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January 2006
The Newsletter of the Battle of Homestead Foundation
vol. 1, no. 7
Homestead 1892 - One of History Channel’s “Ten Days
that Unexpectedly Changed America” documentary series
In April the History Channel will tell the
story of the Battle of Homestead as part of
its 2006 Documentary series, “Ten Days that
Unexpectedly Changed America.” The Channel staff visited the site last September and
took some still photography at the Pump
House, which will appear in the program.
“Our goal was to come up with days that
would be significant and credible and also
be exciting television. We weren’t writing a
history text book,” said Susan Werbe, vice
president of programming at The History
Channel. “We wanted to find the spark or
trigger that may have set off a chain of events
that unexpectedly led to a change in our country.”
Written and produced by Jack
Youngelson and produced and directed by
documentarian Rory Kennedy (“American
Hollow”), “The Homestead Strike” includes
dramatic re-creations (filmed near Hudson,
N.Y.) and interviews with historians, biographers and the great-granddaughter of Henry
Clay Frick, Martha Frick Sanger. The film is
narrated by Martin Sheen (“The West
Wing”).
Kennedy said she was approached by
History Channel executives to contribute an
hour to the series, and Homestead was one
of three potential days that she expressed an
interest in recounting.
“Just personally, I feel that how labor is
treated today and how it’s been treated his-
In This Issue
2005 Pump House
Lecture Series .................... 3
Rowe Broadside
Depicted Battle ................... 4
What’s In An Image,
Dark Side of 1892.............. 3
torically is an incredibly important issue,”
Kennedy said. It’s difficult to draw a direct
line between what happened at Homestead
and the state of labor in America today, she
said, but that summer of 1892 set the stage
for decades to come.
After Carnegie’s business partner Frick
locked members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers out of the
plant in late June, union members engaged
300 Pinkerton guards brought in to secure
continued on page 7
Historic photo of 1892 Homestead strike leaders: from left seated: David Lynch, W. W.
Erwin, William Gaches. Standing from left, William T. Roberts, John Reed, Harry Bayne,
Hugh Dempsey and L. Hugh Ross.
Strike leaders photo presented to BHF
An original print of the leaders of the
Homestead Strike of 1892 has been given
to the Battle of Homestead Foundation by
the grandson of one of the Amalgamated
leaders during the strike. The Advisory Committee was composed of significant leaders
of the Homestead strike.
Too late for the published anthology
(The River Ran Red; Homestead 1892,
University of Pittsburgh Press) but in time
for the Centennial commemoration, two significant photos of Homestead 1892 strike
leaders were originally found in June 1992.
Jim Heffley, then a dispatcher for Port
Authority Transit and a member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85, retrieved
the 114 year-old framed photos of the Amalgamated Association’s Advisory Committee
and strike leaders from a family collection.
They had been passed on by his maternal
grandfather, Pat Cush, who had been a 21year-old president of an Amalgamated lodge
during the strike and whose two brothers had
been strikers. One had been wounded on July
6 and “put on a railroad car for the Wyoming
Territory following the battle.” Another brother
was among those indicted for “treason.”
In the photo, Amalgamated vice president William T. Roberts (at left) was a prominent negotiator in the period before the lockout and strike. At far right is Hugh Ross, a
continued on page 2
Shooting at the Pump
House for PBS series on
“changing the world”
A film crew from Boston spent a day at the Pump House in October 2005 doing interviews with BHF members for possible use in a
forthcoming program by Visionaries Inc., an organization “dedicated to
producing and distributing media that inspires individuals and communities to take action for positive social change.”
With eleven seasons on Public Broadcasting Co. stations, Visionaries has filmed in 55 countries and more than 50 locations in the US.
Since 1995, Visionaries has been producing documentary series for
public television. Hosted by Sam Waterston of Law & Order, the documentary series highlights “the rarely told stories of nonprofit organizations all around the world that are working to make a positive difference in their community and beyond.”
Visionaries’ production crews have traveled across six continents
and to more than 50 American cities “to profile the extraordinary work
of true philanthropists—people dedicating their lives and careers to
the service of others. The documentaries seek to inspire vast audiences,
serve as catalysts for positive social change, and promote philanthropy
on a global level.”
ATU member rescues family and
labor history and links to 1892
continued from page 1
skilled worker who was credited with directing the quasi-military response to the
Pinkerton assault. Hugh Dempsey (right
standing) was convicted of a questionable
charge involving nonunion workers and
served time in prison.
Reproduction copies of the originals
were made by the Homestead Centennial
Committee and presented to the USWA,
where it is displayed in its building lobby.
“My grandfather had a strong sense
that this history be preserved and I was
happy to make it available to the Committee,” said Heffley.
McCollester is new foundation president
The new president of the Battle of
Homestead Foundation is Charles
McCollester, director of the Pennsylvania
Center for the Study of Labor Relations at
Indiana University of Pennsylvania and twoterm president of the Pennsylvania Labor
History Society.
He succeeds Russell W. Gibbons, who
has been president of the BHF since 1997,
and was subsequently elected secretary at
the BHF annual meeting in December. Other
officers elected included labor artist Bill
Yund as vice president, Joel Sabadasz, University of Pittsburgh History Department,
2 / Battle of Homestead News
was re-elected Treasurer.
Members of the BHF board of directors include David Demarest, professor
emeritus at CMU; Steffi Domike, Penn Future and Mon Valley Media; Joe White, History Department, University of Pittsburgh;
Joel Woller, Carlow University History Department; John Asmonga and Linda
Asmonga, Mifflin Historical Society; Jim
Hohman, graphic designer; Mike Stout, Steel
Valley Printers; Rosemary Trump, president,
Pa Labor History Society; Mike Healey, labor attorney; Martha Conley, producer; and
William Serrin, author.
Battle of Homestead Foundation
NEWSLETTER
January 2006, V. 1, No. 7
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Charles McCollester
Bill Yund
Russell Gibbons
Joel Sabadasz
PO Box 11421
Pittsburgh PA 15238
Tel 412-782-0171
FAX 412-784-8801
www.artswire.org/-mvm/battle
Editor: Russ Gibbons
Photography: Jim Hohman
Artist: Bill Yund
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Clarke Thomas talks on Post Gazette history; “Black Fury” was among movie classics shown; John Hoerr talks on his latest book.
Mike Healey speaks at Miners’ panel; Carrie Martz talks on mine safety, taking notes at a Pump House Event.
Jim Hohman photos
2005 activities included authors, films and heritage projects
More than 20 events were held at the
Pump House under the sponsorship of the
Battle of Homestead during 2005, including
authors, archivists, historians, photographers
and community activists. From April through
July the following events were held: March
30: Clarke Thomas, senior editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and author of Front-Page
Pittsburgh: Two Hundred Years of the PostGazette; April 19: Class from USW Training Center at Linden Hall; May 17: Les
Standiford, author of Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the
Partnership That Transformed America;
June 20: Panel on the United Mine Workers
and Southwestern Pennsylvania mine history;
Pump
House saw
activities
from March
through
October
during
2005.
July 30: George W. Rutter, Civil War patriot
who met his death at the hands of Pinkerton
Guards at Homestead in 1892. Panel discussion by Linda and John Asmonga with
appearance of Civil War re-enactors from
Rutter’s regiment.
From August through October the following were scheduled: August 23: USWA
class from Linden Hall; September 3: John
Hoerr discusses his new book, Harry, Tom
& Father Rice: Accusation and Betrayal in
America’s Cold War, about leftist politics in
Western PA’s electrical industry in the 1940s
and ‘50s. Hoerr also authored And The Wolf
Finally Came: The Decline of the American
Steel Industry; September 17: Mapping
Pittsburgh’s Labor History: a continuing discussion of how to design a visitor’s guide to
historic labor places in the Pittsburgh region;
September 24: “Looking Back: Workers and
Photography at J&L Steel” — Drawing on
her graduate work at CMU, Courtney
Maloney discussed and illustrated J&L’s history of innovative photography projects,
from the 1880s to the post-World War 11
union era. Photographers Sandra Gould Ford
and Mark Perrott show their images of the
final days in Hazelwood.
October 8: “Exposure Assessment of
Pennsylvania Communities Contaminated by
Legacy Iron and Steel Industry (ISI) Waste”
— a discussion by and with Dr. Conrad D.
Volz (Pitt Grad School of Public Health),
exploring the potential health hazards associated with the legacy ISI waste; and the public health sustain-ability of land use alternatives.
October 15: Revising Homestead in
Photos & Poems: photographer Charlee
Brodsky and poet Jim Daniels bring to the
Pump House selections from their Summer
‘05 show at the Westmoreland Museum of
American Art— their reactions to post-industrial Homestead; October 22: Centennial of
the Wobblies: the IWW in Pittsburgh. An interactive day of history, song, music, archival treasurers and soapbox commentary.
Films and video of the Industrial Workers of
the World were shown.
Battle of Homestead News / 3
Change the fonts on these two pages to match the
rest of the publication
Britanniic Bold - Italic -
4 / Battle of Homestead News
14, 18, 24 point
as appropriate
Battle of Homestead News / 5
Bill Gaughan, archivist
and US Steel historian
William J. Gaughan, a retired steel executive, archivist of the steel industry and a
member of the Battle of Homestead Foundation, died Dec. 22 after a series of illnesses.
Mr. Gaughan, 81, participated in many programs at the Pump House and once addressed
an overflow crowd tracing the history of the
Homestead Works.
Mr. Gaughan grew up on Pittsburgh’s
North Side and graduated from Central
Catholic High School. He earned a degree
from Duquesne University while working at
night in the open hearth at U.S. Steel.
He continued his studies by concentrating on metallurgical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, and he worked his way
up to become senior systems designer at U.S.
Steel’s Homestead Works. He worked at U.S.
Steel for 36 years before retiring in 1983.
He also wrote a short book on the French
and Indian War titled “The Braddocks
Crossing Trail.”
His hobbies included collecting artifacts
from the old Homestead Works, such as photographs, documents, logs and films related
to steelmaking. He donated his collection to
Pitt in 1995 and it is now displayed as the
William J. Gaughan collection in the industrial archives of the Hillman Library, and part
of it can be found on-line.
1892 battle model at
USW headquarters
The model of the Battle of Homestead,
commissioned by the BHF with grants from
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and
matching funds from international unions
and area local unions, has a “winter home”
in Downtown Pittsburgh through April 2006.
Because of the absence of climate control, the model was moved to the lobby of
the United Steelworkers International headquarters building, where it has been seen by
daily visitors as well as staff members of the
USW and other unions. “It has generated a
great deal of interest and many questions,”
says Howard Scott, BHF member and USW
staffer.
The model was designed and made to
scale from old company blueprints, contemporary photos and newspaper and magazine
articles which described the site during the
battle. Don Sentner, a Bethel Park industrial
designer, completed the model which was
dedicated in July 2004 in the Pump House.
6 / Battle of Homestead News
Workers at the Jones and Laughlin plant, Southside, circa 1900.
Looking back at workers and photography
at the J & L mills: three presentations
A photo exhibit and discussion with
three separate yet related presentations on
workers and photography at the J&L mills
in the Pittsburgh area was held at the Pump
House on September 24, 2005. Overhead
projectors and slide presentations of photos
from the 1880s through the closing of the
mills in the 1980s were included.
Courtney Maloney drew on her graduate work at CMU (her dissertation is titled
“Looking Back: Workers and Photography
at J&L Steel”) to examine J&L’s history of
innovative photography projects, from the
19th century to the post-World War II union
era. This photo of a J&L rolling mill crew,
taken in 1916, is one of many historical work
portraits collected by J&L from former employees and their families. J&L also hired
Roy Stryker, to oversee the creation of a set
of documentary images focusing on J&L
workers. At the Pump House in September,
Courtney Maloney discussed her research on
J&L’s photo projects.
Sandra Gould Ford is a photographer,
writer and editor who published the AfricanAmerican magazine Shooting Star in the late
1980s. She worked at the Hazelwood mill
(then LTV) in its last years and was able to
record the look of workers and work site as
the plant was abandoned.
Mark Perrot showed photographs from
his Hazelwood project, published in book
format as Eliza: Remembering a Pittsburgh
Steel Mill, 1990 (University of Pittsburgh
Press). In 2000, Perrott published a photo
essay on a second monumental Pennsylvania place — Hope Abandoned: Eastern State
Penitentiary.
Carnegie to Frick:
‘Meet you in hell’
Best-selling author Les Standiford read
from his new book, Meet You In Hell, on
May 17, at Homestead’s Pump House, the
site where unionists and townspeople repulsed the Pinkertons during the famous
Homestead steel strike of 1892.
Standiford’s popular-history account,
subtitled “Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay
Frick and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America,” provides an account of the
day-long gun battle on July 6, 1892, in which
seven workers and three Pinkertons died. The
book argues that the battle destroyed whatever cordiality there had been in the partnership of Frick and Carnegie. Years later, when
a dying Carnegie proposed a reconciliation,
Frick’s reply was: ‘Tell Carnegie I’ll meet
him in hell.”
The final program at the Pump House
on October 22 featured day-long activities
by members and supporters of the International Workers of the World (IWW).
While most things have changed in the
past century, the core philosophy of the IWW
has not.
Several dozen members of the Pittsburgh branch of the Industrial Workers of the
World and their supporters gathered at the
Pump House to mark the 100th anniversary
of one of the nation’s longest-running and
most radical labor organizations.
The Pump House, where the IWW held
its centenary celebration, is one of the few
buildings remaining from the giant Homestead Steel Works, which was the site of a
bloody confrontation between striking workers and Pinkerton detectives in 1892.
The day-long program featured artists
displaying pro-labor drawings, speakers
reading poems from atop a wooden soapbox
and singers leading tunes like the “Wobbly
Doxology.”
“Praise boss when morning work bells
chime,” its lyrics say.”... Praise him, fat leech
and parasite.” It’s an IWW tradition, member Kenneth Miller said in his opening remarks, “to take religious songs and turn them
into radical songs.”
While the mainstream American labor
movement has emphasized collective bargaining, backed by the threat of a strike, as
the way to increase wages, strengthen job
security and improve working conditions, the
Wobblies, as they call themselves, maintained a more ambitious agenda.
Just as it did in 1905, the preamble of
the labor organization’s constitution calls for
doing away with capitalism and abolishing
the wage system.
While the Pittsburgh branch of the IWW
was founded just three years ago, connections between the IWW and Southwestern
Pennsylvania are long-standing.
Labor activists Eugene V. Debs and
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones lent their support to an IWW-led strike in 1909 of 8,000
workers at the Pressed Steel Car Plant in
McKees Rocks. The IWW also sought to
organize the region’s cigar makers and
Westinghouse Electric workers in East Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette photo
Marking the
centennial of
the ‘Wobblies’
When the Congress of Industrial Organizations had its founding convention in Pittsburgh in 1938, it was building on the ideas
of the Wobblies. “One big union organizing
Matt
Clayton, of
Lancaster,
views
information
on the IWW
during the
100th
anniversary
celebration.
a factory from wall to wall.” BHF member
Howard Scott said.
With thanks to Len Barcousky, Pittsburgh Post Gazette
One of “Ten Days that Unexpectedly
Changed America” July 6, 1892
continued from page 1
the mill on July 6, 1892. The Pinkertons surrendered in the violent clash in which 10 men
were killed, but the union was ultimately broken.
“What happened at Homestead was indicative of a larger trend,” Kennedy said.
“We were at a very important point in our
history where we were still a very young nation coming out of the Civil War, and we were
deciding which direction to go. It was the
beginning of a much more industrial society
for the first time in our history.
“This was the first time we saw industry
explode and saw real capitalists emerge.
There was a real question of how we as a
society were going to deal with that . . . industry won. Capitalism won. And because
of that we are where we are today.”
She said the Sago mine disaster again
shows the need for union protection to ensure the safety of workers.
“A lot of the owners of coal mines are
invested in making money and often at the
expense of protecting and ensuring the safety
of their workers,” said Kennedy, a daughter
of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy. “I spent
a lot of time in West Virginia and Kentucky.
“Mine owners would close a unionized
mine and then reopen [another one nearby]
and say anyone can come back to work but
only if they’re not in the union. What the
union does is protect the workers and is able
to speak on their behalf in a unified voice.
And the empowered voice helps compensate
for capitalism that is unreined in.”
Kennedy said “The Homestead Strike”
spent one day filming in Pittsburgh, but the
crew was unable to shoot re-creations locally.
“The Homestead mill is now largely a shopping mall, so that didn’t really bring us back
to 1892, although you can get a Starbucks,”
Kennedy said.
With thanks to Bob Hoover, Pittsburgh
Post Gazette
Legal seminar will discuss 1892 lockout/strike
A seminar at the Rivers Club in Downtown Pittsburgh in late April will discuss various legal aspects of the lockout and strike
during July through November of 1892. Attorney Cris Hoel, who is coordinating the
seminar, said that the program will be open
to the public and Continuing Education credits will be available to members of the Bar
in the Commonwealth.
The seminar is part of the Pittsburgh Legal History Series co-sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Law School and Symons
Capital Management. Previously the series
has had programs on the law and other sig-
nificant historical events, including the
Johnstown Flood, the Whiskey Rebellion and
the incorporation of US Steel.
Assistant Counsel Richard Bream of the
United Steelworkers will be on the panel with
Ken Gormley, professor of constitutional law
at Duquense University; Mark Hornak, an
attorney in employment law with Buchanan
and Ingersoll and Mr. Hoel, who is president
of Symons Capital. Judge Cynthia Baldwin,
a nominee to the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court, has also been invited to the panel.
Those who are interested in the program may
contact Mr. Hoel at 412-585-5215.
Battle of Homestead News / 7
“The awful battle at
Homestead, PA” from
The Police Gazette, July
23, 1892. This depiction
was chosen to illustrate
a Rivers of Steel Heritage
Area marker in front of
the Pump House on Waterfront Drive.
What’s in an image? New trail marker provides the
dark side to an epic struggle by steel workers
There are now three markers at the site
of the Pump House, depicting the events of
July 6, 1892. The first was a free-standing
10-ft high state historical marker dedicated
at the Centennial in 1992 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
through the efforts of the Homestead 1892
Centennial Labor Committee, the predecessor of the Battle of Homestead Foundation.
Three permanent
markers tell the story
of steelworkers, battle
and heritage
It was dedicated for the ceremonies at
the site while the mill was still intact, then
relocated to the south end of the Homestead
High-Level (now the Homestead Greys)
Bridge and then erected at its present site
when the Pump House was renovated and
opened for BHF meetings and events in 1997.
The second was the bronze marker of
part of the 1892 Edwin Rowe broadside that
depicted various aspects of the Battle. Sculptor Brian Reneski completed the 5 ft. high
concrete, steel and bronze design in 2004 after it had been commissioned by the Battle
of Homestead Foundation through a grant
8 / Battle of Homestead News
from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
and various international and local unions.
It is located just east of the Pump House, allowing visitors to view the existing railroad
bridge whose same abutments existed when
the Pinkerton barges arrived.
The most recent and third marker, located adjacent to the state PHMC post, is
labeled “Labor Struggle. The Battle of
Homestead.” The illustration chosen was
from the Police Gazette, known for its sensationalism and with several questionable
images (a Pinkerton being clubbed at the
start; workers in the open during the battle;
women with rifles).
Herbert G. Gutman, director of the
American Social History Project and editor
“Escorting the defeated Pinkertons,
workers led the march
with an American
flag,” from The New
York World, July 7,
1892. This depiction
was, like the Rowe illustration in the bronze
plaque adjacent to the
Pump House, a
worker’s perspective of
the events.
of Who Built America: Working People
and the Nation’s Economy, Politics, Culture and Society writes of the caricatures of
activist (and union) workers by cartoonists
and newspaper illustrators in the late 19th
century: “they were usually shown as grotesque, seemingly half-crazed, wild-eyed and
with a gun or bomb in one hand.”
Of course, the Rowe depiction can be
considered more favorable to the workers, as
was the New York World image that expressed the apparent initial victory of their
cause. Art historian Rina Youngner (The River
Ran Red, 1992) said that Rowe “expressed
the belief that the strikers acted in the American tradition. . . .however, in years after it became an ironic reminder of dashed hopes.”