Hardin County, Ohio, contained a large onion-growing region about 12 miles (19 km) east of the town of Lima.

The largest owner of Hog Creek marshland controlled about a third of that area's total land under cultivation.

[1][2] Wages and working conditions for agricultural workers in Hardin County were poor even before the onset of the Great Depression.

There were no toilet facilities or restroom breaks, and water and first aid for injuries or heat exhaustion were not provided.

Many workers lived in employer-provided housing, and were given an employer-owned milk cow (on loan) to prevent starvation.

Eight out of 10 families were considered to be living in extreme poverty, and almost half of all workers reported working only 26 days a year.

[2] When the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was passed in 1935, it specifically exempted agricultural workers from the protection of the law.

Although it was not illegal for farm workers to organize unions, federal (and state) law did not protect their ability to do so.

Odell and Rizor asked to meet with the Association, but the growers refused and said they would let their fields be overgrown with weeds first.

[3] The Socialist Party of America and the American Civil Liberties Union raised funds for strike relief.

Pursuant to this agreement, Toledo League leader Sam Pollock became part of the union's strike leadership team.

On June 22, Court of Common Pleas Judge Hamilton E. Hoge issued one of the most sweeping anti-labor injunctions in American history.

Most of the special sheriff's deputies were members of the Hardin County detachment of the Ohio National Guard and veterans of the Auto-Lite strike in nearby Toledo, which had only recently ended.

When Governor George White was asked why the special deputies were recruited solely from the Ohio National Guard, he replied that the guardsmen were merely private citizens who had sought temporary employment.

[2][3][7] On June 27, the United States Department of Labor sent a mediator to Hardin County to help settle the strike.

[2][6][7] On June 29, two strikers were shot and wounded by National Guard troops after they attempted to stop a truck of strikebreakers from entering a field.

When they could intercept trucks carrying replacement workers, the strikers would throw rocks, bricks and bottles at the strikebreakers.

Union members and sympathizers cut telephone wires throughout the county, blew up bridges, scattered nails on roads to stop and slow truck traffic, fired shots at strikebreakers, burned warehouses, and set off small explosions in towns, villages and onion processing stations throughout the county.

A Scioto Land Company official had approached Odell on the street and brandished a gun in his face.

[3][4] Near dawn on the morning of August 25, 1934, a bomb exploded at the home of Godfrey Ott, mayor of the town of McGuffey, Ohio.

[2][4][6][7][12] Although he denied any involvement with the bombing, Odell was arrested minutes later and taken to the Hardin County jail (which was located in the town of McGuffey).

If the individual claimed not to be taking sides in the strike, the vigilantes threatened them with death and told them to leave town.

As the capture of the town continued throughout the day, union members and their families barricaded themselves inside their homes, fearing for their lives.

He obtained a revolver from his home and then walked with his brother through the center of town, defying the vigilantes to kill him.

[4][6][7] After Odell returned to his house, a crowd of 200 men and women gathered in front of the building and demanded that he leave town or suffer the consequences.

Around midnight, the crowd climbed into cars and trucks and paraded around Odell's home, honking horns and brandishing clubs.

[2][4][6][7] That same day, United States Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins sent Robert C. Fox, another federal mediator, to Hardin County to try to end the strike.

[13][14] On August 28, federal mediator Fox met with Ott, several large growers, and Odell.

The larger growers were able to employ significant numbers of replacement workers, and onion production was nearly back to full capacity.