Comments from a reader

Here is part of a recent email exchange with Gary Heagy. Gary in undoubtedly an avid history buff and well versed on the subject of Harry Orchard. Some good comments that I don't want to bury in the guest book and Gary agreed to let me use as a main post. Although I still want to encourage folks to use the guest book (near the top left column), I think I will start sharing a few of the more thought provoking emails as a blog post when it is OK with the author.
From: Gary & Terri Heagy
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 10:11 AM
To: john.t.richards@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Governor Steunenberg

John,

I just came across your blog about the history of the 1800-1900's in Idaho, especially of your great-grandfather Frank Steunenberg. Wow! I really appreciate all you've put together, though I've only had an opportunity to browse through it briefly so far. I wish I had found it a few years ago.

I grew up as an Adventist reading the Harry Orchard book. A few years ago I decided to do more research about the story on the internet and then took a trip to Caldwell and Boise. I learned so much about your great-grandfather and the great man he was. I saw the place where his home was, his bank, the monument, AK's home, the gravesite, the library collection of material, etc. In Boise I went to the museum, the monument, the Idanha, the penitentiary, the historical society, etc. I purchased and read the books "Big Trouble", "Idaho's Governors", "Greater Love", "The Martyr of Idaho", "The Idanha", "A Room For the Summer", etc. I made a huge notebook of copies of documents from the newspapers, Crookham collection, files at the historical society, etc. This whole story really absorbed my attention, though it has been on the back burner for the last couple years.

I agree with you and your great-uncle Frank that too much was made of Harry Orchard and not enough was said about your great-grandfather. He was very courageous and did what he knew to be right regardless of the outcome. I have come to greatly admire him and the depiction of his murder, especially by his brother in a letter, is so grievous. I have no doubt that AK died of a broken heart because of it. Harry Orchard was a thug and despicable criminal.

To me, though, through all of this I have come to also admire your great-grandmother. The story of her forgiveness of Harry Orchard is amazing. Especially at the time when he was still an evil, murderous thug of the unions who had just ripped her life apart, mangled her husband, horrified her family, ruined her future, and more. You might understand if she had forgiven the elderly, grandfatherly Harry Orchard, but what she did speaks of an amazing woman. Her comments to the press, her sending books to Harry, even meeting with him, and in 1921 signing a petition along with your grandfather and her other children to allow Harry to be released... wow. I would love to know more about her as well.

I personally believe Harry's confession and change of life to be real, and I believe Belle did as well. There is no doubt that he could have gotten out of it just like Adams, Haywood, and the others if he would have stuck to his original story. The letter he wrote to your great-great uncle Peter begging him to ask for the death penalty seems genuine. He said he would much rather die for his deeds as he deserved than to live out the rest of his life in the pen. I don't think he turned state's witness just to keep from hanging. If it hadn't been for him, the state would have had zero opportunity to go after the unions. They would have had the union, too, if Adams hadn't recanted.

I do think that God changed Harry Orchard from the vile person he was, who could kill a great man like Frank Steunenberg in cold blood, to a humble repentant sinner saved by God's grace. I feel that is what makes people focus on his story. But unfortunately they have raised him up to being a hero instead of your great-grandfather. I have thought about writing another book for the Adventist denomination that balances the story a bit better than the original Harry Orchard book, but we'll see...

Anyway, it is an honor to be able to communicate with you,

Gary Heagy

From: John T. Richards Jr. [mailto:john.t.richards@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 4:16 PM
To: 'Gary & Terri Heagy'
Subject: RE: Governor Steunenberg

Gary:

I really appreciate the email. It appears you have put a considerable amount of time and thought into you study of this subject.

Are you in Idaho? As you may have read, I am a CA boy but we have roots in Idaho and kinfolk still living in the Caldwell/Boise area. I hope to make another visit there soon. 

There was a Deanna Davis that I corresponded with and finally met in 2007 that was interested in writing a new book. Deanna and I, along with archivist Jan Boles, met in the archives at the College of Idaho. Here is a summary of that meeting from my daily log in case you have not discovered it yet on my blog. It may be of some interest. 

November 9, 2007 - College of Idaho Archives with Jan and Deanna

Today we headed over to the COI archives for a visit with Jan and I wanted to get a look at that wonderful old court docket from 1906 that had been rescued from the dumpster. Quite a find with the names we all know (Haywood, Petitioner, Moyer, Orchard, Simpkins, etc) but including the quiet presence of a young Julian Steunenberg as a witness to Orchard’s presence in Caldwell. Thank you Cousin Bill and Jan for seeing that the item found its way safely into the hands of the archives. Our friend Jan has of course been of great importance to the Steunenberg family with the establishment of the George L. Crookham Jr. collection. He served as a consultant to the IPTV production and his white beard and hair served him well as a member of the Haywood trial jury. He is not really as old as any of those Haywood trial jurors but he played the part well! Thank you for all your work and for keeping me in touch with happenings in Idaho. You are an invaluable resource.

Jan, John, Deanna

We also had the pleasure of meeting with Deanna Davis from Pacific Press in Nampa. Deanna and I had corresponded briefly and we arranged to meet and discuss the SDA Church’s desire to have her write a new book on Harry Orchard. I was happy to hear Dianna say that she wanted to do more then just a rehash of The Man God Made Again, and plans to update and include other elements from the story on which we have been focusing so much recent interest. Perhaps it is Belle Steunenberg and later Frank Steunenberg Jr. who played significant roles in Orchard’s alleged salvation that deserves more prominent recognition. Regardless of one’s personal view of Orchard’s real or faked conversion, as someone opposed to capital punishment I cannot apply that view only to modern times and ignore the past. I am at peace with Orchard’s life sentence, supportive of my ancestors that made sure it stayed that way but find regrettable some of the unusual freedom’s that Orchard enjoyed during his life at the Idaho pen. Deanna also spent a considerable amount of time looking over my mother Brenda’s treasured copy of 60Years of Progress-Walla Walla College. The book has many notations and markings made by my Grandmother Frances Beardsley Wood Steunenberg. Some of our ancestors on my grandmother’s side were pioneers in the early days of the college and the Walla Walla Valley. That is another story to be told but suffice to say that Julian Steunenberg was smitten by the young Frances while attending college and we know the story went on happily for a lifetime thereafter.

Jan and I were recently corresponding and mentioning that neither of us has heard from Deanna so I am not sure the status of her book efforts.

The SDA has played an important, albeit sometimes controversial, role in our family. Great Grandma Belle was viewed as a bit fanatical by the mostly Presbyterian Steunenberg clan. Her forgiveness of Orchard put her at odds with many that preferred to see him swing from a rope. We still have a few living family members that are SDA. I am not but we grew up always familiar with the church and respecting the Sabbath due to the many happy weekends spent with my grandparents Julian and Francis Steunenberg.

As you read over my blog, I think you will find many indicators of my views and findings. Of course, the story seems never ending as a new bit of information or person of interest always seems to pop up, one being the recent surfacing of a great grandson of Harry Orchard. There may be more information coming in that regard soon.

Please keep in contact, let me know if you have any questions and always feel free to share your views. The blog has grown far beyond my original intent and some things are rather hard to find. If looking for something particular, please let me know.

BTW, would you mind if I post your email letter as a main post entry? Your expressed interests and many excellent points would be worth sharing. If you prefer, I will delete you email address so it will not show. Let me know.

Kind Regards,

John

UNDESIREABLE CLAMOR

I didn't get around to writing much but here is an article of interest. Click on the photo to use my Footnote.com enlarger. To check others articles I have found on Footnote.com go to my Spotlights.

September 11th- In Memoriam

When the Towers Fell by Galway Kinnell (Audio)

When the Towers Fell (Text)

Flash-September Eleventh

Harry Orchard Blows Up the Independence Colorado Train Depot

9/11 and Terrorism: “The Ultimate Teachable Moment” in Textbooks and Supplemental Curricula

And another 9/11 event of a different nature nicely commemorated by "Revue Guru", otherwise known as Evan: Sept. 11: Caldwell pioneer Albert Steunenberg

Steunenberg Reunion May 28, 1977

A couple of long misplaced photos that were finally found and go along nicely with a diary entry from my mother. This was my last Steunenberg reunion. Maybe it's time for another.

 Excerpt below from my mother's (Brenda Steunenberg Richards) diary, May 28,1977.
"1977 Steunenberg Re-union Caldwell. Such a great bunch & good time we had. 2 of our kids made it-Beckie & family and John & Cindy. Ger (George) Crookham had everything nice. Bus ride - dinner etc. A great person!"




1977 at Canyon Hill Cemetery, Caldwell, Idaho in front of the monument marking the family plot and the grave of Ex.-Governor Frank Steunenberg. Left to right, John T. Richards Jr. (me), my brother in-law David Underwood (deceased), my sister Beckie Underwood, my nephew and niece Tim Underwood and Kim Underwood, my mother Brenda Steunenberg Richards (deceased), my father John T. Richards Sr. (now deceased) and my Uncle Cal Steunenberg (deceased).

Brenda Steunenberg Richards

A beautiful picture of my mother, Brenda Steunenberg Richards, taken by my sister Kris when mom was 80. I watched the video last night of our surprise 80th birthday party for her and laughed and cried. A great memory. She would have been 92 today but is now ageless.

Love and miss ya mama.

Other Blog Posts

Brenda Steunenberg Richards

A Note from Mom - May 1992

A look back-Happy Mother's Day

Mom and that's me under construction

Brenda's Footnote.com page (under construction)

Roy Steunenberg - 8/9/1946 - 8/21/2010

My Cousin Roy Steunenberg passed away quietly last night after a lengthy battle with melanoma. Roy and I had not seen each other in many years but remained in contact from time to time regarding our common family history. We both grew up in California and always reminisced about our wonderful grandparents, Julian and Francis Steunenberg, and our various holiday gatherings and family visits.

Above L to R: John (me), Cousin Roy and Cousin Ron Steunenberg circa 1966.

Roy was the son of my Uncle Cal Steunenberg. Uncle Cal passed away last year at the ripe old age of 96. Some how it seems unfair that I find myself writing so soon about the passing of Roy. He had just turned 64 on August 9th and I believe is the first of our generation of Cousins to pass away.

Roy would always talk about the great memories we have as kids and it is those fond recollections that help soften the blow of any death--and certainly one of such an untimely nature.
One thing Roy and I liked to do was eat--and he always raved about my mom's (Brenda Steunenberg Richards) holiday meals and especially her turkey gravy. We could pack it away pretty good prior to settling down for an afternoon of Thanksgiving Day football.

Below is a close-up of Roy on the right, me to the left and it looks like the stuffing bowl heading our way from Uncle Cal. You can see the focus of our attention!

I guess Roy is in a better place now and perhaps is enjoying, along with his dad/my Uncle Cal, some of my mom's turkey stuffing and gravy once again.

Roy is survived by his daughters Carri Steunenberg Carnahan, Sheri Steunenberg Beersman and wife Mary Steunenberg. We are not very well acquainted with that part of the family, but please accept our kind thoughts and condolences and take comfort in your memories.

Rest in peace Cuz.

Click on the pictures for enlarged views.

6/7/1904 - DYNAMITE OUTRAGE IN COLORADO OPENS REIGN OF TERROR

Click on the image to use my Footnote.com viewer to enlarge and read this news page.

6/9/1904 - More News Photographs of the Independence Depot.

These are a little bit different photos from what I have seen before. Refer to August 1st blog post "Unspeakable Crime Perpetuated at Independence Colo."

This newspaper article was found on my Fold3.com account. Click on the picture and be taken to the viewer where you can enlarge the photos and read the article.

Click here to check out all my footnote.com spotlights.

Latest early Idaho Songs of the Month have been posted for Idaho Songs Project from old Idaho songs guru Gary Eller (the songs & Gary are both old).

The early Idaho Songs of the Month postings for June, July, August and September are now on line. Just follow the Songs of the Month links from www.bonafidaho.com/idahosongs.htm. This time we are featuring songs based on the writing of Idaho's colorful Hannibal F. "Seven Devils" Johnson who mined, preached, politicked, wrote, and sold fire extinguishers (among other things) from the 1880s through early 1900s in the Seven Devils region of Hells Canyon. Two of his songs, "Seven Devils Song" and "Trip to Rapid River", are rendered by Gary Eller. Dale Fisk of Council came up with a lovely melody and arrangement for Johnson's poem "Grave of a Stranger". The fourth song in the new posting - "Gooding Sheep Song" - is a rant against the powerful business and political empire of Gov. Frank Gooding and his brothers, rendered nicely by John Larsen of Marsing.

A few "new" pre-1923 era songs also have been added to the early Idaho Songs Bibliography. Notable among the new entries is the very rare song "The Raging Plains" (1864) which contains some new and interesting historical tidbits.

In other news, as a member of the Idaho Humanities Council I am supporting with Idaho Songs programs each of the six sites around Idaho that are hosting the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit "Journey Stories" which highlights stories of immigration to and migration around America. So far I've done programs at the Boundary County Historical Museum in Bonners Ferry and the National Oregon/California Trail Center in Montpelier. The other programs will be as follows:

Blaine County Historical Museum (Hailey) Sept. 7

Olde School Community Center (Fruitland) Oct. 27

Jerome Public Library (Jerome) Dec. 18 and Jan. 22 (2011)

Hayden Public Library (Hayden) Feb. 12 (2011)

You will not be disappointed by taking the effort to view this wonderful exhibit.

And finally, if you are in the Stanley area, I am doing a Speakers Bureau program at the museum in Stanley on Friday evening August 13th.

Regards - Gary Eller

Check out the website and if in any of the above areas, view the exhibits and catch Gary(aka Slim, the Banjo Man from Pickles Butte) live if you can. jr

"Unspeakable Crime Perpetrated at Independence, Col."

Click on the image below to utilize my footnote.com viewer and read the full article.



Some related blog posts:

Harry Orchard Blows-up the Independence Colorado Train Depot

Independence Depot Blown-Up June 6, 1904

True West Magazine: A CASE FOR MURDER

Gunfighters in Boise-D.C. Scott & Bob Meldrum

Other Links

Victor Heritage Society (see the old Victor Union Hall then & now).

My Footnote.com History Spotlights

The Testimony of Julian P. Steunenberg

As a follow-up to the previous short newspaper account of the testimony of my grandfather, Julian Steunenberg, here is the transcript of that portion of the trial. Click on the pages to enlarge for reading or go directly to the Haywood Trial Transcript, Volume I, page 70 (page number on the left lower corner of the transcript) at the University of Minnesota Law Library and use their viewer.



This is of course a very short sample of the Haywood trial transcript courtesy of the University Of Minnesota Law Library. You can view all 5,000 plus pages of the transcript at: Clarence Darrow - His Life, Legal Career & Legacy.

Visit this great website if you haven't already.

Other blog entries of interest:
Did the Steunenberg children favor commuting Orchard's sentence?

Julian Steunenberg riding in a carriage

Letters from Assassin Harry Orchard (to Julian)



One of many memorable walks with my grandpa Julian (circa 1954)

Steunenberg Son (my grandfather Julian) On Stand

Click on the picture below and be taken to my Footnote.com viewer to enlarge the article for easier reading.



A couple other links:
Julian Steunenberg Footnote Page (in development)

Frank to son Julian...a favorite personal letter

Similar New York Times Account of Julian's testimony

Check out more of my Footnote.com Spotlights

Clarence Darrow - His Life, Legal Career and Legacy

Darrow_Photo_Idaho_Daily_Statesman_5_14_1907

It had been quite a long time since I last visited the University of Minnesota Law Library online. I received a Google alert today about the Clarence Darrow Digital Collection. Wow, they have really updated and added a lot of material. A great collection of documents, court transcripts, photographs, etc. You have got to check it out. Click on the link below.

Clarence Darrow - His Life, Legal Career and Legacy

And of course don't miss within the above collection:
The Bill Haywood Trial

Lots and lots of resources and photographs. Should keep me busy for awhile.

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

Here is the complete text of the Declaration of Independence.
The original spelling and capitalization have been retained.

(Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776)

The Unanimous Declaration
of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

--Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776

More

The Unfinished Revolution

History is a Weapon - The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro

Great Grandson of Albert Horsley (aka Harry Orchard) Speaks Out

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of a couple of brief contacts with descendants of Albert Horsley, better known as Harry Orchard. Several years ago I learned of a great grandson of Orchard but was never able to establish direct contact. At times, there seems to be a reluctance to come forward, to make contact or to start a conversation. I can certainly appreciate if that is the case. As one of Orchard's ancestors once said to me (paraphrase of my recollection),"Albert was not the subject of conversation around the dinner table."

I am very pleased that Mr. Larry Taylor, a great grandson of Harry Orchard, has stepped forward and responded to the feedback page on the Idaho Public Television (IPTV) website for Assassination: Idaho"s Trial of the Century. Mr. Taylor's contribution to the historical record is an important one. Until now, views from descendants of Harry Orchard have generally been missing from the discussion of these tragic events that brought murder and misery to so many. I encourage Mr. Taylor, other descendants of Harry Orchard, or descendants of any of the many participants in this saga, to continue expressing your views and your opinions regarding this troublesome time in our history.

At a moment in time that I shall never forget, Bruce Reichert, of Idaho Public Television, stated at the premiere of Assassination: Idaho Trial of the Century, "John Richards has helped all of us realize how a murderous deed does not simply vanish. It can resonate for a century, its treachery touching many innocent souls."

I would now add that Larry Taylor has helped us realize it too.
Feedback Page: Assassination: Idaho's Trial of the Century