If you are
tempted to reveal,
A tale
someone to you has told,
About
another, make it pass,
Before you
speak, three gates of gold.
Three Narrow
gates first, “Is it true?”
Then, “Is it
needful?” in your mind,
Give
truthful answer, and the next,
Is last and
narrowest, “Is it kind?”
Katherine
Carey-Place 1878-1934
Copyright Roy Richard
My dad, Earl Richard had a half-brother named Homer Warren from his mother’s first marriage.
Homer was born March 5, 1897 in
Stoddard County, Missouri. He died on January 24, 1925 in Williamson County,
Illinois.
Earl had gone to live with Homer,
who was living in Herrin Illinois and working as a miner in the summer of 1924.
Homer had also become a member of the Klan and was a bodyguard for one of their
top guns, S. Glenn Young.
Earl shared two stories of his
time in Illinois. The first he and Homer were riding in a wagon outside of town
when some brush began to rustle just off the road. Homer without missing a beat
or slowing the horses down, he pulled a pump shotgun from beside himself and
emptied it into the brush.
The second story and the one
that made Earl decide to go back to Missouri happened later in the fall of that
year. He and Homer were living in a garage behind a house in town. One night
when they came home they found that the garage was fully riddled with bullet
holes.
Homer was killed in a shootout
with the local Sheriff.
Homer is buried Herrin City
Cemetery, Herrin, Williamson County, Illinois, USA. He was survived by his
wife, Mary E Harris Warren. She later married Clarence Rippy and moved to
Flint, Michigan. Homer was preceded in death by his son, Willie Hoffer Warren
(1917-1919).
Williamson County where Homer
met his death had a bloody history.
The Carterville Mine Riots of 1899
In 1889, Samuel T. Brush
started up a mining operation north of Carterville, Illinois called the St.
Louis and Big Muddy Coal Company. Brush decided to break the Union and brought
in scab laborers. To make the matter worse these laborers were African American
from outside the County. On September 17, 1899, a group of black miners from
Brush’s mine left his mine property and went downtown to the train station.
This was the opportunity that the union workers had been waiting for since they
already had a wagon full of guns and ammunition prepared for the event.
Before the black miners could
reach their destination they were confronted with the union workers and a
gunfight ensued. In the end, several non-union workers were killed and several
were wounded with no casualties on the union side. The union men responsible
were rounded up, arrested, and jailed. After three days, all were released and
no convictions were ever filed.
The Herrin Massacre
In 1922 William J. Lester began
developing a mining operation called the Southern Illinois Coal Company. Lester
had a plan, his mine would be a strip mine operation, unique for that time, and
instead of making the mistake that Brush made by using black workers, he would
use non-union white workers.
On June 21, 1922 the mine was
attacked along with the convoy that ferried
the scab workers to and from the mine.
On the next morning, June 22,
1922, Sheriff Thaxton, headed for the mine. When he arrived, the mine was a
virtual mob scene. Everything had either been burned or dynamited or was in the
process of being destroyed or plundered.
The remaining 46 scab workers
were marched through the woods to Coal Belt Electric Line’s power house where
the attackers opened fire on them, killing or wounding 20 of them.
Twenty one people were killed
in twenty four hours and three would die later from complications.
The KKK in Williamson County
Williamson County had become a
fertile field for establishment and growth of the Ku Klux Klan. The area was
predominantly fundamentalist Protestant and fervently patriotic, and these
factors contributed to prejudices and intolerance. They also contributed to
fanatical support of Prohibition laws.
Herrin had a ready-made scapegoat in its Italian miner community, as
these people were “foreigners,” Catholic, and “habituated to wine”; many of
them had become bootleggers after passage of the Volstead Act.
The local Sheriff George
Galligan was not strictly enforcing Prohibition, and the Williamson County Law
Enforcement League, organized to help stamp out bootlegging and gambling, had
condemned him, publicly announcing that other means would have to be found to
enforce the law. Many citizens believed that the Klan offered a way to clean up
Williamson County and redeem it from its shame.
On January 24, 1925, Deputy
Sheriff Ora Thomas confronted S. Glenn Young in the Canarg Cigar Store that was
located in the European Hotel. The meeting of these two enemies ended in a
gunfight that left Thomas, Young, Homer and another Klansman dead.
On January 27, the coroner’s
inquest covering the Young-Thomas shootout, decided that Young and Thomas had
killed each other and that the other two men were killed by parties unknown.
http://www.mihp.org/2013/05/bloody-williamsons-history-of-mine-massacres/
http://www.mihp.org/2013/09/the-ku-klux-klan-in-williamson-county-part-two/
Remember
Great Gramma’s humming bird –
And the
honeysuckle vine.
And how we’d
love to sit and watch,
In the good
ole summertime.
Those days
are gone but not forgot –
We’ll
remember through the years.
And those
lovely, joyous memories,
Will wipe away
our tears.
Gaylia
Kenslow – Stogsdill
Copyright Roy Richard
I have been
blessed with another poet in my life; allow me to introduce you to Gaylia
Kenslow – Stogsdill, my mother in-law. She was a great woman with a kind and
loving heart. Always willing to help out and take care of business.
She was born
in Lanton, Missouri in 1931. The only child of Eulis Kenslow and Minnie
(Eldringhoff) Kenslow. Lanton wasn’t much more than a Post Office and a General
Store. They farmed and raised cattle for a living. The local one room school
was staffed by one of her aunts. She later graduated from West Plains High
School, home of the Zizzers.
Gail wrote poetry to honor a special event or person and to celebrate holidays. Her wit and wisdom is missed greatly.
She passed in 2015 and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in
Flint, Michigan.
She lies in
state, the one we love,
Arrayed like
Queens of old.
The dear,
familiar form of grace,
Lies draped
in purple and old lace,
And dim old gold.
The wary
hands are idle now,
Their work
of love is o’er,
The smile of
cheer made heaven here,
Is ours no more
The little Mother
that we loved,
Her earthly
race is run,
The deeds of
love she lavished here,
The smile
for all, the anxious tear,
Are done.
But out
beyond where she has gone,
No pain, no
tears, are there,
With loved
ones gone before, she waits,
Nor sighs to
pass the pearly gates,
And we shall
see her some dear day,
More fair.
Katherine
Carey-Place 1878-1934
Copyright
Roy Richard
“Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.” - George Eliot
I have poems written by my Great -great Aunt Katherine that need to be shared. I want to keep her memory alive and even though I never knew her I heard enough about her to know that she was a remarkable woman. So first let me introduce you to my Aunt Kate.
Katherine was my maternal grandmother’s aunt. She never had children and took a liking to my grandmother Grace. She was born to Benjamin Parker Carey and Jane (Scutt) Carey in February 1878 in Pennsylvania. Aunt Kate was prolific poet.
Her first husband, 37 years her senior, was William Emmett
Kirby, a Union Civil War Veteran and successful businessman. The exact date of the marriage is
not known but according to census records she was still living with her mother
in 1900. He had one daughter from a previous marriage. He died on August 7, 1907
in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. His will left everything to his daughter.
She returned to live with her mother until June 30, 1915
when she remarried. Judson J Place. 22 years her senior became the love of her
life. They were married in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.
Much of their time was spent in Daytona Beach, Florida and I
like to imagine the two of them led a Great Gatsby life style. Full of parties,
friends and maybe even few scandals.
Sadly Judson passed away in 1932 at Daytona Beach, Volusia
County, Florida and is buried there.
I haven’t much information about Aunt Kate after this other than she moved back to their home in Pennsylvania. She passed on April 21, 1934 and is buried at Valley View Memorial Park, 1162 Lakeland Drive, Scott Township, Jermyn, Pennsylvania 18433. (Block 800 / Section S / Lot 3 / Space 4)
Katherine Carey-Place 1878-1934
Copyright Roy Richard
You are one of my greatest creations
My longing is to declare that
But that wouldn’t be correct
It just isn’t true
For everything you have come to be is
a consequence of you
You are the Master Craftsman and
Inventor of your life
You have chosen from the ingredients presented
Using no blueprint
Following no recipe
Fabricated them into this amazing
being
My hope is that
My influence
My Love
My example
Were worthy of that choice
I know that you will continue in this
path
Becoming even greater
Making a difference
Influencing others
Standing strong
My pride bubbles over
My tears flow freely
Now go conquer
Face the world
Taking my love along the way
Roy Richard (Coot)
June 2022
Written for my granddaughter's (Caitlin) High School graduation
Copyright Roy Richard
