Biography
Steve Meanovich was one of the eight miners convicted by February 18, 1926 in the "Zeigler frame-up" — the prosecution of twenty progressive United Mine Workers members from the Klan-ridden coal town of Zeigler, Illinois, after a 1925 union-hall melee provoked by Klansmen. Convicted of assault with intent to murder and sentenced to one to fourteen years at the Chester penitentiary, he was bailed pending appeal after months inside. The case was a leading ILD defense campaign of 1926, and the spelling of the miners' names follows the ILD's Labor Defender.
The July 26, 1928 Zeigler defense report places this prisoner at Menard since December 1927, while Eddie Moleski was at Pontiac. The institutional distinction and month-level custody observation do not establish uninterrupted service from the first 1926 prosecution, an exact return day or a later discharge. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n176-NY-jul-26-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
Tom Bell’s February 11 Benton trial report describes defense testimony in the Zeigler prosecution, before the verdict. It names State’s Attorney Martin and two assistants retained by Lon Fox. Witnesses disputed the prosecution’s account of the August 11 union meeting; the report’s characterization of a frame-up is attributed to the labor-defense writer. Trial attendance is not a new prison admission, and the report supplies no physical release or measured term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1926/1926-ny/v03-n028-NY-feb-13-1926-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
1920s remaining-entry review: The July 26, 1928 Daily Worker, page 5, bottom-left article "Ask 4 Militant Miners Freed," individually names Steve Meanovich among the Zeigler defendants and reports imprisonment since December 1927. The full original page was visually checked. The prison-term start is corrected from the March 1926 conviction month to December 1927 with month precision only. December 1 is a storage placeholder, not an asserted admission day. No arrest, final release, or exact duration is inferred; earlier detention and appeal bail remain distinct from this term.
Earlier stage of the Zeigler prosecution
A September 11 Zeigler dispatch printed on the first page names Steve Meanovich among fifteen miners bound over for a grand jury after a preliminary hearing in Benton. Robert Minor’s accompanying account on page 3 describes a union meeting on August 11 and reports that an initial conspiracy-to-murder accusation was dropped while fifteen men were being prosecuted for assault with intent to kill. These are contemporary labor-defense reports of the earlier stage of the same Zeigler prosecution, not a second case or proof of the later imposed prison term actually served. The reports differ between twenty-five arrests and twenty-six initial warrants; neither collective number supplies an individual booking day. “Held for the grand jury” is a procedural description, not proof of an uninterrupted physical jail interval. The August 11 meeting date is not entered as an arrest or admission date. Existing custody fields and the separately recorded later imprisonment remain unchanged.
Daily Worker, national edition, September 12, 1925, original pages 1, 3. Contemporary political allegations are attributed to the report.
The Daily Worker of February 18, 1926, already reported a guilty verdict in the Zeigler miners prosecution and named this defendant among the convicted miners. It described the defense motion for a new trial and announced arguments for March 29, 1926. Thus the conviction preceded March 1926. This corrects the chronology of the verdict, without establishing a different date of actual prison admission. The report gives a nominal one-to-ten-year sentence, differing from later defense reporting of one to fourteen years; that discrepancy is preserved rather than used to replace the existing term.
