Joe Hill Organizing Committee records, 1914-1991

Joseph Hagglund (1879-1915), also known as Joseph Hillstrom and later still, Joe Hill, was born in Sweden. He immigrated to New York's East side in 1902 and saw the terrible conditions faced by many of the workers. Hill joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1910. He was well known for his many workers' songs like "Rebel Girl," "The Preacher and the Slave," and "Casey Jones," all of which became popular and widely sung at strikes and rallies. In 1913 Hill moved to Utah to work in the Park City mines and became associtated with the Sweedish Community in Murray. Things took a downturn for Hill, in 1914, when he went to a doctor in Murray to be treated for a gunshot wound. That same evening in Salt Lake City, there had been a murder of a store owner, and the assailant had been shot. The doctor informed police, and Hill was arrested for the murder. In what became an internationally watched trial, Joe Hill was found guilty of the murder on circumstantial evidence and sentanced to death. The IWW was viewed with suspicion by many Utahns and many saw Hill's execution sentance as a business-led campaign to get rid of him. A massive movement to get a pardon for Hill began. President Woodrow Wilson asked for a stay of execution, but the stay ran out and Joe Hill died by firing squad on 19 November 1915. His ashes were given to workers in every state, except Utah. Hill remains one of the IWW's better known members. In 1989, Salt Lake City attorney Brian Barnard sought to find out whether there would be a 75th anniversary commemoration of Joe Hill. Upon finding no official commemoration, Barnard organized the Joe Hill Organizing Committee, which arranged several events including a concert at Sugarhouse Park in Salt Lake City.