On December 20, 1900, the Illinois supreme court upheld the ruling of the Vermilion County Court in the case of Gillespie v. Gibbons. Charles Gillespie (my 3rd great-grandfather) was a contractor in Danville, Illinois and employed Reuben Gibbons, a carpenter. While he was employed, Gibbons joined a legal labor union, Local Union No.269. As soon as Gillespie got wind, he informed Gibbons that he could no longer employ him if he belonged to the union. It was Gillespie’s belief that “Unions were enemies of his business”; “it would not be consistent of him, under the circumstances to employ union help.”

Gibbons went to the court to press charges against Gillespie in the claim that he was being forced from the union membership.

There was at the time and still is a clause in the Illinois state Statues that declares it a misdemeanor for employers “to attempt to keep employees from joining or belonging to labor organizations by discharge or threats of discharge.”

During the case, Gillespie countered that the statue was unconstitutional and void as being a conflict with the Fourteenth Amendments rights under the United States Constitution that no state “deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of the law.”

In the end, Vermilion county disagreed with Gillespie and the Judge ordered him to pay a fine of $25 and to remain in the county jail until that fine was paid. -Gillespie then appealed the case and it was brought before the Illinois Supreme Court. The court upheld the lower court’s verdict.

Up until this point, courts were generally favoring big companies and not unions, but the case helped to change that.

Below are a few exerts and newspaper articles about the case.

Information taken from:  Biennial Report of the Attorney General of the State of Illinois, “Gillespie v. Gibbons by Ben LeRoy, and The Decatur Herald.

For more information see ” Reports of Cases at Law and in Chancery Argued and Determined in …, Volume 188″ p. 176 [188 III.