Little Known History Detours: Mt. Olive, Illinois

Mother Jones, Miner's Union and Route 66

If you’re driving down I-55 in Central Illinois, you’re likely to miss the sign for Mount Olive, Illinois. Some observant people might notice the sign for the Mother Jones Monument located in Mount Olive. Few are likely to stop. However, if you enjoy your history, follow the signs toward the Mother Jones Monument, and you’ll discover a fascinating learning experience hidden off old Route 66.

The Mother Jones Monument resides in the Union Miner’s Cemetery. Surrounded by cornfields, this small cemetery offered a resting place to many miner’s who died whether it was working, striking, or some unrelated cause. Due to the labor unrest the late 1800s, many cemeteries or churches would not bury any miner’s who could be linked with labor strikes. The Union Miner’s Cemetery is the place those bodies were brought to be buried.

Marry Harris Jones, or “Mother Jones” as she was known, was an activist in labor and union politics both in Illinois and throughout the United States and Canada. She fought hard for unions for miners so that they could be guaranteed decent and safe working conditions. She died in 1930 at the age of 100, and preceding this asked to be buried with “her boys” in the Union Miner’s Cemetery in Mt. Olive.

She was not only buried in Mt. Olive, but the Union Miner’s Cemetery also erected a monument to her and a few men who were killed in the Virden riot in which, during an attempt to break the strike, guards and miners began fighting. On entering the cemetery, a stone monument rises up in the background. Following the path leads to the Mother Jones monument.