Mary Harris Jones aka Mother Jones was born on this day in 1837. She was a prominant labor organizer in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
She was born in Cork, Ireland. Her family emigrated to Canada when she was in her teens. She would move to the United States later and become a schoolteacher. In Memphis, Tennessee she met and married George Jones. Jones was a member of the National Union of Iron Moulders.  Mary Jones would start to show an interest in union activities.

Two big events changed her life. Her husband and all 4 of her children, all under the age of 5, would die of Yellow Fever. She would move to Chicago and would lose everything in the Great Chicago Fire. She then decided to spend the rest of her life working for the union. She joined the Knights of Labor. When they went under she affiliated herself with the United Mine Workers. She became more involved, leading strikes and encouraging miners to stay on strike. She would be arrested serveral times and serve time in prison.

By the time she was sixty she was now Mother Jones. She claimed to be older than she was, always wore black dresses. The miners would call her Mother and she would refer to them as “Her Boys” She was very charismatic and an effective speaker, a great storyteller. A nickname she had was “The Miner’s Angel”

She was called at one time the “Most Dangerous Woman In America. Her most famous statement was “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living” She was denounced on the floor of the United States Senate as “The grandmother of all agitators” to which her response was “I hope to live long enough to be the great grandmother of all agitators” Mother Jones was only about 5 feet tall.

She would be a union organizer into the late 1920’s and for the rest of her life would speak on union issues. She died at the age of 93 in 1930.