Judge
Jonathan Langham
Jonathan
Langham was the presiding judge of the Indiana, Pennsylvania Court of Common
Pleas during the Rossiter coal strike of 1927-28. Rossiter was a Clearfield
Bituminous Coal Company mining town in northern Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
Not only did Langham own stock in some local coal companies but coal company
funds partially supported his reelection campaign.
Responding to the demands of the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Company executives,
he issued a series of injunctions, some of which were sweeping in scope, such
as the one prohibiting the strikers from picketing, marching, or gathering for
meetings. However, his most infamous injunction, which took on a life of its
own and brought the strikers national attention and sympathy, was the one banning
the singing of hymns and the holding of church services on two lots owned by
the Magyar Presbyterian Church and located just opposite the mine in Rossiter.
Coincidentally, the pastor of the church was also the vice-president of the
local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America! Although the hymns selected
for singing by the striking miners and their families were innocuous, some of
them, in light of the strike, could take on a new militant meaning. Two
of the hymns that were considered hostile by the Judge and Coal Company were
Onward Christian Soldiers and I'm on the Winning Side with Jesus.
They were sung as nonunion workers entered the mines.
Publicity
surrounding the injunction against the singing of hymns focused national attention
through the media on the situation. In late 1928, the Interstate Commerce
Committee of the US Senate visited Rossiter and then Indiana.
The
Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company also sought an injunction from Judge
Langham in the summer of 1931 during a strike that involved, among others, the
miners in McIntyre. Although the demonstrations were peaceful, the striking
union members were prohibited from picketing or parading.
Carl I. Meyerhuber, Jr., Less than
Forever: the Rise and Decline of Union Solidarity in
Western Pennsylvania,
1914-1948 (Selingsgrove, PA.: Susquehanna University Press, 1987), 82-83.
Indiana Gazette, Indiana
Pennsylvania, 17 July 1931.
Clarence D. Stephenson, Indiana County 175th Anniversary History, vol.2
(Indiana, Pennsylvania: Halldin Publishing Company, 1989), 468.
Photo: from J.T. Stewart, Indiana
County, Pennsylvania: Her People, Past and Present
(Chicago: J.H. Beers and Company, 1913), 654.
Irwin M. Marcus. Judge Jonathan
Langham. Coal Dust: The Early Mining Industry of Indiana County. Special
Collections and Archives, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. n.d.
<http://www.lib.iup.edu/spec_coll/articles/judge_jonathan_langham.html>
(23 October 2001).