Assassination of Governor Steunenberg
The Consequences of the “Second Battle of Bunker Hill”
Mar 10, 2009
With the economic challenges of the late 1890s and the growing dissatisfaction of mine workers in Idaho, violent actions had been taken by some to express their overwhelming frustrations. By 1899 the situation between the owners and workers was such that a group of miners gathered to destroy one of the largest targets in the Valley. After the explosions at the Bunker Hill mine in the Silver Valley of Idaho the Governor was forced to confront the growing problem.
The mines had been a hotbed of union activity and Governor Steunenberg had supported the cause of the labor leaders, but he could not tolerate such lawlessness. He declared Shoshone County to be in a state of insurrection and asked President McKinley for troops to help deal with the crisis. On May 3, 1899 some seven hundred to eight hundred soldiers sent by the president arrived by railroad in Wallace to punish the participants in the “Second Battle of Bunker Hill.”
There was a major roundup of miners in the area. Every miner carrying a union card was arrested and thrown into a hastily developed stockade. Termed the “Bullpen” after a similar holding pen that was used to confine participants in the “Rocky Mountain Revolution” of 1892, the stockade was lacking in basic sanitary considerations. Those held were kept there with no consideration of legal rights, suspicions and vendetta overrode their basic civic liberties.
Questions were asked of all who were held. The authorities wanted to find those culpable in the events at the Bunker Hill mine and the union was the target. A Pinkerton detective had infiltrated the organization before the events in April had exploded and had passed on information to the mine owners of the valley. The valuable information identified leaders and the overall intentions of the group. Those held in the stockade were required to pledge to statements implicating the union in the explosion and denying their allegiance to the organization.
Controversy still surrounds who lit the fuse the day of the explosion but some claim that it was a man named Harry Orchard. Born in Ontario he was named Albert Horsely, changing his name sometime after he came to Wallace, Idaho to work. He had worked at a dairy and had invested in a new mining claim. He lost the interest in the mine by 1899 and became a mucker in the mines. After the explosion at Bunker Hill he left Idaho and moved from place to place, some suggest he was involved in other sabotage of mines that resulted in the deaths of others. By 1905 he was preoccupied with plans to kill former Governor Steunenberg.
The Governor lived in Caldwell, Idaho at this time. Harry watched his actions carefully and planned his attack. December 30 he planted explosives at the gate of Steunenberg’s house. When the former Governor returned home from a meeting and opened the gate he was caught in the explosion; he died twenty minutes later. Harry Orchard served forty eight years in jail, dying in prison in 1954 at the age of eighty eight.
Sources:
Arksey, Laura. “Hutton, May Arkwright (1860-1915).” History Link: The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, http://historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7547 (accessed March 8, 2009).
Horner, Patricia Voeller. “May Arkwright Hutton: Suffragist and politician.” in Women in Pacific Northwest History: An Anthology, ed. Karen J. Blair, 25-42. Seattle: University of Wasington Press, 1990.
Leinberger, Lisa. “Gravesite monument memorializes Huttons.” Spokesman Review, April 17, 2008.
Montgomery, James. Liberated Woman. Fairfield: Ye Galleon Press, 1985.
Schwantes, Carlos Arnaldo. The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.
Washington State Historical Society: Digital Collection. “May Arkwright Hutton Collection”. http://digitum.washingtonhistory.org/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/hutton (accessed March 8, 2009).
