Biography
George Voyzey was Illinois district president of the National Miners Union during the 1929–1930 coal strike, which began on December 9, 1929. Military authorities arrested Voyzey and fellow strike leader Freeman Thompson during the strike. Voyzey also led miners who brought the Coello mine in Franklin County out on strike and was subsequently held in Buckner jail. He refused the sheriff’s offer of release if he abandoned the strike. The International Labor Defense sent attorney Bentall to defend the arrested miners. Voyzey later spoke at relief conferences with Gerry Allard in St. Louis and Belleville.
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 December 12, 1929 Daily Worker carries a Pittsburgh dispatch dated December 11 reporting that George Voyzey, Illinois district president of the National Miners Union, had been arrested. It does not date his arrest or physical admission, identify a discharge day, or measure his time in custody. The December month-only entries are not evidence of zero time imprisoned. Existing dates and numeric storage remain unchanged; the actual total remains unknown rather than a displayed zero-month custody total.
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.
