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A RIOT AND MURDERTOWNairs Which Led to Practical Ab donment of County's Big CoalField. .Many people, particularly of the younger generation of Bee readers, do not know that soldiers were once hurried into the borders of Greene county to quell a riot, a riot in which 1200 to 1500 “men participated Ho a more or less degree. This piece of local* history mostly forgotten except by old tot'c placealong late in the year of 1884 and early in 1886. It occurred in the region south of the present city of Bippey, and more particularly in the locality of old Surrytown. an environ of Angus. At that time, or rather in the summer of 18EH, • Angus and Surrytown contained more than 2,600 people, or larger than Jefferson was at this particular period. The people were mostly miners and workers in the dozen or more coal shaf ts in that vicinity. At the time of the jiot most of the miners were out on a strike, and particularly at what is known as “Keystone No. 2,“ and the Standard mine.tOn the morning of December 12, 1884, Angus was a seething mass of angry men, due to the fact that the mine operators bad imported /’scabs” or “blacklegs’* as they were dubbed by the strikers, to take the places of the workmen who had been there for some time. There was every indication of approaching violence, and the mine operators had appealed to the Governor for protection, as local officials felt themselves unable to cope with the situation?But suddenly all things changed. A special train pulled up at the Angus depot and a company of troops piled off, armed to the teeth, and fully prepared to “do business/* The Angles depot was a half mile or more from the'business part of town, and the agon road connecting the two ran diagonally across an open pasture to the main street. Word had been left at 'the depot for the soldiers to hurry** and the captain immediately put his men in action* They were ordered to “fix' bayonets,1” and four abreast, they went at “double quick” up this road. Ac they swung into the main street the big crowd of agitators melted away Uke mists before the morning sun, and breathing heavily from theid hurrying, the troops came to a halt In front of Thomas’s store and hall the chief building of the city. There they reported to local officers for action.It had been decided to arrest some of the leading agitators, and squads of soldiers were de’^ated to the job. One man in particular who was sought concluded to “run for it/’ A sergeant ordered his men to bring their guns to a “charge bayonet” and go after him. The man was not a* ■ _ »-John Anderson, another Swede, said, “About 150 men came, one man came in after a hatchet. They brokep —in the door and shot *^ill3 around, tc hundred shots I guess. I ran upstairs and laid down. Nels Munson'came up and was shot on the stairs. They called me to come down. I did .so and saw Davis (one'of* the .defendants) there. They took me up town and pounded me on the head and told' meto leave town and never come back.”^ *01e/ Aaiveron testified that heworked at Keystone No. 2 on Dec* 10,before the soldiers came, and ' hadbeen threatened with death if /te didnotr quit work and leave. He was inthe Longman house the night of theshooting.' He said “a man came intothe house ana asKCx* .or a hatchet.vmg in the outskirts of Angus,v and close to a spur of railway which ran up to Surrytown./Some friend warned him one afternoon that a bunch df' strikers were coming to his house to punish him. Mr. McKay had time to prepare for, them; and knew pretty well that they would walk up the railway track. .He went out along the track, apd stretched a piece of wire across the same. IBs- twomi - *daughters were well grown, and had been* taught how to handle firearms. He provided each of them with a shotgun. For himself he took down a repeating rifle, and filled the magazine. It was not long until he heard the noise of approaching men.^Stepping from the house he sawGJIInpl«poCOCOmi- J «• arching i /UIC UUUOC fUJU UDJkVU aVJ. UrtWVMVw ----- ^Told him wo did not have any. He up the track.. Followed bj the twowent out and then the crowd came around the house and pounded on the door and broke it in. I went to the south door to go out. They fired through the windows. I saw six men come into/the north room. They fired upstairs. I got behind the door. None of ua in the house shot any for we had no guns. When the men went into another room I ran out of doors, and away over the fences. Two men followed and shot a£ me. * I laid down when I could not run any more, and they caught me and brought me back. i saw BlcCahill with a club, and they held me by theM wrist and McCahill struck me in the back of the headj and Vbn the shoulders. Other men struck me with their fists. BlcCahill was the man who done the talking. I asked them to spare my life, but they yelled, *kill him, kill him/ Three of them took me, onehm each side and one behind, over to the engine house. I jerked away and ran to the boarding house.”A. Holm, another Swede was also badly Waten, and taken to Angus and ordered to leave town. When the crowd had left him he went back to the mine.J. Bl. Markham, foreman of the mine, told the story of the night’s excitement, Implicating McCahill and othefs. He said the house was riddled with buibts.J. T. Covcny, a physician, gave evidence, and said Blunson was shot by some one taller than he, or else Blunson was stooping. The bullet entered at the ninth rib ani came out under the shoulder blade.James E. Stout, a ws 11 known superintendent of one of the mines, also gave evidence. Dn D. J. Bowman, who .was then coroner of the county, told of the inquest. George W. Day, deputy sheriff, also testified, as did John McKay, John Canty, and others^Numerous men were arrested in the matter, but most of them were released. However the grand jury indicted Wm. Canfield, Hugh BlcCahill, W. II. Thomas, W. J^ Davis and Eli Lloyd. Lloyd, Davis and Thomas were released on a writ of habeas corpus, by Judge W. H McHenry* of Des Moines, acting in *he courts of Dallas county. He continued ti.e custody of Canfield and BlcCahill, although stating that, in his opinion,fcthpia!Stpcthmfu27mtoinscpsinaintoatmcobebvtrasgood sprinter, so the young and active there was but slight evidence against troops were hot upon his trail With them.sharp bayonets and the clanking ofwar materials to add to his dismay,Canfield was never tried, as near as appears by the records. MeCahiU was -----M 1*1 J '----- ------ho labored up the road only a short1 jn judge Loofboro’s court indistance, but the thoughts of cold jcfferson, being prosecuted by Attor-steel jabbing him in his posterior parts was too much to bear, and heney A. B. Thomell, district attorney, and defended by BIr. I. J. BIcDuffie,S----- ' UUU •*** • w w ----whirled about and threw up hi* who wns assisted by J. C. Meredith« - _ _ _ — m. a, i—. a m _ B—Bbbbjb Bfe M aA *b Mb «■ .P. A b — ~ BB B m 4* . _ _hands. And thus guns and bayonet threw fear into the hearts of the-*-1%---- A «h» 4ifitmverd) ctviu hii^uo own vwtou uwn«nThe tree™ L **and W. W. Phillips, lawyers from Dcs Moines. The record as to the jury is not at hand, save the fact thatthree weeks, and things assuming a somewhat normal condition they were ordered awy. They had barely entrained for Des Moines when the angry mutterings commenced again, and hundreds of men, wildly inflamedu *tsr? lumui t Q„ ti arris, of Paton, was foreman.After a lengthy trial McCahill was convicted on a charge of manslaughter, and given three years in the penitentiary at Port Madison, He appealed his case to the Supreme Court, which body, after reviewing the mat-’ — - - - - ’ — |, w - w ■by their military subjection, once ter, held that he must serve his term more went on the “war path.” This He remained in prison until Ndvem-was on the 7th day of January, 1885, and, before midnight, Nels Munson had been shot to .death, and a number of other men injured in a desperateaffray In the locality of Keystone No. 2,The operators of Keystone No. 2 had imported a bunoh of Swede miners, quiet peaceable fellows who werb looking for a joo. They had gon* to their boarding house not far from the mine, and it was sometime afterdark when a mob, estimated from 100 to 1000 men, attacked their place ofabode. The mob had first visited a number of other houses suspected of harboring thd strike breakers, but did not find whom they sought It was near midnight when they finally came to the boarding house, kept bya Bfr. and Mrs. Ldngman. They had fired a number of shots as they went, and at the Longman home they broke Sn and attacked the “scabs.” Shooting occurred for ;ome minutes, then the strikers left, ^taking with them three of the “scabs” and a boy. Frank Haas, who told this story, went Into the house following their leaving, being accompanied by one Ben Shilling. All ws* dark therein. $**on there came George Simpson and a man named Markham, and they struck a match, by the light of which they ’found Nels Blunson cead upon the floor, shot through the heart. Blood was upstairs and upon the stairs, indicating the ferocity of the affair.1888.girls he walked out to a point about fifty yards behind the wire J’dead-ilnc.” When the mob reached abqut an equal distance beyond tHe wire he hailed them. * In his rich brogue ho said:“Now, b’ys If ye’ll wait a bit I'll converse with ye. This little piece of artillery I hold in me hand has sixteen shots in it. My two gals each have a shotgun loaded with cut slugs. Now Pm a tellLn’ ye, b’ys, that little wire between us is th* end of the world! The first b’y to step across It gets a bullet. The rest of ye gets all of mine, and the gals’ guns scatter pretty well/”“Now b’ys I’m not. dictatin’ what ye can do, but I’m a tellin’ ye what’s goin’ to happen when ye start over that wire. Some of ye may get to me, but a lot of ye won’t. Now what d’ye say?”There was a whispered conversation among the rioters, and soon they commenced to trickle back towardAngus. At the last they moved with an alacrity that was almost a rout, McKay turned, and with a bland smile to his “gals” remarked, “well I guess the b’ys weren’t lookin’ fer me, after all.”He had proved Blark Twain’s assertion that most men are cowards.* * * «.Previous to the meeting of the grand jury which indicted McCahill, Canfield, and the others, a big bunch of men, numbering some two dozen, bad been arrested .on a charge of rioting. Information was filed against them in the court of Justice of the Peace Z. A. Church, in Jefferson. Mr. McDuffie, representing the accused men, took a change of venue to Justice W. A. BIcDdnald, of Hardin township* a worthy citizen who now resides in Jefferson. The case did notget far in Mr. McDonald’s court, and the prosecuting attorney, having insufficient evidence to convict* dismissed the case before the men presented any defense. Some of Mr. McDonald’s jovial friends always claimed that the genial‘justice held the Iowa rie* law to be “unconstitutional” upon this occasion, but BIr. BlcDonald denies he did any such thing, and in this contention Mr. I, J. McDuffie sustains him. Mr BIcDuffie says the State’s attorney couldn’t do anything else than dismiss, for he had nothing upon which to hang a prosecution.The twenty-six men under arrest spent one Sunday in Jefferson, while awaiting the calling of their case. Judge Church informs us the men went in a body to services at the old Blethodist church, and there listened4a 4Ua onrl arv--Iiiwviivy sv •* • rparent great interest. ’tVhethor this was done because of their “religious inclinations” or for the moral effect, {C the Judge refuses to give an opinion.Mr, BIcDuffie stUP* contends that McCahill was wrongfully convicted, and that he produced abundant evidence to show that he had gone home early in the evening, proving by several store keepers in Angus of naving purchased goods on the way home, and by his family that he didViInInJtDGItPjGInDInFGGGInHHIIIIHHHHHDCCGJiGBSlt;IIIr\\IrS'CIrIiKCIiJ. A. Henderson was clerk of the I H*dtv .vif. amiH., testified that ho advised other men inDistrict Court during this exciting.7, „ the bunch of his leaving, and notifiedtrial. George Eagleson was sheriff. * ... ,In tho old Mcords In Clerk W. £ ^ that he would have nothing tofurthertrial, a gem1 of to cc ect on I f08e^ to give such evidence—althoughforty page one by Judge Loofboro, j Jfc woul/haTO hc,pcd hlghis instructions to the jury. In this. . ... . __ . „ATV1% m , .« * t t | cause he did not so notify nis com—he refers to those who united in at- J , #, ,, _ .. rades. The mass of evidence in thetacking the men from the Standard ,X ”'.ST l.ur at Keyrtflno No. 2, ““ — co.ntaUne, ...or.l« **» • tt. B. hod protty woll —St* i T.covered the ground in their opera tions. All evidence was quite, conflicting in character, and Judge Loof-McCahill among the rioters, and one stating that he had seen McCahill fire the shot. The jury “split the differ-w:mrZ™Vof Mcdahlli; said, W» ^ lt;* ~“For he might havo been there and After he served one yearstill be Innocent, while, on the other h“ w« P^ned by Governor Larr-. . . j t ^ abee, Judge Loofboro strongly recom-hand, he might have been away from • *■ ' .T“, nc .r. V C „Vr. t7»; those mending that this be done. Mr. Mc-thcrc and still bo as guilty as those „ * 4. .Jud/e Uofboroaf:WHO \11CI WlC OilUDWlUK* aw« uuw MX I * . %11 I « ^ ter pronouncing sentence, expressedit all, the jury mauo a case 01 man- v r ^ ; \* viii w grave doubts whether BlcCahill wasslaughter. McCahill. however, wis the ... . . . .. Monly man'cver convicted in connection I ^ or not7 but bnd no aUrnn^0with the riot.but to sentence tho mar* after the*•action of the trial jury. The case willThe period was not without its Ro down in history as one of the mostamusing Incidents, jmyasing if some-1 momentous in local annals.what tragic. The strikers were,, not j % Angus never recovered t from the™ ^ • rnm n a mm ft _ B. . A • *m m m m *mm - w ~ Wsatisfied with getting rid of “scabs” j effects -of this strike, and the “camp” but determined also to visit* punish-1 went down steadily from that time on. mcni upon some of the operators. I Miners went to other fields, and this John McKay, superintendent of one thriving little city of 2,51)0 pouulation of the mines, and in later years 1 has reduced to a hamlet considerably treasurer of Polk county, was an oh-j less than one-ter.th of its size in the ject of bitter hatred by many miners. * halcyon days of tl.^ early eighties.
Newspaper Details
Jefferson Bee
Jefferson, Iowa, US
Wed, Nov 16, 1921
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Hodge E.
TX, USA 17 Dec 2019
Other Publications Near Jefferson, Iowa
Jefferson Era
Jefferson Bee
Jefferson Herald
Standard Atlas of Greene County Iowa
Atlas of Greene County Iowa
