HERRIN, Ill. (AP) — A southern Illinois town where striking union coal miners clashed with replacement workers in one of the nation’s deadliest labor conflicts has completed an effort to identify victims buried nearly one century ago in unmarked graves.
Most of the 23 victims of the June 1922 Herrin Massacre were buried in an old pauper’s field at the city cemetery. An archaeological team has worked since 2009 to pinpoint those burial locations.
The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan reports that the Herrin City Council has voted unanimously to curtail the excavation after the research team located the remaining eight of 16 burial plots under review.
The city unveiled a cemetery monument in June naming 17 of the victims. Officials had previously tried to halt the dig and block access to cemetery records.