Last Survivor of Ludlow Massacre dies at 94

Mary Benich-McCleary, the last known survivor of the Ludlow Massacre, has died of a stroke. She was 18 months old when the Colorado militia attacked striking miners and their families on April 20, 1914, at the Ludlow mining camp north of Trinidad during a labor strike.

Last survivor of Ludlow Massacre dies at 94

By TAMMY ALHADEF
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Mary Benich-McCleary, the last known survivor of the Ludlow Massacre, has
died of a stroke.

McCleary, 94, of Morgan City, La., died June 28.

She was 18 months old when the Colorado militia attacked striking miners
and their families on April 20, 1914, at the Ludlow mining camp north of
Trinidad during a labor strike.

McCleary, her parents John and Dominika "Minnie" Benich, and her two
brothers narrowly escaped death when the militia attacked the striking
miners' tent colony.

The conductor of the train that brought the militia members to the tent
colony saved many lives, said McCleary's daughter, Bridget
McCleary-Arcemont, also of Morgan City.

"He saw women holding babies - probably my grandmother - and stopped the
train before the militia could mow them down with gunfire," she said.

McCleary's father rescued 3-year-old John while her mother scooped up baby
Tom, who was just 9 days old. They ran for the Black Hills southeast
of town. "They ran along the tracks just under the gunfire. When they got
up there they realized there was no Mary," McCleary-Arcemont said.

According to family lore, a 16-year-old boy from a neighboring tent heard
Mary's cries and gathered her up into his coat before running for safety.
The family did not know of Mary's fate until she and the boy were found
several days later, hunkered down under the trees, still hiding. Mary was
still hidden inside his coat and he was shaking violently.

"That boy was never the same," said McCleary-Arcemont. "I think the ordeal
just ruined him mentally."

McCleary-Arcemont said her grandfather, who like her grandmother was a
Yugoslavian immigrant, continued working as a coal miner until the 1940s.
By then, the Benich family had grown to 14.

"They were such a beautiful family," she said. "So loving. And all 12 kids
turned out to be something. They all graduated high school and they all did
things with their lives."

McCleary met her husband, Abner "Mac" Fredrick McCleary, in California
during World War II. He was a Marine. She was a riveter at Douglas Aircraft
and helped build B-17 bombers. The couple raised four children: Bridget,
James "Pat" Patrick, Karen and Stephen. She lived to see 12 grandchildren
and 13 great-grandchildren. "Mac" McCleary died in 1977.

While the experience of the coal camp massacre stayed with the Benich
family, McCleary's daughter, Karen Adams, said family members didn't like
to speak of it.

"It was hard times, that's all we really know," she said. "They just did
what they had to do to survive."

McCleary's younger sister Frances, of Farmington, N.M., is the last
surviving sibling.

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