Jones, Mary Harris (1830-1930), was a well-known figure in the United States labor movement in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. She helped organize unions, largely among coal miners. She also helped found the Industrial Workers of the World, a labor organization formed to oppose conservative policies in the labor movement. Most workers called her “Mother Jones.”
Jones persuaded many laborers to strike for better working conditions, higher wages, and shorter hours. She was jailed in West Virginia in 1902 and 1913, and in Colorado in 1913 and 1914, for leading miners’ strikes. The jailing of a woman who was more than 70 years old aroused sympathy for the labor movement. However, most of the strikes were unsuccessful.
Mary Harris was born on May 1, 1830, in Cork, Ireland. She grew up in Toronto, Ontario. She taught school in Monroe, Michigan, and in Memphis before marrying George Jones, an ironworker, in 1861. In 1867, her husband and their four children died of yellow fever in Memphis. She moved to Chicago, where she opened a dressmaking shop. The great Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed her business. She died on Nov. 30, 1930.
