2022 Hello , This week I discovered new information about Fannie Sellins! When new facts turn up about the women in my books, I'm mostly thrilled but also, argh! 😠 No way to put it in the book now. This latest research turned up just in time for what Catholics like Fannie would call her feast day, the day of her death. It was 103 years ago today, August 26th, when Fannie was killed on a union picket line in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania. She died after thugs deputized by the local sheriff bludgeoned her head and shot her in her back. A jury acquitted her attackers believing Fannie to be a rioter. Those on the scene say otherwise. Fannie Sellins was well-known as an extraordinary union organizer and had received death threats from company guards. Witnesses testified Fannie
had been trying to aid a miner shot by deputies patrolling the picket line. The men recognized her and started shooting. Fannie ran toward a gate in a wood plank fence, herding children away from the gunmen. She died in a hail of bullets before reaching safety.
New Facts About Fannie Sellins
Fannie’s death in 1919 is well documented in public records, photographs, witness accounts and newspaper articles, but I had trouble finding much evidence of her early life. Ferreting out details of her early experiences was important because I was dying to know what had shaped her into the compassionate and courageous woman she became.
I knew she'd been born Frances “Fannie” Mooney in 1867 Ohio, and that her family moved in 1875 to “Kerry Patch,” St. Louis, Missouri's Irish neighborhood. I knew her father, Richard Mooney had
listed his occupation in the 1870 US census as a house painter. Frannie was three years old at the time, the second of three children.
Then this week, I discovered Fannie's father had also worked painting riverboats along the thriving St. Louis waterfront.
Booming trade on the Mississippi produced wealth for businessmen and industrialists and generated union activity and numerous worker revolts on the St. Louis riverfront. The large population
of Irish-Americans in the city heavily supported the labor movement. I discovered these new details about Fannie's father due to a new exhibit at the St. Louis Public Library. Dangerous Women tells the story of Fannie and another woman labor organizer of the same time period, Mary Harris Jones, more well-known as Mother Jones. Centerpiece mural by Kathleen Scarboro, St. Louis Public Library exhibit Dangerous Women.
Raised in the labor movement, it's no wonder Fannie later helped launch Ladies’ Local 67 of the United Garment Workers of America in 1902. That's when, as a widowed mother of four, she worked as a seamstress at Marx and Haas, the largest clothing manufacturer
in St. Louis.
One of Fannie's daughters once said, “I’ve heard union talk ever since I was a baby.” This quote was another new bit of information for me. I was never able to find much about Fannie's children.
Below: page from
my book telling of Fannie's work as a seamstress and launching the union local.
Fannie Sellins' work in the labor movement started in St. Louis, but she is more well-known in Western Pennsylvania where she was killed. Rosemary
Feurer, a history professor at Northern Illinois University (an important source when I wrote my book) hopes the exhibit, which runs until January 7, 2023, will alert the citizens of St. Louis to their local heroine. “I’m amazed how
little is known of her, a widow with four children who became a national organizer,” Rosemary said. “She was a radical in her time.” Rosemary is trying to get a historical marker placed downtown at the building which housed the Marx & Hass
factory where Fannie worked. Now known as the Knickerbocker Lofts, it's been upgraded, renovated, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places, not due to the labor history that happened there, but for its architectural significance. Former Marx & Haas factory where Fanne was a seamstress,1300 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, MO
Historical photos, artifacts, paintings and text on panels richly convey the courage of two women who devoted their lives to their belief in the value of human labor and the dignity and rights of
workers. Those ideals remain as relevant today as they were a century ago.
From the exhibit featuring Fannie Sellins and Mother Jones
- They faced jail and death to challenge power on behalf of workers' rights. They wanted women to be at the heart of the movement to transform society.
- In St. Louis women were among the most exploited workers, and industries grew wealthy from their labor.
- Those with power inflamed divisions between men and women,
immigrants and native workers, black and white, to increase profits and maintain the existing power structure.
- Jones and Sellins sought to unify all workers across those divisions to build real power for a “grander civilization for the ages to come.”
- They defied the police, the politicians, the bosses, the judges who told them to stay
in their place.
-
- Their lives reflected the militant resistance that was part of the tradition and culture of St. Louis workers.
If you haven't had a chance to read Fannie Never Flinched, put in a request that your local library procure a copy. Or if you would like to buy an autographed copy, let me know. The book, plus sales tax, is $21.99. Shipping media mail is $5.
Like my article today? Please share:
Thanks to everyone who wrote to tell me about the books they're reading. I still haven't finished the two I wrote about last week but will let you know. Larry wrote "Last night my Book Group discussed HOW TO STOP TIME by Matt Haig. Wonderful book. So much historical research. Everyone, even
those who didn’t want to read it, loved this!" Read more here... Matt Haig is the guy who wrote The Midnight Library, which I've
also heard good things about.
Barbara wrote to suggest Kate Moore's recent book The Woman They Could Not Silence. "Moore's expert research and impassioned storytelling combine to create an absolutely unputdownable account of Packard's harrowing experience. Readers will be shocked, horrified, and inspired. A veritable tour de force about how far women's rights have come and how far we still have to go...Put this book in the hands of every young feminist." ― Booklist, STARRED
review.
From the publisher: The year is 1860. As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a
boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened – by Elizabeth’s intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So Theophilus makes a plan to put his wife back in
her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum.
Follow me on social media
Read a great book? Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe anytime at the
link below.
To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers, librarians and writers visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com.
Contact me at MaryCronkFarrell@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.
|
|
|
