spot, and all the turmoil, danger, and expense of the months of May and June avoided. THE SECOND CRISIS There followed a period of six weeks of comparative quietness. The eighteen miners against whom warrants had been issued submitted peaceably to arrest. All pleaded not guilty in the district court at Colorado Springs, and all were upon trial acquitted.11 The troublesome week in March had advertised the strike widely through the newspapers, and the result was a large influx of a rough element into the district. The most turbulent element from the Cœur de A'lene District came in large numbers, and tramps, and criminals, and roughs of all description flocked in from all directions.12 Many of these men were admitted to the miners' unions. And here is where the union made its great mistake.13 The evident willingness of the union to come to a compromise in the trouble, the peaceful submission of its members to arrest and their acquittal by the courts, and the mass meetings held by President Calderwood, had gained a large degree of sympathy for the men throughout the state. But the overt acts later committed by a few criminal men, and the reign of terror brought on by the rougher element, lost them the prestige which they had earlier gained, and brought upon them the just condemnation of the law-abiding citizens of the state. 11 See District Court Records, Colorado Springs, June-August, 1894. Several cases, all of which were dismissed but two, which resulted in acquittals. 12 It has been frequently stated that numbers of the famous Molly Maguires, of Pennsylvania, came to the Coeur de A'lene District, and that, the organization being broken up there in 1893, descended upon Cripple Creek. No direct evidence has ever been adduced on this point. 13 A number of the more conservative members of the unions left them because of the dangerous element admitted at this time. A noteworthy case is that of E. W. Pfeiffer (see as County Commissioner in the strike of 1903-4). He was later opposed politically by some of the unions for this action. It will be remembered, that at the time of the first trouble between Superintendent Locke and the employees of the Isabella, one of the deputies captured with him was a man named Wm. Rabedeau. Mr. Rabedeau was also warned to leave camp, and did so, but returned shortly afterward. He was deprived of his commission as deputy by Sheriff Bowers, but remained as a guard in the employ of some mine owners. On April 8th the miners' union started out in a body to attend the funeral of a miner who had been killed in an accident. Scattered around everywhere they found "dodgers" calling a meeting at Anaconda for 11 o'clock, the time set for the funeral. The funeral services were short, and the men hurried over to Anaconda, where they found the meeting already called to order, with Rabedeau and another man named Taylor presiding, and Rabedeau making a speech in favor of going to work on the tenhour schedule. It was evident that the scheme was to have the meeting pass resolutions favoring going to work on the tenhour schedule, and to report in such a way to the press as to give the impression that the majority of the men were in favor of going to work, but were being intimidated by radical members. The men were greatly infuriated. Rabedeau was taken from the platform and terribly beaten. Later he was subjected to all sorts of indignities, and run out of camp, with the threat that next time he showed his face in the district his life would pay the forfeit. During the latter part of April, and throughout May, conditions grew steadily worse. The rough element was gradually becoming more prominent, and the men were getting into a more threatening mood. Small bands of men raided throughout the district, stealing provisions and arms and ammunition, getting into drunken rows, and sometimes maltreating nonunion men. Many of the smaller merchants in isolated places closed their stores entirely, and families in the unsettled districts very generally moved into the towns.14 Sheriff Bowers spent his whole time in the district, but hampered by the re 14 From the testimony of a number of small storekeepers, and families occupying outlying cabins, who deserted their homes and stores, sometimes to have them raided in their absence. fusal of the county authorities to furnish sufficient deputies, found it exceedingly difficult to preserve any semblance of order. Early in May various discussions were held among mine owners relative to making a determined effort to open the mines. It was felt that something must be done soon. No mines had been able to open as yet, and under the present conditions, violent opposition was expected. The movement finally resulted in the quiet circulation of a subscription paper, and the offer by the mine owners to the county to advance arms and money, if a large body of deputies should be enrolled to protect the opening of the mines. The offer was accepted by the county commissioners, and steps were taken to carry out the plan at -once. Word of the plans of the mine owners had early reached the miners and they began to prepare to resist to their utmost. -President Calderwood was in Salt Lake City attending a convention of the Western Federation of Miners, and J. J. JohnSon 15 came to the front as the military leader of the union. Mr. Johnson proceeded to get the miners into as complete military organization as possible. Headquarters and a military camp were established on Bull Hill.16 The choice was an unusually fortunate one. Bull Hill is a high steep bluff, overlooking the town of Altman. It overtops several of the most important mines, and is at once the most commanding and most inaccessible point in the district. A large boarding house was established, a commissary department put in operation, systematic search made for arms and ammunition; and as thorough military discipline enforced as was possible under the conditions. On May 24th, one hundred twenty-five deputies, largely ex 15 Mr. Johnson was a native of Lexington, Ky., growing up among the fueds of that state. He attended West Point for three years, but was dismissed before the completion of his course for participating in a hazing scrape. Drifting west he took up mining at Aspen, and later came to work at Cripple Creek. At the close of the strike he left the state to avoid arrest. On the opening of the Spanish War he was appointed colonel of an Arkansas regiment, but died while on the way to the sea coast with his command. He was a man of unusual ability, and of considerable military genius. 16 There was a report, generally believed at the time, that an immense log fort had been built on Bull Hill, and a cannon placed in it. No such fort was built, nor did the miners possess a cannon at any time. police and ex-firemen, left Denver in command of ex-Chief of Police J. C. Veatch. They were armed to the teeth, and prepared for immediate action. The miners had news of their departure, and prepared to give them a warm reception. There was still an insufficient supply of fire arms, so a raid was made on a Cripple Creek hardware store for rifles and ammunition; the Victor Mine also was held up and a number of Winchesters taken from it. The commissary department got in a number of range cattle. Orders were issued, and everything put in readiness. The deputies arrived next morning on the Florence and Cripple Creek Railway, and prepared to go into camp in full view of Bull Hill. The miners had prepared to show that they were determined, and to give the deputies an object lesson. As the train pulled into view a party of men hastened down the hill, warned everyone away, and placing large charges of dynamite in the shaft house of the Strong mine blew it to pieces with a tremendous explosion.17 Then pandemonium broke loose. The day before the Florence and Cripple Creek Railway had completed the grading on its line and discharged nearly two hundred laborers, each with a "It has been generally believed in some quarters that the blowing up of the Strong mine was accomplished by Mr. Sam Strong himself, in order to prevent the property from being worked, and in this manner to break the valuable lease, which would revert to himself. This is exactly what did happen, and Messrs. Lennox and Giddings, the lessees of the mine, later brought suit for heavy damages against Mr. Strong on the above charge. The admission by prominent union men that the mine was really destroyed by a party of miners now settles the question beyond doubt, and clears Mr. Strong of all suspicion. Following is the account given by President Calderwood. See Langdon, Mrs. Emma F., The Cripple Creek Strike, p. 41. "The following morning a number of men quietly entered the building of the Strong mine and ordered Sam McDonald, Charles Robinson and Jack Vaughn to come out. They declined to do so and retreated down the shaft. Dynamite was then deliberately placed in the boiler inside the shaft house, and with an electric battery, the same was exploded, demolishing the building together with its valuable machinery. Great interest in the fate of Sam McDonald and the two men with him in the shaft of the destroyed Strong mine was felt, but twenty-six hours after the calamity, voices were heard in an old shaft connected with the main shaft of the mine by a drift, and the imprisoned miners were taken out. After getting washed and something to eat, they were taken to what was known as 'Bull Hill stronghold.' Charles Robinson suffered considerably as a result of his terrible experience, but none of the others suffered to any extent. Who was responsible for the destruction of the Strong mine is still a mystery." pay check of from ten to twenty dollars. These men all came into camp; pay checks were exchanged for cheap whiskey, and the usual result followed. At such times every man considers every other man his chum and whiskey is free for everybody. Railroad men, miners, toughs, all shared in a terrible debauch, and by the time the Strong mine was blown up hundreds of men were crazed with liquor. A car was loaded up with dynamite, and prepared to run down into the deputies' camp and blow them into atoms. But the deputies had taken warning and retired several miles down the track to a safer place. Then the cry went up to destroy the mines. Men ran for dynamite and fuse, and for a time there was every reason to expect enormous destruction of property. But Mr. Johnson, with the help of his aids, had been working constantly, asserting his authority and endeavoring in every way possible to quiet the men. At last he succeeded by diverting their attention toward attacking the deputies, in getting control of them, and the danger was avoided.18 4 The energy diverted from the destruction of property expended itself in an attack upon the deputies. The deputies, it will be remembered, had become aware of the danger of their position, and retiring some distance down the track they had gone into camp at Wilbur. Just where they were the miners did not know, but it was determined that wherever they were, an attempt should be made to capture them and get possession of their arms. Arms were still lacking at the miners' camp. About midnight a Florence and Cripple Creek construction train was captured, quickly filled with men, and with a miner at the throttle, started down the track for the deputies' camp. The deputies, anticipating attack, had pickets out in all directions. Unawares the train ran into the the picket line. A few quick shots brought it to a standstill. The miners poured out among the rocks; the deputies, roused, hurried to the assistance of their pickets, and the fight was on. There was no semblance 18 The miners' unions, and the people of the state in general, owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Johnson for his heroic work on that day. Had hundreds of drink-crazed men broken loose with unlimited whiskey and unlimited dynamite, the result had defied description. Scarcely a mine in the district would have been left whole, and one may hardly hazard a guess as to other consequences. |