Polish Catholic Immigrant Workers, Politics, and Culture in Wheeling, West Virginia, 1890-1930
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Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2014 Saints, Sinners, and Socialists on the Southside: Polish Catholic Immigrant Workers, Politics, and Culture in Wheeling, West Virginia, 1890-1930 William Hal Gorby West Virginia University Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Gorby, William Hal, "Saints, Sinners, and Socialists on the Southside: Polish Catholic Immigrant Workers, Politics, and Culture in Wheeling, West Virginia, 1890-1930" (2014). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 252. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/252 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. 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Saints, Sinners, and Socialists on the Southside: Polish Catholic Immigrant Workers, Politics, and Culture in Wheeling, West Virginia, 1890-1930 By William Hal Gorby Thesis submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in History Ken Fones-Wolf, Ph.D., Chair Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, Ph.D. Robert Blobaum, Ph.D. James Siekmeier, Ph.D. Louis Martin, Ph.D. Department of History Morgantown, West Virginia 2014 Keywords: Wheeling, Ohio County, Poles, working class, Catholicism, Wheeling Steel, St. Ladislaus Parish, Fr. Emil Musial, Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, Upper Ohio Valley, Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly, World War I, Benwood Copyright© 2014 William Hal Gorby ABSTRACT Saints, Sinners, and Socialists on the Southside: Polish Catholic Immigrant Workers, Politics, and Culture in Wheeling, West Virginia, 1890-1930 William Hal Gorby In the years after the Civil War, Wheeling, West Virginia developed into a major manufacturing center in the Northern Panhandle. Until 1885, Wheeling was the state capital of West Virginia and was the center of cut nail production in America. The city already possessed a large population of Irish and German immigrants. However, with the decline of the nail industry and the transition to steel manufacturing in the Upper Ohio Valley, by the 1890’s, Wheeling attracted many immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. These immigrants took their places at the bottom of the industrial hierarchy and were relegated to the most menial unskilled jobs in the steel mills, coal mines, tobacco works, and glass factories of the Wheeling District. These “new immigrants,” especially the Poles, left a world where it was becoming difficult to persist on the land. Poles began looking across the continent for higher wages. Making seasonal labor trips to the industrial core areas of Western Germany and the factories around growing cities like Warsaw and Lublin, Polish peasants also embarked more permanently to America. While settling in many of the United States’ largest cities, a sizable number arrived in Wheeling. Here they lived in the heart of the city’s factory district, and after 1900 also the center of the vice district. Often neglected and despised by city leaders and even the local labor movement, Poles were left to create their own life in Wheeling. Arriving in Wheeling, Polish peasants had to form a self-sustaining ethnic community if they were going to survive. This was difficult since Polish immigrants were divided by ethnic and regional differences. By 1900, Wheeling’s Polish immigrants began to form their community through the grass roots efforts of an active laity and their young priest Father Emil Musial. They built the parish of St. Ladislaus in the heart of South Wheeling. Ethnic community formation allowed for the creation of popular ethnic spaces, cultural events, and a strong Polish Catholic education. Through a mixture of religious piety and cultural nationalism, the community’s parish, social halls, and homes allowed the Poles to develop a distinct identity, promoted a strong family economy, while still living amidst a mixture of other immigrant groups. World War I and the subsequent decade were vital for the community. While supporting the American war effort offered proof of the Poles’ own loyalty in the minds of the native born majority, the post-war strikes in the local steel industry led to much animosity and surveillance of the Polish community. However, the era witnessed the beginnings of the Poles working with other Catholic immigrant groups, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, and within the labor movement. However, the success of the Wheeling Steel Corporation in busting the steelworkers union forced Poles to look inward again at their community. This also came as fears grew about the relationship of the second generation to those who remained tied to the old parish and ethnic Polonia world. The community’s response and the increasing inter-ethnic interactions helped provide the background for the union organizing drives of the 1930’s. Acknowledgements Growing up in the Upper Ohio Valley, attending the annual ethnic festivals, getting my undergraduate degree from Wheeling Jesuit University, working on historic preservation projects throughout the city, and just buying a Coleman’s Fish sandwich in the historic Center Market House, Wheeling’s unique history has always intrigued me. Choosing to complete a long term project on the city’s diverse and colorful immigrant history has been a wonderful experience. Although I often joke with people that I am neither Polish nor raised Roman Catholic, my familial roots in the Upper Ohio Valley date back 200 years. The process of telling a story that examines the contributions of working class Americans is a work of love for me. Historical writing itself is always a collective enterprise, and while my name appears as the sole author of this dissertation, I have been blessed along the way through the work, assistance, and friendship of numerous people. Since this project’s inception, the professors at West Virginia University and Wheeling Jesuit University have provided helpful insights, criticisms, and inspiration in the historian’s craft. During my undergraduate experience, Joseph Laker of Wheeling Jesuit University started me to seriously think about the importance of microhistory as a viable method of historical analysis. Thanks to him, I decided to pursue local history as a way to examine the larger themes of American history. At West Virginia University, I have been blessed by the kind assistance and directed criticism from many different professors, who have made my writing, teaching, and professional efforts better than I could have ever hoped. I would like to thank the professors in the History Department who have recommended important books or articles, made stylistic and argumentative suggestions, talked with me about teaching and advising, and engaged in great conversations: Katherine Aaslestad, Matt Vester, Josh Arthurs, Greg Good, Peter Carmichael, Tyler Boulware, Krystal Frazier, Jack Hammersmith, Joseph Hodge, Brian Luskey, and Kate Staples. I want to especially thank Melissa Bingmann and Jenny Boulware for talking with me about public history, letting me talk with their students, and even working on some local projects. I also wish to thank Matt Vester, James Siekmeier, and Charles MacKay, with whom I worked closely in advising our undergraduate students over the last few years. It has been a rewarding aspect of graduate school that I would highly recommend. Lastly, the two most kind- hearted people I have met in the History Department are our amazing secretaries Martha May and Becky Warnke. Their knowledge of how things actually work at the university has saved me on countless occasions. They have also been reassuring friends in times of crisis. I especially want to thank the members of my dissertation committee. Robert Blobaum’s knowledge and expertise in 19th and 20th Century Polish history was invaluable in providing a transnational perspective for this work. He has also gratefully helped refine my writing and forced me to dig deeper into research questions that I often did not consider. James Siekmeier has shown me how to always keep the big picture in mind as a social historian. Immigration fits within the bigger changes in the international system, and he has been a helpful guide in seeing how American foreign relations have always been crucial to the immigrant experience. Lou Martin has been more than an academic mentor; he has been a true friend. When I first arrived at WVU, Lou was finishing his Ph.D. on the working class history of Hancock County, West Virginia. He took a young Masters student under his wing, and has always been a helpful resource in navigating problems. We have had numerous dialogues about how to write working iii class history, traded sources, had a fun time riding to and from the Appalachian Studies Association meeting in Boone, NC, and bowling at Sycamore Lanes in Morgantown. Elizabeth Fones-Wolf has been a reassuring and consistently helpful guide through my years at WVU. She has more than anyone else helped me become a more mature historian and person by aiding in all my academic and non-academic concerns, which have come up since arriving in Morgantown. I am forever in her debt. Finally, since my arrival at West Virginia University in 2007, Ken Fones-Wolf has always taken the time to lead me along this maze that is graduate school. Words cannot express my gratitude to him for always being a helpful sounding board.