Illinois House of Representatives Committee on Investigation of the Herrin Massacre transcript of hearings, April 11-May 17, 1923 on Microfilm
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Scope and Contents
Transcript of testimony heard in April and May of 1923 before an Illinois House of Representatives Committee consisting of the following members: Frank A. McCarthy (chairman), Thomas Curran, Norman G. Flagg, M.L. Igoe, W.B. Phillips, William L. Pierce, and M.P. Rice; also abstract of testimony and exhibits.
Includes the testimony of key individuals involved in the incident along with that of the following major local and poitical figures: Carlo Black (adjutant general of the State of Illinois), Charles R. Edrington (commercial secretary for the Marion Association), Charles F. Hamilton (operator of the Enterprise Mine near Moke Station, and business partner of Lester), DeWitt T. Hartwell (county judge), Robert Herrin (chief of police in Herrin), Fox Hughes (sub-district vice-president and United Mine Workers of America official), A.B. McLaren (coal operator), Ralph B. Mitchell (general manager of Cosgrove Interests), Len Small (governor), William J. Sneed (state senator and president of sub-district, Illinois Miners Organization), S.D. Storme (county clerk and deputy under Thaxton), and Robert Tracy (locomotive engineer). The transcript also contains testimony of other figures involved in the incident, such as miners, hardware store clerks and newspaper reporters.
A violent incident, known as the Herrin Massacre, resulted from an attempt to run a strip mine in Williamson County, Illinois during the coal strike of 1922.
Involved was a conflict between members of the Steam Shovel Men's Union (SSMU), an independent union, and members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW). The SSMU men were employed by William J. Lester to break the UMW strike at the strip mines in Herrin and Marion, Ill., owned by the Southern Illinois Coal Company, of which he was the president.
On June 22nd, 1922, forty-seven men working at the strip mine surrendered, under a promise of safe conduct, to an armed force of several hundred striking miners. Twenty-one SSMU men were subsequently killed. In the ensuing trial, public opinion made it impossible to convict any of those individuals indicted for murder or related crimes.
Dates
- 1923
Language of Materials
Collection material in English
Conditions Governing Access
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Conditions Governing Use
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.
Biographical / Historical
A violent incident, known as the Herrin Massacre, resulted from an attempt to run a strip mine in Williamson County, Illinois during the coal strike of 1922.
Involved was a conflict between members of the Steam Shovel Men's Union (SSMU), an independent union, and members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW). The SSMU men were employed by William J. Lester to break the UMW strike at the strip mines in Herrin and Marion, Ill., owned by the Southern Illinois Coal Company, of which he was the president.
On June 22nd, 1922, forty-seven men working at the strip mine surrendered, under a promise of safe conduct, to an armed force of several hundred striking miners. Twenty-one SSMU men were subsequently killed. In the ensuing trial, public opinion made it impossible to convict any of those individuals indicted for murder or related crimes.
Extent
0.22 cubic feet
Abstract
Transcript of testimony heard in April and May of 1923 before an Illinois House of Representatives Committee consisting of the following members: Frank A. McCarthy (chairman), Thomas Curran, Norman G. Flagg, M.L. Igoe, W.B. Phillips, William L. Pierce, and M.P. Rice; also abstract of testimony and exhibits.
Quantity:
2 microfilm reels
Forms of Material:
Testimonies, transcripts, microfilm.
General
- Contact Information:
- Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives Martin P. Catherwood Library 227 Ives Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3183 kheel_center@cornell.edu http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/kheel-center
- Compiled by:
- Kheel Staff, May 05, 2014
- EAD encoding:
- Kheel Staff, March 08, 2019
- Title
- Illinois House of Representatives Committee on Investigation of the Herrin Massacre transcript of hearings, April 11-May 17, 1923 on Microfilm
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Compiled by Kheel Staff
- Date
- March 08, 2019
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Revision Statements
- 02/23/2024: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
Repository Details
Part of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Repository
227 Ives Hall
Ithaca NY 14853