USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
time. The snow fell unusually deep that winter, being nearly three feet deep on the level. Under the general landlord and tenant act of Pennsylvania it required three months' notice on the part of the landlord before he could commence suits of ejectment. This the miners and laborers understood, and held possession of their houses.
After about four weeks many of the miners, who had really from the first been opposed to the action of the union, on seeing their money going out daily either to supply their own wants or those of poor neighbors and none coming in, quietly moved away, or objected to a longer continuance of the state of affairs which then ex- isted. Here were two large villages, containing about two thousand inhabitants each (Fall Brook and Morris Run), substantially idle, when were the men at work they could be earning from two to three thousand dollars per day; a number of the more conservative miners and laborers tried to effect a reconciliation, while others would not hear the first suggestion which looked toward a compromise.
Several times the strikers had processions, headed by martial music, and in other ways they endeavored to pass away the time as best they could. As a general thing they abstained from the use of strong drink, but occasionally overstepped the bounds of propriety and had a convivial time. The freshet of March 17th 1865 tore up the railroad track between Blossburg and Fall Brook, sweeping away the river bridge near Gulick's Mill and doing great damage near Somerville. The company needed men to assist in repairing the damage, and was obliged to take clerks out of the store, and man- age in various ways to put the railroad in shape again. The laborers' union of course would not permit any of its members to work, and progress in repairing the dam- age done by the flood was slow; some of the most hot- headed and vindictive men belonging to the laborers' union stoned and insulted those who were at work on the track. We believe there were only two miners who worked during the strike, one of whom was Patrick Sul- livan; the other's name has escaped our memory.
Time hung heavily upon all concerned, and yet every day was one nearer to the time appointed for the com- mencement of the suits and issuing of the writs of eject- ment. A few days before that time arrived the laborers' union, concluding to accept the conditions of the com- pany, signed the leases and went to work.
The miners, however, persistently refused the terms. The three months having expired suits were commenced at Blossburg before Justice Bosworth by the Morris Run Coal Company and the Onondaga Salt Company, and at Fall Brook, before L. C. Shepard. This was a grave mistake on the part of the companies. They should have commenced their actions before a justice of the peace living remote from the scene of action, for the reason that less censure would fall upon a justice liv- ing in some other portion of the county, though he had done precisely as the home justices did; and the home justices would have been relieved from many unpleasant
53
THE MINERS' STRIKE OF 1865.
things which the law compelled them to do. Judgments were obtained by the companies and writs of ejectment issued. Those at Fall Brook were placed in the hands of D. W. Noble, constable of Lawrenceville borough. He and his deputies ejected a number, but met with considerable resistance. About as fast as he ejected a family or families they would be taken in by others, and thus he made slow work. Finally he met with so much opposition and resistance that he appealed to the sheriff, Leroy Tabor, who summoned a posse of two or three hundred of the yeomanry of the county. This large force was also resisted, and several of the number were maltreated and assaulted, among them Jack Kizer of Tioga. This occurred on the 8th of May 1865. On the
Negotiations were soon after commenced between the miners and the companies, which resulted in a large ma- Ioth of that month warrants were issued against six per- jority of them returning to their respective places, sign- ing the contracts and going to work; not, however, at the price they were receiving on the Ist of January, 1865, for the war was now over and coal had declined materially in the market, and their wages were corre- spondingly low. They had fallen nearly 50 per cent.
sons who were charged with being either principals or accessories to the assault and beating, who were arrested and held in sums ranging from $300 to $1,000 each for their appearance at the next court of quarter sessions at Wellsboro. On the same day warrants were issued for the apprehension of sixty-four persons, who it was Men who but a few months previous had a thou- sand dollars in their pockets were now destitute, and were compelled to get some of the more fortunate ones to go their security in order to procure the necessary tools and provisions to commence work again. Those that had nothing when the strike commenced of course were no poorer, but those who had economized and saved up a few hundred dollars with the idea of buying farms and and sorely felt the changed condition of their affairs. charged were guilty of conducting themselves in a riot- ous and tumultuous manner, and who did by force of arms, guns, clubs, etc., prevent the constable of Law- renceville borough from executing certain writs, etc. A number of the 64 were apprehended and had an exam- ination. Two of them were committed to jail, a number were released on their own recognizance, and the others were held with surety in sunis ranging from $500 to retiring from the mines, and who had now lost all, keenly $800. On May 15th complaints were made on oath against four others. Warrants were issued and they Mutual confidence was gradually restored between the were arrested and held in the sum of $200 each to keep companies and the miners, and they again entered upon the peace and for their appearance at the next court of a plane of prosperity. From 1865 until the 20th of Sep- quarter sessions. Several other warrants were issued and arrests made.
It was evident that the sheriff and his posse of yeomen could not succeed in serving the writs and enforcing ejectments, for he and his posse had not only to en- counter the male portion of the community but the fe- male portion also; and it was evident to him that there were miners and sympathizers coming in from other mines and other sections of the State to reinforce the miners at Fall Brook and Morris Run. He therefore appealed to the governor of the State for assistance. The Bucktail regiment was ordered by the governor to go at once to the assistance of Sheriff Tabor. The rail- road had been repaired and the telegraph line was in order, and before the miners were aware of their ap- proach about 300 of the Bucktails suddenly steamed into Fall Brook and took possession of the town. A number of the leaders of the miners were immediately arrested, under the direction of the sheriff, by the Buck- tails, who were temporarily commanded by Captain Fisher and Lieutenant Snodgrass. The next day after their arrival they commenced dispossessing the miners, removing their household goods to the cars which were standing on the track in front of the depot. When this was accomplished the owners of the goods were placed on board and with a suitable number of guards con-
ducted to Blossburg, where they were aloaded into the street. It was a pitiable sight, and many bystanders shed tears when they saw these poor deluded miners with their wives and little ones thus turned into the streets without a shelter. The same process was adopted at Morris Run and the town was cleared of miners. A force of carpenters immediately nailed up with boards the windows and doors of the dwellings recently occu- pied, which gave the towns a sorry and melancholy look. The regiment was divided into squads, a portion being detailed to Fall Brook, a portion to Morris Run, and a portion to Blossburg.
tember 1873 the mines at Fall Brook and Morris Run were in operation uninterruptedly, and many of the miners recovered in a measure from the strike of 1865. In the meantime coal mines had been opened four miles southwest from Blossburg, and a new town had been founded, known as Arnot. Wages during all these years had been fair and the work steady, insuring certain monthly installments of cash to every household. Tioga county was mining and sending to market annually nearly a million tons of coal, the tonnage being for 1873: Fall Brook, 312,466; Morris Run, 357.384; Blossburg Coal Company, 321,207; making a total tonnage of 991,057. The Tioga county coal fields were attracting attention in the coal markets of the country, when in September 1873 the great panic in the money market of the country caused a sudden depression in all industrial pursuits. Mining was no exception to the general and widespread stagnation in business. The Tioga mining companies felt it severely and were about closing their mines when, upon consultation with some of the leading miners, it was determined to run the mines from two to three days per week in order to give employment to the men. This course of the companies had only been in operation about four weeks, and the miners were getting four days' work per week, when the strike of 1873 was inaugurated.
54
HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
The Strike of 1873 .-- Several causes led to this strike, the most prominent of which was the establishment of a miners' union similar to that of 1862-5. The companies were opposed to anything which savored of the times of 1865, and, although the miners assured them that the new union was an altogether different institution from that of 1865, they refused to listen to the miners, and declared by a posted notice that they would not employ any one that belonged to it. The agents of the com- panies pointed out to the miners the numerous societies and organizations which they already had-the Odd Fellows, Free Masons, Knights of Pythias, Ivorites, friendly societies and various church organizations-and thought these should be sufficient for them. The miners claimed a right to form a union. The companies con- ceded the abstract right, but claimed that such an organ- ization was calculated to cause distrust between the com- panies and men, and that it would ultimately lead to the re-enacting of the scenes of 1865. Neither party was willing to yield. The companies were determined that no union men should work for them, and did all they could to prevent such an organization being instituted at the several mines. The miners were determined to have a union, even if they did not work for the company. The issue was thus drawn. Other issues and other mat- ters were ultimately involved in the contest, of which we shall speak hereafter, but union-and-no-work or work- and-no-union was the primary question in controversy.
The Morris Run and other companies issued notices like the following:
" MORRIS RUN, December 11th 1873.
"Notice is hereby given that on Saturday the 13th instant this company will pay all their miners for Sep- tember who do not belong to the miners' union proposed in Tioga county, Pa., and who pledge themselves not to join the same. Also we will pay up all miners who do belong to the union in full as soon as they are ready to settle their accounts and vacate our houses. All miners employed by this company will be expected to give sat- isfactory replies to the following questions: (Ist) 'Are you a member of the union of miners proposed in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, or any society of a similar charac- ter?' If the party is not a member then he will be asked, (2nd) 'Are you willing and do you pledge yourself not to join any such society?' If the party is a member he will then be asked, (3d) 'Are you willing and do you pledge yourself to dissolve your connection with such society without delay, and not join the same again?'
" The companies will protect all men working for them from violence.
" MORRIS RUN COAL COMPANY, " Morris Run, " Tioga Co., Pa."
We should have stated that, funds not being procurable on account of the panic, the companies owed their men about two months' wages, a case which had not occurred before with the Fall Brook Coal Mining Company since its organization, in the year 1859. But the men were not demanding money; it was a union they wanted, and this they were determined to have, even at the loss of position and work. This they accomplished at Fall Brook, Morris Run and Arnot; but at Antrim they did not
succeed and kept steadily at work Many of the Antrim miners formerly lived at Fall Brook and had experience in the "great strike " of 1865. The Fall Brook Coal Company, as well as the Morris Run and Blossburg Coal Companies, served notices on the miners to vacate their houses, but the Fall Brook Coal Company did not at- tempt to eject any of them. Several were sued and judgment obtained against them. A large number, how- ever, vacated their houses and removed to other places, some going to Blossburg, where a long shanty was erected, capable of holding many families, and living there until the difficulty was settled. The citizens of Blossburg contributed liberally to the wants of those there, while much help was obtained for them in various sections of the county. The miners remained away from the mines and were idle until about the Ist of March 1874.
The other issues, heretofore alluded to, which were brought into the controversy were raised by the writing of certain letters to the Bureau of Statistics at Harris- burg by men living in Blossburg, Corning, Hazleton, Mahanoy City and other places, in which the miners were instigated to induce the governor to issue a "quo warranto " to oblige the companies to show cause why they should not surrender their charters. The miners intended to employ Hon. Lin Bartholomew and Hon. George W. Biddle, of Philadelphia, in case the governor issued the warrant. They also endeavored to enlist the United States government on their side by showing that the companies were liable, under the second section of the act of Congress of July 17th 1862 (Vol. XII, page 592 of Statutes at Large), for giving orders on the store and in case the order was not fully traded out keeping the order and giving due bills payable in merchandise for the balance. The section reads thus:
" Section 2nd .- And be it further enacted that from and after the Ist day of August eighteen hundred and sixty-two, no private corporation, banking association, firm or individual shall make, issue, circulate or pay any note, check, memorandum, token or other obligation for a less sum than one dollar, intended to circulate as money or to be received or used in lieu of lawful money of the United States; and every person so offending shall on conviction thereof in any district or circuit court of the United States be punished by fine not ex- ceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not ex- ceeding six months, or by both, at the option of the court."
The companies held that the order given on the store was not "intended to circulate as money " in lieu of the lawful money of the United States; nor was the due bill which the holder of the order received payable in merchandise for any untraded balance; and therefore they were not amenable to the provision of the act above quoted; and lastly, the companies claimed and satisfied the United States officers that when they did settle with their miners or employes they invariably paid them in current United States funds or national bank funds, which were lawful currency of the United States. The United States revenue officers examined into the matter and held that the positions thus taken were correct.
55
THE MINERS' STRIKES OF 1873 AND 1880
These and many other side issues were agitated. Much warmth and bad blood was stirred up on both sides, and when each had cooled down a settlement was effected, the Fall Brook Coal Company submitting the following terms to those wishing to commence work for that company, which the representatives of the employes accepted: ist, the company to pay for the remainder of 1874 for mining and other labor the same price as paid in the summer of 1873; 2nd, the weight per ton of coal from drift No. 2 to be 2,200, from drift No. 3 2, 100 pounds; 3d, if desired by the miners (upon application to the manager) they were to appoint one man and the company one to see that the scales were properly ad- justed; 4th, the company to hire such men as it could agree with and discharge such as it deemed proper; 5th, the leases to be signed and remain the same as at the date of these conditions; 6th, in case of emergency the foreman to consult with a committee of miners.
The following agreement was made between the Bloss- burg Coal Company and its employes for 1874: 1st, the company to pay the wages paid during the summer of 1873: 2nd, any man working in the mines, who should be- come dissatisfied with the price offered by the foreman, to be permitted to have another place, and the foreman to arrange with any other man or other men to do said work, and no other man or men to have any right to in- terfere, and in case the foreman insisted on any miner working a difficult place for less than the workman was willing to work for, and refused to give him other work, then the difference to be settled by arbitration; 3d, the men to appoint two miners and the company one to ar- range weights, so that the company might have, to sell, a ton of coal for every ton of coal it paid for mining; 4th, ten-day leases to be signed as usual.
The families that had removed from Morris Run, Arnot and Fall Brook generally returned to their respec- tive places after the settlement. The Morris Run Com- pany had made similar agreements to those quoted above, and all were ready for work.
About that time the Fall Brook Coal Company re- ceived propositions for a very heavy order of coal, amounting to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand tons annually, but at reduced prices. The managers sub- mitted a proposition to the miners to work for less wages than those stipulated above, but after consultation the miners refused to make any change in their price, and the order was not filled by the company.
The Strike of 1880 .- The coal trade of 1874 was very dull in the Blossburg region, the total production in that year being 796,388 tons, against 991,057 the preceding year, showing a shrinkage of 195,669 tons. The loss of the mining of nearly two hundred thousand tons was felt severely by both the miners and the companies. Nor had the trade reached its lowest point. . In the year 1875 the tonnage of the Blossburg coal region was 581,- 792, being a shrinkage of 409,265 tons since 1873. The mines were not in operation in some localities more than two days per week. Everything looked dark and gloomy. In 1876 the trade revived a little, there being mined that
year 616,984 tons, being an increase of 35, 192 tons over the preceding year. This tonnage did not give the miners more than half time on an average. In 1878 the trade shrank to 602,245 tons, a falling off of 14,739 tons. In the spring of 1879 the trade was dull, and the com- panies secured contracts at the best attainable figure for the year ending May 188o.
In that spring the Industrial Register was founded. It was edited and owned by the writer of this history, and was neutral in politics, giving especial attention to mining, coking, railroading, tanning, lumbering, glass manufacturing and agricultural interests, the local and general news of the day, historical and biographical sketches and family reading. It was published at Bloss- burg, in the center of the Blossburg coal region. The editor went to work in earnest to build up the industrial interests of the county, of whatsoever nature and kind. He obtained a wide circulation for his paper in northern and central Pennsylvania, southern New York, and wherever he thought capital might be enlisted in tanning, lumbering, glass manufacturing or other pursuits in Tioga county. He wrote up the coal regions of northern Penn- sylvania, gave descriptions and analyses of the coal, and showed its superiority for blacksmithing and steam pur- poses, and also explained through the columns of the Register the use of bituminous coke as a fuel. He was in possession of a list of all the principal rolling-mills, furnaces, machine shops and foundries in the United States, and through the columns of the Industrial Register or by slips taken therefrom called the attention of iron manufacturers generally to the Blossburg semi-bituminous coal and coke.
The coal trade increased, so that the tonnage for 1879 came nearly up to the old figures of 1873, it being 874,- oto tons, and in 1880 it reached 921,555, being 439,773 tons more than was mined in 1875, and giving the miners at least 110,000 more days' work than they had in 1875. The coal trade had been so brisk during the year 1879 that in December of that year the miners demanded an advance of prices. This they were given, although the companies were filling contracts made in the month of May preceding, when coal was low, the demand quiet, and competition lively among coal companies to make sale of their coal. After a few days another advance was de- manded by the miners. This the companies refused to give, claiming that their contracts were made when the price of coal was low, and that the advance they had already given was all they could possibly pay and have anything left them for their coal. The matter was dis- cussed pro and con for about six weeks, the companies in the meantime assuring the miners that when they made their new contracts on the ist of May 1880 they would endeavor to secure contracts that would enable them to pay the price they demanded. The editor of the Industrial Register, who thoroughly understood the situation of the coal trade, and knew the parties who stood ready to seize the trade of this county in case of a suspension of work in the Blossburg coal region, in the issue of February 12th 1880, under the title of "Coal
56
HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
Competition," said: "The miners and shippers of semi- bituminous coal in northern Pennsylvania have not for years met with so serious a competition, growing out of the miner the situation as it was; while some were loud the low rates of certain grades of anthracite which is in their denunciation of the writer, heaping all sorts of epithets and anathemas upon him, charging him with being in the interest of the companies and an enemy to the miner. Conscious of being in the right, and having a friendly feeling toward those who had reviled him through ignorance of his good intentions, the next week, under the head of " Coal Trade," he gave some more in- sold in our northern markets, as at present. The dealers in anthracite have sold it in our Buffalo market at less than $3 per ton, and this cutting of rates has been very embarassing to our coal companies in Bradford, Lycoming, Tioga and Mckean counties." This he designed to call the attention of the miners of Tioga county to the sit- uation of the coal market at Buffalo, where much of the formation which he believed was for their best interest. coal of this region then went. He again, on the 19th of It read: February 1880, under the heading "The Situation," made an appeal to the miners, thus:
"In our last week's issue we briefly alluded to the competition with which our northern bituminous coal companies have to contend in relation to the cutting of prices by those engaged in selling certain grades of an- thracite at points where the northern coal companies usually find a market. We now propose to make a few suggestions as to the course which we believe is the best to be pursued by the miners and companies under exist- ing circumstances.
"We start out with the propositions that the interests of the miner and his employer are mutual; that it is im- possible for them to stem and overcome the competition which now menaces them without they work in harmony; that in this crisis it is their duty to stand by each other, and do all in their power jointly to sustain each other, or else both will suffer to a very serious extent. The miner must take into consideration the difficulties which beset the companies in making sale of their coal at re- munerative prices which will enable them to advance the price for mining, remembering that by far the largest amount of coal mined in this section is sold on season contracts, which expire and are renewed on May ist each year; and the companies must bear with patience the restlessness of the miners, for a majority of them do not fairly understand the condition of affairs, and are not aware of the serious competition which is being made against the companies by those engaged in selling anthracite, Clearfield and Butler county coal, and there- fore through their authorized agents should make them the miners) acquainted with the true condition of the coal trade, explaining to them the competition against which they are obliged to contend. We believe that if the true state of affairs is well understood by the old, reliable and leading miners of the northern coal fields that a mutual understanding will be arrived at, and the threatened storm of a strike will pass over, and sunshine, peace and harmony will prevail, instead of discord, contention, strife and ill feeling.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.