Finding an Answer Regarding Mother Jones (c. 1837-1930)
Several years ago, I was driving Danny Dowling (1927-2021) to a book fair and inquired if he had read anything of interest since our previous outing. Danny replied that he had read an article about Mary Harris Jones. I did not recognize the name, and Danny expressed amazement that I was not familiar with the greatest labour leader in American history.
After a good bit of teasing centring on my lack of education, Danny began to recite in detail the life of Mary Harris Jones. When he stated that her husband and four children died in a yellow fever epidemic it finally struck me that he was referring to “Mother Jones” an influential organizer for the United Mine Workers of America in the early 20th Century. I don’t think I ever knew her real name. She was always known as Mother Jones and is also known for fighting child labour. She led a march of children to Washington during Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency to protest the use of child labour.
I mentioned to Danny that Mother Jones is buried in Mount Olive, Macoupin County, Illinois, just off of Interstate 55 with informational signs on Interstate 55. (I-55 replaced the famous U.S. Route 66 between Chicago and St. Louis). Danny asked why she was buried there, and I had no answer until now. Last week while visiting Southern Illinois, I went to the grave and memorial erected for Mother Jones. I also visited the Illinois Coal Museum, of Gillespie, Illinois, which features several interesting mining displays including one of a life size cut out of the tiny Mother Jones. For a concise biography of Mother Jones’s work see, the AFL-CIO website. For a virtual tour of the Illinois Coal Museum see their webpage.
The Tragic Widow Found a Purpose
After the tragic deaths of her husband and children in 1867, Mother Jones for the remainder of her life dressed in black. It was only at her funeral that she wore a different colour. Mother Jones was laid out and buried in a lilac dress. A few years after her family’s demise her dressmaking business was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. She began to work as a union organizer and travelled the country. She referred to the coal miners as “her boys.” She also mobilized their wives and children to support the miners.
In 1897, she was dubbed “Mother Jones.” She was around 60 years of age. Historians have found her baptismal record in 1837 parish records in Cork, but she often gave her birth year as 1830. It is likely that she may not have known her exact date of birth.
Why Mount Olive, Macoupin County Illinois?
According to a large plaque listing various unions and others who donated to the memorial, Mother Jones asked to be buried with “her boys” who died in the Virden, Illinois, Massacre.
“When the last call comes for me to take my final rest, will the Miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the Miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden Illinois on the morning of October 12, 1898 for their heroic sacrifice of their fellow men. They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized State in America. I hope it will be my consolation when I pass away to feel I sleep under the clay with those brave boys.”
The Union Miners’ Cemetery has an interesting history. It only came into existence in 1899 as a burial place for the members of the Miners’ Union killed at Virden in 1898. Apparently, the person or family that donated land to the nearby Mount Olive Cemetery objected to a memorial or memorial services for the miners. The Union decided to buy land for their own cemetery and several of the Virden miners were dug up and transferred to the new Union Miners’ Cemetery. For further details see Macoupin County, Illinois, Genealogy Trails webpage.
Although Mother Jones was always buried in the Union Miners’ Cemetery once the monument was built she too was moved to her present resting place. The feature photo above shows the flowers placed on the foot of her grave in the front centre of the large monument.
The Virden Massacre
At the Mother Jones’s Memorial, the Battle of Virden is referred to as the Virden Massacre. It occurred on 12 October 1898, after the Chicago-Virden Coal Co. rejected a nationwide agreement with the United Mine Workers of America. The agreement gave miners a wage of 40 cents per ton. Work was also to be reduced to 48 hours per week (comprised of 8 hour shifts in a 6 day week). The Virden mine was one of the biggest in Illinois; it employed 400 miners.
The Chicago-Virden Coal Co. locked out miners unwilling to accept the 30 cent a ton rate it offered. A strike ensued and an armed stockade was erected around the mine entrance indicating that the company was aware that the situation likely would turn violent. By the time of the massacre most of the local miners had been out of work for over a year.
To break the union and get the mine operational again, the Chicago-Virden Coal Co. hired 105 non-union black Alabama miners at 30 cents per ton. The Chicago-Virden Coal Co. failed to tell the black miners that there was an ongoing strike at Virden. As the Company shipped the black miners north by train members of the Thiel Detective Service Co. boarded the train in East St. Louis, Illinois armed with rifles.
The Company demanded that Governor Tanner send troops to protect the strike breakers and mine property. Tanner responded, to the sheriff of Macoupin County that “as long as the coal company persists in importing labor I will not furnish troops unless rioting occurs.” It was alleged by some newspapers that Tanner did not send troops because he was seeking votes from the labour element (The Daily Review (Decatur, IL) Tues. 29 Nov. 1898, p. 4).
When the train arrived in Virden it was swarmed by about 1,200 armed local miners. Both sides blamed the other for firing the first shot. The gun battle lasted for 15 minutes and left 13 people dead. Eight of the dead were local coal miners, four of the dead were mine “guards” and a switchboard operator of the railroad was killed. There were also a large number of men injured on both sides. It was reported that 30 other local miners were also shot but survived. The black Alabama miners were apparently not harmed and removed from the area. If memory serves me these men were abandoned in E. St. Louis by the Chicago-Virden Coal Co. and had to make their own way back to Alabama.
For further information concerning the Virden Massacre see, the National Public Radio (NPR) Illinois webpage .
Tanner Sends Troops
It must have come as a surprise to the greedy Chicago-Virden Coal Company that Governor Tanner sent several hundred soldiers to Virden and ordered them to stop the unloading of any “imported miners.” The troops were to preserve peace and protect life and property of “bona fide citizens” and disarm every person having arms (The Champaign (Illinois) Daily News, Sat. 15 Oct. 1898, p. 1).
Virgil Bishop, a Virden miner, filed a complaint charging various officials of the Chicago-Virden Coal Co. and their armed guards with conspiracy to murder and murder. It was anticipated that the families of the dead miners and the injured would file personal cases for damages also against the officials. To keep all trains from being stopped and searched the railroad quickly reached an agreement with Governor Tanner that they would not assist the Chicago-Virden Coal Company in further attempts to transport armed men or “imported miners” to Virden (Streator (Illinois) Daily Free Press (Sat. 15 Oct. 1898, p. 1).
Membership in the United Mine Workers of America soared. Within a month the Chicago Virden-Coal Company bowed to public and political pressure and agreed to the terms of the national agreement.
The Death of Mother Jones
Mother Jones died on Sunday, 30 November 1930 near Washington, D.C. The contemporary newspapers gave her age as 100 and just previous to her death she helped celebrate her 100th birthday. “For more than 60 years she was one of the most peaceful and militant personalities with which capital and labor had to deal” (Henderson County Graphic-Reporter (Stronghurst, Illinois)(Thur. 4 Dec. 1930, p. 4). At the time of Mother Jones’s death, Emmaline Pitt, United State’s Commissioner connected with the Office of the Secretary of Labor wrote, “She stood for all that was noblest and best in womanhood, for the defence of childhood believing as Christ taught, ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least one of these yet have done it unto me’” (Belleville (Illinois) Daily News Democrat, Mon. 1 Dec. 1930, p. 2).
Pursuant to her wishes Mother Jones was laid to rest in the private Union Miner’s Cemetery at Mount Olive, Macoupin County, Illinois. Notwithstanding it was during the Great Depression of the 1930’s a large memorial was built for the miners killed at Verdin and Mother Jones.
Mother Jones’s Quotations
“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!”
“I’m no angel, Get it straight. I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hell raiser.”
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Please send any corrections, additional information or photos etc. to glenmore.history@gmail.com .
Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh