From many years of her story being lost to time to many days preparing to unveil a statue in her honor, Big Annie finally stands tall again in the Village of Calumet.
Anna Klobachur Clemenc was a major figure in the Keweenaw Peninsula during the height of the 1913 copper strike. She helped lead the Women’s Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Miners in the region. After the disaster at the Italian Hall, however, the momentum of the movement and Clemenc both faded away.
“Apparently Annie didn’t talk about it much when she moved to Chicago,” said Anita Campbell, Team Annie Statue Committee member. “She was so grief-stricken by the Italian Hall disaster. She felt horrible about that. That’s why she moved away too. So they didn’t know much. But then in 2013 they learned more and they’ve been coming up to the Copper Country quite often to vacation.”
Clemenc’s descendants still live in Chicago, where she spent the end of her life. They knew little of her legacy until 2013, when the Coppertown Mining Museum unveiled a new exhibit on the strike, commemorating the 100th anniversary. In the years since, a group of residents came together with a vision to see Big Annie stand tall again.
“Of course there were a lot of fundraising events that were open to the community, a lot of which were held here at the theater, some were held at the Elks Lodge, they did events out at Farmers Market just to sort of get the word out about what they were doing and to raise funds,” said Megan Haselden, Village Manager of Calumet. “And they were able to get an America 250 grant, which really helped kick off the establishment of the statue. So their fundraising effort was met even earlier than they expected.”
Creating the statue’s pose presented challenges. Campbell explained the artistic decision behind the final design.
“It was a little difficult coming up with a pose because she was always seen in parades with a flag over her shoulder, but the sculptor said that would be too heavy, it wouldn’t work,” Campbell said. “So that’s why we chose a pose with her holding the flag, because the flag was so important to her. It had to be a focal point of the statue.”
Adam Saari, a field representative with BACWEB, a steward of the Bricklayer’s Union, shared remarks at the ceremony about the sacrifice of miners in the early days of the labor movement.
” When we found out about this, it was something that we just knew we had to try to be a part of no matter what we could. And we were very grateful that the Keweenaw Foundation has been allowing us to help with work and to help speak and to be involved in the parade so we’re just really grateful to be able to help.” Saari said. ” She went up against people that really, really didn’t like her. I mean, she fought battles in the streets of Calumet here. For her to be able to do those things to make it easier for people like us in the future to have labor standards, to have safety standards and things. It’s pretty unbelievable really to tell you the truth that a woman would do that for us at the end of the day.”
Anna Klobachur Clemenc was born in Calumet in 1888. During the strike, she was only 25 years old, the wife of a miner and daughter of a miner who fought for workers’ rights.
The same year as the Copper Strike, a suffrage bill did pass the Michigan’s senate and house but was defeated by voters that year. Women’s right to vote was patchworked across the nation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Several states had laws allow women to vote in elections for school boards. At the time less than 10 states had granted women on some level, the right to vote. An 1893 Michigan law did allow literate women the right to vote in school, village and city elections. Michigan did not begin allowing women the right to vote in municipal elections until 1918. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 barred racial discrimination at the polls, improving voting rights for African American men and women. In 1984 Mississippi was the final state to pass the 19th amendment, that was ratified in 1920.
Learn more about Big Annie while in Calumet at the Keweenaw National Historical Park or the Coppertown Mining Museum.
