Timeline of the Haymarket Martyrs monument

Timeline of the Haymarket Martyrs Monument

                                                            Draft                                              

1873

A new secular German cemetery, Waldheim Cemetery, is formally dedicated on August 17. Purchased from Ferdinand Haas by a group of German lodges and benevolent orders, the new cemetery is praised as a place where the speech of a brother is valued as much as a sermon. The Chicago Daily Tribune account of the story notes that “it is hardly necessary to add that there will be no church nor chapel on the premises.”

1886

On May 4, a bomb is thrown during a labor demonstration in Haymarket Square. The impact on labor and working people and their history is immeasurable. Eight men, active in anarchist and labor activities, are arrested, tried, and found guilty of conspiracy in one of the country’s biggest judicial travesties. The men, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg, Samuel Fielding, Michael Schwab, and George Engel are sentenced to death. Oscar Neebe is sentenced to 15 years. In 1887, Fielding and Schwab request and receive clemency to life sentences. 

1887

Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel are hanged on November 11. Louis Lingg was killed the night before by dynamite and it is ruled a suicide. 

The funeral on November 13 is probably the largest ever seen in Chicago. There is a parade to gather the bodies at their family homes, followed by a railroad procession to Waldheim Cemetery where an elaborate ceremony is held. The bodies are then temporarily placed in the stone and iron receiving vault at the entrance to the cemetery. Grave robbers attempt to break into the vault on November 17 to steal August Spies’ body. They had obtained keys to the receiving vault, but flee when they see that the vault is guarded.

Throughout the last two weeks of November, there is much discussion among the Defense Committee, the Amnesty Association, and also management at Waldheim Cemetery. Waldheim’s board is very reluctant to accept the martyrs’ bodies. They pass a resolution restricting anyone executed by the state from being buried there unless they or a blood relative already owned a lot before sentenced. They are determined to prohibit future ceremonies or demonstrations at the grave.

(Later, in 1898, the Oak Park Vindicator publishes an “interesting” story about the cemetery selection saying that the owner of Forest Home Cemetery had heard that the anarchists’ committee was interested in Forest Home for the burial. He hurried to the cemetery, locked the entrance gate, and hid for the rest of the day. The anarchists’ committee came by, found Forest Home locked, and therefore proceeded to Waldheim. They were refused admission at Waldheim, but the brother of one of the executed men had a plot there and demanded the right to bury whomever he wanted.)

The monument to the executed men begins to be discussed by the Defense Committee and the Amnesty Association. Their subcommittee visits Waldheim to look at lots. From the beginning, their intent is to erect a monument surrounded by the graves of sympathizers. The subcommittee considers buying an entire section of the cemetery to be used as a labor burial ground, but that is beyond their means. It is reported that they end up purchasing 8 lots in Block N in Waldheim Cemetery: 868, 869, 870, 949, 950, 951, 952, and 953. Lots are purchased by the Defense Committee in the names of Frank Stauber, Henry Linnemeyer, and Max Oppenheimer. 

The Pioneer Aid and Support Association is formed on December 15 to provide for the families of the executed men. The Alarm reports that it was also called the Pioneer Aid and Relief Association, and the Chicago Pioneer Benefit and Aid Society.

On December 18, the men’s bodies are removed from the receiving vault at the cemetery, and they are permanently buried in one grave in Section N, Lot 869 at Waldheim. The grave is a wide excavation large enough for five coffins. Each man’s resting place is marked by his initials, and there is a shared headstone with medallions and the date.

1888

Concerns begin to arise about adequate money to support the families of the executed men. In January, the Anarchist Relief Committee meets. (This is a consolidation of the Defense Committee and the Pioneer Aid and Support Association.) There is some general discussion that the families of the executed men are all living comfortably. Lucy Parsons would like funds to publish books about the Haymarket tragedy and writings of her husband. Mrs. Engel wants to open a small store.

1889

The business-sponsored police statue is dedicated in Chicago on Memorial Day. The son of Mathias Degan, the first police officer killed by the bomb, unveils the statue.

1890

The title to the lots at Waldheim is transferred to Pioneer Aid and Support Association in April from Frank Stauber, Henry Linnemeyer, Max Oppenheimer, and Ernest Schmidt. The deed document includes lots 866, 867, and 789, and indicates that the lots are for the burial place of Spies, Parsons, Fischer, Engel, Fischer, and Lingg, and “for no other purpose, or burial of any other corpses.” 

Issues regarding the funds to support the families of the executed men continue to be discussed in the fall. There is strong concern that funds will run short, and the Central Labor Union files a protest before the Pioneer Aid and Support Association. The main areas of discussion are Lucy Parsons’ travel expenses, and also the fact that Mrs. Parsons has a boarder, Martin Lacher, who may be neglecting his children and sickly wife. In addition, there is some feeling expressed that Mrs. Spies’ five grown children should be able to support her. There are reports of physical altercations at some of the meetings.

Lulu Parsons, the 8-year-old daughter of Albert and Lucy Parsons, tragically dies of lymphadenoma on October 13. Initially she is buried very close to her father, but her body is later moved to Section D, Lot 84. This lot was purchased by Charles Rudolph in 1888, and is located on the far north side of the cemetery, now very close to the Eisenhower expressway.

1891

In May, a design contest for the monument is announced by the Pioneer Aid and Support Association. Prizes will be $100 for first place, $50 for second, and $25 for third. Requirements are that the drawing will be for a monument costing between $3,000 and $5,000, and that it must embody the principles and ideas of the men whose graves are marked by it. 

1892

Chicago Tribune reports on a secret meeting of the monument committee of Pioneer Aid and Support Association on January 17. Committee members Louis Vonbrook, Ernst Schmidt, M, Schmiedinger, Herr Kaune, and William Urban met at Greif's Hall and declared the winner of the monument design contest. Seventeen designs were submitted, mostly from the Chicago area but also from New York, Washington, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. 

First prize of $100 goes to Albert Weinert while Hans Herbst takes second with a prize of $50. Both men had been been in Chicago working on buildings and ornaments and for the World's Fair.

The winning design was inspired by Ferdinand Freiligraht's poem, Revolution and the Trib includes the inspirational passage:

And though ye caught your noble prey
   Within the hangman's sordid thrall;
And though your captive was led forth
   Beneath the city's rampart wall;
And though the grass lies o'er her green
   Where at the morning's early red
The peasant girl brings funeral wreaths--
   I tell you, still she is not dead.

The monument will be about sixteen feet high and twelve feet square at the pedestal. A description of the design is included, sounding very much like the monument is. One detail will not make it to the actual monument, although at least one newspaper will report that it did, presumably incorrectly, that lateral faces of the plinth will bear bronze medallion busts of the five dead anarchists.

Expected cost of the monument is $6-8,000, of which $3,500 has already been raised.

Albert Weinert, a German journeyman sculptor who has been working in Chicago on Columbian Exhibition buildings, wins the design contest in February. It is widely reported that his design is based on the poem Die Revolutione by Ferdinand Freiligrath. Weinert is also awarded the contract for erecting the monument, and it is announced that Troost Monument Company will do the stone work. At this point, it is reported that there are no plans for any cornerstone ceremonies. Images of the proposed monument are being sold at Greif’s saloon. 

The Chicago Daily Tribune reports in September that the foundation for the monument is being laid ten feet deeper than planned due to soft ground. The monument will weigh 45 tons, and the foundation is being built of concrete and stone.

A time capsule will be placed near the monument. Pioneer Aid and Support Association has asked 17 organizations to gather memorial statements to be immortalized in the foundation or cornerstone of the monument. Pioneer Aid minutes for October indicate that these memorials should be sent to the treasurer by the first of November.

In spite of rainy weather on November 6, thousands of people attend ceremonies at Waldheim where the cornerstone of the monument is laid. The time capsule, a lead-lined box containing trial documents, labor organization papers, photographs of the executed men, and other items is buried under the cornerstone. 

A bust of August Spies is included in the inventory list of the time capsule. (Death masks of the men had been made by artist Charles Hoffman, and they were used to produce plaster-of-paris busts of at least Spies and Lingg. The Spies bust was 28 inches high, and has an inscription along the shoulder that says “Born Lendek Germany, 1855. August Vincent Theo. Spies. Murdered Nov. 11, 1887.” The lower inscription says “Last words of Spies: There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.” Spies is sculpted with the marks of the noose visible, and wearing a “dress-coat and a turndown collar and a necktie in which is a horseshoe scarf-pin.”    Michael Schaack, in his opportunistic book, "Anarchy and Anarchists" indicated that Nina Van Zandt Spies owned a marble bust of Spies. ) 

The Chicago Morning News Record article covering the event includes a line drawing of two men lowering the iron receptacle into a hole in the ground. Michael Britzius, president of the Cigarmakers’ Union speaks to the intent of this time capsule: “When generations to come dig up these records and read them they will wonder that such barbarity could have been tolerated in the nineteenth century.”

1893

In April, work is continuing steadily on the monument. The bronze figure has been cast by American Bronze Company in Chicago, and has been examined and approved by the committee. The stone work is in route from New England.

The bronze statue is placed into position on its pedestal on May 17. The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that “Bas-reliefs of Spies, Parsons, Lingg, Engel, and Fischer gleam from the monument sides.” ??

On June 25, the Haymarket Martyrs Monument is publicly unveiled and dedicated in a large ceremony. Visitors from all over the world are in Chicago for the Columbian Exposition, and excursions have been organized from St. Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and other cities. 

Albert Parsons, Jr. draws the curtain to unveil the Monument. The sculptor, Albert Weinert, formally presents the statue to Pioneer Aid and Support Association.  Even mainstream newspapers consistently praise the artistry of the Monument, although there is usually a reference to the statue’s defiant attitude. An attractive iron fence surrounds the Monument and plot area.

The next day, June 26, recently elected Governor Peter Altgeld pardons the men. This act ends up ruining Altgeld’s career.

Dated July 8, an inventory list of items that had been included in the time capsule on November 6, 1892 is added to the last pages of the Pioneer Aid and Support Association minutes book.

1895

In November, Waldheim Cemetery officials forbid the annual parade and ceremony. There is discussion of moving the bodies elsewhere.

More discussion of disinterring the bodies continues into December. The idea of cremating the bodies and moving them to a location that allows demonstrations is popular, but not realistic financially and does not take place. 

Labor hero, Eugene V. Debs, visits the Monument – it’s his first stop after being released from jail in November for mail obstruction charges in the Pullman railroad strike.

1898

Emma Goldman is in Chicago in March and visits Michael Schwab in the hospital. She also goes to Waldheim to see the Monument.

Michael Schwab dies on June 29 from pulmonary problems incurred while in prison. He is cremated, and his ashes are buried next to the Monument in Lot 789.

1905
IWW is formed in Chicago, Delegates make a trip to Waldheim.

1907

A survey in April indicates that two lots at the Monument are not wholly owned by Pioneer Aid. Consequently, parcels of land not covered by their deed had been fenced in. The lots 866 and 789 are each several feet short. The survey document also indicates that the Monument is located on plots 950 and 951.

  

1916

Oscar Neebe dies on April 22. He is cremated and buried in Lot 952. 

1937
The 50th anniversary brings about many tributes.  A committee called the International Labor Defense oversees the celebration. Flowers and laurel wreaths will be offered for sale, and names of donors will be inscribed on a parchment scroll at the foot of the monument. Alaskan cannery workers endorse this.

On November 3, the Daily Worker in New York reports that "labor's most renowned prisoner", Tom Mooney, has sent a $10 contribution to the International Labor Defense for a wreath in his name to be placed at the Martyrs Monument in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Haymarket incident. Writing from San Quentin, Mooney compares his case of wrongful conviction based on labor activism to that of the executed men. The International Labor Defense consequently indicates that they will send $10 to the Mooney defense fund.

1942

On March 7, Lucy Parsons is killed in a fire at her home, along with her husband, George Markstall. The ashes of Lucy, George, and Albert, Jr. (who had died in 1917) are buried in lot 869. Lucy’s will left her home to the Pioneer Aid and Support Association, with the requirement that it never be sold, and that the rental income be used for maintenance of the Monument. Pioneer Aid and Support Association can not collect rents on owned property due to its tax-exempt status, but is allowed to sell the lot for $700. 

1945

Pioneer Aid and Support Association Board instructs their committee to paint the chains of the ornamental iron fence light gray, and the posts black. Earlier, in Edward Wagenknecht’s (1900-2004) memoir, Daughters of the Covenant, as a child he remembered the chains were painted red, black, and gold.

1946

Lucy Parson’s grave marker is unveiled next to the Monument on Memorial Day.

1947

Pioneer Aid and Support Association minutes discuss repairing the sidewalk around the Monument.

On October 28, 1947, the Daily Worker in New York published a letter to the editor from K. Briesemeister, president of Pioneer Aid and Support Association  in Chicago. Briesemeister wrote that the organization was getting smaller every year, and that the few members remaining are getting old and worry that their further activities will be of short duration. They are asking for contributions for a perpetual care fund of $10,000 to preserve and perpetuate the Haymarket Martyrs Monument as a landmark in the history of the American labor movement.

1953

Pioneer Aid and Support Association minutes show that the iron fence is deteriorating and the urns are cracked.

1956

New cement work is done around the Monument in March.

1968

On May 4, the police statue in Chicago is defaced with black paint.

In late 1968 or early 1969, Bill Garvey and other labor writers and educators gather at the Blackstone Hotel and share outrage that a union, the Teamsters, donated funds to help restore the police statue. Garvey is an inspirational leader in the group, and they are determined to build an advocacy group for labor history.

Waldheim and Forest Home cemeteries are sold to a developer, Lawrence Malanfant.

1969

Waldheim Cemetery merges with Forest Home Cemetery in February. Malanfant sections off some of the land and builds apartments.

On May 4, a street demonstration is held in Haymarket Square under the auspices of the Haymarket Workers Memorial Committee, led by Bill Garvey and hosted by Studs Terkel. This rally is so successful that the group decides to form an ongoing organization.

In June, Irving Abrams, as president of Pioneer Aid and Support Association, writes to the Haymarket Workers Memorial Committee indicating that Pioneer Aid is having difficulty maintaining the Monument. He knows that that HWMC is interested in having a labor monument placed in Haymarket Square, but asks them to consider taking up perpetual care of the Haymarket Martyrs Monument in Forest Home instead.

The charter meeting of the Illinois Labor History Society takes place on August 5 in attorney Joe Jacobs’ office. Twenty-five people sign that they attended.

1970

The Haymarket Square Workers Memorial Committee merges with ILHS in January.

ILHS incorporates as a not-for-profit organization on March 3.

ILHS minutes for April 16, show that Irving Abrams moves, and the motion carries, that “Pioneer Aid and Support Association be perpetuated to maintain the upkeep of the Haymarket Monument in Waldheim Cemetery.”

1971

On April 26, the deed to the Monument is transferred to ILHS by Irving Abrams, the sole survivor of Pioneer Aid and Support Association.

Chicago Daily News erroneously reports that ILHS had utilized its funds to clean the police statue. ILHS refutes this, and continues to recommend that the police statue be moved to Chicago police headquarters. 

A public ceremony is held on May 2 at the Monument, and the title is ceremonially turned over to the Illinois Labor History Society. The Monument has been cleaned and refurbished for the occasion.

1972

After numerous relocations due to vandalism and destruction, including a Weather Underground bombing, and after public complaints about the ongoing expense, the police statue is finally moved to Chicago police headquarters.

1980

Irving Abrams dies, and is buried in Lot 869. His wife, Esther, will join him in 1985.

1981

“Solidarity” graffiti in red and white paint appears on the Monument, linking it to Polish struggles for political freedom. 

1986

The centennial celebration program goes quite well, except for some disruption by anarchists.

1990

Forest Home Cemetery’s license to provide perpetual care is revoked. Owner Lawrence Malanfant had taken the perpetual care fund and invested in a Chicago building that was then foreclosed on. The court appoints a trustee to oversee the perpetual care fund.

1991

There is mortgage foreclosure on Forest Home Cemetery. The cemetery is sold to Lee Brukman. Brukman trades a $3 million mortgage for junk bonds that go into receivership.

1993

The Monument is rededicated in a June ceremony celebrating the centennial of the Altgeld pardon.

Lee Brukman sells the cemetery to Consolidated Investors Diversified Ltd, a company with only two shareholders: Carl Hunking and David Naranjo. Hunking and Naranjo are businessmen with many complicated deals and no available telephone number. Hunking uses an earlier $2.5 million debt to Brukman as the down payment.

1994

In December, the cemetery files for bankruptcy. (Interestingly, one of the creditors is American Wilbert Vaults, a company evolved from the original Haas family.) The cemetery is plundered after the cemetery fence is sold and security is eliminated.

Significant damage is done to the Monument. The bronze floral piece on the front and plaque on the rear are stolen, as is the large bronze tablet on the nearby Cigar Makers Grave. 

1995

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, famed Russian poet, visits the Monument in May. He is distressed about the damage.

1997

On February 18, the National Park Service officially classifies the Monument as a National Historic Landmark. This is particularly noteworthy because commemorative properties and grave sites are not normally designated as landmarks. The Monument is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

In August, the Autonomous Zone (A-Zone) - an anarchist group that was active in Chicago for about ten years - indicates interest in replacing the bronze plaque that was stolen in 1994.

1998

The Laborers and Cement Masons union lays a new concrete surround and walkway at the Monument.

On May 3, the National Historic Landmark marker is unveiled in a large ceremony at the Monument in Forest Home. The Monument has been cleaned and refurbished for the event. A number of anarchists, including members of the Autonomous Zone and the Louis Lingg Society, attend and anger is expressed over the fact that the ceremony includes government sponsorship, a Catholic benediction, and the song “America the Beautiful.” Some pushing and shoving takes place.

The Autonomous Zone indicates interest in replacing the bronze floral piece that was stolen in 1994.

2001

July minutes of ILHS indicate that the National Historic Landmark marker has been vandalized with a circled A.

2004

“New Forest Home Cemetery, LLC” with the added name of “Forest Home Cemetery” is filed with the Illinois Secretary of State. The agent is listed as John K. Kallman. 

2009

It is proposed that Andrzej Dajonowski of Conservation of Sculpture and Objects Studio (located next to Forest Home cemetery) be hired to restore the missing floral spray and clean the Monument. Dajonowski has been strongly recommended by the National Park Service and the Chicago Park District. There is also some discussion of recreating the ornamental iron fence around the lots.

2010

The ILHS Board accepts Andrzej Dajonowski’s bid to restore the bronze floral spray, and Mark Rogovin is listed as artistic consultant for the restoration project.

2011

The bronze spray is replaced, and the Monument is restored and rededicated on May 1.

2016

The Illinois Secretary of State’s corporation database indicates that “New Forest Home Cemetery, LLC”, as filed in 2004, is currently active in March. 

In October, Lake Forest College professor and urban archaeologist, Rebecca Graff, leads a dig on the south edge of the Monument, attempting to find the time capsule.