Mary Skubitz, later identified as one of the leaders at the December 11th meeting, spoke five languages. She was born in 1887 and came to America at the age of 3 from Slovenia with her coal miner father, Andrew Youvan, and her mother, Julia. Mary, along with her mother was among those arrested and held on seven hundred and fifty dollars bond instead of the standard two hundred. Mary kept a journal of the events surrounding the march.

"There was absolutely no fear in these women's hearts. Like the lion, they would face and fight anything bare handed - no weapon of any kind - they would face the militia their only thought was something must be done so that their little ones would have food -something to wear in the cold, even though they might meet death at the hands of the militia."

- Mary Skubitz's Journal, 12/1921

Clemence DeGruson was born on March 1st 1903 in Roseland Kansas. Her father was a coal miner and her mother, Marie Merciez, ran a grocery store in opposition to the company store there. The store was moved to Camp 50 in 1915. Clemence and her mother attended the 1st meeting of the women marchers in Franklin. The plan was to march on the mines and barricade them from nonunion workers. The women were to sing and drum on pit buckets, throw red pepper into the eyes of anyone who tried to stop them and join hands at the mines entrance. Marie volunteered to supply the red pepper from her store. Later Clemence's son, Gene, Curator and Director of the Special Collections Library at Pittsburg State University, wrote of his mother's experience in the poem entitled "Alien Women."