Learning from the Indomitable Mother Jones

For some reason, I have never known much about the indomitable woman known as Mother Jones. But noticing that she died 90 years ago, on November 30, 1930, I decided to read some about her and to share some of what I discovered about that most remarkable woman. 

Mother Jones, 1924

Learning about Mother Jones

In her autobiography published in 1925, Mary Harris Jones claimed that she was born in Ireland on May 1, 1830. Well, the country is correct, but the date probably isn’t. Most likely she was born shortly before her Catholic parents had her baptized on August 1, 1837.

In the late 1840s, Richard Harris, Mary’s father, emigrated to the U.S. and then a couple of years later Mary’s mother and siblings joined him in Canada where he was then working.

By 1861, Mary had moved to Memphis, and the next ten years were filled with joy and tragedy. In that Tennessee city, Mary married George Jones and in the next five years they had four children. But then in 1867, George and all four of their children died of yellow fever.

Mary then moved to Chicago and started a dressmaking business, only to lose it and most of her possessions in the Great Fire of 1871.

In the 1870s, Mary Jones became affiliated with the Knights of Labor (KoL) and became lifelong friends with Terence Powderly (1849~1924) who was the Grand Master Workman of KoL from 1879 to '93.

After the demise of KoL in 1893, Mary became heavily involved with the United Mine Workers. When she began working for that fledgling union in the 1890s, it had 10,000 members; within a few years, 300,000 men had joined, and it became the largest union in the U.S.

Claiming to be older than she actually was, Mary started being called Mother Jones by 1897.

Her tireless work, and success, in organizing strikes for the betterment of working conditions for miners and other laboring people prompted a West Virginia district attorney in 1902 to call her “the most dangerous woman in America.”

The danger, though, was to the wealthy mine owners and others who profited off the labor of their insufficiently paid workers. By contrast, for some fifty years she was instrumental in helping improve the working and living conditions for common laborers across the United States.

Mother Jones’s funeral in 1930 was held at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C. She was then buried in Union Miners Cemetery in Mt. Olive, Illinois, after she was honored with another funeral Mass in that small Illinois town.

Learning from Mother Jones

Here are some important lessons we today can learn from the indomitable Mother Jones:

** Pressing on in spite of adversity. The five years between 1867 and 1871 was a terrible time for Mary Harris Jones. Can you imagine losing four children, your spouse, your business, and all your possessions in the space of five years?

And yet, Mary pressed on becoming increasingly involved in seeking to help others. In spite of her personal tragedies, for nearly fifty years she lived mostly to help the working poor across the country. What an inspiration!

** Recognizing that “silence is violence.” The lifework of Mother Jones, a lifelong Catholic, is expressed in these oft-quoted words of hers: “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.” She was a woman who wouldn’t keep silent, even though harassed and jailed repeatedly.

** Expressing faith in deeds, not words. Although a Christian, Mother Jones was not a “pious” churchwoman and seemingly didn’t talk a lot about her faith. But her indefatigable activity for others was in harmony with the kinds of things Jesus noted in Matthew 25:31~40 about his true followers.

These are just three of the many things we might learn from Mary Harris Jones, who probably did more for laboring people than any other woman in the history of the U.S.

*****

Links: Here is the link to the Mother Jones Museum website, which has a wealth of information about Jones.

Also, see this link to access Mother Jones, the politically progressive/liberal magazine that was founded in 1976 and named in honor of Mary Harris Jones.