Little Known History Detours: Mt. Olive, Illinois
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.
The monument erected is not big or awe-inspiring, but it celebrates the courage of a woman who fought most of her life for the rights of others. It offers a glimpse into the hard life of a coal miner, and the dangerous fight for unions they waged in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The monument and cemetery at Mt. Olive offer a small slice of the large picture of the Labor Movement and how it evolved, not just on a national scale, but in small, local scale. A visit can help bring the reality of the day-to-day fight these people waged and how difficult their lives became because of it.
Mount Olive not only offers a glimpse into the coal mining issues in the later 19th and early 20th century, but also offers a glimpse at the old Route 66. A restored early gas station, the Soulsby Shell, is the oldest surviving service station on Route 66. Though its no longer in use, the restoration shows the Shell Station as it would have looked originally. People from all over the world drive by for a glimpse at what Old Route 66 would have been like back in its heyday.
If you enjoy history and a unique detour, Mt. Olive is a great place to stop for an hour or two. With a rich coal mining and labor history and a glimpse at the Old Route 66, a person is sure to come away having learned a few things while having a good time in the process.
