Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) | American Experience | PBS (2024)

In the spring of 1892, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and his cousin, Modest Stein, opened an ice cream shop in Worcester, Massachusetts. "It was spring and not yet warm," Goldman later wrote, "but the coffee I brewed, our sandwiches, and dainty dishes were beginning to be appreciated. Within a short time we were able to invest in a soda-water fountain and some lovely coloured dishes." The entrepreneurs "were dangerously close to economic success," wrote historian Richard Drinnon, "when news reached Worcester of the lockout of workersat Homestead, Pennsylvania," home of the Carnegie Steel Company and its chairman, Henry Clay Frick.

Explosive Labor Dispute
In response to declining prices of rolled-steel productis in the early 1890s, Henry Clay Frick, general manager of the Homestead plant owned by Andrew Carnegie, took a series of bold but miscalculated steps to protect the bottom line. In June 1892, he slashed wages, evicted workers from their company houses, stopped negotiating with union leaders, and threatened to bring in the Pinkertons — a detective agency for hire that amounted to a private army of thugs. When workers called a strike, Frick called on the Pinkertons. On July 6, in the middle of the night, 300 Pinkertons crammed onto barges were towed ten miles up the Monongahela River to Homestead. Armed workers were waiting on the river bank. At dawn, a pitched battlebroke out. After twelve relentless hours, three Pinkertons and seven strikers lay dead.

Self-Made Businessman
The man responsible for this carnage had started out life as the humble son of a pious Mennonite father. He worked as a farmhand on his father's farm, and as a bookkeeper in his uncle's store. "Assuredly Frick was called to business if anyone ever was," according to Drinnon. At the age of twenty he formed Frick & Company, a co*ke-producing venture in the Connellsville coal district of Pennsylvania. co*ke is a carbon derivative used in the manufacturing of steel. During a financial panicin 1873, Frick seized the opportunity to buy out competitorsand ally himself with Carnegie Steel. By the age of thirty, he had made himself a millionaire.

Symbol of Industry
Henry Clay Frick stood for more than just his own success. Following decades of American mechanization, business expansion, and the immigrant-fueled growth of the industrial workingclass, men like Frick, Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, James J. Hill, George Pullmanand others represented a class of titans. These Gilded Age industrialists —collectively known to history as "robber barons" — employed thousands of workers; received mailbags full of requests for charity; and built ostentatious mansions in places like New York City's Millionaire's Row, and Newport, Rhode Island.

Target for Revenge
To anarchists who witnessed the struggles of working people to survive, a robber baron like Frick was a natural target. Berkman decided to assassinate Frick in revenge for his savage treatment of workers during the Homestead Strike. Posing as an employment agent for strikebreakers, Berkman gained entrance to Frick's office on July 23, 1892. He pointed his revolver at Frick's head and fired. The bullet struck Frick in the shoulder. Berkman lunged at Frick, managing to stab him with a sharpened steel file before being dragged away. Frick stopped a deputy sheriff from shooting Berkman. "I do not think I will die," he gasped, "but whether I do or not, the Company will pursue the same policy, and it will win." Frick did not die. Berkman was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison, of which he served fourteen.

Steel Titan
Eight years after the attempt on his life, Frick formed the St. Clair Steel Company, which operated the largest co*ke works in the world. In 1900, Carnegie and Frick locked horns over the price of co*ke supplied to Carnegie Steel. Frick sued for the market value of his co*ke and the case was settled out-of-court. A year later, in 1901, Carnegie sold his interest in Carnegie Steel to J. P. Morgan, a move which allowed Morgan to create U.S. Steel. Frick would become its director.

Art Collector
In 1905, Frick retired to New York City, with a large collection of art works which he had begun collecting after earning his first wealth. Frick's purchases today form the core of The Frick Collection, sixteen galleries of masterpieces by Western artists including Vermeer, Rembrandt, El Greco, Titian, and Bellini, housed in his former mansionat 79th and Fifth Avenue.

Departure
Henry Clay Frick died on December 2, 1919, at the age of seventy. That evening, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were attending a farewell banquet in Chicago, their last whirlwind tour before being expelledfrom the country. At dinner, a young reporter approached Berkman with news of Frick's death and asked him what he had to say about the man. Thinking about his own impending departure from the U.S., Berkman dryly replied that Frick had been "deported by God. I'm glad he left the country before me."

Now Streaming

• The Riot Report

  When Black neighborhoods across America erupted in violence in the summer of 1967, President Johnson appointed a commission to find the cause for the unrest. Their findings offered an unvarnished assessment of American race relations.

• The Riot Report (español)

  Cuando una ola de violencia se apoderó de barrios negros por todo Estados Unidos en el verano de 1967, el presidente Johnson nombró una comisión para encontrar la causa de los disturbios. Sus hallazgos ofrecieron una evaluación honesta de las relaciones raciales estadounidenses.

• Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal

  In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY discovered their neighborhood had been built on a former chemical waste dump. Housewives activated to create a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.

Related Features

• Emma Goldman | Article

  An Activist's Evolution

  Emma Goldman's evolved from a Russian émigré to anarchist firebrand. Explore her legacy.

• Emma Goldman | Article

  Mother Earth First Volume

  Leaf through the pages of the Emma Goldman's showcase magazine.

• Emma Goldman | Article

  She Fought the Law

  Emma Goldman was arrested often and harassed innumerable times.