The idea of celebrating a holiday for workingmen caught on slowly in the United States. But eventually, the first Monday in September became a federal holiday in 1894, although many industrial communities around the nation observed the workingman’s day much earlier. One was Port Deposit in Cecil County, which held its first Labor Day in 1891.
Workers at the Armstrong Company Foundry around 1910.
On that Monday in September 1891, trains brought visitors from near and far to town at an early hour, the arriving visitors noticing that many homes were decorated with American flags. Weeks earlier, McClenahan & Bro’s Quarries, B. C. Bibb & Co’s Foundry, and Armstrong & Company Foundry, along with all the manufacturing interests, had decided to give employees the day off. 1
Since all work had ceased for the day, the parade promptly stepped off at 9 a.m. Serving as chief marshal James Rice of the Stonecutters’ Union of Port Deposit, led four divisions representing the different workingmen’s societies through town:
The Stonecutters’ Union with 75 men marching was
headed the Riverside Cornet Band and a float drawn by eight horses displaying
specimens of Port Deposit cut granite;
Iron Moulder’s Union No. 211 with 75 men wearing
blue badges and carrying canes.
Iron Moulders’ of Perryville No. 210 with float
and 29 men.
Drillers and Quarrymen of Port Deposit with 300
men headed by the Rising Sun Cornet Band.
This grand procession marched through town to Happy Valley where
addresses were made. James Duncan of
Baltimore, president of the Federation of Labor, spoke about the need for
laboring men to organize. William. J. T.
Cooney of the Typographical Union No. 12 of Baltimore advised the union to look
after nominees for Congress and the legislature and not to vote for men who
would not legislate for laboring men. Lewis
Garbie of New York addressed the audience in English and Italian, much to the
delight of many in the crowd.
In the procession were a large number of colored men and the .president in his address welcomed all nationalities and colors.
After the speeches, it was time to enjoy the afternoon. Gymnastic exercises involving throwing the hammer and ball, a sack-race, running races, running high jumps, girls’ race, fat men’s racing and running broad jumps received lots of attention. Afterward, there was dancing and music, which kept up to a late hour.
After President Cleveland established the federal holiday, the day received less attention elsewhere around Cecil County.
In 1895, the Midland Journal remarked that Labor Day in the Rising Sun area was generally observed. “Those who generally labor were hard at it, and those who never labor thinking it a government order making it obligatory on them to do something useful on that day made a show of working 2.”
On Labor Day 1898 in Elkton, the Cecil Whig remarked that “. . . . So far as its observance was concerned in Elkton it might have been just plain September 5. The banks, of course, were closed, and many people did not seem to realize just why they were closed. All-day long depositors strolled up the bank steps and seemed surprised when they found the door closed. They gathered in small groups and discussed the matter, and when they were told that it was Labor Day they went away scratching their heads and trying to recall why Labor was instituted (Sept. 10, 1898).
But to the industrial workers of Port Deposit, this was an important holiday.
Workers at the Conowingo Dam (source: Conowingo Visitors Center)
On this Labor Day, a holiday that honors American Workers and remembers the struggle to acquire better employment conditions, it’s a good time to share some research I have been doing on men who paid a high price erecting the Conowingo Dam. An untold number were killed, injured or disabled while toiling away at the dangerous construction job in the late 1920s.
Some 5,000 people flocked to the rural northeastern Maryland area, seeking to earn good pay as the construction got underway. About 3,500 personnel erected the hydroelectric plant for Stone & Webster and the Arundel Corporation, and the project generated associated employment opportunities. There were also large numbers of laborers relocating tracks and building new stations for the Columbia and Port Deposit Railroad, contractors paving new highways, and crews erecting 1,000 steel towers to stretch mighty transmission lines toward Philadelphia for Day & Zimmerman.
It was nearly fifty years before Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which guaranteed the right to a safe job. Regulations adopted in the early 1970s, made safety practices, such as fall protection, machine guarding, and personal protective equipment a standard part of the job. But this engineering feat took place long before there was much concern for occupational safety.
While these men struggled to earn a living wage to support the family, many of them suffered disabling injuries handing high voltage electric lines, tumbling from high elevations, managing explosives, and much more. A number died while performing their duties. Construction work is a dangerous business today, but in that era workplace safety wasn’t a high priority and broken bones, fractured skulls, amputations, and other trauma was common.
While people often talk about worker fatalities at the Dam, a census or registry has never been compiled to give us some idea of the magnitude of the risk and to remember those who fell on the job. So I have done some data-mining, making an initial survey to identify those who lost their lives at Conowingo. It was dangerous work, and newspaper accounts of men in the hard-driving industry suffering serious occupational mishaps are frequent, once work on the project starts.
The first shovelful of earth was turned on the Cecil County side of the Susquehanna River and the first nail driven on the Harford County side on March 8, 1926, newspapers observed. “Twenty carloads of lumber passed Port Deposit on the way to Conowingo, and carpenters and mechanics were rushed on the job on Monday by the early train.” The clearing of dense woodland had already begun, and steam shovels were starting to operate.
Sometimes a man unsecured by a safety harness or net fell into swirling floodwaters or rocks a distance or there was an automobile accident. For example, thirty workmen suffered trauma when a bus operated by the United Railroads between Baltimore and Conowingo skidded on an icy hill at the Dam and was upset. The injured were rushed to the company hospital.
Other accounts involved single casualties. Irvin McDowell was confined to his home near Calvert in serious condition, the results of running a nail in his foot, the Baltimore Sun reported March 25, 1927. Alvan Prather, 25, of Inwood WV. was crushed while firing the engine drawing cars on the Stone & Webster Company’s railroad, running from Havre de Grace to Shure’s Landing. In critical condition, he was rushed to the company hospital where physicians determined he had a double fracture of the left leg. The right one was smashed so it was amputated, the Havre de Grace Republican wrote on October 15, 1927.
For this article, I focused on identifying occupational fatalities. Here is the registry as it stands on Labor Day, 2015. I will add names to it as others are identified.
Workers Killed on the Job
March 20, 1926 — Alphonso Fortier, 21, Philadelphia; killed at Port Deposit three-hours after accepting employment with a contractor building the hydroelectric plant; helping to unload a derrick and other machinery from a freight car; a heavy piece struck him, causing an internal hemorrhage from which he died an hour later. Source: Baltimore Sun, March 21, 1926.
August 8, 1926 — John G. Shelor, 21, Calvert, Cecil County; tractor used in pulling stumps turned over backward; broken neck at the dam; Remains shipped to Christiansburg, VA for burial. Source: Baltimore Sun, Aug. 12, 1926.
August 11, 1926 – George D. Whiteside, 22, pipefitter’s helper; run over by a train at the plant; remains shipped to his home in Champlain, NY. He was a college student employed at the dam for the summer. Source: Baltimore Sun, Aug 12, 1926
August 3, 1926 (date is estimated). An unidentified African-American laborer was bitten by a copperhead snake while clearing ground for the new dam. Source: Cecil Whig, August 7, 1926
December 21, 1926 — William J. Elliott, 46; killed at Conowingo Dam when he fell from a stone conveyor. The funeral was held at Havre de Grace and services were in charge of Harford Klan. Source: Cecil Democrat, December 25, 1926
February 18, 1927 — Soon after reporting to work, George Graybeal, 35, became sick and went to the office of Dr. Mohr, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s physician at Conowingo. where he died. He and his father and a brother came from North Carolina to Cecil County to work on the project.
March 8, 1927 — Adam Gelensky, 42, an employee of the Arundel Corporation was found on the Octoraro Creek Railroad Bridge with both legs severed after begun run over by a train. He died about four hours later in Richards’ Hospital. The body was turned over to undertaker Patterson of Aikin. An effort was being made to locate relatives at Brockville, PA.
April 18, 1927 — William Tuance was instantly killed while work for Stone and Webster at the Dam when he was struck by a heavy piece of timber. His remains were taken to the undertaking establishment of Pennington & Son at Havre de Grace. Interment was made at Angel Hill Cemetery.
April 25, 1927. Chief George R. Chapman of the Conowingo Fire Department was killed when the fire engine overturned near the Dam in Harford County. He was buried at Loudon Park Cemetery.
June 29, 1927 — Frank McCann, 27, sustained injured by falling a distance of nearly a hundred feet while at work on the Dam died. He was from Detroit, MI and his body was shipped home.
July 18, 1927 — Stephen Collins, 28, Baltimore; killed instantly when he fell from the crest of the dam to rocks beneath. Source: Baltimore Sun, July 18, 1927
July 18, 1927 — O. P. Shelton, 32, Florida; killed instantly when he fell 140-feet from the crest of the dam to rocks below. Source: Baltimore Sun: July 18, 1927
November 14, 1926 — Joseph Damfamete; employed by the Arundel Corporation; died of a fractured skull at Havre de Grace Hospital; struck on the head by falling plank. Source: Cecil Whig, November 20, 1926
November 21, 1927 — Hunter H. Bettis, 17, son of Lonnie Bettis, Havre de Grace; employed by Stone & Webster; drowned while walking along the edge of cofferdam, carrying a heavy bay of rivets. He lost his balance and fell into thirty-five feet of water. Source: Nov. 26, 1927, Cecil Democrat
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This is the census I have developed thus far. However, Coroner William B. Selse of Darlington commented that more than twenty men had lost their lives on the project while investigating the death of Hunter H. Bettis. He added, “the number is low considering the fact that on average of 3,500 employees have been employed there for nearly two years,” he informed the Baltimore Sun.
Curtis S. Poist of Port Deposit once wrote a Baltimore Sun article called “Helping Build Conowingo Dam.” “There was no way telling how many men were killed on the job,” he wrote. “Often the word would go around that a man had been killed, but I never saw a fatal accident.” The workmen spoke so many languages, came from so many parts of the world, nobody knew much about anybody else. Usually, a man was known only by the number on his badge. So if he fell into an excavation along with several tons of wet concrete who was to miss him let along mourn his passing?”
The registry probably represents a significant undercount as the primary sources for this preliminary registry are newspapers. I’m planning a visit to the Maryland Archives soon for another investigation and will pull death certificates for these men and others I am able to locate.
Still, on this Labor Day, it is appropriate to remember the fallen workers thus far identified. I will update this registry as more workers are identified.
