Document Type
Unpublished Paper
Publication Date
2026
Abstract
This work is a primary source document for a history of Chicago labor in the late nineteenth century, rather than a history itself, despite its title. It was written by a German construction carpenter and Socialist living in Chicago, who was from the mid Rhine Valley of Germany in the vicinity of Wuppertal, an area noted for labor activism. He arrived in 1872 to work in the reconstruction of the city after the Great Fire of October 1871, when he was twenty-seven years old. His carpentry stills included stair-building; and he belonged to a stair-builder’s union local, severing as president for several years. His trade as a construction carpenter may help explain one of the minor virtues of this work—his interest in the precise location of all buildings, as well as saloons, Turner halls, picnic groves, meeting rooms, armories, and the exact routes of parades. Another minor virtue of Winnen’s history is his familiarity with Germans not living in the core of the German ethnic community on Chicago’s North Side. Like Winnen, many German leftists lived on the city’s Southwest Side in an area roughly around the intersection of 12th Street (Roosevelt Road) and Halsted. It was an industrial district including many wood fabrication factories—furniture, doors, windows, picture frames—and huge stacks of lumber along the South Branch of the Chicago River.
Recommended Citation
Winnen, Jacob and Jentz, John, "History of the Chicago Labor Movement by Jacob Winnen, translated and edited by John B. Jentz" (2026). Library Faculty Research and Publications. 157.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fac/157
Comments
"History of the Chicago Labor Movement" by Jacob Winnen, translated and edited by John B. Jentz. Unpublished work.
© 2026 John B. Jentz, [email protected]
Used with copyright holder's permission.
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