John J. Casey - Personal Life

Personal Life

Casey was survived by his wife and nine of his eleven children. He ensured that none of these children ever worked in a mine, with several of his sons attending both West Point and Annapolis. Accounts of Casey characterize him by his gregarious personality, his bright red hair and tremendous physical stature. Without doubt he is another of many stories of the American dream, born into poverty but in command of his own destiny.

It was reported that his congressional staff would always keep an extra desktop on hand. The Congressman was reputed to regularly split desktops in half with a blow that could only be produced by the 6'5", 250 lb Irish miner.

During his tenure as a union organizer, Casey on many occasions, was pursued by private detective organizations, including the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, and private company owned police forces in an attempt to deter him from unionizing several industries. In the 1890s Labor organizing was a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment, assuming the organizers weren't 'inadvertently' killed during apprehension.

As a young boy, Casey would go leave for work at 6 am. He would enter the Wilkes Barre mine shaft, walk beneath the Susquehanna River, and surface in the Plymouth shaft to report in as a breaker boy.