Union Man

J.T. Knoll

Columnist's Note: In support of The Miners' Memorial in Immigrant Park planned at Second and Broadway in Pittsburg, here's another story about a coal mining family provided by Sandra Maxwell Moore, Patricia Maxwell Brichalli, Max Maxwell and Robert Maxwell.

Hearl Maxwell Sr., our dad, was born March 14, 1891, on his family's homestead between Arcadia and Mulberry. This was near the later location of Mackey-Clemens Coal Co. His parents came to Fort Scott with a wagon train and then traveled south to homestead this land.

Dad was one of 12 children. His formal education ended with the sixth grade at age 12, but those who went to school with him claimed he could add three columns of numbers at a time in ciphering matches at the blackboard. With his father, Thomas C. Maxwell, and his older brothers, Dad worked at sinking the mineshaft that became No. 14 Sheridan. Then his first job in the mine was driving the mules. They took the mules down the shaft and the mules would pull a coal cart to the lift from where the miners loaded it. Then the mules went back to the miners to get another loaded cart.

As a young boy, our father was distressed by the dangerous conditions under which the miners worked for so little pay. There was no social security, workmen's compensation insurance, nor unemployment benefits. If a father was killed in the mines, his family's only recourse was to send a son to work in his place, for less pay, even though he was doing the same hard, dangerous work.

By 1911, at age 20, Dad was writing postcards to his future wife Elizabeth Hamilton in Arcadia while he was tending to union business in Franklin and other coal camps. They were married in 1915. At this time Dad was serving on the executive board of District 14 of the Mine Workers of America, and he and Mother lived in Pittsburg.

The President of District 14 was Alexander Howat, and in 1920 he and Dad fought together to defeat the Kansas Court of Industrial Relations, which would make all labor disputes a matter for arbitration and take away the right to strike. At the height of this battle, Howat and his executive board called a strike and stood firm in spite of pressure from Kansas Gov. Henry Allen. These men spent several months in jail at Girard. As Dad told the story in later years, the cells were seldom locked, and they all looked forward to Sunday when their wives would come to Girard on the interurban streetcar with fried chicken for dinner.

Allen was defeated in his bid for re-election and his rival was elected on the grounds that he would free the jailed union leaders. However, this success was bittersweet because John L. Lewis, the international president of the United Mine Workers of America, notified these men they were no longer recognized as the executive board of District 14. Dad continued to work in the coal industry. He had his own truck and hauled coal to Joplin to sell for home heating. In the summer he took his truck to western Kansas and hauled wheat. One of his favorite statements was, "They say such bad things about Jimmy Hoffa, but compared to John L. Lewis, Hoffa is a saint."

In his later years, the black lung pension became available to miners with lung disease and many of them came to him for assistance in getting this pension and to verify they had worked in the mines. Some of his proudest moments were when they would let him know they had received their first pension check.

In spite of the political blows he endured, Dad was one of the most loyal Americans and strongest union men ever, and we are proud of his efforts on behalf of the miners of southeast Kansas.

The family asked that I mention that Hearl Maxwell's personal papers and union documents related to the activities of District 14 of the United Mine Workers of America can be seen in the special collections section of Axe Library at Pittsburg State University.