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Subject: Re: [PaCambri] Coal Mine - Marstellar
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 16:43:23 EDT
I do not know the name, but it was exceptionally interesting because just
before or during the 1922 Strike, the mine owners fenced in the entire town,
which they owned, and proceeded to evict any miner and his family who went on
strike. It was in the newspaper.
Colver did not have a fence, but it had only one way in, by rail, and the
Mine police inspected the cars on the train, and refused admittance to anyone
they did not want in town. No alcohol was allowed, and an area called
Tripoli, just outside the land the Mines owned, had several bars.
The mines would also build the school and church in many areas, and
retain ownership of at least the land, to insure that there was no trouble and the
school and the church would be on their side. Some of the copper mining towns
in Arizona are still that way.
The striking miners at Morris Mines, I think it was, during the 1922
strike were being evicted, and Smallpox broke out, so they suspended the evictions
[probably couldn't find anyone willing to risk exposure!!] until everyone was
over the Smallpox, then evicted them. They just cleared everything out and
dumped it outside the town limits. This was November, I think, and in many
areas the miners were living in tents.
During some strikes, the Mine Owners employed gangs of toughs called the
Coal and Iron Police, to evict or police mining towns. The original State
Police were often sent in by the governor to enforce the Mine Owners, and I
remember older men who hated the State Police for that reason.
That movie, Shenodah, with Sean Connery, was made in the Hard Coal
Country in the 1970s, was the true [with Hollywood embellishments] story of how the
Pinkertons [Detective Agency] infiltrated the Molly McGuires and it led to
hangings of miners.
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