This photo taken in downtown Centralia was used during the trials following the Armistice Day Tragedy of 1919 and is part of a larger collection of artifacts to be used to mark the 100th anniversary.
I hate wasting time, but that’s what more than a dozen people did in January at a Centralia Armistice Day Committee meeting where they discussed and voted on a proposed monument for Washington Park.
The goal was to share the other side of the story from what people read on the Sentinel statue, which was erected by the American Legion nearly a century ago to honor four veterans killed on Centralia streets during what it describes as “a peaceful parade” on the first Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1919.
After an hour of debate, a majority of people rejected wording drafted at committee request by Jay Hupp, a Centralia High School graduate from Shelton, primarily because of the first line: “During the parade, Centralia American Legionnaires formed ranks to raid the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) — Wobbly — Union Hall, and drive them from town. In self-defense, the Wobblies opened fire and killed four Legionnaires, all local World War I veterans.”
In effect it says the four soldiers deserved to die — although 100 years later, I don’t know how anyone can say definitively that Arthur McElfresh, Ben Cassagranda, Warren O. Grimm, and Ernest Dale Hubbard did, in fact, raid the hall. Interestingly, an earlier version described the Legionnaires as “unarmed” but Peter Lahmann and Hupp deleted that word.
“It looks to me like it’s extremely prejudiced toward the union side,” said John Martin of Centralia, a veteran, 30-year union member, and local historian. “I think it assumes a lot of things that we don’t know for sure because they’ve been argued about.”
Instead of Hupp’s wording, a majority of the committee favored a plaque proposed by the Industrial Workers of the World, presented by Mike and Mary Garrison. Bearing the I.W.W. logo at the top, it lists the names of their victims in the tragedy — Wesley Everest, who was lynched by a mob, and those Wobblies “unjustly imprisoned” after a trial in Montesano.
Afterward, Lahmann ignored the committee’s decision and asked Centralia parks officials to approve a monument with the original wording, which the committee had rejected.
Talk about a total lack of respect for others — and the democratic process. So much for a united attempt to commemorate a 100-year-old tragedy that left no winners anywhere. Lahmann’s actions represent revisionist history at its worst — and he’s the president of the Lewis County Historical Museum.
Both Lahmann and Hupp said they’ve received approval of their wording from a family member, Esther Barnett Goffinet, daughter of Eugene Barnett, who was imprisoned for 11 years. She wrote “Ripples of a Lie,” a self-published book that shares the union side of what happened as fact—and, according to her, the only truth.
When Brian Mittge, a fellow historian and Chronicle columnist, posted books about the Centralia Tragedy to the committee’s Facebook page, Goffinet described those volumes as “lies.” One was “Wobbly War: The Centralia Story,” written by newspaper editor John McClelland Jr. and published in 1987 by the Washington State Historical Society. I worked with his son at The Daily News in Longview for more than a decade. Another was Tom Copeland’s book, “The Centralia Tragedy of 1919: Elmer Smith and the Wobblies,” published in 1993 by the University of Washington Press.
Lahmann cites Goffinet’s book as gospel at committee meetings.
The wording of the plaque suggested by the Garrisons is simple. It shows the IWW logo, clearly representing the union side, and lists the IWW’s victims: Wesley Everest — Lynched; Eugene Barnett — Unjustly imprisoned 11 years; Ray Becker — Unjustly imprisoned 19 years; Bert Bland — Unjustly imprisoned 13 years; O.C. Bland — Unjustly imprisoned 11 years; John Lamb— Unjustly imprisoned 13 years; James McInerney — died in prison; Loren Roberts — Unjustly imprisoned 10 years; Britt Smith — Unjustly imprisoned 13 years; Elmer Smith —disbarred. The bottom line reads: “An Injury to One Is an Injury to All.”
“From the IWW perspective, this is all they want on the monument,” Mike Garrison said.
I prefer the IWW plaque. Emotions ran high during the 1920 trial and the judge doubled the sentence recommended by the jury, which did vote to convict the men. Later, Smith received statements from some jurors rescinding their verdict.
“The original conversation here had to do with historic reconciliation, getting people to kind of heal the community,” Mary Garrison said. “And for 100 years, the Sentinel has said their bit. Now we have an opportunity to let the Wobblies say their bit — with no interpretation. Let the human beings come in here (the library) and read all the variety of things that are involved so that they can make up their minds — not a guided tour about what we want people to see and believe.”
I couldn’t agree more. The IWW plaque is good; the Hupp-Lahmann wording attempts to disguise the union perspective as fact.
“I, like some people in this room, have had a problem with this monument inscription because it’s very, very one-sided,” said Chip Duncan, executive director of the Veterans Memorial Museum. “However, the IWW proposition I think is the most pure and proper.”
Their plaque also shows the historic IWW symbol, which many people no longer recognize.
“I think that would be justifiable and absolutely correct to have that on there if we’re trying to commemorate a historical event,” Duncan said.
I repeatedly said the committee must be upfront with the public in soliciting money for any plaque or monument that represents only one side of the story.
“The American Legion side of it is on the back of the Sentinel,” said Hupp, a Navy veteran. “It’s been there for a hundred years. This attempts to give the union side of the story.”
“We’re just trying to get out the other side of the story,” Lahmann said.
Yes, but without saying it’s the union side, instead purporting it to be the only truth.
Mary Garrison, lifting a paper with the IWW plaque proposal, said, “This shows they had a side as well.”
“If that’s what the IWW wants, why do we need to go beyond that?” I asked.
I guess because it wasn’t what Lahmann, Hupp and the Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council wanted. Lahmann said the Labor Council will pay for the monument, which could cost up to $10,000.
It’s a free country, and if the Labor Council wants to pay for a one-sided plaque on private property, that’s fine. But I hope the Centralia City Council is wise enough to realize that a one-sided monument masquerading as fact shouldn’t be erected in a public park.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
