Operative 1 in Calumet

There were a number of spies or as the mining companies termed them, "Operatives," in the Copper Country during the strike. After the fateful events of the Italian Hall, one operative, appropriately named Operative 1, was sent to Calumet with the express mission, "Find the one responsible for Italian Hall." Operative 1, who was posing as a journalist from Denver working for a socialist newspaper, quickly gained access to the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) and was even invited to their meetings. His letters back to his handlers give an intimate portrait of the WFM while they were attempting to pick up the pieces after the tragic events at Italian Hall.

This letter, dated January 5, 1914, gives readers an idea of how this operative skillfully inserted himself into the business of the union in this critical time. Not much is known regarding this labor spy and his private life, but from his dastardly work infiltrating the union this much is certain: he was really good at his work!

More from Operative 1 to come...

Calumet's Butler Row Housing--Immigrant Life in Industrial Calumet

Life in Calumet's industrial spaces was cramped, especially for the area's immigrants. In Community in Conflict, we detail one such space--the Butler Row Houses. Packed into this group of attached houses with about 5,000 square feet were almost 90-some people. Maps and an image of the row houses show the utterly cramped conditions in which some immigrants lived.

The Butler Row Houses, to the left of the "D" in the center of this image, show the tiny, cramped living conditions where sometimes a family of 5-10 would live. The above image is from a turn-of-the-century Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Calumet.

This circa 1910 image of Calumet shows the Butler Row Houses. The houses, which are shown at side view (the almost round shaped roof) in the center of the image just behind the road that runs through the center of the image, were packed tightly into Calumet's urban setting. Keweenaw National Historical Park archivist Jeremiah Mason shared this photo with us and it is from the Park's collection of images.

From Community in Conflict:

A snapshot of the lives of eastern European working-class immigrant families
can be seen by examining the Butler Row Houses, an approximately 5,600-square foot
structure comprised of eight miniature boardinghouses in Calumet. Packed
into the Butler Row Houses were dozens of working-class immigrants at the time
of the 1910 U.S. Census. The Butler Row Houses was actually a row of small, one and-
a-half-story houses connected by common outside steps. These houses were
approximately 562.5 square feet each and were subdivided into two units. Within
these small units lived large groups of working-class families with up to twelve
residents per house. Tellingly, the row of boardinghouses was marked “tenement”
on a 1907 Sanborn map, and in terms of living conditions the Butler Row Houses
differed little from the tenements of major eastern cities. Eighty-one working-class
immigrants and American-born children squeezed into these cramped spaces.

Th e Millers—Louis, Margaret, and Mortiz—were one such Butler Row Houses
family. Louis, the husband, father, and “head” of the family, emigrated in 1901 from
Croatia. By 1910, Louis had taken a job at Calumet where he, like so many local
Croatians, worked as a trammer. Margaret, Louis’s wife, a Croatian-born woman
who immigrated to the United States in 1908, worked as a boardinghouse keeper,
tending to the family’s boarders and their infant son, Mortiz, who was born in
Michigan. Th e Miller household also included seven Croatian-born boarders, all of
whom labored as trammers, as well as Annie Yalich, an eighteen-year-old Croatian
woman who worked as a servant in the home.

Calumet Heritage Days 2013

I (Gary) was asked to give the opening talk for Calumet Heritage Days last night August 12, 2013. I spoke in the very beautiful Keweenaw Heritage Center, once the home of St. Anne's Catholic Church. The venue was amazing, but the acoustics were not so great for presenting.

This presentation was supposed to be the last of our full and very involved summer presentation schedule, but a new one was added on August 20 in Marquette. I will be speaking to a group of journalists about the 1913-14 Strike, in general, and plan to share some of our new research on Italian Hall. Specifically looking at the media coverage of the Italian Hall giving special attention to WFM media outlets: Miner's Bulletin and Tyomies.

100 Years Ago...

Hard to believe that 100 years ago the Keweenaw Peninsula was in the midst of one of the most contentious upheavals in American labor history. Daily, the streets of the Copper Country were alive with the passion of striking workers.

July 23, 1913, was the day the strike began, but 9 long months would transpire before the strike came to an end. Not only was the strike a long affair in regards to time, but it was also a massive affair in terms of geography. Spread out over more than 60 miles of rugged terrain, the copper strike encompassed three counties, tens of cities, and thousands of workers from Ontonagon County in the south, through all of Houghton County, and into Michigan's northern-most county, Keweenaw County.

There was no disputing it, the strike was a massive and tumultuous affair. The image below is just one such capturing of this massive upheaval of worker sentiment in the Copper Country, and it also disputes the company-led notion that strikers were a wild bunch of hooligans and ruffians.

Striking workers affiliated with the Western Federation of Miners and their families parade down Red Jacket Road . The strikers will soon be passing in front of Calumet and Hecla Mining Company's headquarters in their Sunday bests, no less. Image from Michigan Technological University's Copper Country Historical Collections.

As can be seen in the image strike parades often consisted of mineworkers and their families dressed in Sunday bests and marching in an orderly fashion through the streets of mining controlled landscapes.

Wishing a thoughtful and meaningful appreciation to those who participated in the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike on this 100 year anniversary of one this epic historical event.

Presentations

The Houghton County Democratic Party added this caption to the above photo on their website, "Our Keynote Speaker was historian and author, Gary Kaunonen, who spoke about events during the 1913 mining strike in Houghton County."

The May presentations have come and gone with two presentations given to two outstanding audiences. The first presentation given in mid-May was to the Houghton County Democrats as part of their program, "1913-2013: A Century of Solidarity." I was one of four speakers at the event, and though I gave the keynote, any one of the four speakers could have fit this billing. The presentations were an excellent accounting of organized labor's past, present, and future in Houghton County. Among the other speakers were former Michigan Senator and Steel Workers member Mike Prussi, current Michigan House of Representatives member and union member Scott Dianda, and Michigan Education Association member Terry Lajuenesse.

My keynote included updates on research from Community in Conflict, the 1913-14 Strike's national significance, and why a strike that happened 100 years ago has relevance today. The 1913-14 strike's relevance to today's labor situation is very noticeable in Michigan, where we are seeing our rights to free speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to collectively bargain being whittled away, and sometimes shamelessly stolen in the middle of the night by autocrat governor Rick Snyder and his anti-labor goons. Today, organized labor is in the fight of its life, and lessons of solidarity and commitment to a cause can easily be appreciated and understood by examining the efforts of working-class families during the 1913-14 Strike.

I was graciously given a standing ovation for my remarks by the 60 or so people in attendance, but getting to talk with folks after the program was the real "payoff." Copper Country residents are so proud of their history, regardless of political affiliation, and talking with folks at this event really highlighted the importance of remembering the past to inform our future.

Giving a presentation as part of Keweenaw National Historical Park's Fourth Thursday in History series. The presentation location, in Calumet's Visitor Center, was a unique experience in a historic venue.

There were 75 plus people in attendance for this presentation, which was a part of Keweenaw National Historical Park's 4th Thursday in History program. I spoke on the work I did as Project Historian for the "Tumult and Tragedy" traveling exhibit's project team, which was rounded out by Project Manager Erik Nordberg and Project Graphic Designer Mike Stockwell. After the presentation I joined people in the Visitor Center's traveling exhibit space to answer questions on the exhibit. 

The local newspaper, the Daily Mining Gazette, covered the event, and the story on the presentation can be read by clicking on this link: http://www.mininggazette.com/page/content.detail/id/529934/Telling-stories-of-the-strike.html?nav=5006. 

 

The Italian Hall Tragedy and Long Memory

This day, Christmas Eve 2012, marks the 99th anniversary of the sad and tragic events at Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan. The events of Italian Hall turned the Copper Country on its head, and a bitter 5-month strike dividing workers and companies, friends and neighbors, and in some instances family member from family member became even more acrimonious. People associated with the Western Federation of Miners union blamed a vigilante group, the Citizens' Alliance for orchestrating the events.

Työmies, a Finnish-language socialist-unionist newspaper published in the strike zone at Hancock, Michigan, printed a rare English-language article in a special impromptu edition published on Christmas Day. The beginning of the article read:

The most appalling disaster in the history of Michigan occurred last evening at the Italian Hall in Calumet where hundreds of men, women and children had gathered to witness Christmas exercises for the strikers[’] children. The program which was quite lengthy had just begun when a strange man ascended the stairway, yelled “fire” and quickly made his escape to the street. Several persons who stood near the entrance where this man appeared, state that he had his cap pulled down over his eyes, and that pinned to the lapel of his coat was a Citizen’s [sic] Alliance button. At the cry of fire the great crowd arose as one and made a mad rush for the exit in the front of the building. In the rush down the stairway many fell and being unable to regain their feet were trampled to death, their bodies acting as stumbling blocks for others who followed, until the hallway was entirely blocked by the dead and dying. The fire alarm was soon sounded and those responding were forced to gain entrance to the hall by ladders at the front windows. Firemen entered the building in this manner and stopped the panic stricken crowd from further crowding into the hallway upon the dead bodies of their friends in a frantic effort to escape. The bodies in the hallway were so tightly packed that they could not be released from below, and firemen were compelled to remove the dead from the top of the stairway carrying the dead and dying back up into the hall before the stairs could be cleared. At the time the cry of fire was sounded in the hall Mrs. Annie Clemenc was making a talk to the little ones present who naturally were crowded as near the stage as possible, their little faces beaming with happiness, their hearts bounding with Christmas cheer. In less than three minutes afterward fifty of their frail little bodies were jammed and crushed in the hallway being used as a roadway over which their companions were vainly endeavoring to escape. The scene was a horrible one, and will never be effaced from the minds of those who witnessed the terrible tragedy.

The bodies of the dead were taken to a temporary morgue established in the town hall as soon as they were removed from the building. As soon as identifications were made, the bodies were removed to their homes. In some homes the mother and all the children lie cold in death, the husband and father crazed with grief. In others the mother being the only one spared has been plunged into despair and sorrow that yet dazes her, the full truth not yet dawning upon her terrified brain.

An estimated 73-79 people died in this horrific event. Close to 60 of these deaths were children.

A terrible and tragic event, Italian Hall should be remembered for several reasons. Primarily because we should always honor the memory of those who died in the hall. Mostly children, the lives of those who passed at Italian Hall were filled with so much potential. Additionally, these were working class folks who died at Italian Hall, and often "history" at the very least forgets, or in worst cases, is negligent of the struggles and tribulations of those in the working class. Most traditional histories champion the memories of the presidents and industrialists who supposedly gave so much, while overlooking the people who did the actual work in building America--the WORKing class. Remembering those who died at Italian Hall gives their lives as working class members involved in a hotly contested labor strike the due diligence that most textbook histories dismiss. 

Finally, as the great folk singer Utah Phillips notes, one of the most important gifts to America's working class is "the Long Memory." Referring to "Long Memory" as the most radical idea in America, Phillips opines in his spoken-word song "The Long Memory," that those of us coming up today battling many of the same injustices in the wage-slave system, can only begin to understand OUR exploitation and attempt to control the conditions of OUR labor by understanding OUR collective past as a united working class. 

So, where does this knowledge come from? According to Phillips, it is OUR elders. Those elders who sat-in, spoke-up, and sometimes tuned-out, have a wealth of knowledge that can never be learned from a text book. 

Those working class elders who marched in strike parades, nearly froze to death in picket lines, and sacrificed their lives for something as simple as a Christmas Eve party in Italian Hall have demonstrated to all of us how important, essential, and vital something as simple as collective action can be. That lesson is not inherent, it is learned and earned from each battle on the picket line, each fight for free speech, and every tragic loss to senseless labor violence directed at workers trying to assert their rights to organize in a collective body. The "Long Memory" allows us today to carry the lessons of the past into the future and gain the wisdom of those who have fought the good fight before us. 

Simply, the "Long Memory" allows us to never forget the past, while always moving forward.   

A link to Utah and Ani DiFranco's song "The Long Memory":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDTtuKarY7U

Our thoughts go out to those who died at Italian Hall this holiday season--Aaron and Gary

Italian Hall Archaeology Part II

This Saturday and Sunday students from Michigan Tech's Industrial Archaeology program began doing physical archaeology at the Italian Hall Memorial site. The purpose of the archaeological work was to do sampling, in the form of shovel test pits, of what is under the site of the Italian Hall. With this information, the National Park Service's Keweenaw National Historical Park will create a landscape design for future interpretation and education efforts at the site.

Dr. Tim Scarlett, who was leading the dig, was surprised and confident that the archaeological work at the site yielded enough information to give Keweenaw National Historical Park some solid information on which to plan for the landscaping work at the site.

I (Gary) was able to participate in the dig on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a beautiful fall day in the Keweenaw and the group that I was working in found what is likely the foundation of the Italian Hall. I'll post photographs of this foundation, which we found at about 40 cm underground, and other interesting finds from this weekend. I have to write that excavating and finding what is likely a part of the Italian Hall's 1908 building foundation was a unique and moving experience. What we uncovered was buried for over 100 years and the simple smooth faced stones buried in the ground are physical connections to the tragic building that reminded us all of the significance of the work we were doing.

I got chills when I first saw the rough face of the stone foundation as I saw it emerging from the dirt and rubble that had buried it for over 100 years. It was truly a great experience and I feel honored to have been a part of the students, volunteers, and project staff who were working at the site. My thanks to Dr. Tim Scarlett and Keweenaw National Historical Park for including me in this work.

Now, the photos from Saturday:

Saturday's digging was under warm, sunny skies. This group of Tech Industrial Archaeology Program students digs into the lot adjacent to Italian Hall as the Memorial Arch watches over the work.

In the upper right hand corner of this test pit is what is believed to be a small section of stone foundation from the Italian Hall. Our team of workers unearthed this through rubble seen sticking out into the shovel test pit. It was amazing to be able to dig this up; it was an experience I will always remember.

Sunday's work at the site brought much less favorable weather, but interesting finds none-the-less. Conditions got so cold and rainy that at times we had to tent the shovel test pit holes to keep water out and workers dry. Images from the soggy Sunday:

Michigan Tech Industrial Archaeology program student Roger Gerke beginning a shovel test pit in the rear quarter of the Italian Hall Memorial site. There were three shovel test pits dug in the Italian Hall Memorial site, of these only two were inside the historical building. The shovel test pits, once bottomed out, are then filled in and sod is replaced to leave as little impact at the site as possible. 

Difficult to believe, but there is a person under this makeshift tent and down about 80 cms below the ground. This shovel test pit, located in a lot adjacent to the Italian Hall Memorial site yielded very interesting finds and bottomed out at about 100 centimeters. The person excavating the shovel test pit only stopped because a wooden floor was hit at 100 centimeters.

As dirt is screened from digging in the shovel test pits, small pieces of physical history emerge. This tiny artifact is a piece of porcelain from the lot adjacent to the Italian Hall Memorial site. Through historic photographs and maps, it was determined that this lot housed a saloon and residences and this piece of porcelain probably came from one of those historic residences. 

Iron artifact from a shovel test pit inside the Italian Hall--or rather from inside where the Italian Hall once stood. It is thought that this artifact is perhaps a piece of hardware, perhaps a coat hook. The Italian Hall's interior had many coat hooks and the depth of this coat hook in the ground, indicated that it was a historic artifact, likely from Italian Hall. The next step for this artifact is a good cleaning in the Tech's Industrial Archaeology lab to remove the rust and dirt from around the artifact.

Difficult to tell from this image, but this shovel test pit goes down about 100 centimeters. The various layers or levels of soil can be seen in the walls of the shovel test pit. The bottom of this shovel test pit proved very interesting as a number of glass bottles and glass bottle fragments sat on top of a wood floor.

More Italian Hall Archaeology News Stories

From the Houghton Bureau of NBC's Marquette affiliate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lGrc6VUs4c

From ABC 5 & 10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7lXKXnM1Cs

Italian Hall Archaeology

GPR scanning below the surface at the Italian Hall memorial site, Calumet, Michigan

GPR readout monitor, showing what lies underneath the surface of Italian Hall

Michigan Technological's University's Industrial Archaeology program is undertaking an archaeological study of the Italian Hall site in Calumet, Michigan, for the National Park Service's future landscape improvements to the incredibly significant historical site.

I (Gary) gave a presentation to the class undertaking the archaeological investigation on October 11, 2012, and stressed the significance of Italian Hall and the memorial as an important site in American labor history and that the memorial and events of Italian Hall were a part of public history that was simultaneously "contested history."
The crux of my presentation was that the Italian Hall, the events of the fateful Christmas Eve, and the memorial site were all parts of public history--not the purview of any one person, institution, or agency. There are many stakeholders associated with a site like Italian Hall, and this makes the memorial site and the tragic history associated with it "contested history." Contested history because of its very nature is complex, but the best definition that I have run across comes from Charles Darwin University in Australia. It reads:

History is often portrayed as the description of what happened in the past...it is understood that 'history' is more correctly described as 'histories'. If what we see and do is dependent upon our observations, then each person will have a different view of a particular event, they will construct their own history. Add to this the complexities of interpretation and language and there is likely to be no chance of there being one 'true' history. History is contingent and dependent upon the circumstances in which you find yourself, the image you want to portray and the rights you have to present your turn of the events. History is often described as the story of the winners!

...the issues at stake then are not just the accuracy of the textbooks, but the actual power and influence that goes with being the person or group that gets your story heard. It is the history of the dominant group that gets to be told and it is their story that is often the one that becomes normalised whilst the stories of others gets 'othered' or ignored. Minority groups and outcasts in society don't get to tell their story or their side of a story.

As a note: our research and writing on Italian Hall aims to present the working class history associated with the site. We are presenting the "other side" of the story and from the perspective of strikers, workers, and those that did not have an "official" voice during the events of the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike.

This archaeological project is a great example of public history at a contested space in that a number of agencies and stakeholders are involved in the project: local government, a state university, and a federal government agency--the National Park Service. Partnerships like these give a wide breadth of knowledge and resources to under-served, but crucial, complex historical sites like Italian Hall.

Then on October 14, 2012, a morning and afternoon crew of undergraduate and graduate students in Michigan Tech's Social Sciences department laid outs lines and a historic preservation professional from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community scanned the site with ground penetrating radar (GPR) to gain an idea of what lies beneath the surface of the ground at the tragic historical site.

Doing a GPR scan of the site is the first step in an archaeological survey of the site. Step 2 happens this upcoming weekend when students will be doing shovel test pits (STPs) to check for significant historical remains on the site. This archaeological work is mandated by Section 106 heritage preservation law.

This process will help Keweenaw National Park, the organization that administers the site for the Village of Calumet, determine what types of changes to incorporate for the site's landscape improvements during the centennial year of the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike. 

Pictures of this weekend's dig will be posted on the site early next week. I'm extremely excited to see what artifacts come from the STPs. This type of analysis at Italian Hall has never been done before, and promises to be an interesting and informative experience.

Presenting, Listening, and Learning in Calumet

Former mineworkers talking about their experiences working in Calumet, Michigan, area mines at Coppertown Museum in  Calumet's industrial core. Their talk was sponsored by Calumet Main Street and is a part of Heritage Days in Calumet, photo by the author.

I (Gary) had a unique opportunity last night...I was invited to give a presentation on labor history in Calumet as part of their Heritage Days activities. About 40 people showed up to the event, and things went really well. I discussed life in Calumet circa 1912 for mineworkers and how those lives, although described by a mining company official in a 1912 celebration as idyllic, was simply not the case. The best evidence for this was the bitter 9-month strike that started less than a year after the mining company official's statements in 1912.

The presentation was short at about 20 minutes, but the question and answer session lasted for almost 45 minutes, and great questions they were. My favorite was: "How was the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike like last year's Occupy Movement?"

Wow! What an incredible question and without going into huge detail my answer was, "Decentralization!," which we will be discussing in the book.

But, the highlight of the night was listening to former Calumet area mineworkers discuss their experiences working in area copper mines. Topics included in the memories of these mineworkers were mine accidents, good points of working in a mine, area saloons, and colorful characters of the Copper Country.

In essence, these memories were living testimonials to what conditions in the mines and the area were like...in their own voices and it was a great honor to hear these voices.

This is actually what the upcoming books is all about: giving voice to those who did not have a voice during the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike. We are attempting to tell a type of working class or peoples' history of the event. That is our main focus with the book and our goal in doing our research and writing.

I went to give a presentation and inform on what life was like in the Copper Country circa 1912, but in the end I was given the opportunity to listen to and learn from people who incredible life experience. It was an honor to be able to listen to those folks wax nostalgic about their experiences.

So, the night was a great event and there are even more events planned for the rest of the week including the four year of the Red Metal Radio show, which is staged live at the beautiful Calumet Theater. Details on that radio show and the rest of Heritage Days' events: http://www.mainstreetcalumet.

com/