Who Made Harry Orchard?

Just happened to run across this recent YouTube video while browsing the Internet this morning. Putting up for viewing without any comment for the time being. Orchard's book, The Man God Made Again, still plays a prominent role in Seventh Day Adventist teachings.

Other than saying "he is blown to pieces and he dies", Frank Steunenberg is relegated to merely a prop in the presentation and received no further mention. When commenting on Orchard's response after receiving the booklet Steps to Christ, from Belle Steunenberg, the young man commented, "it blew him away." An interesting way to phrase it in regards to Harry Orchard. I know he didn't mean anything by it and admit sensitivity to the mention of Orchard and being blown away. That is exactly what Orchard did to my great grandfather and numerous other people.

I am wondering if the presentation would be any different if we were talking about James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan, Lee Harvey Oswald or a Charles Manson, David Berkowitz or Jeffrey Dahmer? Some of them and numerous others have allegedly found god in prison too.

More later. I guess a little commentary started to slip out!

Regardless of personal viewpoints, I commend this young man for a fine presentation relating to a piece of history that still impacts us today.



Somewhat related blog posts:

3/16/1905 - Letter from Governor Frank Steunenberg ("Pop") to son Julian

A cherished moment with mom: Brenda Steunenberg Richards-The Graduate-Class of 1936-Honorary Diploma September 2004

Letters from Assassin Harry Orchard

Mrs. Steunenberg Pardons Slayer of her Husband

Reflection on the Haywood Trial Verdict

Did the Steunenberg Children Favor Commuting Harry Orchard's Sentence?

Old Newpapers - Steunenberg name and Haywood Trial

Here is a link to a nice summary page from the Library of Congress with a sample of archived newspapers related to the Haywood trial.

Topics in Chronicling America - The Haywood Trial.

You can click here and go directly to the search page. A full search using the term "Haywood trial" comes up with 10,044 results. Using the name Steunenberg (having a name where you are related to anyone who has it sure helps!) turns up 2,802 results.

I use to collect old wood pulp newspapers about the trial and still have an archival box full. I might still pick up one here and there if the price is cheap and it has a great headline. However, preservation and display of large format wood pulp papers that are over 100 years old is quite challenging. With the prevalence of old papers now available on digital media, it is not worth the time and expense for a small collector. I have decided to enjoy the old papers I have, take modest preservation measures, and to read and peruse them without fear of further disintegration. I will even cut out and preserve relevant articles if the papers are showing rapid disintegration and flaking. With today's digital media, I can now relax with the knowledge that the same or similar articles are preserved for future reading and research.

Of course one website I use frequently is my footnote.com account which has many historical newspapers among its millions of other documents. Here is the link to my Footnote.com Spotlight pages that I recommend for viewing. Other links can be accessed below but are sometimes repetitive or are smaller bits and pieces of information that I have saved but may not be of general interest. You can view the items but of course access and search components will be limited by Footnote unless you are a paying customer. If you would like me to look for something specific...let me know.

www.fold3.com

Steunenberg Memorial Booklet

Here is an item that is not widely available, as a rather small number were printed by the Capital News Publishing Company that was housed in the Union Block Building. It is the Steunenberg Memorial booklet published in 1929 to document the December 11th, 1927 dedication of the Steunenberg Statue that sits across from the capitol building in Boise. From the forward.... "The monument was completed and dedicated December 11, 1927, with appropriate ceremonies, the oration on the life of Ex-Governor Steunenberg being delivered by Ex-Governor James Hawley. This book contains the complete dedicatory ceremonies, the oration delivered by Senator William E. Borah at the funeral of Ex-Governor Steunenberg, memorial services held by the legislature at its session following the tragic event, and the Final Report of the Association to the Governor."

The booklet has a faux alligator skin cover and is twenty-nine pages in length. For purposes here, I am providing only the text of the oration by Ex-Governor James Hawley. Interestingly, he not only eulogized the all too short a life of Ex-Governor Steunenberg, but gave an overview of the mining riots of 1899, the miner's unions, confession of Harry Orchard and the Haywood trial. No doubt Hawley, then some twenty years after the trial, still felt a bit of the sting from that verdict in 1907. If folks are interested, I will try and scan the rest of the booklet sometime soon. Click on the pages below to enlarge for reading.

Steunenberg

Not alone upon th'incarndine stage
Of brazen war and carnage gory
In born the theme for history's page,
Is found the ground for glory's story

The poet too his song shall sing,

The artist weave the colors bright,
The plaudits of the throng shall ring

For this sequestered martyred knight ;

The sculptor too his name shall grave
On shaft of majesty and beauty ;

Peace hath, not less than war, its brave―

A hero he, who dies for duty.

--Byron Defenbach (original poem recited by its author at the dedication. Defenbach was a writer and historian who in 1933 published the three-volume work, Idaho: The Place and Its People).































































































































































The two photographic panels are on a textured photographic paper with each protected by an overlay page.

No Neckties Allowed #5

Yes, I am still of this earth but have not been of computer or Internet over much of the past month. I won't give you all the sorry details except to say my computer was rendered nearly useless by a virus (but no data loss as far as we can tell) to go along with a concurrent, but unrelated, loss of our DSL line. Now I am typing on my new Dell laptop and accessing the Internet over a recently installed high speed cable connection (sorry AT&T). One of my sons, Josh, is cleaning up the desktop, recovering data and installing some higher-tech protection. Usually he is working with commercial accounts and not small penny ante stuff like mine. Josh has been after us for awhile to get better security measures installed but sometimes I have to suffer a bit before making the move...and so I have. Once I get my data transferred and this laptop all setup, I should be back in full swing.

With all the changes to a new computer, Internet provider and reformatting, I see some items on my blog have been knocked out of kilter a bit. And if I missed or haven't responded to an email, I should get there soon or feel free to send again just in case. For the moment, my email address remains the same. Bear with me.

Here is an informal smorgasbord of a few links--hence No Neckties Allowed.

The Steunenbergs - Idaho Historical Markers on Waymark.com

Steunenberg Memorial - Statues of Historic Figures

Celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the seat of government in the District of Columbia (1901)

Governor Steunenberg was at the celebration in Washington D.C.

Bureau of Investigations/FBI Files:

Harry Orchard

Steunenberg (Mostly George Steunenberg)

Steve Adams

William Haywood

Mining Pages:

Idaho Mines

California Mines

Colorado Mines

Arizona Mines

Nevada Mines

And more by state and country