An Imposing Demonstration of Strength: Wheeling's 1907 Labor Day Celebration

Posted: August 30, 2024, 12:21PM

On Monday, September 2, 1907, even as a one-day-old Walter Phillip Reuther, future president of the United Auto Workers and arguably the most influential human ever born in his small Ohio River city, Wheeling prepared to begin its twenty-second Labor Day celebration with an enormous parade, despite the threat of soaking rain.

Umbrellas were more than decorative for the 1907 parade. OCPL Archives.

As the city prepared for another festive Labor Day celebration, even the local churches got in the spirit. At the First Baptist Church on Twelfth and Byron, the pastor's sermon was titled, "The Church and the Laboring Man: Would Jesus the Carpenter Have Been a Union Man Had He Lived in Our Day?" Unfortunately, the pastor's answer may be lost to time, but Jesus was demonstrably fond of solidarity. The day started with a parade. Seven divisions of 2,500 to 3,000 men, most equipped with umbrellas and accompanied by “many bands of music,” marched the “principal streets” of town, ending at the state fairgrounds on Wheeling Island, where a picnic and “program of sports” was planned. An equally large demonstration organized by the Belmont Assembly took place on the Ohio side of the river.

Three-year-old Walter Reuther with his brother Ted, ca. 1910. Walter was only one day old when the 1907 Labor Day parade crisscrossed the streets of his hometown. Courtesy Wayne State University, Reuther Library.

Organized by the Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly, the Wheeling marchers represented “nearly every trade and craft” and comprised, according to the Wheeling Daily Register, “one of the most imposing demonstrations of strength given in the history of the central labor body.” The marchers were said to be more handsome in appearance (many wore uniforms) and militarily precise than in previous years, with the Stogie Makers turning out in the largest number followed by tobacco workers, and carpenters. The inside electrical workers rode in carriages, while a massive crowd choked the streets to try to watch the parade.

[ Mayor Schmidt's proclamation called for the closing of the mills and the mines.

“There was never before a more general voluntary suspension of work in the mills and factories. All the industrial plants in this city were closed down, or were operated with forces barely sufficient to keep fires burning in cases where this was necessary.” (Wheeling Daily Register, Sept. 3, 1907)

The order of the parade included Chief Marshal HP Corcoran, a police escort, a carriage carrying Mayor Charles Schmidt with Labor Commissioner Barten, the Shadyside Band, several Carpenter Unions, Electric Linemen, Plumbers, and Pressmen, Garfield Assembly of Stogie and Cigar Makers, Engineers, Leather Workers, Painters and Decorators, and Carriage and Wagon Makers. Other unions represented included Typographical, Bookbinders, Sheet Metal Workers, Paperhangers, Plasterers, Wood, Wire, and Metal Lathers; Journeyman Barbers; Brewery Workers; Beer Drivers; Teamsters; Butchers; and A.F.G.W.U. Reymann Brewing featured five automobiles “all gaily decorated” while Peake and Friedel featured a piano in a decorated wagon with six little girls dressed in white. The tobacco workers carried red white and blue umbrellas, while the plasterers carried laths.   Each division was accompanied by at least one "cornet band" including Summers Band; Meister's Band; Grand Opera House Band; Mayer's Band; Arlington Band; and Shadyside Band. Mayer's, Eagle, and Bachman's Orchestras would then play at the picnic. Each division in the 1907 parade was accompanied by at least one cornet band like this one.

Meanwhile, just up the River in Steubenville, two men from St. Louis in town to work in place of striking mine workers (aka, scabs), were beaten along with two “telephone girls” who tried to intervene.

“Without regard to the view which individuals may hold relative to the rights and interested of employee and employer, we cannot hide our eyes to the fact that Wheeling is distinctively a workingman’s town. It is a great industrial community in which men who work at the trades are largely in the majority. We are not literary, we are not artistic, we are not commercial in the sense of being the home of many great commercial institutions. We are distinctly a good, solid, prosperous, industrial community, our people are workers at the bench and in the mills and factories...Reduce their number or diminish their earning power, and most of us would find the town not nearly so pleasant or profitable to live in.” (Wheeling Intelligencer, Sept. 3, 1907)

The afternoon picnic on the fairgrounds was hit with a blast of wind that sent hats flying and blew down concession booths. This was followed by a solid hour of drenching rain that turned the racetrack into a lake. The rain got worse throughout the day. The tobacco workers used red, white, and blue umbrellas. OCPL Archives.

In the scramble for shelter, White and Black union men and their families were segregated, the Whites to “Horticultural Hall” where Mayer’s Orchestra played dancing music, while the Black people were placed in the west wing of the exposition building, where the Eagle Orchestra played. Bachman’s Orchestra played in the casino. Begun before the cloudburst, one rider in the five-mile motorcycle race managed to finish before the rain. The victor rode a Reading Standard bike, defeating riders on bitter rival Indian bikes. The rain also left several angry women without a running race and horses without a horse race, and two rivals (Bert Mercer and William Henry) with no half-mile race for the Ohio Valley Championship.

The Reading Standard (top) was the first motorbike to climb Pike's Peak.

While the horse races scheduled for the state fairgrounds were canceled due to the downpour, many horses did participate in the parade. OCPL Archives.

Still, the Intelligencer declared, “fully 6,000 people visited the Island during the day [and went home] wet, mud bespattered, and soiled.”

Read about Wheeling's first Labor Day Parade.

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