All photos of the doors suggest a double set of doors with both sets opening outward. The arched doorway to the fatal stairway remains, and plaques tell the story of the tragedy. Accidents, Industrial Relations, Labor Disputes, Strikes and Lockouts, Burials, Cemeteries : Trench in which the victims were laid. Town divided over memorial for disaster victims 4 years ago ABC 10 . Photo courtesy of the Matt Kobe Collection Perhaps the strongest argument against an actual fire is that none of the investigations found any witnesses who would claim there was a fire. Italian Hall was a two-story commercial and recreational building in Calumet, Michigan, built in 1908 and demolished in 1984. Seventy-three men, women, and children, mostly striking mine workers and their families, were crushed to death in a stampede when someone falsely shouted "fire" at a crowded Christmas party.[a]. The biggest catastrophe of its nature in the history of Michigan. Grave of dead of Italian Hall Disaster Xmas Eve 1913. [10], Death's Door: The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder, by Steve Lehto, first published in 2006, concludes that the culprit was most likely an ally of mine management. The Western Federation of Miners first established a local in the area in 1908 but it wasn't until 1913 that the WFM had a large enough membership to effectively strike. DETROIT – Metro Detroiters gathered at Central United Methodist Church Dec. 8 to observe the 100th anniversary of a historic strike by miners in Michigan’s Copper Country and to watch a new film on the Italian Hall disaster in which scores of miners’ children died. To date, there has been much debate about who cried "fire" and why. [#3 in a series of 11 photographs depicting the aftermath of the tragedy. Bodies of Victims Being Prepared for Big Funeral; Coroner Starts Investigation. CALUMET — Exactly 105 years after what has become known as the Italian Hall Disaster, there will be a dedication of a monument recently erected that bears the names of the 73 people killed in the tragedy. I knew something about the copper strike, having spent many summer vacations as a youth in Calumet, where my mother was born to Finnish immigrants who were farming on company land. The membership also voted to "declare a strike" if management refused to "grant a conference or concessions". It would be foolish to arbitrate that question. A complete list of the dead which is a reprint from P. Germain. [7], Early in 1914, a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives came to the Copper Country to investigate the strike, and took sworn testimony from witnesses for a full day on March 7, 1914. Courtesy Michigan Labor History Society/Michigan Tech Archives. Courtesy Michigan Labor History Society/Michigan Tech Archives From PBS - Red Metal: The Copper Country Strike of 1913 explores an epic labor strike that devastated Michigan’s Copper Country, and haunts the Americ… As the centennial of the Italian Hall Disaster approaches, a new generation of Americans has begun paying tribute to the victims, while also deliberating the strike’s causes, outcomes, and legacy. While he and his brothers escaped death by going out a second-floor window, two little sisters, Ellen, 7, and Mildred, 5, were both caught in the staircase crush and died. [21], The disaster generated a fair amount of scholarly debate. The Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, Michigan led to the deaths of more than 70 people who had been at a party for striking miners and their families. The last mine closed in 1968. Done A relief committee made up of Alliance members collected $25,000 fo… 73 known victims of the Italian Hall catastrophe on December 24, 1913 are buried at Lake View Cemetery in Calumet, Michigan. Today, visitors can learn about the tragedy at a peaceful memorial park on the site built with the help of the Steelworkers and Operating Engineers unions. The incident began when there were over four hundred people in the room and someone yelled, "Fire" although there was none. I suddenly realized that it was the old Italian Hall and the stairs were where my sisters died. The Victoria Hall Stampede was a tragedy that occurred in Sunderland, in the northeast of England, in 1883. After the first wave of grief had passed following the incident, while there was bitterness against the company, it was considerably greater against the Citizens' Alliance (the "Alliance"), which opposed the union and the strike. [5][6], There were several investigations into the disaster. Asked by a congressional committee if he would negotiate wages with workers, Boston-based James McNaughton, president of C&H, said, “This is my pocketbook. The hall is notorious as the site of a disaster in 1913 in which over 70 people died after a false cry of "fire" The Italian Hall Disaster (sometimes referred to as the 1913 Massacre) is a tragedy that occurred on December 24, 1913, in Calumet, Michigan.Seventy-three men, women, and children, mostly striking mine workers and their families, were crushed to death in a stampede when someone falsely yelled "fire"at a crowded Christmas party. Some of the victims, all children: The Italian Hall Disaster (sometimes referred to as the 1913 Massacre) is a tragedy that occurred on December 24, 1913 in Calumet, Michigan. Photo: Families of the Italian Hall victims bury the dead after a three-mile march to Lake View Cemetery. The dead are -. Finns, Croats, Italians, Slovenes, Scots, and other immigrants made up a large part of the population and the workforce in the mines. Videos you watch may be added to the TV's watch history and influence TV recommendations. This event is a forgotten piece of history to those outside of the local area. I took one look into that room and froze. Italian Hall Victims. The fire log of the Red Jacket Fire Department (the local fire department that responded to the fire call) also specifically states "no fire". Victims of the Italian Hall Disaster; 73 people, mostly children, died in a stampede after someone yelled “fire!” Further, she opines that the foreshortened stereopticon photo was "impossible" and misleading; and further notes that, according to the "pro-company" Daily Mining Gazette, they opened out. Victims of the Italian Hall Disaster of 1913 are laid out on a table, presumably at a temporary morgue. A steep stairway was the only way to the second floor, although there was a poorly-marked fire escape on one side of the building and ladders down the back of the building which could be reached only by climbing through the windows. Miners worked 12-hour days six days a week and earned $3 a day. The film, 1913 Massacre, deals with both the bitter eight-month strike and the children’s deaths during a Christmas Eve party. caused a panic. Her telling is problematic. The event, known as the Italian Hall Disaster, remains the deadliest unsolved manslaughter in US history. [12] The issue of the Italian Hall being built in 1908 with "outward swinging doors", was also published previously in Death's Door[10] which was also named a Michigan Notable book by the Library of Michigan in 2007.[13]. The disaster shook the people of Calumet and surrounding communities in the copper-rich Keweenaw region of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Calumet, Mich., Dec. 24 - Four score persons, mostly children, were killed tonight at a Christmas celebration held by copper mine strikers in Italian hall, because of a needless panic caused by a fake alarm of fire. Lempi AHO of Calumet, aged 8. [2] The strike would not end until April 1914; the miners and the mines were still at a standoff at Christmas, 1913, in a strike that was then five months old. [10] That book also included blueprints of the building drawn by an architect, showing the locations and configurations of the doors, the staircase, and the landings. This story takes place in the early 1900s during a time where big corporations were booming and … [14], The Alliance members who served on the relief committee visited Moyer at his hotel in nearby Hancock, then shot and kidnapped him. After three days, the coroner issued a ruling that did not give a cause of death. Documents from the time, however, point to one conclusion: the doors of the Italian Hall opened outward. Last summer, hundreds of people of Finnish descent from throughout the U.S. and Canada gathered at the site for ceremonies during the national FinnFest to honor the memory of those who died. They placed him on a train with instructions to leave the state and never return. It would not be until 1943 that they would win their first contract with the help of the Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers union, later to become part of the Steelworkers. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device. It was widely believed that the man who had yelled "fire" was wearing an Alliance badge, and Western Federation of Miners president Charles Moyer—who publicized the accusation—refused to retract it. I never wanted to go back.”. A miles-long funeral procession took the small white caskets for burial at Lake View Cemetery overlooking Lake Superior, where headstones today mark the tragedy. After the Italian Hall disaster, many miners left town and within four months the strike drew to a close. One of the longest strikes in the copper country took place in 1913, and included all the C&H mines. Herman ALA of Tamarack, aged 50. The Italian Hall was having a children’s party on Christmas Eve when someone came in the front door and shouted “fire!”. More than a century after the Italian Hall Disaster on Christmas Eve 1913, the deaths of 73 people at a party for striking mine workers remain a scar on the tiny town of Calumet. [3] Twenty witnesses testified under oath and were offered interpreters. The book Death's Door: The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder pointed out that the doors were not mentioned as a contributing factor at the December 1913 coroner's inquest, the 1914 subcommittee hearing, or in any of the newspaper stories of the time. Predictably, people ran to the doors but the chaos made it difficult for people to escape the building. Italian Hall Disaster -- funeral of victims. Emergency Fund Appeal $75,000 by May Day, TOWN HALL May 2 – Confronting the COVID Economy: Women Fight Back, Save People’s World – EMERGENCY FUND APPEAL, the children’s deaths during a Christmas Eve party. To my surprise, Ted suddenly said, “I was there.” His father had been a striking miner, and he, then 10 years old, and his brothers and sisters had gone to the party along with other strikers’ children. {People gather at the sides of the trench.] A recent book by Alison K. Hoagland, Mine Towns (declared to be a Michigan Notable Book 2010[11]), alleges there were two sets of doors opening onto a vestibule, and that the outer doors opened outward; and there may have been a set of inner bifold doors. December 20, 2018 Featured, Local News Leave a comment 2,648 Views. It appears that many persons called to testify had not seen what happened. Scanned: 06/19/2007 The building served as headquarters for the Società Mutua Beneficenza Italiana (Italian Mutual Benefit Society) and hosted community events. 'Frozen in Time' - Italian Hall disaster - Part III ... More than twenty thousand people came to Calumet for the victims' mass burial on December 28, 1913. Portions of this article appeared earlier in Looking Back, Moving Forward, the publication of the Michigan Labor History Society, whose website (http://mlhs.wayne.edu) has more on the Italian Hall tragedy. A stupid person yelled fire and caused a great panic . Thrive Act: un movimiento imparable que redefinirá el futuro, Japanese Communists denounce plan to dump radiation-tainted water into ocean, Ambitious Earth Day target: Biden announces 50% emissions cut, Unions back Biden’s Postal Board nominees, AFL-CIO hails Chauvin verdict, but police unions still an issue for organized labor, Unions, lawmakers, Biden administration unite on carbon capture as a job creator, South African Communist Party looks at rebuilding alliance with ANC, ‘Agent Sonya,’ a biography of intrepid antifa spy Ursula Kuczynski, Save People's World. [18], Ella Reeve Bloor was present at the disaster and puts forth her own version in her autobiography. [14][15], The Italian Hall was demolished in October 1984 and only the archway remains, although a state historical marker was erected in 1987. It is mine. It was a benefit Christmas party for the children of striking miners in Calumet. At the party, someone, perhaps a strikebreaker, gave a false cry of “fire” that led to a panicked rush to a narrow staircase where 73 people, 59 of them children, suffocated trying to leave. Christmas Eve Ceremony Will Dedicate New Italian Hall Victims Memorial. Lehto did not identify in the first edition of the book the specific person who yelled "fire", but he did exhaustively examine news reports, transcripts of interviews with survivors, the coroner's reports and other documentation in an attempt to answer the question of whether this was a calculated act by the mine management or a tragic error. CALUMET, MI - A special Christmas Eve ceremony is planned Monday to dedicate a 4-ton granite memorial to the 73 victims of the Italian Hall tragedy - … In 1912 alone, accidents caused an average of nearly one death and more than 12 serious injuries every week. A Christmas Eve gathering will be held on the 105th anniversary of the Italian Hall Disaster and with it comes the dedication of a new monument. During the Italian Hall Tragedy Centennial Ceremony on Christmas Eve, 2013, Calumet Village President Dave Geisler, right, reads the names and ages of the 73 victims, mostly children, who were crushed to death on Dec. 24, 1913, in Calumet's Italian Hall when a false alarm of "Fire!" Photo: Families of the Italian Hall victims bury the dead after a three-mile march to Lake View Cemetery. By the time of the strike, over 7,000 miners had joined the Western Federation of Miners and had written to the Calumet and Hecla Mining Corporation for a meeting to discuss hours, wages, and working conditions. Historian Arthur Thurner's Rebels on the Range: The Michigan Copper Miners' Strike of 1913–1914[22] raises the possibility that there actually might have been a fire in another part of the hall, perhaps in the chimney of the building. At the time, there were perhaps 15,000 men working in the mines and the WFM claimed 9,000 of them as members. But it wasn’t until the late 1970s that I learned that our family had a connection to the Christmas Eve tragedy. The Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, Michigan occured during the copper mine strikes on Christmas Eve in 1913. Mike Lahti, chairman of the committee that created and … Photographer's name, blindstamped in lower left corner: J. W. Nara, Calumet, Mich. Two prior buildings known popularly as "Italian Hall" had stood on the site. Seventy-three people died, many of them children. The doorway and stairs where people got jammed (The main entrance leading to the hall… After getting medical attention in Chicago, he held a press conference where he displayed his gunshot wound and promised to return to Michigan to continue the work of the union. It … There were 73 victims of the Italian Hall disaster, including 55 children. “With my brother-in-law and others, I went to the Eagles Hall for a couple beers,” he recalled. Eight witnesses swore that the man who first raised the cry of "fire" was wearing a Citizens' Alliance button on his coat. After the vote was held, the WFM sent letters to the mines demanding the conference; the mine managers refused the request and the strike was called on July 23, 1913. I had never seen my Dad cry before.”  After the strike ended, Ted said, a mine boss came to his father and asked him to return to work. It is conjectured by some historians and Woody Guthrie that "fire" was called out by an anti-union ally of mine management to disrupt the party. The majority of the strike-related casualties occurred at what would come to be known as the Italian Hall disaster. “The Italian Hall disaster goes on and on,” Village Trustee Peggy Germain said following a special meeting of the Calumet Village council where they heard a challenge from members of the public over last week’s decision to approve the material for the memorial that will display the names of the victims.