Missouri Bicentennial: Military tensions led to riot in 1917

Frank Nickell argues a theory about history that may help to explain a period of labor strife in Southeast Missouri that many either have forgotten about or never knew.

"The ten years from 1914 to 1923 perhaps represents the most significant decade in modern history," said the venerable historian, a teacher for more than 40 years at SEMO. "I don't think you can find any other 10-year period in which as much drama, as many firsts, as many revolutions or as many changes took place."

Nickell ticks off a list of examples.

"Women got the right to vote; the period of powerful U.S. presidencies emerged and remained; the Panama Canal opened; Prohibition -- a national effort to stop the production and sale of liquor -- was launched; the first World War started and ended; Japan left its isolation behind and became a world power; an influenza epidemic killed roughly the same number of people as COVID has now," Nickell said. "We saw communism and fascism come to the fore; witnessed the issuance of the Balfour Declaration promising a national home for Jews in Palestine; Admiral Perry went to the North Pole and Readers Digest and Time magazine came into existence."

Innovations also occurred, reminded Nickell -- Scotch tape was invented during the period as was an aid for indigestion, as a St. Louis pharmacist came up with an over-the-counter item -- Tums.

One of the more striking factoids from the 1914-1923 time frame is what happened to inflation.

"In 1914, four German marks equaled one U.S. dollar. By 1923, it took 4.2 trillion marks to do the same thing," Nickell said, adding the massive economic destabilization was brought on in large measure by the punishing demands of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War and probably was the seedbed for Adolf Hitler's rise less than 20 years later.

Groundwork

"The hottest lead mining region of the world in the early 20th century was in St. Francois County -- Bonne Terre, Flat River, Desloge, Elvins, Esther, Leadwood and Rivermines," Nickell said, noting 70% of the U.S. lead supply came directly from the area.

Several old Lead Belt towns, including Flat River, became part of what is now known as Park Hills in 1994, home today to Mineral Area College.

The production levels of the area -- fueled by the need for lead necessitated by WWI -- are impressive to read.

"Lead mining was important to the region as far back as 1720," he said, adding in 1869, Missouri's lead belt produced 261 tons of this heavy metal, soft and malleable and easily extracted from its ores. By 1876, the production level increased to 2,436 tons and the population of Bonne Terre -- French for "good earth" -- boomed to 4,000.

People began to migrate to areas where work was plentiful.

"There were no interstate highways at the time, so the movement occurred through walking or via the Illinois-Central Railroad, or they came up Highway 61 and passed through Cape Girardeau on the way to St. Louis."

Flashpoint for strife

Immigration fed Lead Belt labor -- a need becoming particularly acute as America entered WWI in 1917.

"When the U.S. entered the war in 1917 and men were drafted into the service, there was a sudden shortage of labor. Hungarians, who had settled in the region looking for work, were not subject to the draft if they did not declare the intention to seek permanent American citizenship," Nickell said.

"There emerged a great rivalry between native-born Americans for whom military service was more or less compulsory and Hungarians who had no such obligation to the nation's armed forces."

Hungarians, in a term of derision, were referred to as "hunkies."

In July 1917, the Flat River Riot occurred, of which Nickell opined most Missourians are unaware.

Hungarians and other emigres from Eastern and Southern Europe were driven out of Flat River and its environs.

"It got so bad Missouri Gov. Frederick Gardner had to send in the National Guard, and there was a military presence in the mines to keep order until the end of the war in late 1918," said Nickell, who added the foreign-born were effectively forced out of the region.

"Five boxcars were parked in Bonne Terre and all of the foreigners, at gunpoint, boarded along with all their personal belongings and were taken to St. Louis and other parts of the country, never to return."

The long-ago riot illustrates how fast societal change can occur and "it is sometimes so rapid, it just doesn't work. We seem to be going through tensions not all that dissimilar today in America," Nickell said.