Searching Britton, Healy, Whitestine, Jacobson
I have researched my Britton line from San Francisco
(early 20th Century) to Maysville, Kentucky (19th Century)to
Shippensberg, Pennsylvania (18th Century). They were Scotch-
Irish Presbyterians and, despite the name, strong revolutionaries
in 1776. I am interested in finding exactly where they came from
in the north of Ireland, and before that Scotland? and before
that Britainy?
On my maternal side, I have traced the Healy's back to
what is now the Republic of Ireland, Sligo. William J. Healy
came here and settled in New Haven CT in the 1880's. He was a
joiner (carpenter, cabinetmaker) in both Ireland and New Haven.
He later moved to Denver, Colorado.
My mother's, mother's father, Chester A. Whitestine was
gold miner in the Cripple Creek District of Colorado at the turn
of the 20th Century. He was there for the great gold miners
strike of 1904. "Big Bill" Haywood, head of the Western Federa-
tion of Miners, a forerunner to the "Wobblies" of the IWW, led
the strike over the 8 hour day for smelter workers. The gold
miners like my Great-Great-Grandfather, William Asa Whitestine
had won the 8 hour day for themselves earlier in 1895. The
earlier strike was helped along by a leftist Colorado governor.
The 20th century strke, however, was crushed by a fascist
governor who, without even declaring marshal law, rounded up
without trial union leaders; put hundreds in outdoor stockades
and later shipped them to the Kansas state line.
In 1904 Chester Arthur Whitestine worked in the only mine
that had signed a union contract, but after the union was busted,
the mining dryed up. He then went to Denver and became a rail-
road engineer for the Union Pacific.
Does anyone out there know how to research railroad
employee records????
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