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Churches, Schools, Bathhouses Building Community on Company Land Aside from the community they fostered in their boardinghouse and immediate neighborhood, Joseph and Antonia Putrich also engaged with the larger community of Painesdale and even the Copper Country. These connections are highlighted by the number of institutions that came into play on the day of the shootings. A group of eight men from the boardinghouse walked to South Range to collect their strike benefits and also to have a few beers, first in a saloon, then in a park. On their way home, John Kalan and John Stimac stopped in a candy store on the north side of Painesdale to get some tobacco and a pop. After the shooting, Joseph Putrich went to another store to use the telephone to summon the doctor.1 Stanko Stepich, wounded in the shootings, was treated in the hospital in Trimountain. Steve Putrich and Alois Tijan, killed in the shootings, were buried in Lakeview Cemetery after a service at the Croatian Church in Calumet, twenty miles north. (Although there was a Catholic church in Painesdale, there was only one Croatian Catholic church in the Copper Country.) And the trial of the perpetrators of the shootings took place in the Houghton County Courthouse in Houghton. So this one incident brought the Putriches into contact with a number of businesses and services: saloon, store, hospital, church, courthouse . In addition, their children, once old enough, attended the public school in Painesdale and may have used the library nearby. Most of these community services and businesses were housed in their own buildings. Company management was involved, at least to some extent, in all of these community facilities. Companies had to do more than build housing if they were to attract and retain workers; they also had to provide or encourage all of the institutions that made life in the Copper Country possible and enjoyable. The companies forcefully took initiative in implementing some of these institutions, others they let the free market supply; some of the institutions were embodied in 162 5 architectural landmarks, others were not architectural at all; some of them were natural developments in communities, others were considered “welfare work” of the company. In his report for the Bureau of Labor Statistics during the 1913–14 strike, Walter Palmer enumerated Calumet & Hecla’s extensive welfare work: public library, bathhouse, hospital, free fuel distribution to widows and special cases, broom factory to give employment to blind miners, pasturage for cows, garbage removal, electricity at a reduced rate, churches, and schools. In addition, C&H established a number of funds: an aid fund for sickness or accidents, pension fund for select older employees, aid outside of regular aid fund, voluntary relief fund for widows and orphans, and insurance (death benefits not covered by aid fund). The aid fund was particularly noteworthy, involving a regular contribution from employees of fifty cents a month, matched by the company. The fund was invested in C&H stock, and at a time of great profits, 1898–1901, the company suspended its workers’ payments into the fund for three years, in effect giving its employees a raise.2 C&H, as the largest and most profitable company in the Copper Country, led the way on the provision of benefits. Of the other companies, only Copper Range had a company-administered aid fund, and the company did not match employees ’ contributions.3 C&H’s involvement in the provision of schools, churches, hospitals, pasturage for cows, garbage removal, and the like meant that these services became an expectation of employees of other large companies as well. At times, C&H built large, architect-designed buildings to display its concern for its employees in a conspicuous manner. Its followers, Quincy and Copper Range, tried to keep pace. The larger companies established a core area, separate from a commercial core or “Main Street” area. At Calumet, where development occurred without a coherent plan, the school was adjacent to the boiler house, the bathhouse next to the railroad roundhouse (Figure 5.1). About a quarter of a mile away, the platted village of Red Jacket provided the commercial needs. Similarly, at Quincy, the schools and churches were within a block of the mine buildings. Painesdale, one of the few planned communities, clustered its schools, library, and church in the residential area, but the store and post office were down by the railroad tracks and probably served as more of a hub.4 The platted communities, not owned by the companies, accommodated stores, bars, hotels, theaters, and other entertainments —community aspects that...

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