Mother Jones died at the Burgess farm in Maryland at 11.55pm on November 30th 1930.
Mother Jones at Lillian Burgess’ Farm. Left to Right: Mr. Burgess, Mother Jones and Burt Fowler.
Mother Jones and Lillie Burgess on Sept 16th 1930, just before Mother Jones died.
Her funeral was attended by tens of thousands of union workers. Father William Sweeney celebrated mass for the repose of her soul at St. Gabriel’s Roman Catholic Church in Washington on Wednesday, 3rd December 1930.
The casket was then placed on the Baltimore and Ohio train and was transported by rail following the route taken by the train bearing the remains of Abraham Lincoln to Springfield in 1866. From St Louis’s Union Station, the casket bearing Mother Jones was placed on the Wabash train to Mount Olive. It was taken to the Odd Fellows Hall in the town where it lay in state for a further three days. Thousands of miners and their families called to pay their respects.
Media reports state that up to 40,000 trade unionists and working people swamped the town over the three days in what was probably the largest gathering for a funeral of a woman trade unionist in history. Women could not ascend the formal male career ladder of trade unionism at the time and so Mother Jones remained a front line union organiser especially in the early 1900s.
The crowds of miners gather in Mt Olive.
Yet her leadership of miners, her fearless approach to union organising and her moral authority among working class people remained without parallel. Her fearlessness and courage had made her a legend, and so almost a decade after she took a back seat from union activity, when she was over 80 years old, her funeral provoked a massive response from workers everywhere.
They remembered, we remember too after ninety five years.
The reponse is probably best summed up by Fr. John Maguire
Father Maguire, a labour activist, spoke in his oration at the funeral of Mother Jones.
“Sometimes, she used language that a polite family journal could not print, sometimes she used methods that made the righteous grieve……But let it be remembered that she was, after all, human. Her faults were the excesses of her courage, her love of justice, the love in her mother’s heart. Today in gorgeous mahogany furnished and carefully guarded offices in distant capitals, wealthy mine owners and capitalists are breathing sighs of relief. Today among the plains of Illinois, the hillsides and valleys of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, In California, Colorado and British Columbia, strong men and toil worn women are weeping tears of bitter grief. The reason for this contrasting relief and sorrow is the same.
Mother Jones is dead!”
Author, Edward M. Steel editor “The Speeches and Writings of Mother Jones (1988 University of Pittsburg Press) in his afterword described the final public “birthday” appearance of Mother Jones on 1st May 1930.
“Although she had been confined to bed for weeks, on 1st May she summoned up the energy to move from her upstairs bedroom to a rocking chair under the apple tree in the yard (of the Burgess farm), where all day long she opened telegrams and letters, received visitors, reminisced with old friends, bantered with reporters, and presided over the cutting of the five-tiered birthday cake supplied by the bakers’ union.
Mother Jones with her birthday cake. Photo: Courtesy of Saul Schniderman.
Many labour leaders in their Washington HQ had conspired to make the day a success and Paramount sent a crew to film the festivities. When she spoke into their microphones, she probably addressed more people than she had in years of street gatherings and public addresses.”
Mother Jones.
The New York Times report the next day contains the longest quotation from her fiery birthday remarks:
Out on the lawn she faced the talking picture cameras, took a deep breath and a drink of water, and began an impromptu speech which brought loud applause and sent the nearby circling crows wheeling back to the woods. A dog enjoying a nap in the May sunshine jumped to his feet as the white-haired labor leader said in a ringing voice:
“America was not founded on dollars but on the blood of men who gave their lives for your benefit. Power lies in the hands of labor to retain American liberty, but labor has not yet learned how to use that power. A wonderful power is in the hands of women, too but they don’t know how to use it. Capitalists sidetrack the women into clubs and make ladies of them. Nobody wants a lady, they want women. Ladies are parlour parasites.”
Baptism Font at the North Cathedal in Cork where Mother Jones was baptised on the 1st August 1837. At the rear is St. Joseph the worker, a carving by Ken Thompson.Burial place of Mother Jones in Mt. Olive. Photo: James Goltz. Note: The Irish flag flies over her grave.
Later on in the day in a TV recording which still exists, she said in her singsong accent which betrayed her Cork roots:
“You know I am considered a Bolshevik, a Red and an IWW and a Radical. And I admit to being all they’ve charged me. I’m anything that would change moneyed civilization to a higher and grander civilization for the ages to come. And I long to see the day when Labour will have the destination of the nation in her own hands and she will stand as a united force and show the world what the workers can do.”
Mother Jones
In an earlier letter from Mother Jones dated November 12th 1928, she had made a special request to the miners of Mt. Olive.
“When the last call comes for me to take my final rest, will the miners see that i get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden Illinois, on the morning of October 12th 1898. For their heroic sacrifice for their fellow men they are responsible for Illinois being one of the best organised labor states in America. I hope it will be my consolation when I pass away, to feel that I sleep under the clay with those brave boys.”
This Union Miners Cemetery was founded in Mt. Olive in 1898. As well as the Virden dead, many activists of the Progressive Miners’ of America (P.M.A) lie buried in this unique resting place. Among those who have been buried there recently include singer songwriter, and union activist, Anne Feeney, who performed in a concert at the 2014 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in Shandon, Cork. In 1936, members of the Progressive Miners’ of America erected a large monument with two bronze statues and a 20 foot pillar over the grave of Mother Jones at its center. It was unveiled on the 11th October 1936 and more then 50,000 people attended the ceremony.
Mother Jones passed away at 11.55pm on Sunday November 30th, 1930. This year marks the ninety third anniversary of her death. The death certificate stated it was due to senility. She was ninety three years old. A requiem mass was held for her at St Gabriel’s Church in Washington on the morning of December 3rd.
Mother Jones and friends with a birthday cake on her American birthday 1st May 1930. She had claimed to be one hundred years old, in reality, Mother Jones was ninety two at the time. Mother Jones lived on the farm run by Walter and Lillian Burgess at Old Powdermill Road, Hyattsville, near Washington DC, where this birthday party was held. Photo courtesy of Saul Schniderman.
Her remains were taken by railroad car to St. Louis Union Station and then the 40 miles onwards to Mount Olive. A band played “Nearer, My God, to Thee” as thousands of people awaited the transfer of her coffin to the Odd Fellows’ Hall. It lay in state until the memorial service on Sunday during which many thousands of workers, union officials and the curious filed past.
Thousands of union miners march in Mt Olive at the funeral of Mother Jones (Illinois Labor History Society).
The Ascension Church was packed for Fr John Maguire’s eulogy at 2pm, with thousands of miners gathered outside, packing the nearby streets listening on loudspeakers. On the morning of Monday, December 8th after 10:00 am Mass, her casket was then taken to Mount Olive Miners cemetery to her final resting place.
Union leaders carry the coffin of Mother Jones,
Old photos show an enormous gathering of people covering the large graveyard. Motion picture cameras record the huge funeral throngs.
Fr Maguire’s tribute opened with;
“today in gorgeous mahogany furnished and carefully guarded offices in distant capitals, wealthy mine owners and capitalists are breathing sighs of relief.
Today upon the plains of Illinois, the hillsides and valleys of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, in California, Colorado and British Columbia, strong men and toil worn women are weeping tears of bitter grief.
The reasons……….are the same. Mother Jones is dead.”
Fr. Maguire tribute.
It was hard to imagine that this frail Cork women was once branded as “the most dangerous woman in America”.
Thousands gather outside the Ascension Church, Mt Olive, Illinois.
Mother Jones died on 30th November 1930 at the age of ninety-three. Wednesday 30th November 2022 is the 92nd anniversary of her death.
Mother Jones Birthday Party May 1st, 1930. Photo courtesy of Saul Schniderman (Friday’s Labor Folklore).
Lillie May Burgess looking after Mother Jones. (Saul Schniderman, Friday’s Labor Folklore).
The Burgess family home where Mother Jones died. (Saul Schniderman, Friday’s Labor Folklore).
The Cork Examiner newspaper mentioned her death in its edition of Tuesday December 2nd 1930 under “Cork Centenarian Dies in U.S.A.“
Cork Examiner Report (2nd December 1930) of the death of Mother Jones.
The Examiner quoting a report from the “Evening News” stated that:
“Mother” Jones Mary Jones, one of the most picturesque figures that Ireland and America between them have ever produced, died during the weekend at Silver Springs, Maryland.“
Note: It recorded her birth as 1830, based on her autobiography which was incorrect.
“In her own way, Mother Jones is as important as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jnr”
Jonah Winter, 2020. Mother JONES AND HER ARMY OF MILL CHILDREN sCHWARTZ & WADE BOOKS, nEW YORK
Cork Piper, Norman O’Rourke with a musical salute on 1st August 2012 at the Baptism Font where Mary Harris was baptised in Cork’s North Cathedral.
90 years ago on Monday 8th December 1930 at 10am, Mother Jones was buried at the Union Cemetery, Mount Olive, Illinois.
Earlier on Sunday afternoon Father John Maguire in his funeral oration at the funeral of Mother Jones.
“Today in gorgeous mahogany furnished and carefully guarded offices in distant capitals, wealthy mine owners and capitalists are breathing sighs of relief. Today among the plains of Illinois, the hillsides and valleys of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, In California, Colorado and British Columbia, strong men and toil worn women are weeping tears of bitter grief. The reason for this contrasting relief and sorrow is the same. Mother Jones is dead!”
Father John Maguire
St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Washington. Among those included at the casket of Mother Jones is William Doak, US Secretary of Labour.
Mother Jones Funeral
Mother Jones Grave: Mount Olive, Illinois
The photos above from the Illinois Labour History Society give an indication of the impressive burial ceremony .
They show the scene outside St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Washington. Among those included at the casket of Mother Jones is William Doak, US Secretary of Labour.
Other photos show the massed ranks of organised labour honouring Mother Jones at Mount Olive
