Hysrerical ourney to Historic Places

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WARREN FIELD



Baseball was first played on Warren Field near Bisbee, Arizona Territory in 1908. It was the last year of Teddy Roosevelt’s second term as President. One of Roosevelt’s proudest accomplishments was passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Trusts were a business arrangement in which the owners of the trust gained monopolistic control over the nations growth industries. It was good for them, the trust holders all became extremely wealthy, but it was bad for everyone else. The trust system gave rise to trade unionism and a strong socialist movement in America. In 1916 America had finally declared war on Germany and we were gearing up to send troops to France. Within a year industrial production was in full tilt and copper from the mines in Bisbee was critical to the war effort. 1917 was the year that Bolsheviks overthrew the Czarist Regime in Russia. There was not much difference, after all, between Czarist government and the Trust System. In America there was not much difference between the Bolsheviks and the International Workers of the World. Both were radical anarchists. Members of the I.W.W. were called Wobblies, and they wanted to overthrow the government and take control of the wealth for themselves. In 1917 the Wobblies called a strike at the copper mines in Jerome and in Bisbee. The mine owners in Jerome simply called in some thugs and the Wobblies were quickly rounded up, beaten into submission, and their bruised and broken bodies were loaded into boxcars and shipped off by train to California. In Bisbee, however, the Wobblies numbered about 1200 and were stronger than the thugs. The strike in Bisbee was hotly contested, but other mine unions there did not support the Wobblies. The strike was becoming dangerous to innocent women and children and Harry Wheeler, the Sheriff of Cochise County, was watching it closely. There was not much he could do to protect anyone with the limited resources available to him. After it came to his attention that Germany was trying to get Mexico to invade the United States Wheeler became convinced that the Wobblies were part of another German plot to disrupt copper production. That, by God, was a conspiracy and ought to be against the law. American Nationalism was running along in high gear and Wheeler saw a way to end the strike, protect the helpless women children in Bisbee, and get production of copper back on track. The mine companies were glad to cooperate with Sheriff Wheeler. He organized a force of 1800 special county deputies and using the power of the sheriff’s office on June 12, 1917 all of the Wobblies were put under lawful arrest, marched down to Wheeler Field and held until a train arrived to take them to Camp Furlong in New Mexico. It was called the Bisbee Deportation. Wheeler was eventually charged with 1185 counts of kidnapping and forced to return from France where he was all set to lead troops into battle against the Hun. He beat the kidnapping charges in court, but never won another election. During the Great Depression the wooden grandstand where the Wobblies were held was replaced with concrete as a Works Progress Administration project. Youth leagues and the high school team are still playing baseball on Warren Field. Most of them are blissfully unaware that their ball field was once a prison. It is one of the oldest ball parks in America still being used. Today is opening day of the 2013 baseball season.

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Photos

JAMES H. BREW
Brew was a Wobblie. When the special deputies kicked down his door to arrest him he pulled out a pistol and shot one of them. The others returned fire and killed him. There were only two fatalities in the whole deportation.

ORSON PRATT MCRAE
Orson was one of the St David McCraes. It was his bad luck to be the first deputy to barge into the room where Brew was staying. Orson was the to get shot but Brew died first.

WHEELER GRAVESITE
Sheriff Wheeler thought he was doing a patriotic thing by rounding up the wobbles and deporting them to New Mexico. Many of them had families in Bisbee or in Warren, many also owned property there. The deportation deprived them all of due process. The IWW eventually charged Wheeler with 1185 counts of kidnapping. He had in the meantime joined the army and had gone to France to lead men in battle against Germany. The legal problems that arose caused his recall from the front. He was acquitted on the kidnapping charges, but would have preferred to have been killed charging a German machine gun position.