Excited to announce that I've been added to another online collective of history bloggers! In addition to the lovely HerStory Club, you can now find MarkerQuest at the History Creatives Hub. There's a wide variety of historical subjects being offered by the members of this group, so be sure to take a good look around and see what catches your eye. If you're interested in starting a historical blog of your own, the site owner has some very useful information and suggestions to help you get started.
Moving on to today's quest, we're going to have a look at a significant figure in the fight for workers' rights in the early 20th century. This one took me a while to write, because there was a lot of information for me to absorb and distill about this dedicated woman.
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| The marker stands in Wilkes-Barre's Public Square, near the intersection with East Market Square |
In the 1940s, Min and Bill both became involved with the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), whose major problem was organized crime. Mob bosses had tight control over various areas and industries. Min had already experienced this firsthand - in New York, her brother Will was murdered by mobsters while trying to help workers in the Garment District unionize. She knew the dangers, and she knew the personal pain the fight could bring. She decided to fight anyway.
In 1944, Min and Bill headed into northeastern Pennsylvania, where the waning coal mining industry had led to increasing poverty. Non-union garment factories were springing up and providing low wages to the desperate women of mining families, who would be forced to work long hours to supplement the household budget and had no means to speak up for themselves. This situation, in turn, led New York mobsters to extend their reach past the state line and use the hardworking people in our coal region as a legitimate front for their underworld activities. Min and Bill were sent by the ILGWU to help the laborers organize, in order to fight back.
To say this was a challenge would be an understatement. The women were initially distrustful of Min, being an 'outsider' with radical ideas. The women themselves were also somewhat beaten down by the patriarchal attitudes of the time and area; even as they started to take an interest in what she was saying and agree to help her form the union, some of them were not sufficiently independent and found themselves forced out of picket lines by their irate husbands or fathers. But the women were gradually won over by Min, due to her engaging personality and skill as a speaker, and also due to her personal experience with loss. In the words of Minnie Caputo, who worked alongside Min in Pittston, "If we didn't have someone like Min Matheson with us, I believe we would have given up because she was so strong and she was down there with us."
A particular thorn in Min's side was the ballot box; although women had the right to vote, the mobsters had managed to gain a grip on the polls, and married women were often forced to wait outside and allow their husbands to vote in their names. This was one of the biggest issues she sought to tackle. She did this through a repeated speech which she called her "little lecture on democracy," in which she explained to women that while they had the right to vote, it was meaningless if they didn't use that right, and they had a responsibility to fight for justice for themselves. Through her tireless efforts to remove the ballot box from the grip of the mobsters, as well as to help the ILGWU take back the garment industry through events like the 1958 Dress Strike, Min began to bring massive changes to the Wyoming Valley.
For a really good look at the whole mob-controlled election thing, Martin Scorsese's 2019 film The Irishman is about Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), an associate of Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci); Bufalino was the mobster controlling the electoral process in the coal region. The film isn't a full-on documentary or anything, but it contains a lot of accurate elements.
By the late 1950s, Min's efforts were resulting in sweeping changes. The ILGWU's Northeast District had over 11,000 members and more than 250 union factories. Women were running union meetings and attending them in droves. The organization encouraged them to be leaders in their workplaces, serve on school boards, and - of course - vote. They created educational and recreational programs, including a mobile health care program which Min herself designed to aid the more remote members of the community. In 1960, she was one of 26 individuals appointed to the Advisory Committee on Working Conditions for Women and Minors in Pennsylvania, under the direction of the state's Secretary of Labor and Industry.
Min and Bill stepped down from the ILGWU in 1963, at which time they were honored with a "Friends of Min and Bill Farewell Dinner" in the gymnasium at Wilkes College. The people thanked them both for being tireless community leaders and bringing much-needed improvements to life in the Wyoming Valley. They kept busy, however; in 1972, Hurricane Agnes brought devastating flood waters to the region, and Min's response was to found and chair the Flood Victims Action Council. In this capacity, she brought national attention to the situation; for this relief effort, as well as the rest of her body of work, she was given a Humanitarian Award by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Public Employees AFSCME District Council 87 in 1973. Later, in 1977, a public testimonial was given to her, and Congressman Daniel Flood (who has his own historical marker in Public Square, just a few feet away from Min's) said it was "long overdue" because she had dedicated "her entire life to helping people." Min campaigned on Flood's behalf, and he considered her one of his "dearest and oldest supporters".
Bill Matheson died in 1983; Min kept on for almost another decade before following him in 1992. They left behind two daughters, six grandchildren, and an incredible and unique legacy.
Sources and Further Reading:
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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