Coxey’s Army

Chapter XXVIII

     It was April 1894.  Our nation was in the throes of panic, dissatisfaction and unrest.  Dry weather and poor crops had added to the financial distress.

     A labor leader, James L. Coxey of Massilon, Ohio, sent out a nationwide call to the unemployed to join him in a march on Washington to demand relief.  Segments started from all points of the country with the aim of joining somewhere in the east in one army, which later became known as Coxey’s Army.

     One segment passed through Lucas County.  The main segment of which this one was a part, passed through the state on what is now highway 80 and was known as Kelly’s Army because it was led by “General!” Charles T. Kelly a former Salvation Army officer.

     They had started from San Francisco on Easter Sunday.  A few citizens remember this bit of history and have asked this writer to record it.

     Mrs. Lloyd May of the Russell community said: “This is a part of our heritage that I think should be preserved.  I was a very little girl, visiting my aunt, Mrs. Will Prather, who lived on the “State Road” – now Highway 34.

     I remember seeing the whole road full of men, poorly dressed and footsore.  We were afraid of them.  Everyone was.  They stopped at farm houses by twos and asked for food.  Everyone fed them well so they would move on.

     Mrs. L.M. Baughman of Indianola, formerly of the erstwhile town of LaGrange, writes: I was six years old and it was with tears in my eyes that I first saw “Coxey’s Army”.  Our house was about a block from the road and my father wanted to go up and see them.  I was afraid they would ‘get’ him and I cried and cried and begged him not to go.  I can’t remember whether he went or not”.

     Mrs. Olive Kimler of Russell remembers that the army camped west of Chariton.  “Father hitched the horses to the wagon and took us all up to see them,” she said.  “There were so many of them and they were so ragged and their shoes were badly worn.  Some were barefooted.”

     Mrs. Archie Beals was a little girl in the Victory school situated on the highway.  The teacher was Anna Gardner who later married Fred Post.  They were the parents of Ruth Post and Dorothy, wife of Rev. Richard Russell.

     “We knew the army was coming.  We were dismissed and we all gathered out in front of the school house to watch them go by,” Mrs. Beals recalled.

     The main segment that had started from San Francisco included the brilliant, and handsome 19-year old ‘hobo’ Jack London.

     He kept a careful day-to-day diary of the trip as he jumped freight cars, rode in cattle cars, slept in freight yards and relished the rugged experiences of 2,000 footsore “marchers”.

     He cared nothing for the cause or the outcome of the project but yearned for the adventure, which yielded material for his famous “Jack London” stories that later made him one of the all-time greats of American authors.

     The various segments did eventually meet and a few of them went on but not were absorbed somewhere along the way.  Very few of them reached St. Louis.

     Coxey himself in due time encamped his little army on the east plaza of the National Capital and was jailed for destroying the lawn.

     Kelly arrived in August with just a handful of followers only to find Coxey in jail.  Discouraged, they disbanded and the government shipped them all home.

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