Hellraisers Journal: The Fighting Women of the Michigan Copper Country

You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
                                                      -Mother Jones

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Saturday September 12, 1903
Cripple Creek District, Colorado - The Searchlight and the Gatling Gun

Since the military began arriving about one week ago, they have been making their presence felt in the various small cities of the district. A searchlight has been hauled from mountain top to mountain top and used to disrupt the night-time peace of the citizens of the district. The military has also been hauling a Gatling gun about the district, rumored to be borrowed from Wyoming. Yesterday one was brought from Camp Goldfield to Beacon Hill and place on public display for the edification of the community.

General Bell and Governor Peabody have established a direct telegraph line from the General's office in Camp Goldfield to the Governor's office in Denver. On Thursday the Governor sent this message of congratulations:

Sherman M. Bell, Adjutant General
Camp Goldfield, Victor, Colorado:
     Telegram this date received. I congratulate the people in Teller county upon the reported condition. Peace and prosperity will surely follow law and order. May both continue to exist throughout this commonwealth.
                                                                           James H. Peabody, Governor

Evidently, this message from the Governor is not meant as parody, and Mr. Peabody must surely believe that searchlights by night and Gatling guns by day are indeed signs of peace and prosperity in the "commonwealth."

SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969

Note: this photo is from 1913 Colorado; not sure of the make of the machine gun. It is used here to represent the Gatling Gun of 1903 Colorado.

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Friday September 12, 1913
Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan -The Women who fight beside the W. F. of M.

The women of copper country are organized right beside the men  of the Western Federation of Miners. Some say that the strike might have ended after the murder of the strikers at Seeberville had it not been for the women. One striker told a reporter that if the strikers prove victorious, the credit should go to the women:

[The women are] the heart and soul of the cause. They urged us to strike, and they're urging us not to give in.

After the Seeberville killings it was the women who kept on marching when spirits were low. To the mines at Quincy, Painesdale, and Calumet they came with their eggs and tin cans to confront the scabs. It is said that they use brooms from the outhouses in their attempt to free Kate Rajkovich and Annie Papich after General Abby's soldiers had seized them. Twenty-five women tried to force their way into the Calumet armory, but were driven back by soldiers rifles.

The women are every bit a match for the combined strength of state militia, Cruse's deputies, the Waddies, and the Citizens Alliance. They continue to march at 6:00 in the morning every day led by Big Annie and her massive flag. These are fighting women, not ladies. They have been called Communists, radicals, agitators, and worse. General Abby says they must be insane. The brave General says this from atop his horse while the women fight on their feet beneath him.

But one thing is clear: their spirits have not yet been broken.

SOURCE
Big Annie of Calumet
-by Jerry Stanley
NY, 1996

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