Vol. 1-Interview-Feisner

AV inter. GF & HF -11- 7/7/72 Tape 24

GF: now John would look at that and he was happy because he knew that he could make a lot of money see they were paid by contract, the number of cars that they load and then he could say to Andrew, now I'l give you this breast, and Andrew didn't like it because the coal was so hard and the vein was very small and he would have to work like the dickens to make ends meet to make a days wages so the Mollie Maguires, one of their purposes was compel these mine foremen to give the choice jobs to their own members and they were deathly opposed to the importation of the Slavs, the Yugoslavs, etc., very very much opposed so Mr. McGinley was the type of individual he wouldn't concede so one night they came to punish him and my dad told the story and he said it was true and Mr. McGinley was prepare, he was on top of the stairs with his shot gun and he said the first one that comes up, I'll shoot and do you know what they did they took his son and they pushed his son up in front of them and they disarmed him and they beat him unmercifully

HF: Angela Mrs. Bachman told you about that, that very incidence

GF: Now some time, you take old Mr. Stoffa, Andy Stoffy, I don't know if you told Angela about that accident

HF: Yes I did, I told her about him

GF: There was one little story I would like to tell you in connection with that, they waylaid him, and Mr. Stoffa was a huge man he was sabout 6 ft. 3 or 4, powerfully built they way-laid him on top of Highland Hill, those days if you wanted to go to town you had to walk and they beat him up, what they did a lot of the stories haven't been explained, now my grandfather lived as I said in Sandy Valley and my father, I'm citing this little story to prove that many of the deaths that occurred around here have never been explained, that is in the days of the Mollie Maguires my father went to work when he was 9 yrs. of age he never went to school and he walked from Sandy Valley to Sandy (blank) work in the breaker and in those days they wore leather boots and sometimes in the winter when they would

AV inter. GF & HF -12- 7/7/72 Tape 24

GF: they'd have to stand along the steam pipe till they could get their boots off their feet were near frozen but anyhow my grandfather sent to Germany for his brother and one day someone brought a German immigrant up to the breaker the German immigrant was looking for Feisner probably it was grandfather's brother and they took him up to the breaker to show him Feisner, he/it was my dad, 9 yrs. of age and he looked at him and in German he said, no it's not the man, and he went back towards Freeland and they never heard of him, now this is pure speculation, some years later the Ruman property in Freeland where the laundrymat is now located that was a hotel, headquarters of the Mollie Maguires always frequented by the members of the organization, many years later it was sold and they went to excavate in the cellar and they came up with the remains of an individual, now that is speculation, was it he, now my brother in Washington had access to millions of names, he worked for the government and he searched diligently for the Feisner name and he found that one had been a professor at Princeton University it was spelled Feissner that was the only one, oh incidentally there was a lady last year she was visiting the Poconos and she saw the advertisement Feissner Garage and she came down and she chatted with me but I don't think there was any relationship now I mention that to show that ofttimes an individual disappeared and that was the end of it

AV: They really operated well

GF: Oh indeed they did, they were very cruel, very cruel,in Buck Mountain I can show you another place where they held their meeting where (blank) lived the McMullins, old Dan McMullin, you knew old Shaney Shaney

HF: Oh yeh, he was the secretary

GF: Yeh Shaney McHugh

AV: What do you know about him

GF: Well I'll tell you we lived next door to them and he was a little Irishman about big, very much to himself, very much, I don't think he did any harm but he was

AV inter. GF & Fedorsha -13- 7/7/72 Tape 24

GF: one of the group probably not one of the policymakers

HF: He probably had to take orders

GF: But I wish you could have been around when my dad lived he could have given you first-hand information I'm sure you would have loved to have listened to my father, yes indeed

HF: He was a very interesting man

GF: He could really tell a story

HF: He certainly could, he was a wonderful person, I think

AV: Now about Shaney McHugh, was there something

GF: Well now Mary Zurko, Mary Gaffney down here would like to hear it

AV: That's o.k. she wouldn't

HF: Jimmy Gaffney does tho he's proud of it

AV: Yes he is, he's very proud

GF: Well, well, is that right, oh dear oh dear, did you tell Helen about the school that existed here

HF: We were talkin' about schools this morning

GF: Do you remember the school down here

HF: Yes I started down there in the first grade and then the second grade already I went up here to school but the first grade Miss Gaffney from Freeland was my teacher and the only thing that separated us was a pot bellied stove and I can still smell the cocoa that Miss Gaffney got ready for herself for lunch and before we went home for lunch she would put on the milk and get ready to make the cocoa and Kate Hauser was teaching the second room but we never got mixed up we did our studies and the others did their studies

GF: You know my dad was a jokester he was witty

HF: I remember a good many stories he told

GF: We lived down here where John (blank) lives and the family on the other side was Sauers, George, Mr. Sauers was a short fellow and Mrs. Sauers was quite tall

AV inter. GF & HF -14- 7/7/72 Tape 24

GF: and a little heavy and she was domineering and he was the receding type so he and Mrs. Sauers said they were going to raise some chickens so he said, I'll have to build a chicken coop and he raised about 200 chickens they were white leghorns and he was so proud of these chickens so in the evening he would go up with a pail or a pan or dish and pick out the eggs so one evening my dad and I were working in the garden he said, Feissner come over here I want to show you something, see I got 35 eggs isn't that wonderful? And my dad said how many chickens do you have, oh about 200, oh that's nice so my dad the next evening went down to my mother and said, mother how many eggs to you have, she said, oh about a dozen, he let me have them, so he took the dozen and he went up to our chicken pen and he put these 12 eggs in with the eggs the chickens laid so he had 20 chickens so he timed it so Mr. & Mrs. Sauers would be in the back yard in the garden when we would go up so he took a dish and went up and he said, now I'm going up to gather my eggs to see what my chickens done today, he went over to the fence and said look here and Mrs. Sauers looked at him and said, how many do you have there, well 18, how many chickens do you have, 20, she turned around to her husband and said, you goddam fool I told you uou didn't know anything about raisin' chickens, well he created a disturbance there,

HF: I remember your dad tellin' that story up at our house

GF: I'll never forget that, well after I received my bachelors degree from Penn State University I later took my masters at Columbia, I took chemistry, and organic chemistry in school I learned how the French made intoxicating beverages so in the evening I thought, I'm going to build a little still, this is the truth in the shanty, this was in the winter time and I thought I'm going to make a little liquor, now mind I never drank, I wouldn't touch it at that time, now today I may take a cocktail or so, I'm not a drinking man, so I set up a still and made it all myself, marquette, I had a barrel behind the stove and I got the rye and put it in and a couple yeast cakes to produce fermentation and water and so forth and finally

AV inter. GF & HF -15- 7/7/72 Tape 24

GF: I made 5 gallons, ran it thru twice tested it, 100 proof, bought a charcoal barrel and you understand the poison in liquor is fusel oil and fusel oil boils at the same temperature that alcohol boils and it vaporizes of course and there's no way to take the fusel oil out of liquor only by charcoal and why charcoal takes it out chemists don't know today well anyhow I bought the charcoal barrel, filled it, corked it built 2 horses and put it in the cellar what I intended to do I don't know well I'll leave it there and see well about 3 months later one Saturday I decided to go down in the cellar to do a little cleaning and I thought well I'd better move that barrel over here and I got I got a hold of it and I could hear it swishing in there it was full in the first place so I began to put 2 and 2 together now dad has been down here and he's been sampling this, he's siphoning it out and I looked around and on the beam and I found a little hose that he used to sephon it out and fill out a quart bottle and take it up to the chicken pen and hide it so I got a kick out of that I didn't say anything for about a week and one evening and we were eating supper, today we call it dinner we were all there the whole family and I said, dad I was down in the cellar on Saturday doing some work, he was very serious never let on he heard me, because he didn't know how I was going to take this, I said, you know that barrel that was down there, I moved it over on the other side, then I think he began to perspire, well I waited for about 3 minutes and then I finally said, Well dad, how is it? Then he began to smile and he said, Oh it's out of this world. I said well you can have it now

HF: He was a card

GF: Well now here's another story that I must tell you see he used to go down to #11 every once in awhile he was called down to #11 mine, #11 was a mine area where they had a hoisting engine where they brought coal out of the mine and they had a boiler house where they made steam to operate the engine and so forth and there was a little shop there and every once in awhile he would go down and do some blacksmithing so it was