Vol. 1-Interview-Feisner

AV inter. GF & HF -6- 7/7/72 Tape 24

GF: Oh yes I was paid by the hour

HF: Isn't that what they called the chain gang

GF: No the chain gang was something else

AV: What was your title, or the name of your job

GF: Just a laborer, but you were asked to do, oh many things

AV: Was this a company man

GF: Yes but we belonged to the union, see we were paid a union wage

AV: How important was the union in your day

GF: Well let me say this, originally as I understand this town was settled originally and primarily by Scotch-Irish, Welsh, German and Irish, now why did they come here well you have to go back to Europe, European history, now you take the potato famine in Ireland, the wars of unification in Germany, the impending Franco-Prussian War, and then there were economic conditions. Now later on when the unions in the early days, during the period of inception, that is began there was a battle between the employee, the unions and the companies now what the union did was send abroad to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Lithuania, Russia and other places to recruit laborers and bring them here under contract many of them were brought under contract that meant they were to be paid a certain wage, hourly wage or daily wage and they were lied to they were told what a beautiful country this is, what a beautiful land, and that it wouldn't take them long to become wealthy and that they could then go back to their native country. Now many of them came and you remember Helen #2 Buck Mountain, now #2 Buck Mountain was a little community, you've seen that, there's only about 6 houses there now but there were many more and they were built by these stripping contractors to house these immigrants particularly the Czechoslovaks and the (blank), the Lithuanians, the Poles and so forth, understand, now the boarding boss the term that I used telephone when I was referring to (?) I said a boarding boss, a boarding mistress or Helen, some individual whose wife

AV inter GF & HF -7- 7/7/72 Tape 24

GF: was here would rent the home and then would take in as high as 10 or 12 boarders and they would have rooms, maybe 3 or 4 of them would stay in one room they would have their meals, well a meal would be a breakfast, a cup of coffee, a piece of bread and they would carry a lunch pail to work and the big meal was the evening meal now what would they pay, the man of the house was the boarding boss, on payday the grocer who delivered the groceries to these homes and the butcher who delivered the meat would come in and they would sit around the table with the boarding boss and the boarders and figure out the bill for the 2 weeks and then each one paid a certain amount to defray the expenses and then pay the boarding misses too and it was used for her work now they lived for a time like they lived abroad their habits

AV: What did they call this system of paying, was there a special name for it

GF: No it was a kind of commune type of getting together but that term wasn't employed, now Mr. Reese, you remember, many's the time that on the evening of the day that they were paid he would hitch his little grey horse in the rig and often as a youngster he would take me along and I would sit outside and wait until he was thru figuring out what they owed him, now they came home from work many of these peopole were, naturally they were very, very poor when they came here some of them in the summertime didn't put on their shoes they had a pair of trousers and a belt was not put thru there but it was just strung around here and tightened and an undershirt, that's all but one thing on Sunday these individuals would travel, walk on #2 Buck Mountain, I talk about #2 Buck Mountain but of course what was true here, walk from there to Freeland to church, it was interesting not 2 abreast where they could chat but all in a line

AV: This was at the time this Catholic Church here was not functioning

GF: No that church was in use at that time but they went to their own church, the Slovak Church, the Polish Church, now you see in a good many instances these poor individuals, naturally they didn't understand the American way of life, after

AV inter. GF & HF -8- 7/7/72

GF: church they would stop in at one of the taverns and they'd get a few drinks and then they would leave and some of them would feel pretty well but they were law-abiding people no harm in them and they would leave and as they left they would start to sing songs that were of their country and some of these nasty, ruthless, individuals would waylay them right on the outskirts of Freeland and drum up some charge against them and take them backc and show them a police badge as I said they did not understand the American way of life and take them back to a justice of the pace and this law enforcing officer would was a constable and justice of the peace were together and charge each one of them $10 for disturbing the peace, it was a terrible thing, they were exploited until they come to understand the way of life and someone told them that they were being exploited, that was a terrible, I sympathized very, very much with them, they were a good people, honest people, hard working I worked with them

AV: What helped them to become more Americanized

GF: Well, you know I worked in the strippins and the first few words they learned were words of vulgarity, vulgar words where some fellow that wanted to get a good laugh instead of and then there were honest people who with whom they worked and then of ccourse they would see things, understand the longer they lived here the longer they came in contact with the American way of life and they naturally had to learn but they didn't receive any formal schooling except those who decided to make this country their home and become citizens they of course they had to become naturalized now incidentally you remember Frank Banas well Frank came to me one time and said, Mr. Feisner I want to become citizen you teach me how to become citizen, I said yes Frank I'll help you out, so he come to my home in the evening and you know I would try to prepare, get him ready for it Americanization process and so forth and he was one of the best students I ever had in mmy life if he would leave my home and forget something I told him next day in the mines he would ask me or who ever he would come in contact, what does this mean

AV inter. GF & HF -9- 7/7/72 Tape 24

GF: will you explain this , and he'd come to my home and the next night he'd come in and he would say, excuse me, I'm ashamed, you told me something and now I forgot it, well anyhow and when he appeared before the judge for his examination of course it wasn't because of my teaching, he had a good memory, the judge said, why didn't you apply before this, well he said I didn't think I should 'till I was qualified until I knew enough about the country, so every once in awhile I meet him, you know, he said, that's the way to become a citizen

AV: Well let me ask you this what have you heard about the original Mollie Maguires

GF: Oh yes, I'll tell you, you know during the filming of the Mollie Maguires I was sick at heart, I thought that they werer doing entirely the wrong thing they were putting a whole lot of dramatics in it that didn't occur, for what purpose, to make it more exciting and in so doing it didn't have any continuity any unity

AV: What was it really like

GF: Well now listen the only thing I can give you is stories that came from my father and my grandfather, first I'll take my grandfather, my grandfather lived in the valley, Sandy Valley, and not too far from where my granddaddy lived there's a dirt road that leads off to , Helen you heard of this, the Owl Hole

HF: Yes you were down there Frank Zahay had you down at the Owl Hole, I don't know how they went

GF: Not thru Sandy Valley, well at the extreme end of this dirt road about 3/4 of a mile from the Owl H ole itself was a farm and it was inhabited by a family known as Burka, headquarters of the Mollie Maguires there's where they held their meetings now on the eve of St. Patrick's Day a representative of the Mollie Maguires or 2 would come to my grandfather's farm and say, John we want you to get in line with us tomorrow to march with us Harley, see they paraded from Eckley, well from Sandy Valley to Eckley and they picked up recruits at Jeddo and all the little patch towns and they got to (Harleigh) Harley now why they went to Harley I

AV inter. GF & HF -10- 7/7/72

GF: don't know but it was just a show of strength and my grandfather always consented, he'd go, now my grandfather was a German, not a Catholic, understand he was certainly not a Mollie Maguire but he had to concede to their wishes lest they would do some harm and they never interfered with him, now down at the other end beyond the Owl Hole about 4 miles down at what they call Tullys you know where the elk used to be well I think when you went to the Owl Hole you went down the old railroad bed, didn't you,

AV: No we went thru some of the roads that were the strippings

GF: Oh that's it and that was the old railroad, it looks like strippings, the rails are not in, there was a family lived there by the name of Harris and this home was isolated, alone, down at the foot of the mountain with a little stream coming down and in the yard were two huge while pines and somehow Mr. Harris didn't get along very well with the Mollie Maguires, he didn't concede to their wishes, understand, and he did something that irritated them aggravated them and they planned to punish him but somehow thru a confederate he learned of this now he got in touch with his son that lived in Hazleton and they were going to take him out and punish him someway on a certain Saturday night and he was told about this and he got in contact with his son and his son came down and went up in one of these large pine trees with a rifle and when they started in, I don't know how many of them, he asked them to halt and they didn't and he shot them, he shot them dead and then they asked him if they could take out the dead men and he said, yes and they left and they never bothered that man since, and that's an actual fact now down here you know where Henry Jane lives and where Bella Spire lives at the present time now there was a man that was a mine foreman by the name of McGinley that lived there right across from where the Reformed Church used to be, now Mr. McGinley was an assistant mine foreman, no mine foreman and you see the in those days a mine foreman could give, well he apportioned the work to the miners now he could say to John now, here I'm going to give you this breast to work,