Ceremony And Marker Commemorate Battle Of Homestead
HOMESTEAD (KDKA) -- Backed by students from Steel Valley High, songwriter Mike Stout evoked memories of the mill where he worked, a historic pump house that still stands.
On Jul. 6, 1892, Henry Clay Frick took action against striking workers in a Carnegie mill.
"Frick sends two barges, 300 Pinkerton agents, armed with Winchester Repeating Rifles, and they land here at the pump house," said Charles McCollester, author of The Point Of Pittsburgh.
That's as far as they got before shots rang out. The Pinkerton agents surrendered after nine were killed. Though the state militia finally put down the strike, Homestead remembers.
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Thursday, the pump house was overflowing with young and old alike.
"I do not wish this little affair in Homestead to be considered a war between labor and capital," one man said.
Students coached by Pittsburgh native and TV star David Conrad came back for the event.
"I was kind of just doing television stories that lots of people have heard, and I just missed being home, and I like being around the people who tell the stories of Pittsburgh. And I find them mostly in Pittsburgh," Conrad said.
The highlight of the day was the unveiling of a marker on the site of the historic event.