Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-04-13
RIOT And BLOODSHED.
STRIKERS IN THE COKE FIELDS
OF Pennsylvania
Charge Upon Deputy Sherlffs and Men Who
are Working In the strikers Places
Serious Trouble Ahead.

The trouble which was brewing in
the Connellsville coke regions of Penn
sylvania and which caused the strike of
from 1000 TO 10000 coke workers.
mostly foreigners-hasr resulted in open
defiance of law and the consequent
bloodshed. The strikers were without
food and tho sight of men stepping into
their places maddened them. About
800 armed deputies were placed TO
guard the works.
Desperate rioting began on the third
day of the strike, when n body of stril1-
ers, numbering several hundreds,
marched into the Dawson works of the
II. G. Fricll Coke Co., two miles from
Connellsville, whore men were work
ing. They tried 20 get at the men ON
the ovens. The deputies fred. The
strikers returned the fire and charged,
driving the deputies and men from the
plant. Chief Engineer Paddock, of
the FriclS company, ran up in the tip
Pile. The strikers followed and shot
him in the back Of the head They
beat him and crushed his head with
stones and threw his body from a tip
pie window TO the ovens, forty feet be-
low. They then attempted TO fire the
tipple, but left when they saw the
deputies returning with a large force
from Connellsville.
Hearing of Paddocl1's murder hun
dreds volunteered to avenge his death.
The pursuing party, in command of
Detective Frank Campbell, overlook
the strikers a half mile from Dawson
and opened fire on them. Three strik-
ers fell, one was killed instantly, shot
through the body, and two others
were fatally wounded. Another of the
strikers was shot and killed by a dep
uty at Bradford, mile distant.
Eleven strikers were captured where
the first battle took place and the pur-
suing party kept up the chase until
Dawson, a point seven miles distant,
was reached, where fifty-three more of
the strikers were captured. All the
efforts of the deputies and more level
headed citizens were needed tOprevent
the lynching of the rioters who were
taken back TO Connellsville.
At the Mayheld plant Of the Mcclure
company two men were fatally shot.
The strikers charged the men at work
in the morning, but were driven off by
the deputies after a striker was shot
through the body. In the afternoon
they returned and renewed the attack.
There was much firing and a deputy
was fatally wounded. At riot at the
Painter works the women beat work
man fatally. Sheriff Wilhelm has called
on Gov. Pattison to order out the ma
tional guard.
The coke drawers at the Denny coke
plant near Alverton, were attacked by
a riotous mob of 60 Hungarian women
armed with revolvers, clubs and pol1ers.
The men hastily reiterated, followed b.
the triumphant mob. Men were
knocked down and many of the labor
ers were injured and one man was
fatally wounded.
LATER.-The summary vengeance of
the citizens of Connellsville and sur
rounding towns for the murder of
Chief Engineer Paddock and the gen.
eral lawlessness of the mobs of stril1-
ers had the effect of bringing many of
the rioters to their senses. Big raids
had been planned upon several work
ing plants, but the strikers were sub
dued and abandoned their anarchistic
schemes.
President Davis, of the strikers or
ganization, was jailed on a charge Of
completely in the murder of Paddock.
Over 100 strikers were locked up at
Connellsville.
Eight murdered Hungarians were
found in a woods near Dawson. All
had bullet-holes through their bodies
and were more or less beaten up. 1t is
supposed that these Huns were shot by
deputies during the pursuit of the mob
that killed Paddock.