Mother Jones (not the magazine)

[handmade34]

heading back to St Louis from the Springfield, IL rally today, I happened upon Mother Jones' burial place and Monument... so awesome considering what I had just come from... (I posted in the thread with my pics but wanted to post this again separately)



"Born Mary Harris in Ireland, raised in Canada, a teacher in Michigan and a dressmaker in Chicago, she married George Jones in 1861 and they had four children. George Jones and all four children died in a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1867. Mary Harris Jones then moved to Chicago, where she became a dressmaker. She lost her home, shop and belongings in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. A gradually growing interest in labor union issues and in radical politics led her to become active by her late 50s as Mother Jones, a white-haired radical labor organizer. Mother Jones worked mainly with the United Mine Workers, where, among other activities, she often organized strikers' wives. In 1903 Mother Jones led a children's march from Kensington, Pennsylvania, to New York to protest child labor to President Roosevelt. In 1905, Mother Jones was among the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, the "Wobblies") from womenshistory.com

[annm4peace]

1. I love Mother Jones

I was so inspired when I read her Biography

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. K&R

Thank you for this! Great post!

[handmade34]

3. wasn't aware and then all of a sudden

sign on the interstate- "Mother Jones Monument next exit" Whoa Nelly indeed... I zipped off and went the few miles into Mt Olive and was absolutely delighted!!!

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. Would +1 this again if I could

Glad you did stop! :hi:

[starroute]

8. I just adore that sign

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A620399

On 30 November, 1930, at the age of 100, Mother Jones died. After her funeral, which was attended by over 20,000 people, she was buried in the United Mine Workers Union Cemetery in Mount Olive, Illinois, as she had requested.


http://www.pastforward.ca/perspectives/columns/jan_162004.htm

When she died in 1930 20,000 people attended her funeral in the United Mine Workers Union Cemetery. In 1936 a huge monument was established in the cemetery with 50,000 people in attendance.


http://www.examiner.com/offbeat-places-in-national/mt-olive-illinois-route-66-and-union-miner-cemetery-and-mother-jones-final-resting-place

She is buried in Mt. Olive (although she died in Silver Spring Maryland) because of the Virden Illinois Mine Wars of 1898 to 1900. According to Rosemary Feurer, On October 12, 1898, Illinois miners at Virden, Illinois, confronted armed guards in a battle that became one of the bloodiest class conflicts in American history.

It was part of a culmination of bloody battles between workers and owners with mercenary troops, starvation wages, dangerous working conditions that can not be imagined today. . . .

The carnage and battles continued, but at the end, this battle, part of the longer struggle to organize miners into an economic and political force, shaped the views of a generation of workers in Illinois and across the nation. It was the reason that Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, the famous labor heroine, is buried in Mt. Olive, along with the "martyrs" who were killed in what became known as the "Virden Massacre." In making the request to be buried with "her boys," Mother Jones sought to acknowledge that their deaths had helped to establish Illinois as one of the "strongest labor states" in the country.

[handmade34]

9. Thank you for that

I was taken aback; the cemetery was unassuming and not out of the ordinary except for the monument set far in

[midnight]

4. Good God.... This women never gave up..... That is the best legacy she has left us all...

[handmade34]

6. "We count it death to falter; not to die"

[davsand]

7. I do love some of Mother's quotes!

Whatever your fight, don't be ladylike.” “I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser.” And my personal favorite--the one I have had in my profile since I created it: "Sit down and read. Educate yourself for the coming conflicts."




Laura