Biography
Viola Tiala was a United Farmers’ League organizer arrested with her husband Alfred Tiala and farmer Jesse Hann on January 20, 1934 after police used tear gas against about one thousand farmers resisting the foreclosure sale of Clarence Gearhart’s farm near Warsaw, Indiana. Authorities moved the defendants to the Elkhart County jail and set bail as high as $30,000. Tiala remained jailed through trial and was freed on February 19 after the court convicted Alfred Tiala and Hann. Her maiden name was Dehn; the artist Adolf Dehn was her brother.
The February 6, 1934 New Masses account, printed page 9, describes about one thousand farmers resisting a foreclosure at Warsaw on January 20 and police using tear gas. It names Alfred and Viola Tiala and Jesse Hann as the arrested defendants, says the sheriff initially promised to hold them only ten minutes, and reports resisting-an-officer charges and bail of $30,000 instead. The International Labor Defense and farm organizations were campaigning for their release. This corroborates the existing January 20 detention; the sheriff’s promise was not a release, and the announced February 1 court appearance was prospective. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1934/v10n06-feb-06-1934-NM.pdf#page=13
The February 3 Daily Worker reports continuing detention in Michigan City under $30,000 bail following the January 20 protest against forced sale of Clarence Gearhart’s Leesville farm. It describes a release campaign by the Workers and Farmers Cooperative Unity Alliance and working women’s clubs. This corroborates the established farm-struggle case; the printed Hann/Harm variation is retained as a period spelling. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n030-feb-03-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Labor Defender, March 1934, PDF page 8: The farmers-defense account identifies her as Tiala’s wife among the three defendants actually moved from jail to jail and held incommunicado after the January 20 Warsaw foreclosure protest. Bail reportedly rose from $5,000 to $10,000 each, and the accusation changed from resisting an officer to obstructing the course of justice. The six-month bulletin applies to Alfred, not his wife. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n03-mar-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=8
The January 23 Elkhart dispatch reports Alfred Tiala, national secretary of the United Farmers’ League, and his wife Viola held at Elkhart County Jail under $5,000 bail after police attacked an 800-person anti-foreclosure gathering near Warsaw with tear gas. The sheriff allegedly promised a ten-minute detention but took them away through a rear door to jail. Charges were not divulged in this first report; the ten-minute promise is not actual duration, and bail being set is not release.
