Debbie's Ancestral Roots

After Taos we moved to Walsenburg, CO to visit the town where Deb's mothers relatives lived long ago. Her grandfather Joe Giro was the son of a Czech coal miner (oh, coal mining was a big time industry in Walsenburg back in the early 1900's) and her grandmother's family, the Cory's, ran a mercantile selling supplies to the miner's families...at least to the ones who didn't work for script and company stores for the big mining companies.

We stayed at Lathrop State Park, the oldest State park in CO, which was a beautiful park in the hills with a couple of lakes right next to town. We spent a day touring town, stopping by the Huerfano Heritage Center and visiting some of the local businesses.

While at the Heritage Center we met John a very knowledgeable man who lived in Walsenburg all his life. One of the best heritage center's we've seen with original newspapers from the early 1900's neatly arranged and organized by date and in boxes. From this research we found the cemetery where Debbie's great grandfather and grand mother were buried. With no actual gravesite location we headed out to St. Mary's Cemetery south of town and by God, we found it! Cruised thru the whole cemetery for about 30 minutes and voila.

South of Walsenburg towards Trinidad, CO is an abandoned little town called Ludlow, CO scene of the early century Ludlow Massacre.

In early 1900 the coal miners surrounding Walsenburg went on strike, one of the earliest labor strikes in the Nation. The company mines threw the miners and their families out of the company camps so they moved south to Ludlow and set up a tent city.

Debbie at the Ludlow Memorial...

After months of standoff the State sent in a militia (made up mostly of Mine Company goons) and murdered 20 of them including 17 women and children.....women and children...bastards!

In the end the miners got nothing but this did get the attention of the Federal government and other Labor organizers across the country and the labor union movement got it's start. Very sad history for sure.

I'll sign off for now, more later.

Deb and Howard






Comments

  1. DreaminMay 4, 2021 at 7:09 AM

    ❤️

    ReplyDelete
  2. NIAMay 7, 2021 at 9:36 AM

    These stories are what continue to remind us not to take current work conditions for granted. It was always a lot harder than it is today. For all the times I curse OSHA in a day for making a job harder, it really is worth it.

    Can't believe you guys found the tombstones! what luck.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMay 29, 2021 at 6:38 AM

    https://youtu.be/Ive6jmd4OKw

    Awesome history! Here's Woody's tribute. Diesel, you put me there better than the people's troubador himself! "This Lazy Daze kills Fascists!"

    So cool you pulled original sources to find the tombstones. What a great time to see our history and reflect. To the ramblers and the gamblers, the couple that don't need no handlers, keep those wheels committed to those white lines on the freeway!

    ReplyDelete

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