An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 241

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524

USA > Idaho > Kootenai County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 241
USA > Idaho > Nez Perce County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 241
USA > Idaho > Shoshone County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 241
USA > Idaho > Latah County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 241

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Soon the battle began at the Gem. The men in that mine had made some preparation by erecting barricades of wood and lumber. As the night shift was going off and the day force going on, the firing began. After a large number of shots had been ex- changed by the strikers in the town of Gem and the men at the mine, a conference was held under flag of truce, in which it was agreed that the non-union men should surrender if so advised by A. L. Gross, the only member of the Gem company in the country. Gross advised the surrender and the men handed over their arms.

In the two battles two non-union men were killed, namely, John Starlick and Ivery Bean, also three strikers,-James Hennessy, Gus Carlson and Harry Cummings. A considerable number were wounded.

After their victories at the Gem and the Frisco the strikers proceeded to Wardner, going from a point outside of Wallace to the junction in two freight cars propelled by gravity. They arrived after dark on the night of the IIth, took possession of the Bunker Hill concentrator and placed a ton of powder under it. Next morning Mr. Clement had the choice of discharg- ing his non-union employees and sending them out of the country or having his mill blown to pieces. Under the circumstances he agreed to send away the men, which was done.

Many of the non-union men left the country July 12th, going by rail to the Mission and arriving at that point about three o'clock. The steamer was transferring troops across the lake and did not reach the Mission until one o'clock next morning. While waiting, the non-union men were made the victims of an outrage which has been condemned by both parties to the quarrel as a dastardly and utterly inex- cusable affair. Persons whose identity is unknown to the writer and perhaps not known with certainty by many outside of their own number, came down on a hand car to the Mission and attacked the unarmed men with guns. The men fled, of course. They were pursued by the attacking party over the meadow toward Fourth of July canyon, six miles distant, and all of them subjected to the hardship of spending a night in various hiding places. Those who took re- fuge along the banks of the river either made their way back to the Mission in small boats or were picked up by the steamer next morning. From the number

missing it was supposed that many had been killed, but no bodies were found, although diligent search was made for them. At least one inan, John H. Ab- bott, was severely wounded in the left breast by a bullet, so that he was not expected to recover, but we are informed that he eventually did. The purpose of the attack was doubtless robbery rather than blood- shed. Many of the victims had everything in the world that they possessed taken from them. It should be added that the miners' tinion of the Coeur d'Alene emphatically denied that it or any of its members had anything to do with this outrage, directly or indirectly.

Martial law was promptly declared, and under the protection of the soldiers many of the expelled non- union men returned. With such help, the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Company had resumed work before July Ist. According to the mining notes in the Coeur d'Alene Miner of July 30th, the Gem, Granite, Custer and Sierra Nevada were then all at work and all ex- cept the Custer with non-union men. The Tiger and Poorman mines were closed by command of Colonel J. F. Curtis, on August 20th, also all the saloons in Burke. The reason was unknown, but it was sup- posed that the colonel considered the mines and the saloons as meeting places of those plotting crimes and breaches of the peace.

Many of those who were most active in the uprising were compelled to flee from the country ; many others were placed under arrest, but only a comparatively few were convicted and punished. Twenty-five were tried in the Federal court on a charge of violating the restraining order, and of these Thomas O'Brien was. sentenced to eight months and F. T. Dean, R. M. Boyce, Thomas Henney and Thomas Doyle to six months' imprisonment. A number were tried at Coeur d'Alene City for conspiracy and four were sentenced to the House of Correction at Detroit, Michigan,- George A. Pettibone for two years, M. L. Devine and Charles St. Clair, for eighteen months, and John Murphy for fifteen months.

Gradually the troops were removed, and Novem- ber 18, 1892, martial law was revoked. Besides the state militia there were stationed in the Coeur d'Alenes companies from the Fourth, Fourteenth, Twenty-sec- ond and Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, all under command of General W. P. Carlin.

Eighteen hundred and ninety-three, the year of panic and hard times, was not a prosperous one in the Coeur d'Alene country. During the spring most of the mills closed down, throwing hundreds out of em- ployment. May IIth the Small & Colby Lumber Con- pany, of Kingston, failed, owing $35,000 to employees, but it did a noble thing. By giving a mortgage on all its property it raised sufficient money to pay its men in full, saving, no doubt, a great deal of hardship and suffering. By September county warrants, which before the financial crash brought 90 cents on the dol- lar, had fallen to 40 cents. In the gold belt prospects were allowed to go without even the performance of assessment work, and valuable properties were per- mitted to lie idle. In the silver-lead belt many of the mines remained inactive during the greater part

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of the year. The railroads offered a reduction of $2 a ton during the spring, and an effort was made in July to resume work, but the mine owners claimed they could not afford to pay the union scale of $3.50 a day, owing to the low price of lead and silver, and the miners refused to accept a less rate. As a result large bodies of men were out of employment and there was undoubtedly some desti- tution among their families.

The Murray Sun, which was strongly union in its sympathies, thus comments on the situation in its issue of October 13, 1893 :

The miners of Canyon creek have made a great and grave mistake by not accepting, in the first place, the sliding scale of wages for tunnel mines, and subsequently the tender of $3 and $3.50 for the same character of mining. As a result the mills have refused to start and hundreds are out of employment. The present unsettled condition of lead and silver should have been taken into consideration by all intelli- gent laboring men, who are not bent on destroying the very industry that upholds all other classes of industry through- out the civilized world. Labor in the Coeur d'Alenes would have achieved one of the greatest victories yet recorded in the union had either scale been adopted, and set every mine in motion, the world would have applauded and steady employment would have been given under a sliding scale at least, to every man in the union, although he was on the black list of the most infamous military rule that ever cursed civilization. The fight against unions had ceased and they had been victorious.

A new question presented itself. Silver declined and lead declined in sympathy. The mines could not be operated successfully without some labor concessions. Although re- quested, they were refused by the miners of Canyon creek and Muilan, although at Wardner some of the mills have been operating. The majority of the mines and mills remain idle and hundreds of miners are living upon the charity of organized labor elsewhere, their families are in need and the children, we are told, frequently cry for bread. Many of those who sympathized with organized labor have, though prosperous eighteen months ago, been reduced to dire straits, and some have gone to the wall. Indeed the situation could not be more distressing in the face of a long winter. Yet all could easily be changed and humiliation avoided by say- ing "We accept the proposed terins solely on account of the depressed value of silver and lead." It would have been dignified and honorahle. But another feature is also pre- sented. The agitation over, wages now being carried on here is attracting outside attention and laborers have been com- ing to the south fork by hundreds. These men are nearly all broke and will demand work in preference to starvation. What will result ? A permanent decline in wages to $3 and $2.50.

However, the silver lining to the dark clouds is pointed out by the same paper in its issue of December 29th in the following language :

Although dark shadows are thrown across the country on the threshhold of the new year, with business stagnation everywhere in the land, the people of the Coeur d'Alenes have cause, to some extent at least, to congratulate them- selves that the industrial condition is not so bad here as it is elsewhere. Fortunately the mining situation in the gold belt has greatly improved during the past year and the new one opens with greater promise of healthy growth than any previous one in the history of the camp. During the past year the Mother lode has made substantial improvements, increasing its milling capacity from five to ten stamps; the Golden Chest has dropped ten stamps regularly and shipped a large quantity of concentrates and crude ore; the King

ten-stamp mill has run a part of the time, the Lien three- stamp mill has run most of the year and promises to grow into a big ten-stamp mill battery before another new year ; the Fay roller mill on Pony gulch has been running for some time, off and on; the Ward arrastre at Delta has been grinding for months and we may safely estimate that the out put of gold from this source during the year has been $200,000. Our extensive placer interests, too, have shown good and substantial development. The booming process in our big gulches and on lower Prichard creek has come to stay ; large tracts of land are thus turned over and washed ; the main creek here and on Trail gulch is being sluiced and drifted with as good results as ever before, or better, and no impression is apparent on the great gravel deposits, while the old channel is still in its infancy of development, yield- ing its regular output of dust from year to year. The output of the placers for the past year is estimated at $300,000. This would give us a total yield of $500,000 from quartz and placers, a healthy state of affairs. One of the incidents of the year has been the successful experiment of the Golden Chest property with the new cyanide process of extracting concentrated sulphurets.

Although the year 1894 had a somewhat unpropi- tious opening, it brought substantial improvements over its predecessor in financial conditions. There were some snow slides in January, in one of which "Doc" Mc- Grevey and John Bollen, prospectors. lost their lives. This was in Bowlder gulch, two miles cast of Mullan. In February a serious accident occurred in the Will- iams slope of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mine, by which Patrick Curran, Adolph Markaite and Frank Sobalja lost their lives : Peter Overwrader suffered a compound fracture of the left leg, and Henry Schmell- ing a double fracture of the leg and a compound fract- tire of the right foot. The coroner's jury in the case held the company at fatilt. During the closing days of March seven snowslides occurred on Canyon creek, damaging flumes and railway tracks and by interfering with transportation causing mining companies to sus- pend operations. One slide in the vicinity of the Black Bear mine buried and occasioned the death of the fol- lowing persons: Stephen Deiro, Mrs. Stephen Deiro, Victoria Deiro, five years old, Michael Martino, Mrs. Benjamin Rowe. In May, the entire south fork valley was flooded, doing immense damage, especially to rail- roads. Many houses were entirely submerged. At Harrison the water was at one time twenty-four inches above the railroad track. From Cataldo to Kingston there was scarcely any track of either road visible ; be- tween Kingston and Wallace, the Union Pacific track was badly washed out, and between that point and Mullan still greater damage was done. On Canyon creek the railways had been similarly damaged, while the village of Black Bear was for a time under water and its inhabitants were camped on the hillsides. Wal- lace was never in danger of loss of life or great prop- crtv loss. but it suffered considerable damage. No mail reached the town between May 22d and June 5th. It is stated that at Murray the snow fall during the winter had been 20 feet 3 inches. and on the higher altitudes around it was known to have been vastly greater. The precipitation, rain and snow. from No- vember 7, 1893, to March 31, 1894, was 29.4 inches.

As the season advanced these difficulties passed away and the damage was repaired, though the Coeur

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d'Alene cutoff was not in operation until late in July. The second week in August all the Canyon creek mines, which had been idle, resumed operations, paying $3.50 per diem for all underground workers. The terms of the agreement between the unions and the nine owners, under which the work was begun, were thus set out in writing :

"The present maximum wages of $3.50 per day shall be paid to all underground men.

"There shall be no discrimination in the employ- ment of men, the men now in the country shall have the preference. No men shall be imported for the purpose of working in the mines.

"The men who lately left the employment of the company, who were objected to, shall not again have employment in any of the above niines.

"It is hereby agreed by both parties hereto that should any difference arise between the parties hereto, that the same shall be settled by arbitration.

"It is the desire of both of the above parties that the long existing differences be and are hereby buried for all time; that henceforth both parties be friends and work for the mutual benefit of both parties."

This agreement was signed by the Milwaukee Min- ing Company, the Standard Mining Company, the Coeur d'Alene Mining and Concentrating Company by A. B. Campbell and A. L. Gross; also by Edward Boyce, president central executive commit- tee Miners' Union of the Coeur d'Alenes.

. Notwithstanding all drawbacks. it is claimed that times in Shoshone county were better than in 1893, and it is certain according to the report of the United States assay office at Boise the production of mineral wealth was greater.

The year 1895 was, however, far from being a pros- perous one in the lead-silver district of Shoshone coun- ty. The price of lead was low. The union in most places was successful in maintaining the $3.50 schedule, though there was much trouble between the labor or- ganizations and the mine owners, rendering production fitful and unsteady. Where a community is depend- ing entirely upon one industry, it can be easily imag- ined what the effect of having that industry paralyzed is. All business must become stagnant ; all energy is fettered. It was stated that the price of living became cheaper during the summer and fall than was ever before known in the camp.

In October, 1895, there was a slight uneasiness lest open trouble betwen the contending forces in the labor disputes should break out. A dispatch was sent to the governor saying that the Hunter mine was threat- ened. The governor telegraphed the sheriff to protect life and property or martial law would be declared. Fortunately there was no cause of alarm and the sheriff after visiting the scene, so advised the chief executive.

But while the lead mines were comparatively quiet, the gold belt of the Coeur d'Alenes was making sub- stantial progress. "Without noise," says the Sun, "mill after mill has been erected and the development work has kept pace with the increased reduction facili- ties. As no outside capital has been invested, we can lay claim to superior merit for our prospects and

mines, for the home people are investing from ex- perience and knowledge of their surroundings. From two stamp mills two years ago we have increased to. nine and one in course of construction. The high placers lacked water during the year and did not do. so well as in previous years, but this admitted of some development work and the season was not entirely a blank. The low placers have held their own. Alto- gether our people should feel grateful toward 1895, for it has placed the gold belt on the road to success."

The year 1896 brought brighter prospects to the silver-lead sections. In February arrangements had been made whereby the following mills were either in operation or soon to open: Standard, capacity 500 tons of crude ore ; Bunker Hill & Sullivan, 800 tons ; Last Chance, 150 tons ; Stemwinder, 150 tons ; Gem, 200 tons; Helena-Frisco, 500 tons; Tiger-Poorman, 450 tons ; Morning, 300 tons ; Hunter, 150 tons. It was expected that the output of the year would exceed that of 1891, the banner year in the history of the dis- trict.

Another encouraging feature was the fact that on March 18th county warrants sold at par for the first time, it is said, in the history of the county. It was claimed in January, 1897, that the county's indebted- ness was reduced, during 1895 and 1896, about $25,000.

The encouraging indications in the early months of 1896 did not prove illusory, for the mines were operated extensively throughout practically the whole of the year, employing from nine to twelve hundred men steadily at an average daily stipend of perhaps $3. The price of lead continued low ; there was talk at times of a general cessation of operations, but for- tunately no such thing occurred. In December, ac- cording to the Wallace Press, the following mines were running steadily: At Burke, the Standard and the Mammoth ; at Gem, the Frisco; at Mullan, the Morn- ing and the Hunter ; at Wardner, the Bunker Hill and Sullivan, Last Chance and Stemwinder; at Murray, the Idaho, Daddy, Golden Chest and Yosemite. "In a smaller way," continues the paper, "we find the Hecla, Gem, Granite, Joe Dandy and Nellie, all under lease : and in addition to theni there are the Tiger- Poorman, Formosa, Phoenix, Black Cloud and numer- ous others with small forces at work."

The one disaster of the year was the flood of No- vember, one unprecedented for that season. The even- ing of the 15th, Prichard creek broke over the north bank in the upper part of Murray and the water rushed down Gold street. Early next morning people were warned by the night watchman that they were in dan- ger. and by three o'clock men were astir with lanterns in the intense darkness and heavy rains. A hard fight was necessary to save the Second street bridge. Some other bridges were swept away and much damage was inflicted upon mining property and that stored in cel- lars.

On the south fork the loss to property owners was considerable. Wallace was damaged sixteen or seven- teen thousand dollars, the small farms between that point and the lake were inundated, roads were oblit- erated, bridges swept away, railways washed out. The

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Northern Pacific train from the east failed to reach Wallace on the 16th, though it got as far as Mullan, and traffic from the west ceased two days earlier.

It was claimed by the Sun that November, 1896, broke three records. It had to its credit the greatest precipitation of any month since the settlement of the county, 11.12 inches ; the lowest temperature for the season of the year ever experienced, 8 degrees below zero; and the highest water ever known.

Ever since the discovery of the mines, the proposi- tion of dividing Shoshone county so as to give the southern portion autonomy in local government has been agitated in some form. It can hardly be denied that justice and equity require a different division of the territory of Northeastern Idaho than now obtains and that something should be done for the amelioration of conditions in the Weippe and Pierce City sections. None have deserved better at the hands of the state government than these people. For years they main- tained a county organization, although their numbers were so few and the revenue so meagre that the bur- den was a grievous one and could not have been borne had not the county officers for several years remitted half of their legal salaries. Then came the discovery of the mines, the removal of the county seat and the incurring of a large indebtedness, a proportionate share of which the southern section was required to pay, though it was incurred solely on behalf of the Coeur d'Alene watershed. "The protracted and excessively costly litigation attending the development of the Coetti d'Alene mines, as well as the many criminal trials in the same section, ran the county debt up enormously in the two years succeeding the discovery. The first term of the district court in the Coeur d'Alenes was held at Eagle City in July, 1884, and continued six weeks. The docket comprised thirty-nine civil cases and the grand jury found six indictments for murder. One of the latter, the State versus Bernard, for killing Enright, was transferred to Lewiston on change of venue, and cost the taxpayers of Shoshone county close upon $20,- 000. None of these cases originated in the Pierce City country. In the general election of 1884 and sub- sequently, county commissioners were elected who in- angurated of wagon roads throughout the Coeur d'Alene country and thus very largely increased the county's debt without benefit to the southern half."

It was natural then that the people who suffered by the existing arrangement should keep up agitation for their relief, but the matter did not assume definite form until 1897. In the spring of that year a bill was introduced dividing Shoshone county and creating a new political entity by the name of Clearwater. It passed both houses of the legislature, but was vetoed by the governor. The action of the chief executive was heartily condemned not alone by those who suffered through it but by the fair-minded and justice-loving people of the north.

Two unfortunate events transpired during the year, no doubt arising out of the feeling engendered by the labor difficulties. May 14th, about 1 o'clock in the morning, a number of masked men entered the bar- room of the Steele hotel, Mullan, and compelled O. S.

Roof, lessee of the bar, to conduct them to a roon! in which rifles belonging to the local militia company were stored, also to the ammunition. Next day Capt. Link. of Company F, residing at Wardner, in compliance with telegraphic instructions from the governor, repaired to Mullan and secured such guns as were in other parts of the town. He said the stolen guns were in reality the property of the United States. The number of men engaged in the robbery is said to have been six. to the identity of no one of whom has any clue been found. It is known that the unfortunate occurrence prevented the consummation of three different deals in mining property.

The second event which stained the annals of the Coeur d'Alenes in 1897 transpired at Gem on the even- ing of December 23d. Just at Yuletide, when all Chris- tendom was singing the glad gospel of "Peace on earth. good will to men," foul and cowardly assassins to the number of about twenty entered, at the hour of nine in the evening, or later, the house in which Fred D. Whitney, foreman of the Frisco mill, was rooming. They proceeded to Whitney's apartments, forced his companion, Mr. Weimar, to turn his face to the wall, while Whitney arose and dressed, then compelled Whit- ney to accompany them. They took him through the town of Gem, and when he reached the outskirts of the village he probably sought to escape by flight. whereupon a number of shots were fired and he fell wounded. He was discovered a little later by a man entering the town, and eventually conveyed to Provi- dence hospital. Examination proved that he had been shot through the right thigh. the bullet entering from behind. The limb was amputated; the man could not stand the shock, and on Christmas day he died. He was a member in good standing of a Montana miners' tinion. The perpetrators of the foul deed escaped ar- rest and punishment, though rewards aggregating $17 .- 000 were offered for their apprehension and convic- tion.

In the mines the year 1897 was one of progress and prosperity, as appears from the following review from the Wallace Press of December 29th :

The year 1897 now drawing to a close has been a most prosperous one for the Coeur d'Alenes, few regions in the world showing as decided a move forward and none having brighter prospects for the year about to be horn. At the present rate of production practically one-half of the lead product of the United States comes from the northern end of Shoshone county, and the gold, silver and antimony are worth little, if any, less than the lead.

The commencement of the prosperous times antedates the beginning of 1897, although the greatest strides were made during the year. When the Tiger-Poorman concentrator burned, March 17, 1896, it looked as though a hard blow was struck to the silver-lcad belt. The mine was already down 1,200 feet and was the most expensive one in the district to operate. For weeks it was doubted if the com- pany would rebuild, in spite of assurances that it would. When work did begin on the new concentrator larger and better than the old one, the world knew that the people who knew the country hest had faith in it, and money cautiously commenced to look for an investment here, and when, in November, a foreign syndicate sought a controlling interest in the Helena-Frisco at a price approximating $1,500,000, we realized that better times were coming, although there could be no marked change until spring opened. That we were

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An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 241

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1524

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524