CENTRALIA, WA–As we study IWW history we come across the 1919 Centralia story, which is also called the Centralia Massacre or Conspiracy. We happen to have the 1987 book The Wobbly War: The Centralia Story by John McClelland Jr.
With the book in hand we head off to Centralia.
While driving into town the first thing one sees in downtown is the Sentinel statue. It was built in 1924 as a memorial to the four Legion Members killed. It is a looming figure that makes it feel as if they are still watching the town for anyone that is not anti-union.
Behind the Sentinel is the newly erected IWW memorial to all ten people who were charged with the murders.
One man was the lawyer, Elmer Smith. He would later be disbarred for his support of the Wobblies. He would conduct business out of what is now the Olympic Hotel. He has a small room dedicated to him with his portrait on the wall and his quotes from the book The Centralia Tragedy of 1919: Elmer Smith and the Wobblies by Tom Copeland.
In 1932 Smith died. He is buried in Mountain View Cemetery along with his Fellow Workers O.C Bland, John Lamb, and James McInerney.
James McInerney is buried not far from Elmer Smith. He died in Prison in 1930 at 46 years old of Spinal Meningitis which was caused by tuberculosis. Since Elmer knew he had no kin outside of Ireland he is buried at Mountain View cemetery.
When McInerney was buried it was decided to finally mark Wesley Everest’s grave. By the late 1930s Wesley had his marker on his tombstone.
The book has a map that shows the path Everest took as he fled from the Hall. We follow that path.
After the Legionaires raided the hall and the shooting broke out, Everest ran out the back and down the alleyway all the way down to the Skookumchuck River, where he was apprehended.
Based on the map we believe this is close to the spot where he was apprehended. The bridge was not built until the 1920s.
And Everest said to the men while he was being apprehend and dragged to jail, “I fought for democracy in France and I’m going to fight for it here.” He was taken to the jail, beaten and bloody, where he laid there for hours.
We believe the old jail that held the Wobblies is still a part of the current jail built in the 1920s. They just built around it. So we believe this is the ally where they loaded Everest’s body to and from the police station.
Then they took him to the bridge over the Chehalis River where he told the Legionnaires that they don’t have the guts to hang him. (This bridge was built in the 1950s.) This bridge is currently the Mellen street bridge.
O.C. Bland died in 1938 who was followed by his wife a decade later and they are buried together.
John Lamb, whose son Dewey witnessed the doctor involved in the Lynching (Dr. Livingstone) yell many years later, “get those IWW’s off of me!” before dying in the hospital, is also buried there alongside his wife.
Britt Smith and Loren Roberts are also buried in the Centralia area. But it is a cold early February day so we have to hold off for warmer weather.
The last Centralia man was Loren Roberts who died in 1976. The rest are scattered not only in Washington but in other parts of America.
History is there for us to see it. If we know where to look and who to ask, and with that knowledge we can push for change like we did in 1919.
Eugene Barnett got letters on how Wesley Everest’s Martyrdom inspired other unions to fight for their rights as they were inspired to fight back. And now, more than ever we need that fighting spirit.