into the church at 9:30 o’clock.
A parade from the church to St. Mary’s cemetery was planned by the strikers. In the line places were given to the Lodge No. 390, Arch-Michael Greek Catholic Russian society, of McKees Rocks, to which the dead man belonged, and to 200 members of the Spolok Slavish society, Lodge No. 95, K. J., of McKees Rocks.
[Emphasis adde.]
[Newsclip added from Washington Evening Star of August 24, 1909.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, Ab Chp 6, 1925
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/6
The Pittsburg Press
(Pittsburg, Pennsylvania)
-Aug 24, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/141331275
Note: research continues for more names of martyred strikers/sympathizers and same will be added as I find them. My sources do not agree on number of strikers/sympathizers killed on Bloody Sunday; estimates vary between 3 and 8.
See also:
Tag: McKees Rocks Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mckees-rocks-pressed-steel-car-strike-of-1909/
The Evening Star
(Washington, D. C.)
-Aug 24, 1909
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1909-08-24/ed-1/seq-2/
RIOT VICTIMS BURIED
—–
Quiet at McKees Rocks as Funerals Pass.
—–TROOPERS GUARD STREETS
—–
Strikers and Sympathizers Held
in Awe by Armed Force.
—–
AFRAID TO HOLD MASS MEETING
—–
Eugene V. Debs Was on Hand to Address
Workers at Indian Mound.
—–PITTSBURG, AUGUST 24.-With the armed guards at the Pressed Steel Car plant augmented by the arrival of Troop B, Pennsylvania state constabulary [Cossacks], from Wyoming, Pa., and the attention of the strikers and sympathizers occupied in burying their comrades killed in Sunday’s riot, conditions at McKees Rocks today were quiet…..
The first funeral was that of Joseph Hruska, a Russian striker. Interment was in St. Mary’s cemetery, Stowe township, following church services. Hundreds of men accompanied the body to the grave, but there was no demonstration.
Fearing the state constabulary would raid them and arrest their leaders strikers called off a meeting which was to have been held at noon at the Indian Mound. Eugene V. Debs, socialist candidate for president last year, was at the meeting place for the purpose of addressing the men when the decision was reached…..
[Emphasis added.]
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The Red Flag – Socialist Victory Choir
Lyrics by Jim Connell, 1889