Hugh O'Donnell (labor leader)

[5] Strike leaders, who assigned lookouts to keep a watch along rivers and rail routes, were apprised by telegram at 2:30 am of July 6 that barges had departed for the steel works and ten minutes later a warning alarm was sounded, echoed by whistles throughout the town.

[2] Some of those coming forward in impromptu leadership roles included Margaret Finch, the feisty widow of a steelworker who operated the Rolling Mill House saloon, English immigrant laborer William Foy, and open-hearth skilled worker Anthony Soulier.

[6] As dawn began to break at 4:00 am, a crowd had gathered along the riverbank next to a barbed wire fence which ran from the plant to the river, which had been erected by the company some weeks earlier.

[4] On July 12, 1892, O'Donnell chaired a mass meeting in Homestead which voted unanimously to support the introduction into town of the National Guard, which had been called out by Pennsylvania Governor Robert E.

[10] The meeting was addressed by Homestead burgess (mayor) John McLuckie, who railed against the Pinkertons as members of a "dirty, filthy, stinking" organization while encouraging reception of the militia "with open arms," since "they are not dangerous so long as the dignity of the state is not insulted.

"[10] O'Donnell was arrested in September 1892, charged with conspiracy, aggravated riot, treason, and two counts of murder in connection with the violent battle between Homestead strikers and Pinkerton Detective Agency employees.

[14] Stricken seriously ill by the disease, in November 1905 O'Donnell left the Northeast for the warmer and drier climate of the Southwest, accompanied by relatives, in an effort to regain his health.