Mary Harris Jones

Mary Harris was born in Cork Ireland in 1837, the second of 5 children during the British occupation when commerce and industry were advancing and the landlord/tenant relationships had become oppressive to the common people. The family moved to Toronto when she was 15 and attended school. After graduation, she taught at St.Marys Convent in Monroe, Michigan. She later lived in Chicago where she was a dressmaker and later taught again in Memphis, Tennessee where she met and married George Jones. Mary was exposed to organized labor from her husbands activity in the Iron Molders Union. The Jones had four children, however their lives were lost, along with their father during the yellow fever epidemic. After this tragedy, Mary Jones returned to Chicago as a dressmaker until her shop burned down during the Great Chicago Fire. At this time, she became involved in union organizing and activity. She became a force to reckon with by her words and actions, known for helping to organize workers in strikes for better pay and conditions against the greedy industrialists. She was well thought of by the workers she supported, and vilified by the capitalists who resisted the unions in order to increase their profits at the expense of the workers. She moved from town to town in support of workers issues and against child labor. She also had been jailed on numerous occasions. She was known as Mother Jones, dressed matronly and referred to the miners as her boys. Among her associations were the Knights of Labor and Social Democratic Party.