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The
Pinkertons remained trapped aboard the barges, while O'Donnell and his associates of the Advisory Committee attempted to restore order to the tense and bloody situation, removing wives and wounded strikers from the scene and O'Donnell personally attempting, to the best of his ability, to calm and
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were lowered and
William Foy and Capt. Frederick H. Heinde, commander of the Pinkerton landing operation, tensely faced off amidst mutual threats. A fracas erupted, with clubs wielded and shots were fired, with both Foy and Heinde hit by bullets. The Pinkertons began firing their rifles repeatedly
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As dawn began to break at 4:00 am, a crowd had gathered along the riverbank next to a barbed wire fence which ran from the plant to the river, which had been erected by the company some weeks earlier. The barges were pushed ashore at 4:30, to a cascade of angry shouts and a hail of stones, many of
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Chaos ensued and O'Donnell immediately lost control of the defense of the steelworks, which was spontaneously led by residents of
Homestead. Armed strikers assembled at the steelworks and shots were fired at the tugboat pulling the barges, one of which shattered a window in the pilothouse. Some of
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O'Donnell was named chairman of the
Advisory Committee, the workers' organization in charge of coordination of the strike. In this capacity he had cautioned against violence and trespassing upon company property in an attempt to keep the company from availing itself of judicial injunction or the
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up the river to
Homestead. Strike leaders, who assigned lookouts to keep a watch along rivers and rail routes, were apprised by telegram at 2:30 am of July 6 that barges had departed for the steel works and ten minutes later a warning alarm was sounded, echoed by whistles throughout the town.
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into the crowd, with armed strikers answering in kind, and for the next ten minutes a pitched gun battle was waged; several strikers and two
Pinkertons were mortally wounded, with dozens of others injured, including Hugh O'Donnell, who was grazed by a bullet to his thumb.
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In about 1903, O'Donnell accepted a position in government employment as a deputy to the
Pennsylvania state factory inspector. This job placed O'Donnell in crowded Pennsylvania tenements and poorly ventilated factories on a regular basis, and he subsequently contracted
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those coming forward in impromptu leadership roles included
Margaret Finch, the feisty widow of a steelworker who operated the Rolling Mill House saloon, English immigrant laborer William Foy, and open-hearth skilled worker Anthony Soulier.
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O'Donnell was acquitted of the murder charge in a jury trial and was subsequently released on bail. Prosecutors never proceeded to bring O'Donnell to trial on any other offense, and all charges were eventually dropped.
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In the years after the failure of the
Homestead strike, O'Donnell found himself blackballed from returning to work in the steel industry. Needing to adopt a new career, he moved to
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in 1886, at the age of 17. After 6 months in the sheet metal mill he moved to the
Homestead works' mill which produced 119-inch steel plate, in which he worked as a heater.
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502:
Homestead: A Complete History of the Struggle of July, 1892, between the Carnegie Steel Company, Limited, and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers.
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The Advisory Committee established its headquarters on the third floor of the Bost Building, located at the corner of Eighth Avenue and Heisel Street in Homestead.
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221:, accompanied by relatives, in an effort to regain his health. Newspaper accounts from December of that year place O'Donnell in the city of
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as a result. Stricken seriously ill by the disease, in November 1905 O'Donnell left the Northeast for the warmer and drier climate of the
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On July 12, 1892, O'Donnell chaired a mass meeting in Homestead which voted unanimously to support the introduction into town of the
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Union leaders made their headquarters on the third floor of the Bost Building in Homestead, now the site of a labor history museum.
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worker and labor leader. He is best remembered as the chairman of the Homestead Strike Advisory Committee during the
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Investigation of the Employment of Pinkerton Detectives in Connection with the Labor Troubles at Homestead, PA.
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Investigation of the Employment of Pinkerton Detectives in Connection with the Labor Troubles at Homestead, PA.
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At the time of the Homestead labor dispute, O'Donnell was employed as a mill worker, and not as a professional
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434:"Three Alleged Repeaters Held: Investigating Election Frauds in Philadelphia: Newspaper Men Testify,"
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Photo of Hughey O'Donnell as he appeared around the time of the Homestead Strike.
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which were thrown by the hundreds of wives of strikers who had assembled.
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134:
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The Samuel Gompers Papers: Volume 3, Unrest and Depression, 1891-1894.
420:"Hugh O'Donnell," in Stuart B. Kaufman and Peter J. Albert (eds.),
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Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area Online Collections Database
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William C. Oates, George Ticknor Curtis, and Terence V. Powderly,
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The Battle for Homestead, 1880-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel.
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The Battle for Homestead, 1880-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel.
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Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1989, pg. 211, fn. 5.
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Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1892; pp. 86-87.
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Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992; pg. 16.
173:. The meeting was addressed by Homestead burgess (mayor)
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Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers people
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O'Donnell was arrested in September 1892, charged with
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At 10:30 pm on July 5, 1892, some 300 employees of the
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and was a member of that organization's Lodge No. 125.
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O'Donnell testimony to the House Judiciary Committee,
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Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1892.
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541:vol. 155, whole no. 430 (Sept. 1892), pp. 355-375.
519:Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992.
512:Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992.
125:, about five miles south of Pittsburgh along the
68:Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
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89:Drawing of O'Donnell from the front page of the
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209:and took a job as a newspaper reporter.
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505:Pittsburgh: privately published, 1893.
235:Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area
510:"The River Ran Red": Homestead, 1892.
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530:—O'Donnell's testimony on pp. 86-97.
119:Pinkerton National Detective Agency
98:seizing of the moral high ground.
51:Hugh O'Donnell came to work at the
36:Homestead Steel Strike of July 1892
81:Leadership of the Homestead strike
16:Steel mill worker and labor leader
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583:Trade unionists from Pennsylvania
467:"Gets Consumption in Slum Work,"
30:(c. 1869-19??) was an American
508:David P. Demarest, Jr. (ed.),
93:during the time of the strike.
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568:American trade union leaders
449:"Factory Inspector Delaney,"
522:House Judiciary Committee,
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402:Wilkes-Barre Evening News,
384:The Battle for Homestead,
371:The Battle for Homestead,
355:The Battle for Homestead,
342:The Battle for Homestead,
329:The Battle for Homestead,
313:The Battle for Homestead,
297:The Battle for Homestead,
91:Wilkes-Barre Evening News
536:"The Homestead Strike,"
399:"Ready for the Troops,"
539:North American Review,
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53:Carnegie Steel Company
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487:Dec. 16, 1905, pg. 2.
482:"Strike Leader Here,"
472:Nov. 25, 1905, pg. 7.
454:Dec. 19, 1904, pg. 6.
439:Nov. 17, 1899, pg. 1.
404:July 12, 1892, pg. 1.
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66:O'Donnell joined the
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499:Arthur G. Burgoyne,
157:organize the crowd.
189:, aggravated riot,
121:arrived by rail at
181:Legal difficulties
171:Robert E. Pattison
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470:New York Tribune,
201:Post-strike years
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105:Events of July 6
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494:Further reading
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75:trade union
47:Early years
562:Categories
386:pp. 19-20.
357:pp. 17-18.
344:pp. 16-17.
187:conspiracy
150:Gangplanks
127:Ohio River
32:steel mill
241:Footnotes
219:Southwest
57:Homestead
55:works at
42:Biography
382:Krause,
369:Krause,
353:Krause,
340:Krause,
327:Krause,
311:Krause,
295:Krause,
229:See also
123:Bellevue
373:pg. 19.
331:pg. 15.
315:pg. 21.
299:pg. 17.
191:treason
135:tugboat
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