Panama is a tiny town south of Hillsboro and east of Mt. Olive. Its population barely exceeds 300. But Panama was one of the central Illinois coal towns in the early twentieth century, created around the Shoal Creek Coal Company mine, which was completed in 1906. Like so many of the other coal towns, Panama attracted immigrant miners. The SCCC employed 500 to 600 men. It was a much larger town then than today.

Panama’s claim to fame is its association with John L. Lewis. The following information is excerpted from “Rise of John L. Lewis Started in Panama, IL Mine” by Allan H. Keith:

“[Lewis] lived in Panama from 1909 to 1915. Even then he was active on the local level in the United Mine Workers Union. Just after moving from Panama to Springfield his union career skyrocketed. Within two years, in 1917, he was named national vice president of the union. Then in 1919 he became acting president of the national union and he was elected president in 1920. Information about Lewis’ years in Panama is included in a doctoral dissertation completed several years ago at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale by Bill Hollada of Mattoon. Hollada wrote that after Lewis moved to Panama in 1909 he held several jobs in the Panama coal mine, including mule driver. He was elected president of the union local [1475] in 1910 and also was a one-man – and apparently quite effective – grievance committee. In beginning his move up the union ladder [Lewis] had support from several brothers who worked at the Panama mine… Hollada said he believes that as many as five Lewis brothers at one time worked at the Panama mine. John L. Lewis moved with his wife to a corner house a block north of the cemetery in the south part of Panama, according to Hollada. Lewis and his wife had three children, two of them born in Panama. … In 1910, while in Panama, Lewis was elected as a state legislative agent for the union, and this included lobbying. After becoming national president Lewis built the union into one of the strongest in the U.S. He was influential in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Even as early as 1911, while in Panama, he had been elected a delegate to the national AFL convention. … in 1935 he helped found the rival Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).”

Lewis campaigned vigorously for the Federal Mine Safety Act which finally gave workers some level of safety. That law passed in 1952. 

Panama honors John L. Lewis with a city park named after him –>

–> and, more recently, on November 5, 2021 Panama inaugurated an official historical marker at the park in Lewis’ honor.

 Panama also has a community museum with numerous historical photographs and memorabilia, located in the Village Hall. Some material is related to Panama’s coal mining era. As well, a memorial in the Union Cemetery of Panama honors John L. Lewis (who is not buried there but, rather, at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield) and Panama’s miners as well as being the local cemetery.