Cool find today

[Diggerbarns]

Hunting in an old school yard I found a badge.It has a pin,so you can attach it to your shirt.It says Connellsville central coke company Industrial soldier.Has a worker with a sledge hammer in hand.I wish I could post a pic,but my camera is down..Any ideas on what this is?

[julieburger]

Sounds really cool.

[grasshopper]

never heard of it but it sounds neat!!

[gordiesgirl]

Sounds like a great find. Good for you.

[JCWhite]

Maybe sometime you can post a pic of it here but it sounds like a great find.

[EPC Guy]

Sounds like it could be from WWII when many industries filled thousands of vacant positions with women - due to so many men enlisting in the military...you've probably seen the old posters of "Rosie the Riveter" that encouraged women to apply for jobs...they were sometimes referred to as "Industrial Soldiers"...at any rate, this sounds like a really nice find - and I'd love to see a pic when you get the chance!

[EBCIII]

No idea at all, but it does sound like a very good find, Beale.

[MinelabMan]

Cool find, I'd also like to see a picture. I think EPC's on to something with the women being Industrial Soldiers!

[mtpockets]

Nice find... Type the Name into Google..Search the Web.. Then try to search Images..

[Steve in PR]

I tried to do a little reseach about the badge. EPC's theory is probably the correct one. But, I did see some sketchy references to a labor struggle between the "Robber Barons" and the unions over the 8 hour workday back in 1886. The Connellsville Central Coke Company was a big supplier of fuel to the Carnegie steel mills. Probably still is today.

Here's a excerpt from the US Department of Labor's website:

Huge parades were staged on May 1 (1886), in Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, San Francisco, Cincinnati, and other industrial centers. So many employers conceded some reduction of hours (usually a nine-hour day) that about 185,000 workers benefited. In addition to the many strikes for shorter hours, southern textile workers, Connellsville coke workers, southwestern railroad shop men, and others totaling more than 690,000 participated in strikes that year. Membership in both the unions and the Knights (of Labor) grew rapidly.

So, I wonder if the button may date back to that time and to those events.....

Added note: As I got into researching this period of time I stumbled across this link: http://www.nps.gov/nhl/themes/Scanne...r/bostbldg.pdf

Further down the post it gives a very thorough description of a violent confrontation between the Unionists and Pinkerton Guards hired by the mill owners. A lot of this must have happened in your area. I also noted that there was an incident where "items from the vessels were thrown overboard into the river." I wonder if that site is ever huntable when the river is low.....