Thanks to Dave Bakke, columnist for the Springfield Journal-Register for his piece on the inclusion of Joe Sigler on the Illinois memorial for fallen police officers. You may read the full article here.

To my mind there’s no doubt that Sigler should be included. It seems rather obvious that Sigler’s protection was enlisted by Hugh Donnelly a member of the United Mine Workers, because Sigler was a police officer. And later that evening, Sigler sacrificed his life protecting Donnelly.

Joseph Sigler’s badge & gun

There also seems to be some question of Sigler’s occupation at the time of his death. During the mine war, it wasn’t unusual for miners to also be deputized part-time law enforcement officers.

But for Sigler this wasn’t the case. While Sigler had been a miner, the September 15, 1934 Taylorville Breeze-Courier reported: “Mr. Sigler was employed in the mines along the Midland for several years but for the last several months has been employed as special policeman at Bulpitt.” Clearly his sole occupation at the time of his death was police officer.

And even though Sigler was a member of the Progressive Miners of America, his decision to protect UMWA member Donnelly demonstrated that Sigler valued life and civic duty above all. Too often the sensational violence of the mine war obscures the fact that a number of the founding members of the Progressive Miners were committed pacifists. To my mind, Sigler’s actions were consistent with the methods set forth by those leaders as well as the basic tenets of community unionism.

Let’s hope the overseers of the state memorial are wise enough to add Sigler’s name to the monument. He earned it.

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