The Miners at Cedar River Take a Stand
When management ignored their ultimatum to discharge Chinese laborers, the miners at the Cedar River coal mines walked off the job in a confrontation that tested the limits of labor power in 1885.
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.
CEDAR RIVER COAL MINES, Oct. 27—EDITOR POST-INTELLIGENCER: Perhaps some of the proceedings at this place for the past few days would be interesting to at least some of your readers. Last Friday, Mr. Colman saw Mr. McCullick and wanted the miners to stay on Saturday until 3 o'clock to finish loading a ship. He promised to ask the miners to let the Chinamen stay and work on Monday, as that was the day he promised to ship the Chinamen from the Cedar River coal mines. The miners held a meeting on Friday night and decided to work until 3 o'clock, provided the train would be delayed for them to get ready for a parade; if not, they were to quit at noon. The miners also agreed to let the Chinamen work on Monday, provided they were sent away on Tuesday.
Mr. Colman failed to get the train delayed, and the consequence was the miners quit work at noon on Saturday, though they came back and resumed work on Monday morning. Tuesday, the 27th, it was rumored that the Chinamen were going to work. The miners and laborers congregated at the lower entrance to the mines and called a meeting. They appointed Mitchell Love and Abe Jones a committee to wait on Mr. J. Williams, the Superintendent, and ask him to discharge the Chinamen, or the white employees would go home. Mr. Williams did not give the committee time to make a report, but came up very abruptly and told the miners to go home. The miners and laborers started for home, and Mr. Williams cried, 'Stop, men,' and tried to lay all the blame on Mr. Love. Then some pretty hot words arose between Mr. Williams and three or four of the miners. At the time the argument was the strongest, the Chinamen left the mines, went home, picked up, and left. Mr. Colman came up on the train and shipped them away. —A MINER
“They made him squirm like a snake. At the time the argument was the strongest, the Chinamen left the mines, went home, picked up, and left.”
This report captures a volatile moment in 1880s Washington history where labor agitation was frequently fueled by exclusionary racial sentiment against Chinese workers. It serves as a stark reminder of the exclusionary forces present during the rise of organized labor in the Pacific Northwest, mirroring the complex and often fraught history of industrial expansion in Seattle’s early years.
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