On January 3, 1891 my alarm go off, and I didn’t want to get up, but if I don’t get up my family goes hungry. I would wake up 5am put my work boots on, grab my lunch and start my 3 mile walk to Coeur d'Alénes. I would work 9 hours a day and get payed $3.50 (2). The mine is 30 miles long 3 miles wide. The entire region is mountainous, covered with pine and cedar trees. You could see from miles away, the stream rising coming though the mountains.
On the first day of 1892 the mine owners closed all the mines in Idaho; they told me and the other union miners that the freight rates became higher with made the operations of the mines unprofitable. On April 1, 1892, the mines were reopened after the owners had successfully negotiated lower freight…show more content… They would advertise in Michigan saying nothing about the strike. The men seeking work would get on trains were guards would be assigned to the train to get the men there safely. Soon every train was in bound in route to Coeur d'Alénes. Once I herd the news I got some coworkers together to go inbound the trains. We wasn’t looking for violence just trying to make the replacement workers go home.
On June 4, 1892 Governor N.B. Willey issued a proclamation calling on the miners to disperse (1). We had no job, money, and no where to go so we prepared to fight. July 11, 1892 A riot broke out between union workers and company guards. Several men had got shot, and the nonunion workers surrender. Shortly after the governor of Idaho sent the National Guard to restore order.
On June 8, 1892 we decide to attack the Frisco mine. The guard claimed that the miners where the first to fire. but the first shot was fired at me. As I fired back all of a sudden a explosion leveled the four-story mill, killing a company man and injuring several. We began to fire from the ridge line into the remaining structure where the guards had been taking coverage. A company man was killed, and seventy or so guards had surrendered.
June
