![\"\"](\"http:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/pullman-strike.jpg\" "\\"pullman")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe strike became a national issue.\u00a0 Unable to resolve the labor dispute President Grover Cleveland declared the strike a federal crime and sent troops to disband the strike.<\/p>\n Eventually the workers were overpowered and forced to sign a pledge never to unionize again.\u00a0 Eugene Debs, defended by Clarence Darrow, saw the charge of obstructing the mail dropped, but spent six months in prison for violating a federal injunction.\u00a0 He continued to organize. When he ran for President in 1920 on a Socialist ticket he won a million votes.<\/p>\n Labor had long pressed Congress for a Labor Day holiday.\u00a0 The bill was passed by both houses and hit Cleveland’s desk six days after the end of the strike.\u00a0 The bill was signed into law as a means of appeasing the labor movement.\u00a0\u00a0 The new holiday was seen by labor not just as a holiday, but as a day for organizing.<\/p>\n Today we see Labor Day as the holiday that marks the end of summer.\u00a0 Kids go back to school, parents breathe a sigh of relief, we grill things and try not to think about cold weather and heating bills.<\/p>\n Of course, genealogists think about their ancestors and I am no exception.\u00a0 Here are some of our great-grandparents, grandparents, parents and their labors.<\/p>\n Samuel Bublick opened a candy store, what we might consider a convenience store in New York City.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joseph Mason worked as a leather cutter making ladies handbags.\u00a0 He was a wiry little man with arms of steel.<\/p>\n Morris Silverman was a capmaker in New York City.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n His son Alex would organize for the capmakers union.<\/p>\n Alex’s son, Stanley would work for the Signal Corp and then as a salesman.\u00a0 He would be a union steward.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I am Stanley’s daughter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n John and Annie Costello homesteaded a farm in Sprague, Washington.<\/p>\n James and Sophie Cole homesteaded a farm in Primrose, Nebraska.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Their son Edwin would cook in a lumber camp, pour cement for the WPA and work as a janitor in a hotel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Edwin’s son Merwin would become a union organizer, a carpenter and a contractor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My husband is Merwin’s son<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stanley’s daughter and Merwin’s son got to go to college and now work at jobs that leave them trying to figure out how to get enough exercise. Wow!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On this holiday we celebrate the American worker and his or her contribution to our American life, but the holiday was actually born as a way to appease workers after a brutal crackdown on the workers and the union during …<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>