Shelvy Daffron Memorial

From the book, History of the Seattle Waterfront

At the June 30 Joint Northwest Strike Committee meeting, Seattle delegate Shelvy Daffron reported, "There was Hell to pay out at Pier 41." Action had to be taken before hot-blooded pickets got themselves slaughtered attacking police positions.

The meeting temporarily adjourned while delegates hustled to Smith Cove.

That same evening Daffron accompanied striking sailors and longshoremen to Point Wells to check on a rumor that nonunion crews were about to sail two oil tankers. Thirty strikers rushed the main gate. On the other side guards waited with axe handles.

One of the guards yelled, "Let’s give it to them." As the two groups clashed, shots rang out from bushes behind the longshoremen.

Striker Shelvy Daffron cried out, "They got me boys! They got me!" Daffron died several hours later in a Seattle hospital of gunshot wounds in his back.

On July 6, 1,320 longshoremen and marine workers attended Daffron’s funeral in Eagles’ Hall. Forming a line four abreast, thousands marched behind the hearse and union banners to Lakeview Cemetery.

For over fifty-five years, Seattle longshoremen have placed a wreath on Daffron’s grave on July 5.

Shelvy Daffron
By Cyndi Kendall
Three years ago I attended the ceremony at Shelvy’s grave. The speech that was given had nothing to do with Shelvy. After that I decided to research his life and share with you what this man was about, and his love for the Union that he gave his life for and why.

Shelvy was born March 3, 1887 in Piedmont, Missouri to John Wesley Daffron and Letha Masterson. He had 6 siblings and lived on a farm. By the age of 24 he had worked as a cook and a blacksmith in Benton, Missouri helping to support his widowed mother and siblings. On April 9, 1914 in Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 27 he married Nannie Lee and together they had 2 children; Carrie Lee, born in 1917 and James Henry born in 1918. His daughter, Carrie married Donald Mathews just 6 months before her father’s death and his son James became a longshoreman for a short time.

I found in one of our history books that James had not paid his dues and was deregistered and if I remember right he was taken into the clerks. The 1950 Census says he had joined the City Police Department.
By June 5, 1917 Shelvy and Nannie were in Seattle where a WWI Registration was filled out. They were living at 3312 Eastlake Way in Seattle and Shelvy was working at the Standard Oil Company at Point Wells the place where he would be killed years later.

By 1920 his brother, Willis had joined him at the Standard Oil Company working as a blacksmith. I tried to read the 1918-19 minutes but they were extremely faded and just too hard to read. However in 1920 he was still working at the Standard Oil Company. The 1920 -21 minutes were not available to me, where Shelvy most likely had put in an application as a longshoreman for the ILA and later was "obligated" to the local. It would have been interesting to find out exactly when that was.

By 1922 Shelvy is shown in the Seattle directory as a "stevedore." In November 1930 Shelvy was taken in to the Seattle ILA local along with 65 others. Then on January 6, 1931 Shelvy was nominated for the Delegate to Central Labor Council. The last minutes that were sent to me were for April 26, 1934. It would have been interesting to read the ones after Shelvy and Olaf’s death.

Then early in the morning at 1am on June 30, 1934 Shelvy would be shot and killed by the oil company’s guards.

On July 1, 1934 Wayne Carleton Douglas was arrested for investigation of murder along with a Harry Brooks who was released 4 hours later. Wayne Douglas was bailed out July 7, with a bail of $2,500 and I assume it was Standard Oil who bailed him out. He was found not guilty of the murder of Shelvy. Standard Oil then sent him to work at their plant in San Francisco and supplied him with a comfortable home. He retired in Arizona very nicely. Shelvy’s wife Nanny, sued twice trying to get help raising their children only to be told It was Shelvy’s fault for losing his life.

I have done extensive research on Harry Brooks and I believe he was the one that actually had Shelvy murdered. As I said my research is extensive and the results are a total “rats nest” of documentation and I plan on putting it all on paper in the future to make things more understandable.

We all knew that the employer had him murdered but my research leads to Harry Brooks being related to the bank financer of Hawaiian Lines. Harry Brooks was not his true name.

So let us today reflect on Shelvy Daffron and remember his last words, "They got me." Let us also remember how he worked for Standard Oil Company for 4-5 years before leaving to join the ILA... and wonder together what he may have learned while working for them and how he was so devoted to the union and tried to stop them by sharing what he had learned.

It was so bad that both he and his brother left the oil company to pursue other careers. If you understood what Standard Oil was doing back then you would understand that it was greed.
Let us not forget what our men went through to give us what we have today. Let them not be forgotten and instead learn from them to respect this union by working to keep our organization together as a strong unit that we once were. 

It was greed that was trying to break us then and do not let greed destroy us. History seems to be repeating itself now....and lets not forget Olaf Helland who was a seaman fighting for what he knew would be a great union and lost his life doing it, also, for us... He saw how these men fought, suffered and just what they were fighting for. Let us hope that we do not have to do this again.
I am going to close by saying I am sorry Shelvy, Olaf and all the rest, for your lives being cut short for us. We will never forget.

From the July 16, 1964 issue of the Local 19 newsletter The Hook;

The Pensioner's express and "The Hook" wholeheartedly agrees, concerning the disappointment in the increasingly lack of interest in Bloody Thursday. Only a handful of members attended the ceremony at Shelvy Daffron's grave and there are probably only a few members left who knew the Brothers that were killed on that day in 1934. That makes no difference. These ceremonies are not for the old friends of these men.

These ceremonies are a recognition of the fact, that on that day, out of the bloodshed and tear gas and lumped heads, the West Coast Longshoremen found unity which gave birth to the ILWU. The editors feel it certainly wouldn't hurt all of us to take a little time out in remembrance. it probably would do us a hellava lot of good, in fact, to remember that longshoremen didn't have what we now enjoy and that it wasn't handed to us on a silver platter.

Wreath Laying Ceremony

Longshoremen who Lost their Lives on the Seattle Waterfront

William Kade	1886	Magnus Ulxickson	1922
Henry Jackson	1886	E. J. Sorenson	1922
Pat Priestly	1886	H. W. Curtis	1922
George Water	1886	Thomas McCarthy	1923
Angus Johnson	1886	James Henry	1925
Hans Hanson	1886	Robert A. Pelky	1925
Milton McAuley	1887	Peter V. Larson	1926
John C. Smith	1890	Arthur Saboc	1927
Gus Wishman	1908	Hans Hanson	1927
Orlando Pittman	1908	John Tangye	1928
John Ryan	1910	Shelvy Daffron	1934
Peter Kavenaugh	1911	Olaf Helland	1934
Steven Peseta	1913	Axel Bruno Anderson	1936
J. Milmoe	1915	Oscar D. Silow	1937
Harry Ragan	1916	John M. Reilly	1938
Joe Goldsby	1916	Percy F. Norris	1939
A. G. Bryant	1917	Wales C. Fenton	1943
Samuel Grover	1918	Tom Rawson	1959
Charles Hallier	1918	Otto L. Blosi	1960
T. Thompson	1918	Dallas Schachere	1962
Gust Nelson	1918	John Josvold	1962
Fred Jackson	1918	Donald Scribner	1963
Harry Krise	1918	Dagfin Petterson	1964
Gilbert Halverson	1918	Ralph Sharar	1965
Stockton Rumsey	1918	LeRoy Parr	1969
James G. Carlson	1919	Olimpio Leonardo	1972
Martin Burns	1919	John W. Miskey	1972
Edward C. Grampie	1919	Elmer Knutson	1972
John Miller	1920	Douglas Farnan	1976
Anatone Olson	1921	James R. Kennedy	1984
Alfred C. Jack	1921	Joseph Aliseo	2007
S. C. Sullivan	1921	Dan Miller	2007
Fred W. Wilford	1921	Paul Stuart	2012
Erling Johnson	1922	Michael G. Freeman	2022

Final Dispatch

Bloody Thursday - What it Means