The 1917 compensation suit after the Rider bog attack

An echo of the 1916 attack, now in the newspaper's own words

This site already covers the 1916 armed attack on the payroll party of the Rider cranberry bogs near Atsion, in which Henry D. Rider was killed (see Henry D. Rider and the Hampton Park payroll attack). The Mount Holly News for Tuesday, July 17, 1917, page 3, carries this item, independent of and one day earlier than the Burlington County Library's indexed New Jersey Mirror report of the same suit: "John Rigby, of Cornwell Heights, Pa., has brought suit, under the employers' liability act, for compensation for injuries received while in the employ of Robert L. Latimer & Co., of Philadelphia. Rigby was in the automobile of Andrew J. Rider when waylaid near Atsion, and when Henry Rider was murdered and others were wounded. Rigby was shot a number of times. He claims that on the day of the tragedy he was sent to Hammonton by his employers to repair machinery for Mr. Rider and that therefore his injuries were received during the course of his employment. His wages were $21.50 a week. Part of the time after the accident he received $19.50, but this ceased after awhile. He asks adequate continued compensation. The case will be tried in Burlington county."

Reading the two accounts together: the plaintiff was one of the men in the Rider automobile when it was attacked the previous autumn near Atsion. He was not a bog hand — both papers agree he was sent out by his employer, a Philadelphia machinery firm (R. L. Latimer & Company / Robert L. Latimer & Co.), to repair machinery for Rider — though the Mirror index has him traveling "from Hammonton to" the bogs, while the News has him "sent to Hammonton" itself on the day of the attack; this entry cannot resolve that difference in itinerary and reports both readings.

Shot doing repair work, then cut off from compensation

The Mirror index's fuller account adds that he was shot in the left arm, the shoulder, the neck and the left leg, and that his condition was serious for a period; the Mount Holly News does not describe the wounds beyond "shot a number of times." Both papers agree on his ordinary wages, $21.50 a week, and that his employer paid him a reduced rate for part of the time he was laid up before payments stopped: the Mirror index gives that reduced figure as $19.80, the Mount Holly News's OCR as $19.50. The two digits differ by thirty cents in a way that could be either a real discrepancy between the two papers or an OCR misreading of a five as an eight or vice versa on either scan; this entry does not adopt one figure over the other. Both accounts agree the case was to be tried in Burlington County, under the employers' liability act, and neither reports an outcome. No reported decision in the case was found in a search of digitised American case law; a trial-level county suit of this kind would not ordinarily be reported, so its absence proves nothing either way.

The Mirror index record recaps the 1916 attack in passing: that Henry Rider, brother of the bogs' owner Andrew J. Rider, was killed; that Giovanni Iraca — spelled Iraco in this site's 1916 entry — had been convicted of taking part in the crime and was awaiting electrocution at the state prison; and that three more prisoners said to have been implicated were still in the county jail awaiting trial in July 1917. The Mount Holly News item, being shorter, does not touch any of this. In describing the ambush the Mirror index refers to the attackers only as "the Italians." That is the period newspaper's characterisation, reproduced here so that it is visible rather than quietly smoothed away; it is not this site's description of them, and it identifies no one.

Rigley or Rigby — the newspaper text tips the balance

This site's 1916 entry names the fourth occupant of the car James N. Rigby and describes him as a Rider bog foreman; it also notes that Governor Fielder's November 1916 reward proclamation calls him J. H. Rigby. The Mirror index calls him John N. Rigley and makes him an outside contractor's employee. The Mount Holly News, read directly rather than through an index, calls him John Rigby of Cornwell Heights, Pa. — the given name "John" agreeing with the Mirror index and the surname "Rigby" agreeing with the 1916 entry and the governor's proclamation.

That is now two independent newspapers' printed text (the Mount Holly News here, and whatever underlies the Mirror index and the 1916 entry) converging on "Rigby" as the surname, against only the Mirror index's "Rigley." Combined with the occupational logic already noted — a suit under the employers' liability act had to be brought against the man's own employer, and that employer is a Philadelphia machinery firm, not Andrew J. Rider, which fits a contractor's repairman rather than a Rider bog foreman — this entry now treats "John Rigby" as the better-supported form of the name, while still not treating the question as fully closed: the given name "John" does not match the 1916 entry's "James," and no source consulted resolves that remaining discrepancy. The occupation itself remains split between "bog foreman" (1916 entry) and "contractor's repairman" (both 1917 accounts of the suit), and the internal logic above still favors the latter.

What this adds

Where the 1916 entry is an account of a killing and a prosecution, this is a wage story. An outside tradesman was shot while going about a job on a cranberry operation's machinery, was paid something less than his wages while he was unfit, and went to court when that stopped. It is one small instance of the employers'-liability litigation that industrial and agricultural injuries generated in this period, attached to a specific and already-documented Pine Barrens cranberry operation. What became of the claim is not known. Reading the Mount Holly News's own printed account alongside the Mirror index's summary has not settled every detail — the itinerary and the reduced-wage figure remain genuinely uncertain — but it has moved the plaintiff's surname from an open question toward "Rigby," and added his home address, Cornwell Heights, Pennsylvania, which neither the Mirror index nor the 1916 entry supplied.