Caldwell County MO Archives History .....STRIKES IN THE HAMILTON COAL MINES 1887 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 2:00 pm

STRIKES IN THE HAMILTON COAL MINES 1887
	Narrator:  John Rauber, Hamilton

     "Hamilton has had a taste of labor troubles," said John Rauber, himself a 
laboring man.  He was a young fellow in the strike time of 1887.
     In 1887, with two coal mines running just outside Hamilton the miners 
went on strike for higher pay.  It seemed to start in the east (Caldwell coal 
co.) mine with a demand that all miners be paid what a few were getting who 
worked in the dangerous places.
     A general reduction of half cent a bushel was answered by the strike.  A 
board of arbitration was proposed by the owners, but the miners refused it.  
The miners sent circular letters far and wide, warning other miners not to 
interfere or take work here.
     Back of the miners was the Knights of Labor organization which was 
powerful then.  Charley Durkee was the leader here.  Miners were making two to 
three dollars a day.  The Knights sent to the merchants and tried to get them 
to quit selling foods made at the penitentiary, such as boots and shoes.  The 
merchants kept on selling the boycotted goods.
     The owners got some strike breakers.  One outfit of strike breakers were 
met at the depot by the strikers and by night, they had backed out of the job 
and went on to other work.  The second outfit of strike breakers were negroes 
from Leavenworth Kan.  They paid no attention to the Knights and their 
threats, went to work and stayed here several years.
     The strike meant a loss of two months' out put for the owners and much 
loss to the strikers.  The latter got little sympathy here in town and gained 
no results, losing their jobs.
     The negroes brought on their families and lived in the company houses at 
Tom Creek mine.  Some of the miners were Grant Jennings, whose wife Mollie was 
a well-known wash woman and Warren.  At that time, Ralph Booth was the 
secretary of the west mine (Tom Creek).  It was the custom those days for 
colored women to wash for the white women and take their pay in cast off 
finery.  The negroes prized the clothes of society leaders.  Probably none of 
these Leavenworth negroes are now in the county.
     Interview  1933.
   
     Interviewer's note.  The above data is familiar to the interviewer.  Her 
father was a share owner in the Tom Creek mine, hence was interested in the 
strike, and besides the family had a "hired girl" who came from a striker's 
family.  Hence we got both sides of the dispute.


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