0.25 Linear Feet, Summary: 3 in. (1 small flat storage box)
Creator
Burgess, Lillie May (Fowler)
Location
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown,
WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Language
English
Abstract
Typescript memoir of the life of Mother Jones, entitled "Mother Jones: the Life Story of the Irish Immigrant Girl Who Became
the Most Unique Character in the American Labor Movement, Living Past 100 Years," written by Lillie May Burgess of Hyattsville,
Maryland, and copyrighted 8 February 1938. The manuscript is in two parts, several pages of which are missing. The first part
(241pp.) is entitled "The Life Story of Mother Jones: American Labor's Joan of Arc," and is a narration of events in Mother
Jones' life. It includes a description of her early years, before she became a labor activist, and some of the highlights
of her labor career. Her activities in organizing miners in West Virginia and Colorado receive most emphasis, but also included
are her activities among women brewery workers, her participation in the 1919 steel strike at Homestead, Pennsylvania, her
interest in the Mexican Revolution of 1911, her views on woman suffrage and prohibition, her meetings with various presidents
and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and her friendship with Terence V. Powderly, fellow labor activist. The narration follows closely
that of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MOTHER JONES, published in 1925 by Charles H. Kerr & Co., Chicago, Ill., with the addition of
some chapters on her life after 1925. The second part (106pp.) is entitled "The Last Years of Mother Jones (Personal Reminiscences)."
It is a narration of the later years of Mother Jones' life, ca.1927-1930, most of which she spent under the care of the author,
Lillie May Burgess, at the Burgess home in Hyattsville, Maryland. Mrs. Burgess relates the circumstances under which Mother
Jones and she became friends, how Mother Jones came to live with the Burgess family in 1927, and what these years of her life
were like.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Conditions Governing Access
No special access restriction applies.
Preferred Citation
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Mother Jones Typescript Memoir, A&M 2778, West Virginia and Regional
History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.
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