The history of the United Mine Workers and coal mine owners in Illinois has been marked by periods of extreme violence, property damage, and even murder. As such, it is typical of the history of coal mining throughout the United States. One such violent episode was the Virden Massacre of 1898.

    Early in 1898, the mine operators and the mine workers of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois had met in a joint labor/management conference. Coming out of that conference was an agreement that management enforce an eight hour work day and pay a mutually agreed upon prevailing wage. Company stores were also to have been eliminated.

    Yet, into the fall of 1898, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company, along with many other firms in the four state region, felt unduly hampered by this agreement. In vain, they all sought to be exempted. Failing in that effort, management in the multistate region proceeded to lock the union workers out of the mines. Then management began to import negro strike breakers from Alabama. As may be well imagined, this provocative action created quite a reaction among the unionists.

    The Macoupin County Sheriff, P.C. Davenport, went on record as saying "I have no protection for foreign colored miners who may come into my county." At this time, the arrival of the strikebreakers was only a rumor for Virden. But, in other jurisdictions where mine management had already imported negro replacement workers, there had been bloodshed and loss of life. Sheriff Davenport had the barest inkling of the trouble which was to come.

    At Virden the Chicago-Virden Coal Company, led by manager F.W. Lukens, had further re-enforced the lockout by surrounding the mine with a stockade. The Virden mine sat just beside the Chicago and Alton Railroad, less than 40 miles south of Springfield, Illinois. Heavily armed private detectives had been hired to maintain the security of the mine and to ensure the safety of the negro workers whom management was importing under armed guard via rail.

    Both the company and the County Sheriff had asked Governor Tanner to send troops to prevent violence. According to the dispatch sent by the Sheriff, there were a thousand armed men, mostly from out of his county, in Virden. Governor Tanner refused to send troops as long as the company's plans to import negro workers remained in force. The company had asked the Attorney General for permission for the Sheriff to deputize Chicago residents to augment the Sheriff's forces. This request was also denied.

    As the train carrying the rumored one hundred negro miners and their wives and children pulled through the depot at Virden at 12:40 p.m. on October 12, 1898, the feared violence began. Gunshots were exchanged between labor and the armed guards of the train. Several people on both sides were among the casualties.

    Yet, this was merely the detonator for a far larger explosion which took place when the union members followed the train to the mine stockade. Before the end of the day, many unionists and company men, the exact number is impossible to say since the reports vary drastically, would lay wounded or dead. Six union members- E.D. Welsh, Frank Bilyeu, Albert Smith, Joe Kitterly, Ernest Keutner, and A.H. Breneman- were dead at the end of the day. At least five company guards were killed. More men on both sides would be dead of injuries within days. Herbert Kyger, the engineer of the train, who was also shot in the encounter, refused to allow the negroes to get off the train. Instead, he took his passengers to Saint Louis.Enraged, the union men stormed the company store, and attacked the proprietor, J.F. Eyster, beating him, shooting him, and leaving him for dead. In fact, the sheriff's men removed Eyster from the store, and laid him on the grass outside, declaring him to be dead. To everyone's surprise, a few moments later, Eyster moved. Then, to the shock of the sheriff's deputies, the unionists attacked Eyster afresh.

    Governor Tanner ordered the National Guard to Virden to prevent the offloading of a second trainload of strikebreakers. It was the first time in US history that any governor had ordered troops to the support of labor. It was an election year. Former Governor Altgeld led the Democrats in denouncing Governor Tanner. However, Tanner was re-elected.

    The union swore out a warrant against mine manager Lukens, charging him with murder and conspiracy to murder. The State's Attorney for Macoupin County stated that the warrant was invalid and refused to act on the charges pending a verdict of the coroner's jury. However, that did not prevent Lukens from receiving death threats.

    The dead union members were denied burial in the established cemetaries. So, the union bought an acre of land in Mount Olive, Illinois, where four of the dead men had originated. There, they created a union miner's cemetary.

    The Chicago-Virden Coal Company did not return the strike breakers to Alabama. Instead, the negroes were left in Saint Louis without money, without shelter, without jobs. They were forced to write home to ask that collections be taken up to furnish them with tickets home. But, the incident at Virden did prevent the companies from recruiting other negro strikebreakers.

    Yet, for all of this, the lockout lasted just about six months. Management eventually conceded. The union workers were hired back under the terms of their agreement. Some of the supervisors were fired. "Remember Virden" became a union rallying cry.

    Perhaps nothing can clarify the nature of this incident more than a quote from Clarence Darrow; "Industrial contests take on all the attitudes and psychology of war, and both parties do many things that they should never dream of doing in times of peace. Whatever may be said, the fact is that all strikes and all resistance to strikes take on the psychology of warfare, and all parties in interest must be judged from that standpoint."

Brooks, Thomas T. Toil and Trouble:A History of American Labor. New York: Delacourte Press, 1964.

"Chronology of Illinois Labor History," webpage , University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana's labor website

Daily Illinois Courier. Jacksonville, Illinois. October 3, 4, 13, 15, 21, 24, 25, 30, 1898; November 2, 1898; and January 18, 1899.

Keiser, John H. "The Union Miners Cemetary at Mt. Olive, Illinois." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, autumn 1969, pp 229-264.

Suffern, Arthur E. Conciliation and Arbitration in the Coal Industry of America Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1915.