Earlier this month, my parents sold their house on School Street in the Grassy Island Heights section of Olyphant, PA. They purchased this house when I was an infant, and lived there over fifty years. We estimate that the house was built in the 1890s. Before they purchased the house, it had been in the Winstone family.
During the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, James Winstone, his wife, and two sons lived in the house. Winstone owned the house next door as well. His daughter, and son-in-law, S.J. Lewis lived there. Winstone had once held office in the union, but during the strike, he and his son-in-law were not union members. They routinely went through their backyards, across what is now Lemko Street to go to the Grassy Island Colliery.
According to the September 26, 1902 issue of the New York Times, on September 25, while Winstone (spelled "Winston" in article) and Lewis were on their way to work, they were met by three Hungarians. The three beat Winston and Lewis with clubs. Winstone, who was 48 years old at the time, died from his injuries; Lewis survived. The three murders were later apprehended in Hoboken, NJ.
<http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=950CE6DF1E3DEE32A25755C2A96F9C946397D6CF>
Later in 1902, the famous journalist, Ray Stannard Baker, visited the Winstone home to gather information in order to write an article for McClure’s Magazine. The article entitled “The Right to Work: The Story of the Non-Striking Miners” was published in the January 1903 issue.
<moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/documents/Right%20to%20work.pdf>
In the writing style of the day, he did not mention the first names of the women. This article provided more details about this terrible tragedy. I took note of the following sentence, “James Winstone lived in a neighborhood known as Grassy Island, of which he was the foremost citizen, having by far the best home.”
-Updated March 2, 2020
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