Jack Battuello Memoir #1 - University of Illinois Springfield

Jack Battuel1.o 40
like--she said, "I wanted to te1.l you I prayed and prayed and me and
my I.it,tle children prayed and last: night when Mr. Bollard brought me
back home and I went in and my furniture was gone and f said to my
two little children, 'Well maybe Cod has answered our prayers. Let's
go back to our old home and maybe the furniture will be there.' And
you know what, Mr. Battuel1.0, that furnittrrc was there. It was all
set up, even the window shades and everything."
So they let Mrs, Gahagan stay in that house for three, four or five
more years and then one day down in the mines, one of the agents for
the Staunton Building and Loan said to me, "~hey're going to evict
her again." And I said, "~ete," 1 said real quick--Pete Grachetto
was his name-1 said, "I heard only last night that .if they ever
touched Nellie Gahagan again, thcy're going to blow that damn house
over into Montgomery County." They never touched her again, She
lived there as long as I can remember, And rhe Building and Loan
never said anything, wasn't too ungrateful, wasn't too unkind or too
harsh.
The sheriff--Mickey Siefert was States Attorney--and when Mrs. Gahagan
wcrit up to get her mother's pension, he and Judge George, Mickey
Siefert, got her into the private chambers and pummeled her for a
half hour trying to get her to admit that Jack Ba.ttuello had moved
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that furniture back in. And as she related it to me, she said, You
know, Mr. Battuello, I would have died hcfore 2 would have ever to1.d
them that you did that, but honestly I didn't know; I don't know who
moved my furniture back in," She said, "I prayed, and 1 think that
God did and I think he answered my prayers." By this time, of course,
time ha.d elapsed and I got a little humorous, a 1-ittle facetious
about it .tlo say the least and I said, "Wel.1 Nellie, I don' t know about
God, but I imagine that Ei've gallons of gasoline and a couple of
workers did a hell of a I.ot about getting that furniture back in there.
And it did at: that.
Q, You mentioned churches as being conservative elemen~s in the
town--any particular church or the churches in general?
A. Churches generally. In the infancy of che labar organization in
America, every church without exception in thosc communities, mining
communities, in which I lived and worked; all of them were strictly
opposed to unionism--labor unions. Labor unions were anathemato the
churches, to the politicians, and all of them conspired to support:
the governments--the coal operators fn one manner or another. The
media was also on rhe side of the coal operators in that period.
Some of them became a little more enlightened as time passed. Some
churches in particular--some denominations--became a little bit more
liberal. In many communities, the Unitarians were quite a social
force. I've always admired the Jehovah's Witnesses although I'm an
agnostic-I'm an athicst. I've always admired the Jehovah's Witnesses
because of their opposition to war and their fight for civil liberties
in dissemination of their religious tracts and their right to speak
in assembly.
Jack Battuello Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield