Laborers in Madison County History
9:00 a.m. — The Edwardsville Concert Band started things off on the court house square. 10:00 a.m. — After the concert, the band led 600 union workers in a three-quarter-mile parade through downtown. Unions for retail clerks, coal miners, bricklayers, butchers, carpenters, printers, electrical workers, painters, barbers, team drivers, cigar-makers, bartenders, and hod carriers all participated. 11:00 a.m. — Car shuttles and streetcars transported picnickers to Center Grove Park, south of downtown. People from Collinsville, Glen Carbon, Troy, and other area towns joined Edwardsvillians at the park to celebrate (Source: Edwardsville Intelligencer, September 3, 1912)At the park, workers and their families ate barbecue and played games. The Star Orchestra of Edwardsville provided dance music until midnight. The “Fats” defeated the “Leans” in baseball, winning some meat and a keg of beer. The butchers won the prize for best parade presentation.
Retail Clerks
Twenty-nine-year-old C. Truman Hulse (front row, second from left, in the photograph above) helped found the Edwardsville Retail Clerks Local Union No. 304 in April 1909. Married with a young daughter, he usually worked 70 hours to earn $12 each week. This weekly wage was equivalent to $689 in 2018 in terms of household purchasing power.
By 1912, Truman was in charge of the carpet department in the Palace Store Company (pictured below).
According to Truman's membership book (pictured), the retail clerks union charged a $2.00 initiation fee to join and 50¢ a month thereafter.
The book begins with a declaration of eleven principles. Noting that clerks frequently worked up to sixteen hours a day, one of the principles establishes the union's advocacy for an 8-hour workday. Another principle resolves to abolish child labor, "the school house and not the work shop being the proper place for children."
The 1912 photograph of Truman and other members of the Retail Clerks Local Union #304 is unique in this online exhibition: it is the only photograph that shows women workers. The sixth principle listed in Truman's membership book includes the union's demand for "equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex."
Sources
- Constitution and Membership Book of the Retail Clerks International Protective Association, revised and adopted at St. Joseph, Mo., July, 1907. MCHS archival document 1999-024. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
- Edwardsville Intelligencer. Various articles.
- Find A Grave. Accessed August 30, 2019. findagrave.com
- MeasuringWorth. Accessed August 30, 2019. measuringworth.com
- United States census records and other public records.
Coal Miners
When Bill Frangen's father died of erysipelas (a bacterial skin infection) in 1898, 12-year-old Bill left school to work in the Brookside Coal Mine in Troy. His mother, a German immigrant, took in washing. Together they supported Bill's three younger siblings.
The galvanized steel oil-wick lamp pictured here belonged to Bill. To use it, Bill filled the lamp with oil and pulled the wick through the spout to light it. Then he hung the lamp from his cap so he could see his way in the mine.
Carbide lamps replaced oil-wick lamps by 1920. Also worn on the miner's cap, the lamp basically consisted of two chambers and a burner. Water dripped from an upper chamber to calcium carbide in a lower chamber, creating a reaction that produced acetylene gas. The miner lit the burner with a match.
Below is a picture of Bill in his mid/late-70s. Bill might be among the miners pictured above at the Brookside Coal Mine. He would be about 25 years old. Do you see him?
Sources
- Edwardsville Intelligencer. Various articles.
- National Museum of American History (U.S.). Behring Center. "Mining Lights and Hats." [National Museum of American History website]. Accessed August 30, 2019. americanhistory.si.edu
- United States census records and other public records.
- [William Frangen obituary.] Troy Tribune, October 14, 1965.
Bricklayers
The Edwardsville brick works that bricklayer Benjamin Richards bought into in 1890 had been around for about ten years. In 1895, Richards became full owner. The company made bricks by the dry press method: a steam engine powered giant mechanical pressers to press ground-up clay into molds. As of 2019, the company is still making bricks on the east side of Edwardsville.
On the west side of Edwardsville, Banner Clay Works made paving and sidewalk blocks beginning in the early 1900s. The company converted to making facing brick using a stiff mud extrusion process in 1923, after it was purchased by Alton Brick Company. The Great Depression shut down the plant in 1932.
Rudolph Spanholtz, the son of Prussian immigrants, lived his whole life in Edwardsville. Rudolph supported his wife and seven children working as a bricklayer. Although the work wasn't always steady, Rudolph owned his home on North Main Street. He is in his mid-30s in this photograph (back row, third from right).
George Putnam served in the Union Army during the Civil War, first as a 17-year-old drummer and later as a private. After the war, he returned to Edwardsville and worked as a bricklayer until he retired circa 1910. A confirmed bachelor, George lived at the St. James Hotel for over twenty years before he died at age 79. He is about 50-55 years old in this photograph (back row, far right).
Sources
- Alton Telegraph. Various articles.
- Edwardsville Intelligencer. Various articles.
- Gerdt, David W. The History of Brick Making in Edwardsville by David W. Gerdt. May 11, 1966. Manuscript. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
- Illinois State Archives. Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls (database). Accessed February 6, 2019. cyberdriveillinois.com
- National Park Service. The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database. Accessed February 6, 2019. nps.gov
- Richards, R.W. Brick-making (Brief History). June 1966. Manuscript. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
- Richards Brick. Accessed August 30, 2019. richardsbrick.com
- United States census records and other public records.
Butchers
Bill Schneider and Cleora Harris got married and moved to Edwardsville from Alhambra around 1910. Bill, a meat cutter, partnered with butcher Emil Eberhardt to open a meat market in the Bohm Building.
The Schneiders left the county a few years later. Bill owned and operated a meat market in Sandoval, Illinois, when he died in 1929. Forty-one-year-old Cleora took over his cleaver and ran the butcher shop for another fifteen years.
Sources
- Edwardsville city directories. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
- Edwardsville Intelligencer. Various articles.
- Find A Grave. Accessed August 30, 2019. findagrave.com
- United States census records and other public records.
Carpenters, Printers, and Electrical Workers
Carpenters
Carpenters Union Local 664 of Wood River donated four original charters for area carpenters and joiners unions to the Madison County Historical Society in 2012. The ornate framed documents each measure approximately 18 x 30 inches.
Lady Liberty presides at the top of the document, above the clasped hands symbolizing union brotherhood. She is accompanied by a carpenter on the viewer's left and a joiner on the right. Vignettes surrounding the text depict union leaders aiding an injured worker and his family, union advocacy for an 8-hour workday, and the progress in wood home construction achieved by the profession. In the emblem at center bottom, the rule and compass represent ideals of fairness and moral clarity. The Latin motto "labor omnia vincit" translates to "work conquers all."
The clasped hands and emblem featured in the charter also appear on the UBC & J of A Local 378 fraternal ribbon pictured below.
Printers
The typographical union represented people working in the printing trade. Alton Typographical Union No. 306 was founded in 1892. The fraternal ribbon shown here celebrates Labor Day.
The web press in the accompanying illustration was patented in 1880. The press first prints on one side of the "web" (roll of paper), then prints on the other side, and finally folds and cuts the printed paper into sheets.
Electrical Workers
In 1910, Walter Schlueter (back row, far right, in the above photograph) was a 21-year-old electrician at an electric railway, probably the Illinois Traction System or the Yellow Hammer. By 1914 he led the IB of EW Local Union No. 703 as president and had his own electrical contracting business. His younger brother Ollie (back row, fourth from left) took over the company when Walter briefly relocated to Springfield.
Nonetheless, both brothers had left the electrical contracting business by 1917. According to World War I draft registration records, Walter was a craneman and Ollie a sheet metal worker at Granite City's National Enameling and Stamping Company (NESCO). Neither of them ever returned to the electrical trade.
Sources
- Alton Telegraph. Various articles.
- Butterworth, Benjamin, arr. The Growth of Industrial Art. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1892. Accessed September 15, 2019. archive.org
- Find A Grave. Accessed August 30, 2019. findagrave.com
- The UBC Emblem. Accessed August 30, 2019, carpenters.org
- United States census records and other public records.
Barbers
Wood River's first barber, George Dalton, owned and operated a barber shop for decades. He started out in Wood River and moved to Alton in the early 1920s. At one point he was supporting his wife, four children, and two grandchildren with his craft. After his wife died in 1933, George moved back to Wood River and lived alone in his rented shop on West Ferguson Avenue. He was still barbering when he died in 1945.
Sources
- Alton city directories. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
- Alton Telegraph. Various articles.
- Find A Grave. Accessed August 30, 2019. findagrave.com
- United States census records and other public records.
Cigar-makers, Bartenders, and Hod Carriers
Cigar-makers
August Selzer was 23 years old when he immigrated to the United States in 1892. He had learned cigar-making from his father in Prussia. In 1898, August opened the cigar factory (pictured above) in Edwardsville.
Two of bricklayer Rudolph Spanholtz's sons worked for awhile in August's cigar factory. Rudolph's children were the second generation of descendants of Prussian immigrants to be born in Edwardsville.
Bartenders
Martin Mockler, the mustachioed man behind the bar in the above photograph, was born in Ireland. He immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He had his own saloon on East Vandalia Street in Edwardsville for several years before giving it up and tending bar for Gottlied Holzweg at the Leland in 1911. Martin was in his sixties when Prohibition eliminated his profession. He worked as a janitor at Edwardsville Public Library for the remainder of his life.
A year after emigrating from Bohemia, 21-year-old William Smolek (the other bartender in the photograph) was tending bar in Edwardsville. He worked at the Leland Hotel Bar until Prohibition shut it down in 1920. William had a wife and two children to support, and he got a job in a coal mine. But by 1925 he was back in the hospitality industry, as the proprietor of a "retail soft drink establishment." William and his wife Emma divorced in 1930.
Hod Carriers
A hod carrier is a laborer who carries bricks to a bricklayer. The bricks are loaded into a "hod": a V-shaped trough mounted on top of a long pole. The laborer carries the hod over his shoulder. IHCB & CLU of A Local 397 was founded in 1892.
Sources
- Edwardsville city directories. Available at the Madison County Archival Library.
- Edwardsville Intelligencer. Various articles.
- Find A Grave. Accessed August 30, 2019. findagrave.com
- Grebel, Anna Marie Selzer. [First person account]. Accessed September 15, 2019; subscription required. ancestry.com
- United States census records and other public records.
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