Christian County is immediately southeast of Springfield. It, too, is in the rich central Illinois coal belt. The county became famous – or, rather, infamous for the armed rebellion that played out there in 1932-1936 and that is usually called the “coal mine wars”. This extraordinary period of miner-vs-miner violence has been treated in an acclaimed academic book by Carl D. Oblinger and a brilliant novel by Kevin Corley.
The violence arose as a result of the creation of the Progressive Miners of America and their split from the United Mine Workers of America. It resulted in at least 20 murders around the state and 55 bombings with Taylorville’s beautiful Courthouse Square being the venue of a particularly dramatic shootout. Historic newspapers displayed at the Christian County Coal Museum in Taylorville give a sense of the era as do the plaques around the base of the Mother Jones Monument in the Union Miners Cemetery, Mt. Olive, which list the PMA martyrs.
The PMA believed that the UMWA was “in bed with” the coal operators to the detriment of union contracts for the miners. They also objected to the autocratic management style of UMWA President John L. Lewis, indeed labeling him corrupt. The Illinois miners were particularly aggrieved at their perceived denigration and disenfranchisement by Lewis. The issues came to a head with a vote concerning a new national contract for miners (bear in mind that this was happening during the Great Depression) that many Illinois miners believed to have been falsified.
America is a heavily armed country and has been for centuries. In that reality it is not surprising that the PMA-UMWA dispute took a violent turn with guns replacing verbal arguments. As with the U.S. Civil War which divided families, so the PMA-UMWA dispute tore some families apart. Instead of miners being united to strike and protest against the new contracted wage cut, they fought each other instead.
As explained by the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State on the basis of documents held in the Illinois State Archive: “John L. Lewis … had worked out an agreement with the Peabody Coal Company whereby United Workers only would work the company’s mines in Christian County. They were to be paid a reduced wage of five dollars a day. The Progressive Miners, who demanded local autonomy and a higher wage, were squeezed out and left to subsist on the produce from their backyard gardens. Although Governor Horner had some sympathies for the Progressive Miners his hands largely were tied. Lewis was able to forge strong ties with the Roosevelt [U.S. President] administration and as time passed the Progressive Miners increasingly [were seen as] political liabilities. The National Guard was called up for months on end to occupy Taylorville in particular and thereby prevent pitched gun battles.”
The Women’s Auxiliary of the PMA was created at the inception of the breakaway union and was active during the violence. The telegram below is particularly revealing of their role in the PMA. It is dated February 2, 1934 and complains about the UMWA violence directed at the PMA, in this instance during a memorial service.
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TransAtlantic Rebel Counties