A.S. Embree

Adolphus Stewart Embree (1877–1957), born Adolphus Nelson Stewart McKenzie Embree, was a Canadian-American union organizer, metal assayer, and leader in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Embree served as the secretary-treasurer pro tempore of the national IWW for a period of two months after the national office was raided by federal agents.

Biography Embree was born on December 15, 1877, in Blackhead, Newfoundland, Canada, to Jeremiah and Annie Elizabeth Embree. Jeremiah was a Methodist Minister in Blackhead. Embree graduated from Mount Allison University on June 1, 1897, with honors in science. Embree's mother and father died in 1889 and 1890 respectively. Following his father's death, in 1890, he moved to British Columbia. On May 28, 1908, he married Lucy Ladd Mackenzie in Greenwood, British Columbia. According to the wedding announcement, the couple boarded a train to Nome, Alaska, that same afternoon. In either 1908 or 1909, Adolphus and Lucy immigrated to the United States. They had three children, William M. Embree (1910-?), Lucy Ladd (Una) Embree (1919-?) Embree then again returned to Bisbee, and was jailed for three months, and threatened with lynching if he did not leave for good.

He then worked as an organizer in Butte, Montana, and then traveled to Idaho, where he was arrested for making speeches and distributing literature for the IWW. Embree was convicted of violating Idaho's Criminal Syndicalism Act in Shoshone County in 1921, and spent more than three years in jail.

The subsequent strike involved a statewide walkout of twelve thousand miners. The strike is best known for the Columbine Mine Massacre.

Embree died in 1957.

Footnotes