FIRST GRAND MASTER MACHINIST.
THOMAS W. TALBOT 1888 - 1890.
Born on a farm in
Chesterfield County, South Carolina on April 37, 1849, Talbot was left
fatherless at six months and was working in a shoe factory to support his
invalid mother by the time he was ten years old. When young Tom reached
the age of sixteen, a few weeks after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, he
entered an apprenticeship in the machine shop of the North Carolina
Railroad in Florence, South Carolina. Many years later he said he chose
this trade, "To make an honorable mechanic of myself, to be a worthy member of society and to . . . give me a good start in life."
SECOND GRAND MASTER MACHINIST.
JOHN J. CREAMER, 1890 - 1892.
Talbot's successor,
James J. Creamer of Richmond, Virginia, was born in 1861. At seventeen he
began his apprenticeship in the machine shop of the Richmond Locomotive
Machine Works. A member of the Knights of Labor, he served as secretary of
the Richmond Assembly. However, when he heard of Talbot's Order of
Machinists and Mechanical Engineers, he became a charter member and helped
to organize Lodge 10.
THIRD GRAND MASTER MACHINIST.
JOHN O'DAY, 1892 - 1893.
When Creamer's
successor, John O'Day of Indianapolis, took over as Grand Master Machinist
in 1892 business and industry were in a deep economic downslide. This
inflamed class-ridden relationships between employers and wage earners.
Shortly after O'Day took office steelworkers in Homestead, Pennsylvania
fought one of the bloodiest pitched battles in American labor history.
This classic collision between capital and labor occurred on the banks of
the Monongahela River, just outside of Pittsburgh.
UPDATES
12/14/00 James O'Connell, William H. Johnston, A.O. Wharton
12/21/00
Harvey W. Brown, Albert J. Hayes, P.O. Siemiller
12/27/00
Floyd E. "Red" Smith,
William W. "Wimpy" Winpisinger
01/10/01 George J. Kourpias, R. Thomas
Buffenbarger
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