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1897-1903 Coming of Age

The February 1897 Electrical Worker ran the following story:

When she was first noticed by one of the attaches of the Norfolk and Western road she was walking down the long platform of the depot… and closely inspecting the offices that occupy the long building back of the depot proper. She went the whole length of the platform, and evidently didn’t find what she wanted for she came back to where one of the night clerks sat by an open window, and asked,” Where is the telegraph office here?”

Pole setting in 1899

“There is a day office upstairs in the depot, but it is closed now,” was the answer; and the man added, “If you want to send a message, you’ll have to go uptown now.”

“I only wish to see the operator,” replied the lady; then she almost paralyzed the gentleman by adding, “I’m a railroader myself….”

The gentleman tried to explain to her that the office was nearly half a mile down the track, at the end of the bridge. It was a dark night, and it looked like it might rain at any moment. If she would get to the office (to try to arrange to get on a west-bound freight train), she would have to walk down through the yards and over the tracks, where the busy switch engines were making up the freight trains….None of these obstacles, that would have deterred most girls, (deterred her). She was used to cars and with proper direction could find her way through any yard, and she wasn’t afraid.

This woman, not identified by name, was a telegraph operator, a position, like telephone operators, which was increasingly held by women. Women played a vital role in the early years of the electrical union. Twenty-three years before women could vote in the United States (the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing women the right to vote was ratified on August 26, 1920), the first telephone operators local, Local 80 of Cleveland, was formed. Mae Patterson was elected president; and according to the press secretary of Cleveland’s Local 38, Thomas Wheeler (later to become Grand President), “In Cleveland the electric girls have an organization with a membership of about 40…(with) one of the finest halls in the city (The Electrical Worker, July 1897).”

Linemen and wiremen take a break in 1897.

The year 1897 also saw a woman elected to the St. Louis delegation to the Fifth Convention in Detroit. Her name was Mary Honzik. Although little written record of her remains, her picture was prominently featured in the November 1897 Electrical Worker prior to the Convention and in photos taken during the Convention itself.

At the 1897 Convention John H. Maloney, a lineman from Local 60, San Antonio, was elected Grand President; and H.W. Sherman, formerly President, was elected Grand Secretary. Brother Sherman became publisher and editor of The Electrical Worker; and the national headquarters was moved to his hometown of Rochester, New York.

The period after the 1897 Convention was marked by real growth of the Brotherhood. Despite the fact none of the national officers were full-time employees of the union, about 40 locals comprising about 3, 200 members were brought into the Brotherhood by 1899. The desire for growth also led the organizing of locals in Canada. At the Sixth Convention, in Pittsburgh in October 1899, the union’s name was officially changed to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. H.S. Hurd of Hamilton, Ontario, was selected to be Vice President over the newly chartered Canadian locals. Between December 1899 and May 1900, Canadian IBEW locals were chartered in Ottawa, Hamilton, Montreal, Toronto and London.

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1897-1903 Coming of Age

Mary Honzik, a St. Louis delegate at the NBEW's Fifth Convention.

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