Haywire Mac composed “The Big Rock Candy Mountains” in 1897. He was fifteen, living on the road after running away to join the circus. But that was just the beginning of his long and amazing life. He was a hobo, a boomer trainman who traveled from town to town in search of the best railroad […]
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Today in Labor History, March 12, 1904 – Workers completed the first tunnel under the Hudson River, after 30 years of drilling. The tunnel connected Jersey City and Manhattan. Many tragedies occurred during the project. But the worst was in 1880, when the tunnel flooded, killing 20 workers on one day. Today in Labor History, March 12,
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Allan Pinkerton grew up in a tenement in the Gorbals, a former leper colony on the south bank of the river Clyde. He was the second Allan Pinkerton born to Isabella, who was the second Isabella married to William Pinkerton. It was a rough neighborhood. Allan played when and where he could, always with an
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February 14, 1817: Anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglass was born on this date. (Check out the graphic novel about Frederick Douglass by comic book artist extraordinaire, David Walker) February 14, 1903: President Theodore Roosevelt signed a law creating the Department of Commerce and Labor. February 14, 1903: The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) went on strike for
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February 13, 1635 – Boston Latin School was opened, the first public school in the United States. February 13, 1837 – A flour Riot occurred in New York City. 6,000 New Yorkers attending a “bread, meat, rent, and fuel” meeting in Chatham Square assaulted local flour merchants who they claimed were hoarding flour in order to drive
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