People/labour leader

Mary 'Mother' Jones

Mary 'Mother' Jones, labour leader, from Ireland. Linked to coal.

The lucky break

Impressed United Mine Workers leaders with her ability to rally miners and win the support of their wives, daughters and sisters. She organised coal miners in Pennsylvania from the 1890s and in West Virginia from 1902.1

The downfall

At about 30 she lost her husband and four children to yellow fever in Memphis, and her Chicago shop to the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. At 84 she was held in a makeshift prison for 85 days after the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike; her reputation suffered when she tried to stop the 1921 miners' march on Logan County.1

Legacy

Published an autobiography in 1925 and died aged 100 at Silver Spring, Maryland. The NPS calls her one of the fiercest upholders of labour rights.1

Story cards

Timeline

  1. late August to early September 1921Battle of Blair Mountain2
Drag to turn the globe

Where next

People

Partner ofFrank KeeneyShe rallied Cabin Creek's miners after a tent-camp meeting with a young organiser.1

Events

InvestigatedBattle of Blair MountainShe tried to halt the miners' march and her reputation suffered.1

Sources

  1. Mary Mother Jones (article) US National Park Service
  2. The Battle of Blair Mountain US National Park Service

Pictures on this page: Frank Keeney.jpg, Unknown author (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.