I am not personally a big supporter of labor movements today, but from stories that I have heard, both of my grandfathers were very heavily involved in them. Since this is a genealogy blog and not a social history blog, I will tell a little of their stories to commemorate the holiday in their honor.<\/p>\n
My paternal grandfather, Charles Mathias Boll, who was possibly one of the triplets pictured in my \u201c Triplets in the Family?<\/a>\u201d post, was an iron molder. Family tradition says that he was an union organizer and was \u201cblack balled\u201d for these activities.\u00a0 My mom says that she remembers hearing that he worked at Bridge, Beach & Co., a prominent stove manufacturing company whose products can still be found on ebay and in antique stores. According to the 1910 Census he worked at a stove foundry.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 The 1920 Census shows him still as a molder in the stove industry, as does the 1930.[4]<\/a>,[5]<\/a>\u00a0 By the time we get to 1940, a subtle difference seems to be evident, he no longer works in the stove industry, but just in the steel industry, only working 24 hours in the selected week of March 24-30, 1940 and working only 26 weeks in the year 1939.[6]<\/a> \u00a0My suspicion would be that his labor organizing activities were during this time period since my father, the source of any knowledge my mother had, was 8 on the 1940 Census and it seemed to be a memory he had that effected his life.\u00a0 I tried to find evidence of Charles Boll\u2019s union activity during this time, but in the interest of actually getting this posted ON Labor Day, I had to delay finding confirmation of this.\u00a0 My grandfather definitely could not have been just then\u00a0organizing<\/b> union activity at \u00a0Bridge, Beach & Co., because what I did find was evidence of a major labor dispute that began with the Iron Molders Union against Bridge, Beach & Co.in St Louis, MO that spread to several other cities, but it was in April 1887<\/a>, when my grandfather was only 3 years old.[7]<\/a>\u00a0 My grandfather Boll died before my parents were married so I never knew him, but union activity must have been an important part of his life since it is one of the few things that I can remember my father telling me about him.<\/p>\n Charles and Emma Boll holding my father Charles 1931<\/p>\n Although my father was in corporate management for his entire adult life, my mother relates a story about their courtship that illustrates his commitment to his father\u2019s values.\u00a0 When my parents first met, my mother was working for the catering department of a downtown St Louis hotel.\u00a0 My father was somehow involved in the procurement and delivery of supplies for the kitchens.\u00a0 He was a union member and she was a member of management.\u00a0 One of the unions representing workers at the hotel went on strike and my father, although it was not his union on strike, would not cross the picket line to make any deliveries.\u00a0 Upper management knew that my mother and father were dating and they put pressure on her to get her beau to cross the lines.\u00a0 She, of course, would not even consider trying to get him to go against his principles, not that it would have worked anyway.\u00a0 If I am remembering the story correctly, this incident may have led to them both changing their employment.<\/p>\n John Pogorzelski about the time he began working for the Post Office I had always heard about my grandfather Boll\u2019s union sympathies, but it was not until a few years ago that I learned from my mother that her father, John Pogorzelski, had also been a union organizer and suffered because of it.\u00a0 My grandfather Pogorzelski worked all his life in the Post Office.\u00a0 As far as I know he was not a delivery person, but a clerk in the branch.\u00a0 The earliest record that I have for his being a postal clerk is his WW1 Draft registration.\u00a0 Although I cannot read the date on it, he gives his age as 22, so it is around 1917.\u00a0 He was still a single man, living at his parents\u2019 home on 2225 N Market St in St Louis and his occupation was PO Clerk 25, Post Office Dept USA, 18th<\/sup> and Clark Ave, St Louis, MO.\u00a0 He retired from the Post Office sometime in the mid-1950s.\u00a0 \u00a0I will post more later on just what his activities were.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to be off to spend this holiday with living family !<\/p>\n [1]<\/a>“United States Department of Labor: The History of Labor Day”<\/a>. Retrieved 2013-09-02<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [2]<\/a> http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Labor_Day<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Retrieved 2013-09-02<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [3]<\/a> 1910 U.S. census, St Louis City, Missouri, population schedule, St Louis ward 12, sheet 1A, dwelling 2, family 2, Charles M. and Emma A. Boll; digital image, Ancestry.com<\/i> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>: accessed 2 September 2013); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 816.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [4]<\/a> 1920 U.S. census, St Louis City, Missouri, population schedule, St Louis ward 24, ED 480, sheet 6, dwelling 137, family 138, Charles M. and Emma A. Boll; digital image, Ancestry.com<\/i> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>: accessed 2 September 2013); citing NARA microfilm publication T625.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [5]<\/a> 1930 U.S. census, St Louis City, Missouri, population schedule, St Louis ward 24, Precinct 3, ED 167, sheet 40A, dwelling 730, family 955, Charles and Emma Boll; digital image, Ancestry.com<\/i> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>: accessed 2 September 2013); citing NARA microfilm publication T626 and FHL film#2340976, image 808.0.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [6]<\/a> 1940 U.S. census, St Louis City, Missouri, population schedule, St Louis ward 24, ED 96-629, sheet 5B, 5304 Devonshire, family 129, Charles and Emma Ball; digital image, Ancestry.com<\/i> (http:\/\/www.ancestry.com<\/a>: accessed 2 September 2013); citing NARA microfilm publication T627. Roll 2206.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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