A Striker's Wife Wounded in the Franklin Coal Wars
A woman permanently disabled by gunfire during a strike-breaking confrontation at Franklin mines sues the Oregon Improvement Company for $25,000.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Ellen Thorburn and her husband, Robert, have filed suit in superior court against the Oregon Improvement Company and M. C. Sullivan, manager of a detective agency. The Thorburns allege that on June 9, 1891, during a labor strike at the Franklin coal mines, the company procured 400 armed men to terrify former employees. The complaint states that while the couple was inside their home, the armed crowd fired weapons recklessly. A bullet entered the house, striking Mrs. Thorburn in the arm and body. As a result, she has lost the use of her arm, has become a permanent invalid, and requires constant care. The suit seeks damages for her injuries, lost service, and medical expenses.
“The 400 men collected by the defendants were irresponsible, dissipated, vacant, illiterate, vicious and unlearned, and totally unfit and incapable of having the use and control of the guns and ammunition furnished by the defendants.”
This case highlights the violent history of private detective agencies used by corporations like the Oregon Improvement Company to break strikes in the 1890s. The tension between corporate property control and the safety of the working-class families living near industrial sites remains a recurring theme in labor and housing debates in the Pacific Northwest.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.