Mt. Olive was founded in 1846 by German immigrant John Niemann. The town prospered with the discovery of coal and the arrival of railroads. European immigrants were attracted to Mt. Olive (as they were to many other Illinois coal towns) by the opportunity to work in the coal mines. And, as in so many coal towns, the miners endured poor pay and dangerous work conditions. Among the miners was an English immigrant, Alexander Bradley (1866-1918), who had arrived in America as a child with his family, who first lived in Collinsville. The Bradleys then made their home in Mt. Olive, living east of the railroad tracks. Alexander transformed himself into “General Bradley”, one of the greatest coal mining labor leaders. He was a driving force in events surrounding the United Mine Workers (UMW) national strike of 1897. He achieved the unionization of tens of thousands of miners in central and southern Illinois in a very short time. His campaign started in Mt Olive and spread out from there. General Bradley led Mt. Olive Local 728 of the United Mine Workers of America in the Battle of Virden, which took place on October 12, 1898.  When Bradley died in 1918 he was buried in Mt. Olive’s Union Miners Cemetery.  Please go to the General Bradley webpage for more information about him: CLICK 

But Bradley is not well known outside labor history enthusiasts for the local region. Rather, Mt. Olive is synonymous with the great labor leader, MOTHER JONES (Mary Harris Jones, 1837-1930), once called “the most dangerous woman in America”. Mother Jones became the recognizable face of labor activism in the United States and most especially for the struggles of the nation’s coal miners. She was a thorny presence in the coal mine battles in Colorado, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Of all the labor dramas she witnessed and in which she participated, Mother Jones expressed her greatest admiration and affection for the coal miners who fought in the Battle of Virden, an event at which she was not present. She said: “They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America” (p. 289, Elliott J. Gorn, Mother Jones. The Most Dangerous Woman in America, 2001).

Twelve years after Alexander Bradley’s death, the funeral service of the miners’ beloved Mother Jones was held at the Church of the Ascension in Mt. Olive. Mt. Olive’s Becker Funeral Home directed her burial. Some 40,000 people – most of them miners  – entered Mt Olive over three days to pay their respects to this extraordinary labor leader. Many sobbed.  The grandson of one of the pallbearers for Mother Jones’ coffin lived in Mt. Olive until his recent death. Throngs accompanied her casket to the Union Miners Cemetery where she wished to be buried next to “her boys” from the Battle of Virden: “the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden … those brave boys [who] gave up their lives for a holy cause…. I want to take my last sleep with my brave boys in Mt Olive…” Her request was granted. She was buried alongside “her boys” in 1930. Her original grave and subsequent grave at the base of the great monument honoring her are near General Bradley’s grave. 

Visitors to Mt Olive can learn about Mother Jones in the Mother Jones Museum (215 E. Main).

The Union Miners Cemetery in Mt. Olive has great historical significance. It originated as a result of the 1898 Battle of Virden because the fallen miners were denied burial in Virden, which was a company town. The United Mine Workers union was able to purchase land in Mt. Olive for the purpose of creating a cemetery. Additional land was subsequently purchased for the expansion of the cemetery. Later, the breakaway Progressive Miners of America union became custodians of the Union Miners Cemetery.

The Union Mines Cemetery was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

In the years that followed the Battle of Virden, an annual October 12 commemoration began to be held at the cemetery. This prompted multiple visits to Mt Olive by Mother Jones. The town was one of her favorite places. Indeed, already a nonagenarian, she intended to attend the 27th annual commemoration in 1925 but was too ill to come. 

Soon after Mother Jones’ death and funeral, the newly formed Progressive Miners of America (which split from the United Mine Workers in 1932) raised the money for a great monument to Mother Jones and to their own martyrs in the violent labor battles against the UMW. It is located in the Union Miners Cemetery.  A cameo portrait of Mother Jones appears at the top of the tall column and a plaque bearing General Bradley’s name and plaques with the names of three of the miners felled at Virden are emplaced at the base.

This historic photo shows the transfer of Mother Jones’ casket to its place of honor at the foot of the enormous monument erected in her honor in 1936 by the Progressive Miners of America. In this video Mother Jones (portrayed by actress Loretta Williams) indicates her original grave site in the Union Miners Cemetery, before removal of the casket to the base of the monument.

The Mount Olive Herald, which began publishing in June 1880, still operates in town (as a weekly). It covered Mother Jones’ funeral, the development of the the Union Miners Cemetery, the dedication of the Monument, and the struggles between the Progressives and the UMWA. Its office is still on Main Street. 

The town of Mt Olive recognizes its connection to Mother Jones with banners hanging from lamp posts.

For more information about the historic Mother Jones and the labor struggles of coal miners, please go to the RESOURCES section of this project website:  CLICK
Here is another source of historical information for Mt. Olive and all of Macoupin County: CLICK 
We recommend Si Kahn’s extraordinary musical Mother Jones in Heaven starring  Vivian Nesbitt & John Dillon: CLICK
  

Also of interest is the town’s annual Homecoming Parade, which always takes place on Labor Day. Mt. Olive’s role in the labor movement is included in the celebration. Various related activities are conducted in Mt. Olive by the Friends of the Mother Jones Museum Association. 
“General Bradley” and the “anonymous miner” participate in Mt. Olive’s 2022 Homecoming Parade.
The “anonymous miner” walks behind the truck emblazoned with one of Mother Jones’ important sayings. A music duo performs songs of the labor movement under the canopy of the truck.
These beautiful large banners for the Mother Jones Museum in Mt. Olive (left) and the Union Mines Cemetery (right) march in Mt. Olive’s Homecoming Parade.

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the other Mother Jones: There is a liberal news magazine called MOTHER JONES whose tagline is “Smart, Fearless Journalism”. The magazine’s website has two articles explaining who the historic Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones) was and why she inspired the creation of the magazine 44 years after her death and continues to inspire it. Please read the two articles (the first by Elliott J. Gorn, the second by Adam Hochschild) accessible with this link: CLICK