Gillespie

Mt. Olive Union Miners Cemetery City Hall exterior wall, Mt. Olive

coming soon:
“General” Alexander Bradley (1866-1918)  was born in England but spent most of his life in Mt Olive. He became a charismatic, audacious, radical union organizer for the United Mine Workers in the central and southern Illinois coal fields, particularly in 1897 when he led marches into many of the coal towns where he succeeded in unionizing the miners while facing great opposition from the mine owners. He grew the UMWA from fewer than four hundred to tens of thousands. Bradley’s leadership in the coal fields included a prominent role at the “Battle of Virden” (October 12, 1898), which he led against the coal company bosses who refused to honor the previously negotiated national miners’ wage. Moreover, Bradley and the UMWA created a space that welcomed the numerous European immigrant miners alongside the “native” miners. After his extraordinary labor actions Bradley returned to work in the coal mines and faded from the labor scene where he had been so dominant. Bradley died of illness in 1918. This marker celebrates Bradley’s remarkable achievement of mass unionization in Illinois.