In Honor Of Labor Day

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday that recognizes the American labor movement. It is celebrated each year on the first Monday of September.

In the early 2000s, Son Tony went to college at a university three hours northeast of St. Louis. There were two routes that would get us there. One went north and then east; the second took us east and then north.

Whenever I took the north/east route (or came home via that way) I would see a brown tourist sign advertising the presence of the Mother Jones monument at the Mt. Olive exit. I knew that was a left-leaning magazine. The internet was much less robust back then, but I was able to learn that Mother Jones the person had some type of connection to union activity. I always thought about detouring to see the monument, but it was never convenient, and after Son Tony graduated there was little reason to go that direction. 

However, when Hubby Tony made our recent trip to Chicago one of the Route 66 attractions we stopped at was only a couple of miles from that Mother Jones monument. I was able to cross it off of my list of things to visit.

Mary Harris Jones (AKA Mother Jones) was a labor organizer and activist who co-founded the Labor unionist trade union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, collqually named the Wobblies). She is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery alongside eight miners who died in the 1898 Battle of Virden mining riot.

We followed the signs that led to the Union Miners Cemetery, parked the car, and walked towards the monument at the back of the cemetery. The monument had an oval bas-relief portrait of Mother Jones flanked by two miners dressed in their work clothes. (One of the miners had a cloth bandana tied around his neck, which was a nice added touch by someone.)

In front of the monument was the grave and tombstone of Mother Jones.

There was no one else in the cemetery, and it was very peaceful. Tony and I read the placards, but we didn't linger. The day was hot and the sun intense.