Biography
Stella Rasefsky was a National Miners’ Union activist in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, during the 1931 coal strike. She and her mother, Anna Rasefske, were imprisoned after a confrontation between striking miners and United Mine Workers officials. Stella received a two-year sentence in the Allegheny County Workhouse at Blawnox; her mother received eighteen months. Her younger sister Mary helped care for the family while they were imprisoned. Stella was released in 1933. Photo: caption-identified portrait, printed as Stella Rasefske, Labor Defender October1931 PDFpage10; caption on adjacentPDFpage11 identifies the miners daughter jailed atCanonsburg.
The Daily Worker of January 4, 1932, page 3, explicitly names Stella Rasefsky among the 1931 coal-strike prisoners still confined in the Allegheny County Workhouse at Blawnox. The report supplies continued-custody evidence without a new individual arrest day, sentence, transfer date or release date.
The September 29, 1931 Washington County defense report, printing Rosefske, says that $10,000 bail had secured Anna and Stella’s release. The committee had raised only $5,000 of the $8,000 needed for Leo Thompson, so his release was still pending. This interim freedom precedes the later Blawnox imprisonment; no continuous span from the earlier arrest through final release is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n235-NY-sep-30-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The November 27, 1931 International Labor Defense appeal names Myerscough, Thompson, Adam Ghetto, Bob Young and Stella Rasefsky among twenty-nine miners sentenced during the preceding month to long terms at Blawnox after the coal strike. It supplies neither individual numerical terms nor exact sentencing or transfer days. The source calls the institution a penitentiary; the existing Allegheny County Workhouse identification is retained. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n285-NY-nov-27-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
Page 1’s July 24 bulletin names Stella Rasefsky, aged nineteen, among those already arrested in connection with the Canonsburg UMW confrontation. It says all except Leo Thompson were held under 2,500-dollar bail. This establishes arrest by July 24 and conflicts with the existing July 26 day field; it does not establish an exact individual arrest day or a physical bail release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n178-NY-jul-25-1931-DW-LOC.pdf
Mrs. Anna Rasefske’s February 7, 1933 Meadow Lands letter reports that Stella was still in prison and that the Pittsburgh ILD was working for her release. Read with the independently documented mother/daughter identity, this supplies continued confinement before the already recorded later 1933 release; the letter is not itself a new arrest or an exact release date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n03-mar-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=21
Labor Defender, October 1932 (PDF page 21): The Blawnox roster prints Stella Rasefske, reports her currently serving a nominal two-year sentence and identifies Anna as her mother. It describes the miner father and two other children as strike participants and the family as destitute. Its age eighteen is not converted into a birth date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n10-oct-1932-LD.pdf#page=21
The November 24, 1931 report individually lists this National Miners Union strike prisoner at Allegheny County Workhouse, Blawnox. The roster establishes actual confinement during the mine-strike repression. It does not supply an individual statutory count, exact initial arrest, physical release or completed custody duration. Daily Worker, November 24, 1931, original PDF page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n282-NY-nov-24-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The September 27 report distinguishes them among thirty-six miners still confined after Myerscough and Young obtained parole. It does not transfer those two men’s release to the remaining defendants or establish complete time served. Daily Worker, September 27, 1932, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n231-NY-sep-27-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The July 27, 1931 Meadowland dispatch identifies Stella Rasefsky among the miners and relief activists arrested the previous day, July 26, following the arrest of Leo Thompson at a strike committee meeting. The uncommon exact name, July National Miners’ Union prosecution and Thompson grouping match the later account of their joint release from Blawnox. This refines the arrest date only; the source does not establish a first-admission date, a release date or a date of birth.
Daily Worker, July 25, 1931; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Pages1and3 report the Canonsburg prosecution after the July19 confrontation,with JudgeCummins charging the jury. The bulletin explicitly says Anna was convicted only of unlawfulassembly and PeterWagner acquitted on all counts. The page1 bulletin and detailed trial roster disagree: the bulletin lists MaryRasefski,StanleyBarko,MikeSkwarlo,MikeSholtz and BessieKowlenski,while the detailed account lists StellaRasefske,EdgarGreene,HenryStark,WillMcQueen,JuliusHollis and LouisFazzio. No unsupported individual conviction is inferred from this conflict. Defense allegations of judicial bias,witness misconduct and restricted access are attributed,not independent findings.
Tom Myerscough’s strike account names Stella, nineteen, as secretary of the Canonsburg Women’s Auxiliary and a Blawnox prisoner under a two-year nominal sentence. It says her time was expected to end in the second week of May, while her mother had already been released. That forecast is not actual release and does not override later corroboration of freedom. The individually captioned portrait identifies her; the existing portrait is retained.
