As Close to Hell as They Hoped to Get
This chapter examines the steelworkers' experiences with death and dying in western Pennsylvania, and more specifically in Monongahela Valley, during the period 1892–1919. It begins by recounting the Homestead strike of 1892, which pitted the wealthy owners of the Carnegie Steel Company against the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. It then considers other factors that shaped steelworkers' experiences with death after the defeat at Homestead, including work life and life outside of work. It also explores the responses of steelworkers and their families to death, focusing on their creation of networks of mutual aid by turning to religious and secular fraternal societies to help care for the sick and bury the dead. It also discusses the McKees Rocks strike of 1909 and the themes of death and dignity that defined it before concluding with a look at the story of steelman Joe Magarac and its similarities to steelworkers' experiences in turn-of-the-century steel mills. The steelworkers' rituals of death and dying suggests that death provided a key place where they nurtured spirits of resistance.