PANAMA (Union Cemetery)
The ten-foot-tall memorial in Panama’s cemetery was erected in 2003. It commemorates the terrible April 5, 1915 explosion at the Shoal Creek Coal Co. Panama No. 1 mine in which 11 men died. It is that mine disaster that gives meaning to the words of UMWA President John L. Lewis that are inscribed at the base of the front of the memorial.
The text says:
The public does not understand, and I think never will. That almost spiritual fealty that exists between men who go down into the dangers of the mine and work together. That fealty of understanding and brotherhood that exists in our calling to a more pronounced degree than in any other industry. The public does not know that a man who works in a coal mine is not afraid of anything except God, that he is not afraid of injunctions, or politicians, or threats, or denunciations, or verbal castigation, or slander. That he does not fear death
John L. Lewis, Panama Union Local 1475 President 1910
United Mine Workers of America President 1920-1960
The back of the memorial has this text:
This Monument is dedicated by the cemetery committee and its many volunteers to the Coal Miners who lie in these hallowed ground [.] Our thanks to the numerous organizations and to the citizens who opened their hearts and graciously gave of themselvse. May these miners rest in Peace, for without them there would be no village. God’s blessings be upon them, and on everyone who helped to make this monument a reality. Dedicated May 25, 2003
The reverse inscription, transcribed above, is interesting because of local interest nearly one hundred years after the tragedy, particularly given the absence of the coal mine in the decades preceding the initiative to create the memorial. Related to this issue is the phrase “for without them there would be no village.” This speaks to the enduring sense of community in Panama and its resilience in surviving the end of coal mining here.
On November 5, 2021 Panama inaugurated an official Illinois State Historical Society marker honoring John L. Lewis on the grounds of the Village Hall.
Lewis was President of Local 1475 of the United Mine Workers in Panama where he lived and worked as a coal miner. Ten years later he had been elected President of the national union. He held that position for forty years with attendant controversy. Lewis campaigned vigorously for the Federal Mine Safety Act which finally gave workers some small level of safety, passed in 1952, 46 years after the Panama No. 1 explosion. Lewis is not buried in Panama Union Cemetery. He is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield in a modest plot.