General Bradley

Alexander “General” Bradley, born in England in 1866 , was an immigrant, coal miner, union activist, and friend of Mother Jones. The Bradley family emigrated from England to the Illinois coal fields when Alexander was four years old. He worked in the mine known as the Devil’s Hole, near Collinsville in Madison County at the age of nine. The family eventually moved to Mt. Olive where Alexander continued to work in the mines. When there was no work in the mines, Alexander went to St. Louis and met other out of work, disaffected miners. He joined the hobo group, called Coxey’s army after its leader, and marched with them to Washington, D.C. in 1894. He returned to Mt. Olive and began to informally organize the miners. He led a contingent of miners on a walk from Mt. Olive to Staunton in Macoupin County, through Edwardsville, Glen Carbon and Collinsville in Madison County, and on to Belleville in St. Clair County during the national strike called for on July 4, 1897. His flamboyant leadership, his top hat and cut away coat, his determination, soon turned him into “General” Bradley. The long struggle for better wages and better conditions, and the development of solidarity among the strikers prepared General Bradley to lead the miners at the Battle of Virden.

The United Mine Workers’ success in representing Illinois miners, and then miners across the country grew from the aftermath of the Battle of Virden. General Bradley and his miners succeeded. Alexander Bradley wrote The Great Coal Miners’ Strike of 1897 as a memoir of his early life and his efforts to lead the local strike. Bradley worked in the mines off and on and did informal organizing until his death in 1918. His headstone faces the monument of his friend Mother Jones in the Union Miners Cemetery.  His life is remembered best by John Keiser, historian and Mt. Olive native son, in the article, The Union Miners Cemetery at Mt. Olive, Illinois A Spirit-Thread of Labor History.

To learn more about General Bradley’s unionization efforts in our region, please visit the story map created by Helaine Silverman and Emma Verstraete for the Mythic Mississippi Project:

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/bf12024bb7a94ebc82530c212132dbe6

References
The Great Coal Miners’ Strike of 1897, By Gen’l A. Bradley, Mt. Olive, Illinois
The Union Miners Cemetery at Mt. Olive, Illinois – A Spirit-Thread of Labor History, John H. Keiser, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Autumn 1969, pages 229-266.