Biography
Freeman Thompson was an Illinois miner and National Miners Union organizer. He had led the United Mine Workers' Springfield subdistrict before being expelled in 1925. During the December 1929 Illinois coal strike, troops placed Thompson under military arrest at Kincaid after miners blocked a company superintendent's automobile carrying militiamen. The International Labor Defense sent attorney Jacob Bentall to defend the arrested miners. Thompson was released that month and returned to the strike.
Daily Worker, January 28, 1930, page 3: The Taylorville dispatch reports Thompson arrested on January 26 during a National Miners Union subdistrict conference raid and released on January 27 after an ILD demand. The accusation was conspiracy to prevent Peabody miners from working. He then left for the Peoria strike. This is a separate episode from the December 1929 military arrest and March 1930 weapons prosecution. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n279-NY-jan-28-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The report says Thompson and fourteen other miners had been convicted at Springfield in the prosecution arising from December 1929 strike organizing. This is a later legal development, without an individual sentence or a new measured custody interval. Daily Worker, May 24, 1930, page 6. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n379-NY-may-24-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The July 3 report explicitly names this organizer among those arrested at or in connection with the Pittston miners’ meeting on Sunday, June 29, 1930. Pollack was detained when seeking bail for the others. Slinger, Little and Pollack were released before the July 2 raid. Precise physical release for the other named men is not supplied. This is distinct from the later Scranton sedition case. Daily Worker, July 4, 1930, page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n160-NY-jul-04-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The official House Clerk returns for the November 4, 1930 congressional election list Freeman Thompson as a candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois as a Communist. This corroborates electoral activity rather than a fresh arrest or custody endpoint. Source: https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1930election.pdf#page=4
The June 21 account describes a restaurant attack on these miners’ union organizers and police orders to arrest them. The order is not itself evidence that each ordered arrest was carried out, so no additional custody case or duration is assigned. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n146-NY-jun-21-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
The March 17, 1930 Daily Worker, pages1 and3, identifies National Miners Union president Freeman Thompson in a captioned portrait and reports that he was assaulted and arrested at the Springfield convention on Friday, March 14. He was charged with carrying concealed weapons and was already free on bond by the report. This is separate from his December 1929 Kincaid military detention. No exact admission or bail-release day is supplied.
Daily Worker, March 17, 1930, original pages1 and3; portrait page1.
Martin Abern’s October 1928 Labor Defender account identifies Freeman Thompson and Tony Minerich among the miners arrested and actually lodged in jail during the September 9 National Miners Union founding convention in Pittsburgh. The continuation says fines of $5–$25 were imposed on named miners, including both men, and ILD paid fines to enable delegates to return to the convention. By September 10 all but three delegates were released; the last three were discharged the following day, without identifying those last three. This establishes a distinct September 1928 detention, not a particular individual September 10 or 11 release day or a precise served total.
Labor Defender, October 1928, original PDF pages 4 and 25 (printed 204/218).
The miners’ strike account dates the Taylorville strike’s opening December 9, 1929 and says troops were called on the first day, then reports Thompson and Voyzey placed under military arrest. It does not individually date those arrests: the first-day phrase explicitly dates the troop call. Existing case endpoints remain unchanged. Unnamed mass arrests at Nokomis are not allocated to these two men.
A December 10 dispatch reports Thompson arrested that day after leading mass pickets at Kincaid. Company superintendent W. O. Argus alleged that pickets stopped his car carrying five militiamen. This corroborates December 10 as the arrest day in the existing Illinois strike case, without a new detention episode or an inferred release day.
