Union Miners Cemetery Arch - Mt. Olive, IL
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 39° 04.843 W 089° 43.910
16S E 263696 N 4329286
The only union owned cemetery in the world.
Waymark Code: WMJK21
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 11/27/2013
Views: 4
County of Arch: Macoupin County
Location of Arch: Union Miners Cemetery, old US Route 66, Mt. Olive
This arch begins with two brick columns as feet for the short steel pole that hold an elaborate wrought iron looking arch or swirls and circles. In the center of the arch is a small plate of steel with the hand written words: "Resting Place of Good Union People"
"As Muslims go to Mecca, there is a shrine in Illinois that deserves a pilgrimmage by all labor-minded persons. It is the Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive, Illinois.
"It offers no miraculous visions or cures; but each one who visits will be touched, for this is the resting place of that 'grandmother of agitators,' Mary 'Mother' Jones; and this is a place filled with the spirit of good union men. They are the coal miners she called 'her boys,' among whom she asked to be buried at the time of her death in 1930, at the age of 100.
"Beyond the wrought iron gate to the little burial ground rises a granite obelisk on which is a great medallion bearing the likeness of Mother Jones. She is guarded on either side by a larger-than-life bronze statue of a coal miner with his sledge. At the base is a simple stone nestled in the grass, Mother Mary Jones.
"Among the tombstones in the Union Miners Cemetery is that of 'General' Alexander Bradley, surely the most flamboyant figure in all of labor history. Bradley got his military nickname as a reference to his service in Coxey's Army, that fabulous cross-country march of the unemployed which culminated in a march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. on May 1, 1894." ~ Illinois Labor History Society