Brutal coal strike of 1922 inspires novel, author talk
On Alex Drazek’s first day at work in a coal mine, the Polish man got a new last name, his grandson said.
“The mine boss said, ‘Your name is Dressick or you ain’t gettin’ paid,’ ’’ recalled Damian Dressick, whose first historical novel is “40 Patchtown” (Bottom Dog Press, $18).
The fictional book was inspired by the vivid recollections of real hardship the author heard from Alex Drazek, his late paternal grandfather, one of hundreds of thousands of miners who lived in coal patch towns in Western Pennsylvania.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, the author will discuss his novel during a virtual meeting on Zoom sponsored by the Battle of Homestead Foundation. To register for the free event, go to battleofhomestead.org.
Windber, three miles south of Johnstown in Somerset County, is a company town where men once worked 14-hour days, were paid in scrip instead of actual money, compelled to shop at the company store and told how to vote.
“You had to vote. They would take a look at your ballot to make sure you filled it out exactly as you were supposed to or you weren’t going to be back at work the next day,” said Mr. Dressick, who grew up in Richland, a suburb of Johnstown.
On April 5, 1922, miners went out on strike.
“One factor leading up to the 1922 strike was that miners were subjected to a retroactive wage cut for coal they had already mined,” Mr. Dressick said.
In 1922, the miners sought representation by the United Mine Workers of America, believing the union could bargain for better pay, safer working conditions and honest weighing of the coal.
Edward J. Berwind, who owned the Berwind-White Coal Co., refused to negotiate with the union. Berwind hired labor agents to recruit more immigrants as nonunion labor and hired uniformed Pinkerton guards to escort them on a train to Windber, whose name is Berwind reversed. When the laborers arrived, violence ensued.
“The scabs had been tricked into coming to Windber,” Mr. Dressick said, adding that company agents lured men with promises of high pay and assurances that there were no labor problems.
“They would meet these people in Perth Amboy, N.J. They would get these folks on the trains and once you’re on the train there’s a guy with a shotgun and you’re not getting off the train,” Mr. Dressick said.
As the novel opens, 14-year-old Chet Piskatowski and his 17-yearold brother, Buzzy, chase scabs through the woods, an incident the author’s grandfather experienced. Alex Dressick, who was 17 when the confrontation occurred, also showed his young grandson where he worked.
“I was in the mine before I was in kindergarten. They were closing down, operating with skeleton crews. He took me 25 yards into the mine and showed me the powerhouse, the company store and the shifter shanty,” which sorts coal.
To absorb the rhythms of coal patch life, “I rented a miner’s duplex in Mine 37, east of Johnstown,” Mr. Dressick said. “I didn’t talk to anyone who wasn’t 75 years old.”
For three months, he did research, including listening to tapes of oral history interviews with
miners and their wives. Many were European immigrants.
“There were a lot of women on the picket lines with their husbands, the miners. They would bring pennies and crusts of bread to shame the scabs into not crossing the picket lines,” Mr. Dressick said.
For six months, he wrote inside the miner’s duplex, which had a front porch, a parlor, a small kitchen and two upstairs bedrooms.
During the strike, the miners “were painted as crazy foreigners,” the author said.
During the strike, The New York Times published an op-ed column by E.P. Berwind claiming that Eastern and Southern Europeans weren’t fullfledged human beings, didn’t have have any ambition and couldn’t be trusted to make their own decisions.
“E.P. Berwind was on the board of the New York Subway Companies, making a fortune selling coal at inflated prices” to the subway company, Mr. Dressick said.
In October 1922, the Hirshfield Committee arrived from New York to inspect miners’ living conditions.
“They were appalled. It looked like people living in a war zone. People had no shoes, or housing” and were living in tents outdoors during the winter, he said.
In its 1923 report, the Hirshfield Committee described conditions in miners’ tent camps as “worse than the conditions of the slaves prior to the Civil War.”
The strike was unsuccessful, Mr. Dressick said, but during the dispute, miners learned about solidarity.
“These miners were impressive people. They were willing to take big risks to be treated right and fairly. Which side are you on? They understood that question.”