Mother Jones’ remains were relocated to the site of the monument erected in her honor. The casket is surrounded by volunteers from Progressive Miners Local 35, Mt. Olive, IL.  This photo was taken during construction on July 24, 1936 by Joe Ozanic and includes the handwritten caption “Uncovered Casket of Mother Jones”. The photo is part of the West Virginia and Regional History Collection.

October 12 marks the anniversary of the Battle of Virden, when in 1898 striking Illinois miners stood their ground and turned back the coal barons. Eight union miners lost their lives that day.  The difficulties didn’t end there though since even burying the slain men became controversial.  In The Union Miners Cemetery, John Keiser writes:

The Union Miners Cemetery was first laid out in September, 1899, when the donor of the land for the Mt. Olive city cemetery objected to the demonstrations the union held on the property to honor the men killed at Virden.  The Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery did not want the bodies moved there because, to the clergymen, the riot victims were “murderers.”  Adolph Germer, then a coal miner in Mt. Olive and later a well-known socialist leader…reported the matter to the members of the local union (Local 728, UMWA) and suggested that they purchase their own plot.  The union bought one acre for this purpose.

The cemetery land became contested space again in 1932 when locals 728 and 125 split from the United Mine Workers to become Progressives Miners of America Local 35; taking the deed to the cemetery with them.

My Final Rest…

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 of the hills of Virden, Illinois on the morning of October 12, 1897, for their heroic sacrifice of their fellow men? They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor 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.

Mother Jones
1924

Mother Jones was a self-described “hell raiser” and celebrated in the trade union movement for decades. She endeared herself to miners across the country as an organizer for the United Mine Workers.  However, Mother Jones was no supporter of John L. Lewis as he ascended to power within the UMWA. She publicly referred to him as an “empty piece of human slime.”

In 1930, on the occasion of her 100th birthday celebration, Mother Jones donated $1,000 to the Illinois based, Reorganized United Mine Workers. With the donation to this autonomy movement within District 12 she stated, “I only hope I may live long enough to see John L. Lewis licked.”  Mother Jones’ revered status and her unwavering opposition to Lewis impelled the Progressive Miners to lay claim to her memory.

When she died in 1930, her burial wishes were honored and she was laid to rest at the Union Miner’s Cemetery in Mt. Olive, Illinois. However, due to the Mt. Olive locals “going Progessive” in 1932, cemetery ownership was transferred to the PMA.

To honor her, as well as to unite her memory with the sacrifices of the the Virden and PMA martyrs, in 1934 Joe Ozanic along with the Mother Jones Memorial Committee initiated a drive to collect money for a suitable monument. Within two years, over $16,000 was raised.

The challenges didn’t end there though. In his memoirs housed at the University of Illinois at Springfield, Ozanic recalls:

John L. (Lewis) tried to get a court injunction, and did get a temporary writ to prevent us from removing Mother Jones from her un-marked grave and opening the grave to place her over here at the foot of this new 80 ton marble monument. But we beat the temporary writ, in which he made it look like we were going to dig up graves and scatter bones all over the cemetery-we had no trouble proving our case. It was our cemetery, not John L.’s, and John L. was overruled. Then, we made absolutely sure that John L. couldn’t ever get his hands on any of our local assets-cemetery or funds…

John Keiser describes the monument, created by  sculptor was Carl Graf: “…was made of eighty tons of Minnesota pink granite, twenty-two feet high on a base twenty feet by eighteen feet. The granite spire in the center is flanked by two bronze statues of miners. In the center of the shaft is a bronze bas-relief plaque of ‘Mother’ Jones. At the base are five plaques commemorating Mary ‘Mother’ Jones (center), ‘General’ Alexander Bradley (far right), and Joseph Giterle, E. Kaemmerer, and E. W. Smith, who ‘Died in the Virden Massacre, October 12, 1898’.  Plaques on the left and right sides of the monument bear the names of twenty-one ‘Martyrs of the Progressive Miners of America’.

The dedication of the monument was held Sunday, October 11, 1936. Five special trains and twenty-five Greyhound buses brought miners to the event. A parade through the small mining town of Mt. Olive included 32,000 marchers. The total crowd that day was estimated at 50,000.

Commenting on the monument and dedication, Ozanic said:

And when that veil was whipped off at the moment of unveiling and dedication and with all the ideals it stood for believe you me, old coal miners who were alive and active during the time of the Virden riot in 1898 that were now old men, the tears rolled down their eyes like a little baby’s. “We fought for the establishment of the United Mine Workers and now we’ll fight against it as much as we fought for it original establishment at Virden.” And that moment, when it was dedicated, shook John L. up like nothing in this world could have done. In the heat of the war, we build a monument to Mother Jones and the martyrs of labor. No monument, any place in the nation’s coal fields, could match it.

In addition to Ozanic’s union work, he was also an avid photographer. His images are available online at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection. Here’s a selection devoted specifically to the construction of the Mother Jones Monument.

Share this