Mary Lincoln's Connection to "Mother Jones"
I often come across unexpected connections between Mary Lincoln and other noted historical figures. Here’s an example: I can’t verify the truth of this, but in 1915, newspapers quoted Peter Michelson, a friend of noted labor activist Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, in a publication called the Delineator:
Mother Jones is now 83 years old. According to one's point of view, she is a reckless labor agitator who has stimulated violence in mine fields all over the United States, or she is the far-seeing organizer of miners' unions, their undaunted champion in time of trouble, the friend and teacher of mine children and really "Mother" Jones, with the emphasis on the "Mother." "I was born in revolution," "Mother" Jones says in her public speeches, and this is literally true. Eighty-two years ago, just when the Irish oppressions were at their worst, Mary Harris began life in a rough peasant's cottage in Cork, Ireland. When she was 5 years old the family emigrated to Canada, Mary was sent to school in Toronto, and later became a teacher in the public schools. We next find her in Chicago, a forewoman in a dressmaking establishment. Here, in 1860, it was her lot to oversee the making of the dress which Mrs. Abraham Lincoln wore at the inaugural.
Wasn’t expecting that! I also was not aware of Jones’ tragic early life:
Then she married. Her husband, George Jones, itinerant blacksmith and ironmolder, was identified with the Knights of Labor, first of the industrial unions. They were labor's early missionaries, wanderers from choice, and as they wandered, four children were born to them. Yellow fever in New Orleans took her husband and children in one week. Mary Jones had lost her family, but "Mother Jones” adopted in their stead the workers of America.
That was in 1867. The children were all under the age of five. Soon, she was back in Chicago making dresses, which she continued to do for many years. She may well have had some interactions with Mary Lincoln in the 1870s. At one point, she owned her own dress shop, but it burned down in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It’s not hard to understand why she plunged into the cause with such passion and commitment in the aftermath of the fire.
A few interesting notes on Jones from Wikipedia:
…She believed that "working men deserved a wage that would allow women to stay home to care for their kids."
…She was termed "the most dangerous woman in America" by a West Virginian district attorney, Reese Blizzard, in 1902, at her trial for ignoring an injunction banning meetings by striking miners. "There sits the most dangerous woman in America", announced Blizzard. "She comes into a state where peace and prosperity reign ... crooks her finger [and] twenty thousand contented men lay down their tools and walk out."
…Jones was ideologically separated from many female activists of the pre-Nineteenth Amendment days due to her uncommittment to female suffrage. She was quoted as saying that "you don't need the vote to raise hell!"
…She became known as a charismatic and effective speaker throughout her career. She was an exceptionally talented orator. Occasionally she would include props, visual aids, and dramatic stunts for effect.
…By age 60, she had assumed the persona of "Mother Jones" by claiming to be older than she was, wearing outdated black dresses and referring to the male workers that she helped as "her boys". The first reference to her in print as Mother Jones was in 1897.
…In 1903, Jones organized children who were working in mills and mines to participate in a "Children's Crusade", a march from Kensington, Philadelphia to Oyster Bay, New York, the hometown of President Theodore Roosevelt with banners demanding "We want to go to school and not the mines!"
…During the Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 in West Virginia, Mary Jones arrived in June 1912, speaking and organizing despite a shooting war between United Mine Workers members and the private army of the mine owners. Martial law in the area was declared and rescinded twice before Jones was arrested on 13 February 1913 and brought before a military court. Accused of conspiring to commit murder among other charges, she refused to recognize the legitimacy of her court-martial. She was sentenced to twenty years in the state penitentiary. During house arrest at Mrs. Carney's Boarding House, she acquired a dangerous case of pneumonia. After 85 days of confinement, her release coincided with Indiana Senator John W. Kern's initiation of a Senate investigation into the conditions in the local coal mines.
…Several months later, she helped organize coal miners in Colorado in the 1913-1914 United Mine Workers of America strike against the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron company, in what is known as the Colorado Coalfield War. Once again she was arrested, serving time in prison and inside the San Rafael Hospital, and was escorted from the state in the months prior to the Ludlow Massacre. After the massacre, she was invited to meet face-to-face with the owner of the Ludlow mine, John D. Rockefeller Jr. The meeting was partially responsible for Rockefeller's 1915 visit the Colorado mines and introduction of long-sought reforms.[
…Jones uttered words still invoked by union supporters more than a century later: "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living."Already known as "the miners' angel" when she was denounced on the floor of the United States Senate as the "grandmother of all agitators", she replied, "I hope to live long enough to be the great-grandmother of all agitators."
*Source of newspaper article quoted above: (Philadelphia) Evening Public Ledger, April 26, 1915.