The Saylesville Massacre and Moshassuck Cemetery

On Dec. 31, 1870, Hazzan Abraham Jacobs organized the Congregation Sons of David, which purchased a plot of land in the northwest corner of Moshassuck Cemetery, in the town of Lincoln (now part of Central Falls). This congregation merged with the Congregation of the Sons of Israel in 1874 under the corporate name Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David. Even though the congregation had its own cemetery in Cranston, they decided to buy more land in the Moshassuck Cemetery for the burial of non-members, relatives of members and charitable cases. Many other groups bought land in the cemetery over the next 25 years. 

One of the tombstones has an interesting story to tell.

In 1934 there was great labor unrest in the New England mills. On Labor Day, there was a strike in Rhode Island. The strike was peaceful – except at two mills belonging to the Manville Jenckes Co., one of which was next to the cemetery. The owners decided to bring in replacement workers, who had to cross picket lines, where it is said that thousands were gathered. When two of the strike-breakers tried to push through the picket line, the union supporters would not let them.

The Rhode Island State Guard attempted to move the strikers toward the cemetery, and a riot broke out. Strikers and guardsmen ran into the cemetery, seeking cover and vantage points.  In the gunfire, one man was killed and a Jewish tombstone was struck by a bullet.

The Providence Evening Bulletin on Sept. 12, 1934, described the cemetery conflict:

“The most stubborn fighting occurred in the Moshassuck Cemetery. Here hoodlums hid behind tombstones and pelted the troops with large rocks and other missiles. … When the guardsmen with rifles and bayonets and clubs charged into the cemetery, a pitched battle developed over the long dead, and charging feet tore up clods of earth from the graves.

“More than 500 were gathered in the cemetery at the start of the riot. They ran in all directions when the rifles spurted and real bullets began to fly.”

It is obvious that the newspaper was not on the side of the strikers. However, here is an excerpt from another article, published in The Providence Journal on Sept. 8, 2009:

“Joe Deslauriers said that his father worked in the mill for 44 years and was inside the Sayles plant when union protesters surrounded it.

“For days, they couldn’t leave the mill,” Deslauriers said. “They were supportive, but they also needed jobs. Your first responsibility was to your family at home, to come home with a paycheck, as meager as it was.”

Adding that outsourcing continues and “can’t be stopped,” Deslauriers said, “The working class is still getting it in the back.”

This is a much more sympathetic view of the events of Sept. 3, 1934.

Make a visit to the cemetery and see the tombstone for yourself.

For more information about the strike, go to: http://bit.ly/2aLUqgh or http://bit.ly/2aVcIdy

RUTH BREINDEL is president of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association.