On this day in Labor History the year was 1854.
That was the day that Mary McDowell, known as the Angel of the Chicago stockyards was born.
Mary’s father brought the family to Chicago from Cincinnati after the Civil War.
Her family was friends with US President Rutherford B Hayes, and as a young woman she spent a month in the White House as a guest.
Mary received her college degree and worked as a teacher for a wealthy family in New York.
But living and working among the wealthy was not be the course of her life.
She returned to Chicago and became a kindergarten teacher at the famed Hull House.
Then she became the head of the University of Chicago Settlement House in the back of the yards.
The settlement house served the diverse neighborhoods around the Chicago Stockyards.
The community center included a library, play lots, gymnasiums and classrooms.
Mary and her settlement house supported the rights of workers to form unions and to have safe working conditions.
In 1903, Mary became the head of Illinois chapter of the National Women’s Trade Union League.
The Pittsburgh Press reported on an incident that captured the spirit of Mary McDowell.
The city of Chicago had a practice of using garbage to fill holes in the streets surrounding the stockyards.
Mary showed up at the Mayor’s office with a group of women from the neighborhood and demanded, “All right, we want the rest of it dumped on Lake Shore drive.
It it’s good enough for the stockyards it’s good for the drive, too.”
The city stopped using garbage for street repairs.
February 8 - Butte Copper Miners Join the 1919 Strike Wave
February 7 - Strike at Cripple Creek
February 6 - Philly Garment Workers Win!
February 5 - The Fight for Craft Governance
February 4 - Solidarity on the Coast
February 3 - Anti-Trust Injunctions Used Against Labor
February 2 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
February 1 - A Pivotal Moment in the Flint Sit-Down
January 31 - The Big Easy Fires 7000 Teachers
January 30 - Fred Korematsu Day
January 29 - Bread & Roses Striker, Anna LoPizzo, Shot Dead
January 28 - The 1917 Bath Riots
January 27 - Bans on Yellow Dog Contracts Ruled Unconstitutional
January 26 - Sid Hatfield Stands Trial
January 25 - Solidarity Works!
January 24 - Arturo Alfonso Schomburg is Born
January 23 - If Poison Doesn’t Work, Try Briggs!
January 22 - Tragedy in the Mines & in the Union Hall
January 21 - On Strike for Health & Dignity
January 20 - The Flint Womens Emergency Brigades
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