> Even after two of its leaders – "Rube" Munson and Homer Spence – had been
> indicted for obstructing the draft, the Working Class Union continued to
> organize in eastern Oklahoma. By midsummer 1917, it had recruited a membership
> of between 18,000 to 35,000 people. On August 2, the Seminole County sheriff
> and some deputies set out from Wewoka to investigate alleged radical activities
> in an area known for its WCU sympathies. The lawmen were ambushed and forced to
> flee by five black men who were part of the WCU. That evening, the WCU called a
> secret meeting on a sandbar in the Canadian River and decided to act.
> Once the rebellion was crushed, the backlash was brutal. The rebellion's
> leaders were given stiff sentences in Leavenworth. Some of the leaders were not
> released until they received a presidential pardon in 1921. The supporters of
> U.S. participation in World War I and the enemies of the labor movement seized
> on the defeat of the Green Corn Rebellion to blame the Socialist Party for the
> rebellion. There were cross-burnings all over the state, as the Ku Klux Klan
> grew.
Leavenworth, by the way, is the site of the Munson Army Hospital. I haven't found any immediate connection between that Dr. Munson and my family.
Mike has managed to get me interested in researching this "Rube" Munson to see if he was related to my branch of the Munson clan. Munson is actually a more common last name for Americans than one might imagine. I know that the geneology for my family has been traced back to 17th century New England, where one of my ancestors allegedly co-founded Yale University. And the Munson clan is orginally from that area of England north of London.
I haven't ever heard of "Rube" Munson in our family tree. I wouldn't be surprised if a radical in the family was downplayed by later generations. I know that my grandparents had lived in northeastern Oklahoma in the early 20th century. My grandmother was from northwest Arkansas and she probably came from a rural "hillbilly" background. My grandfather was from Polo, Missouri, which was the hometown of the James brothers. My grandparents lived in Oklahoma after they got married and while my grandfather was working in a lead mine there.
There may be an interesting background story to my grandmother's family. One of my cousins has been working on the family geneology and she says that my grandmother's family--acording to census rolls--moved from Arkansas to Texas during the Civil War. Evidently a bunch of people in Arkansas did this who were confederate sympathizers.
My grandparents later settled in Garnett, Kansas, a small town in southeast Kansas about 90 minutes from Kansas City. My grandmother worked as a cleaning lady, or a "charwoman" as they were called back then. My grandfather was one of the town's barbers. My father recently told me that my grandfather was the only barber in town who would cut hair of the town's African-American community. He evidently had to do this "in the back of the shop."
I know that there have been members of the extended Munson clan in the central U.S. for several centuries. Estes Park in Colorado is named after a great-great-great-great-granduncle. A more contemporary relation
to a famous radical would be Erin Brokovich, whom I'm told that we're related to. Brokovich is originally from Topeka.
Last year this same cousin presented me with some interesting materials. My jaw dropped when I saw my name on a tombstone in France. I found out that my namesake had been killed in France during WW I, at the start of the final Allied offensive, in late September 1918. Charles "Delbert" Munson was a infantryman in the same Army unit at Harry S Truman.
I'll do some research and report back on "Rube" Munson.
Chuck
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