You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Sunday April 26, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado - Strikers and Families Gather to Bury Their Women and Children
The death wail of the Mexican women, and the sobbing of Italian, Slavic, and American women was said to be enough to shake the composure of the bravest miner as mourners gathered on Friday for an open-air service to honor fourteen of the those who died at Ludlow last Monday. Thirteen coffins held the remains of the women and children who died as militiamen set fire to the tent beneath which they were huddled. The fourteenth held the remains of striking miner, Charlie Costa, who died defending the colony as his wife and children sought shelter in the ill-fated pit.
Among the 1500 who gathered together in front of Holy Trinity Catholic Church were Pedro Valdez who lost his wife and four children, Mary Petrucci and her husband who lost all three of their little children, and Alcarita Pedregone and her husband who lost their two children.
The family and friends of the Costa family also gathered. There was present the elderly father of Charlie Costa who blames the militia in no uncertain terms for the death of his son, his daughter-in-law and his two little grandchildren. Mary Thomas, now a refugee along with her two little daughters, stood sick with grief and remembering the last time she had morning coffee with her friend, Cedi Costa. Cedi, Mary, and their friend Margo Gorci watched the children play on that happy Easter Day, never dreaming that the next day the entire Costa family would gone.
The bells of Holy Trinity Catholic Church were ringing as two large horse-drawn wagons brought the the fourteen coffins to the service. Teamsters, in high silk hats and long black coats, provided an escort. The coffins were covered in flowers, eleven small white ones for the children and three dark wooden ones for Patria Valdez and Cedi and Charlie Costa. In the coffin with Cedi Costa was the body of the tiniest martyr, born post-mortem and laid to rest upon the cold breast of its mother.
WE NEVER FORGET
Charlie Costa-31
Cedi Costa-27
Onofrio Costa-6
Lucia Costa-4
Patria Valdez-37
Rudolph Valdez-9
Eulalia Valdez-8
Mary Valdez-7
Elvira Valdez-3 months
Joe Petrucci-4
Lucy Petrucci-2
Frank Petrucci-6 months
Rodgerlo Pedregone-6
Cloriva Pedregone-4
The mourners marched to the Catholic Cemetery in silence with the body of Louis Tikas leading the way. His remains were returned to the undertakers to await the arrival of a Greek Orthodox priest. Thousands are expected to turn out for his funeral on Monday.
A tentative truce had been declared for the funeral, but by evening that truce was no more. The Coal War continues to rage across the strike zone. Miners pick up their rifles and shout, "Remember Ludlow," as they march off to join the battle, never forgetting the men, women and children who lost their lives in Freedom's Cause.
We meet today in Freedom's Cause
And raise our voices high.
We'll join our hands in Union strong
To battle or to die.
Hold the Fort for we are coming
Union men be strong,
Side by side we battle onward,
Victory will come.
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SOURCES
Out of the Depths
The Story of John R. Lawson, a Labor Leader
-by Barron B. Beshoar
(1st ed 1942)
CO, 1980
Blood Passion
The Ludlow Massacre and Class War
in the American West
-by Scott Martelle
Rutgers U Press, 2008
Those Damn Foreigners
-by Mary T. O'Neal
Minerva Book, USA
Buried Unsung
Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre
-by Zeese Papanikolas
U of Utah Press, 1982
The Cincinnati Enquirer
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
- of Apr 25, 1914
Photo:
1). Ludlow Massacre, Funeral of Women and Children
http://en.academic.ru/...
2). Ludlow Massacre, White Coffins
http://www.du.edu/...
3). Armed Strikes Prepare for Battle
http://www.du.edu/...
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Saturday April 26, 2014
On Pinning Down the Exact Day and Date of the Funerals
Martelle gives Saturday as the day of the funeral of the 13 victims of the fire at Ludlow, and states that there was one man who was also buried with them that day. Papanikolas gives April 25th as the date of the funeral and burial of the women children. Beshoar does not state a specific day nor date, but states that their funerals followed that of Rubino's on Thursday. (Other sources state that the funeral and burial of Fyler, Larese, and Rubino, took place on Friday.)
Newspaper accounts give Friday, April 24th, as the date of the funeral and burial of 14 victims of the Ludlow fire. There were 13 who died in the fire at Ludlow, the other person buried that day would most likely be Charlie Costa, the husband and father of one of the women who died in the fire along with their two children:
HUNDREDS ATTEND FUNERAL
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Of Ludlow Victims-Father Denounces Militia Over Son's Bier.
----------
Trinidad, Colo., April 24-Fifteen hundred men, women and children crowded in front of the Holy Trinity Church today while open-air funeral services were held for 14 victims of the Ludlow fire. Two heavy trucks draped in black conveyed the flower-laden caskets from the morgue to the church and Catholic cemetery.
The aged father of Charles Costa, who with his wife and two children, was killed last Monday, created a demonstration at the morgue by a violent verbal attack on the Colorado militia. Separate services will be held for Louis Tikas, leader of the Greek strikers who was killed.
SOURCE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
- of Apr 25, 1914
There are other newspaper sources which give the day and date of the funeral of 14 victims of the Ludlow Massacre as Friday, April 24th, mentioning the women and children, and with the same story about the father of Charlie Costa. More research is need, and I suggest the newspapers of Trinidad and Denver as the place to start. The newspaper service that I use does not carry those papers for 1914. I will soon be using a new computer which will, hopefully, be able to handle the viewer of a the larger newspaper service without crashing.
See also:
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-of Apr 25, 1914
http://select.nytimes.com/...
The byline is "Trinidad, Colo., April 24." The article ends word-for-word as the two paragraphs above: "Fifteen hundred..crowded..today while open-air services were held for 14 victims of the Ludlow fire...."
Using the books noted above along with these newspaper sources, I have concluded (at least for now) that the "14 victims of the Ludlow fire" included the two women and
eleven children from the Black Hole of Ludlow, as well as Charlie Costa, the husband of Cedi Costa and the father of Onofrio and Lucia Costa. Charlie Costa died defending the Ludlow Tent Colony as his wife and children took shelter in a pit dug beneath the maternity tent. Witnesses stated that he died singing "The Battle Cry of Union."
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In Paradisum - Catholic Requiem Mass Hymns
In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te
martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem.
Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere
æternam habeas requiem.
May angels lead you into paradise; upon your arrival, may the
martyrs receive you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem.
May the ranks of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, the poor man,
may you have eternal rest.