In the Midst of Terror She Went out to Her Work -- Part I

Sellins spent time with the women because, according to Pennsylvania State University historian Dr. Carl Meyerhuber, she knew that families could not endure a strike unless the women were behind it also. "Whenever there was a strike, with its inevitable suffering, Mrs. Sellins was found, caring for the woman and children through the dark days of the struggle." Historian George Korson wrote that Sellins was "a legend which inspires the workers' wives and daughters to steadfastness in their unionism."

Sellins was just like a thorn in the side of the coal operators in the Allegheny Valley. She could have set her own price, and the operators would have paid it to have her move out of the valley. But Sellins refused to betray the miners or to desert them. She was a marked women. The operators openly threatened to "get her." Their opportunity came on August 26, 1919.

(To be continued)

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