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WE NEVER FORGET |
Michael O'Connell-43 |
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From The Wichita Daily Eagle of August 7, 1904:
Victor, Colo., Aug. 6.-Michael O'Connell, whose death occurred in Denver today, was a working miner, coming here from Leadville five years ago. He was 43 years old and was born at Buffalo, N. Y., near which city his father was a farmer. He leaves a wife and three children, who are now in this city, where the former marshal owned his home. In 1900 O'Connell was elected city marshal on the Republican-Populist ticket and served two years. He was defeated on re-nomination on the Republican ticket, but in 1903 was again elected on the straight Republican ticket. He would have held office until next April if the riot had not occurred on June 6, when he was removed by Mayor French.
O'Connell was a member of the Western Federation of Miners, belonging to the Victor union. He was also a member of the local Elks.
From Emma F. Langdon's The Cripple Creek Strike:
July 29 [1904], the attorneys for the Western Federation of Miners won their first victory in their efforts to procure the release of the men incarcerated, charged with the Independence disaster and the street riot in Victor June 6, for whom bail had heretofore been refused. Bonds were fixed for forty-six men, charged with these crimes, bonds ranging from $1,500 to $10,000 each. Among the men for whom bonds were secured was Michael O'Connell, the deposed marshal of Victor.
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DEATH OF O'CONNELL.
Upon the release of Mr. O'Connell, he went to Denver. He arrived in that city August the 5th. On the following evening he met his death by falling from a window of the fourth story of the Markham hotel. The cause of his fall from the window was shrouded in mystery. Some advanced the theory that his mind had become partly unbalanced on account of the indignities he suffered while an inmate of "bull pen." Others entertained the opinion that his death was an accident, but a large majority of the deported miners then in the city, openly charged that he had been deliberately murdered by a paid assassin.
The untimely death of Mr. O'Connell was deeply regretted by all who were acquainted with him, with the possible exception of a few people who were interested in the Mine Owners' Association and Citizens' Alliance. Mr. O'Connell, while acting as marshal, won the esteem of all persons with whom he had dealings on account of impartiality and a desire to maintain the law, regardless of who were the offenders. It was on account of this well-known trait of his character, that he was deposed from office and persecuted, as it did not suit the purposes of the element, carrying things with a high hand in the district, to have a marshal who was impartial and would enforce the law and protect the interests of all alike.
The Miners' Magazine of August 18, 1904 (per Langdon):
Michael O'Connell, the deposed marshal of the city of Victor, is now numbered with the silent majority, who are wrapped in the somnus of death. The good, brave and generous man who came to Colorado with the blush of boyhood on his cheek, is now numbered with the thousands who sleep in Evergreen cemetery, in the City of the Clouds. For sixty days he suffered all the humiliation which a Mine Owners' Association and a Citizens' Alliance could heap upon him in a bull pen, and when his friends secured the bonds which liberated him from persecution and imprisonment, he was forced to leave his home and family under threats from a hired, blood thirsty mob. He was even denied the right of an American citizen, to remain at his home. We are told that a man's home is his castle, and that no man or party of men, has the right to invade or trespass upon the sacred precincts of the home. But the Mine Owners' Association and a Citizens' Alliance have no reverence for the sanctuary of a home, no sympathy for the breaking heart-strings of a woman's holy love for her husband and no pang of pity for the flowers of childhood that bloomed in the once happy home of Michael O'Connell.
We have known the dead man for fifteen long years. We are proud of the honor of having been numbered among his friends. The Great Ruler of human destiny and Creator of human life only ushers into existence in a generation a few men like the departed Michael O'Connell.
He was the soul of honor, a prince among men—one of those grand characters, whose every act in life soared in an atmosphere of moral grandeur where dishonor could not live. In his death, another sacrifice of human life lies indirectly at the door of the governor of this state. There was no protection for the brave and heroic marshal of Victor. He had sinned against the governor, because his heart beat in sympathy with the cause of the striking miners. He was a law-breaker and an insurrectionist, because his honor and his manhood scorned to bow in submission to the Mafia, that has been backed and supported by the armed power of the state. In the years that are to come, if a conscience returns to the chief executive of Colorado, the memory of Michael O'Connell's death will rise up like a ghost, to haunt him in his midnight dreams.
In the Cloud City the brave man has been laid to rest. All over the jurisdiction of the Western Federation of Miners the untimely death of Michael O'Connell will be mourned, and the keenest sympathy and sorrow will be felt for his bereaved wife and fatherless children.
SOURCES
The Cripple Creek Strike
A History of Industrial Wars in Colorado, 1903-4-5
-by Emma F Langdon
"Being a Complete and Concise
History of the Efforts of
Organized Capital
to Crush Unionism"
The Great Western Publishing Co.
Denver,Colorado, 1905
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
The Wichita Daily Eagle
(Wichita, Kansas)
-of Aug 7, 1904
http://www.newspapers.com/...
See also:
Hellraisers+marshal+victor
http://www.dailykos.com/...
IMAGES
Western Federation of Miners Button
http://www.nps.gov/...
Miners Being Deported from Cripple Creek Strike District
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Union Man - Blue Highway
And when my life is over, don't mourn my passing long
Organize resistance and keep the Union strong
Here's to every miner who dared to take a stand
who lived to feed his family and died a Union man.
-Tim Stafford
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