Mary Harris "Mother" Jones Collection

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones Collection

Mary Harris, reportedly born May 1, 1830, but more likely born in 1837, in Cork, Ireland, was an active participant in the labor movement in the United States for nearly sixty years. Before acquiring the name "Mother" Jones and earning the nickname the "Miners' Angel," Mary Harris had taught in Catholic schools in Michigan and Tennessee, had married George Jones and had four children. By 1867, Jones had lost her family to a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee. By the 1870s, "Mother" Jones began her long involvement in the labor struggle, by participating in various strikes such as the Pittsburgh Labor Riots (1877), the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Strike (1902), and the Colorado Coal Field and Arizona Copper Field organization movements. She also led the Children Textile Workers March from Philadelphia to Teddy Roosevelt's home in Oyster Bay, Long Island (1902). Mother Jones was affiliated with the Knights of Labor and a lifelong friend of Terence V. Powderly. She was an official labor organizer for the United Mine Workers. Up to her death on November 30, 1930 in Maryland, Mother Jones spoke out against labor injustice and for the protection of "her boys." The digitized Mother Jones Collection consists of an assortment of letters, articles, newspaper clippings, and pamphlets gathered together from a variety of sources including the John Mitchell and Terence V. Powderly papers.