In Homestead, mysteries persist 113 years after bloody steel strike Still searching for truth The strikebreakers who came during the occupation were housed in Potterville, the compound named after Superintendent J.A. Potter and built by the Carnegie Phipps & Co. on its property. Wednesday, July 06, 2005 By Moustafa Ayad, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette More than 100 years ago today, Stephen Aszmongya was shot through his left shoulder as the lockout of the Carnegie Phipps & Co. steel mill escalated into the Battle of Homestead. The bloody showdown that has come to symbolize the dueling factions of labor history, organized unions of workers and the corporations intent on curbing their power, is years removed from Aszmongya's present-day relatives but still an important part of their existence. Three generations of Aszmongyas worked the steel mills. The last was John J. Asmonga. Thirty-three different name spellings and 113 years later, Asmonga and his wife, Linda, are learning more about the seven workers killed in the violent showdown and may be rewriting history with the possible discovery of an eighth, as-yet unnamed worker victim. On July 6, 1892, the Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers union and Pittsburgh steel magnate and philanthropist Henry Clay Frick clashed in Homestead over a lockout and cut in wages for Carnegie Steel Co. workers. The showdown between Frick's hired guns from the Pinkerton Detective Agency and steel workers resulted in seven dead workers and three dead Pinkertons. The aftermath of the lockout left Pittsburgh without organized labor for decades. The lives lost on both sides are stark examples of how far the labor movement has come. "They appealed to the basic rights of citizens," said David Demarest Jr., editor of "The River Ran Red: Homestead 1892," an anthology of the lockout. "They appealed to the most basic American right of not being treated as a wage slave." Four years ago, the Asmongas set out to write distinctive narratives about each of the workers killed. Weaving tales from oral histories, coroner's reports, company ledgers and medical records, the husband-and-wife team not only developed a clearer image of some of the men killed during the clash, but came to believe that there has yet to be a definitive account. What started as a search through the Asmonga family has become a grass-roots pursuit for truth about the bloody incident. "So many people made up stories," said Linda Asmonga. "And so many stories have become the basis for research that is presented as a series of 'facts.' " The Asmonga family tree is a working example of that theory. Aszmongya is mentioned in multiple histories of the battle, but his name in one book alone is attached to two different first names and as many different spellings of his last name. Only through an oral history, provided by a 90-year-old father, were the Asmongas able to come up with a better picture of their great uncle. Many of the lapses in historical fact are the result of poor reporting. Though a number of newspaper reporters were at the battle, many did not write down the names of those who were shot or killed. Though the death count does not fluctuate in history books, the Asmongas have come across some medical records that suggest there may have been an eighth worker killed. Their research, they say, is incomplete, but the discovery adds more mystery to an event that is said to have been widely documented. The confusion and variables surrounding the history of Homestead have only fueled the historians' yearning for the facts. "We're not sure of some of the victims," said John Asmonga. "Some of the victims' names were spelled differently, some were simply changed because of phonetic spellings, but as far as the search is concerned, we are not defeated." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------