Oscar Neebe
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Oscar William Neebe I (July 12, 1850 – April 22, 1916), anarchist, labor activist and one of the defendants in the Haymarket bombing trial.
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[edit] Early Life
Oscar Neebe (pronounced "knee-bee") was born on July 12, 1850 in New York City, the son of German immigrants -- although the Neebe family were originally French Huguenots who fled to Kassel, Germany. He had two siblings: Conrad Neebe (1842-?), who later moved to Boston and presumably died there; and Louis W. Neebe (1847-1911), who was born in Pennsylvania and died in Chicago on September 22, 1911. Oscar's family relocated to Hesse Kassel, Germany for his education and returned to the United States in 1864. For a short time, Neebe worked manufacturing gold and silver leaf in Brooklyn, but was forced to abandon it for health reasons.
In 1866, he moved to Chicago, where, nearly penniless, he had a hard time finding a job until he was finally taken on as a waiter in a saloon. The saloon was frequented by workers from the nearby McCormick reaper works, and it was here that her first heard of the plight of workers and how they were exploited and heard of the 8-hour day movement. In 1868, He began working as a cook on the boats that carried iron ore across the Great Lakes, but left the job soon after and returned to New York.
In New York he became an apprentice tinsmith and later, worked in factories manufacturing milk and oil cans. He encountered the realities of the working world: tenement housing with families too poor to feed their families and children forced to work for low wages and who were often injured in the factories. In 1871, he heard his first speech by a communist party member.
In 1873 he moved to Philadelphia where he met and married Anna M. (Meta) Monsees. They eventually had three children. In 1877, Oscar and his wife moved back to Chicago where he took a job in a manufacturing plant but was later fired for daring to stand up for his fellow workers. He joined the communist party the same year. He was mostly without work for the following two years. In 1881, he and his brother opened a yeast business. Meta died on March 8, 1887 in Chicago. It was in their visits to the local bakeries and breweries that Oscar became interested in the labor movement. He also became the office manager for Arbeiter-Zeitung, a German workers' rights newspaper edited by August Spies and Michael Schwab
[edit] Haymarket Riot and Trial
Neebe was not present at the Haymarket Square on the day of the meeting and subsequent bombing, and stated that he was not even aware the meeting had happened until he was told about it the following day (May 5). When he heard that Spies and Schwab had been arrested in connection with the bombing, he took over management of Arbeiter-Zeitung. He was, himself, arrested only a few days later due to his association with other defendants and Arbeiter-Zeitung.
At trial, the evidence against Neebe was particularly weak, which even the State's Attorney reportedly admitted [1]. The main evidence presented against him were that based on his political views and the fact that he attended socialist meetings, the fact that he was associated with Arbeiter-Zeitung, and that a shotgun, pistol and red flag were found at his home. One witness claimed that he had been distributing the famous "Revenge" Circular[2], but Neebe claimed he had only handed him one that was already present and hadn't even read it himself.
Despite all of this, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In his final speech to the court, he declared, "There is no evidence to show that I was connected with the bomb-throwing, or that I was near it, or anything of that kind. So I am only sorry, your honor-that is, if you can stop it or help it-I will ask you to do it-that is, to hang me, too; for I think it is more honorable to die suddenly than to be killed by inches. I have a family and children; and if they know their father is dead, they will bury him. They can go to the grave, and kneel down by the side of it; but they can't go to the penitentiary and see their father, who was convicted for a crime that he hasn't had anything to do with. That is all I have got to say. Your honor, I am sorry I am not to be hung with the rest of the men."[3]
While serving his sentence, his wife Meta died in 1887. While at first it was promised that he could attend the funeral, he was not allowed. On June 26, 1893 Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned Neebe and two of his co-defendants, having concluded they were innocent.
[edit] Later Years
Neebe remarried the same year he was released, and had three more children with his new wife Regina (nee Hepp). Neebe, who had been involved with (and then expelled from) the Socialist Labor Party, and active in the trade union movement prior to the Haymarket Affair, joined the Industrial Workers of the World soon after its founding in 1905. He was listed as one of their main speakers in Chicago for Labor Day, 1906, and attended the union's 1907 Convention. He spent his final years as a saloon keeper, and died April 22, 1916.
He was buried at the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument at German Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.
[edit] References
- Oscar Neebe Autobiography
- 1880 US Census with Louis Neebe in Chicago
- 1900 US Census with Oscar Neebe I in Chicago
- New York Times; March 09, 1887; page 12. Chicago, March 8, 1887. Oscar Neebe, the Anarchist, will be permitted to attend the funeral of his wife, who died from apoplexy yesterday. Sheriff Matson wrote a letter to one of Neebe's friends making...
- New York Times; March 10, 1887; Chicago, March 9, 1887. Anarchist Oscar Neebe went out into the busy world this afternoon for the first time since his conviction nearly seven months ago. His wife died a day or two ago, and Sheriff Watson to-day permitted him to go and look upon her face once more and also meet his children.
- New York Times; March 12, 1887; Chicago, March 11, 1887. Oscar Neebe, the Anarchist, to-day selected Paul Grottkau and George Schilling to deliver the orations at his wife's funeral service in Miller's Hall Sunday.
- New York Times; March 13, 1887; Chicago, March 12, 1887. The wife of Anarchist Oscar Neebe will be buried tomorrow, but the husband will not be there. Sheriff Matson told him when Mrs. Neebe died that he might attend the funeral and Neebe had intended to avail himself of the privilege.
- Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy, p.447 (Princeton Univ. Press 1983) (refencing his attendance at the 1907 Convention)
- Industrial Worker, July 1906 (first series), p. 6 (Joliet, Ill.) (listing as speaker for Labor Day)
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