What better way to mark Labor Day than with a portrait of John Llewellyn Lewis, native to Lucas County and a giant within the U.S. labor movement?
Born Feb. 12, 1880, in the coal mining town of Cleveland (immediately east of the surviving Lucas County village of Lucas), his parents were Welsh immigrants Ann and Thomas H. Lewis. His working career began in Lucas's Big Hill Mine and he married Myrta Bell, a daughter of the village physician.
Although his home bases became Washington, D.C. (home in Alexandria, Virginia) and Springfield, Illinois, where his remains were interred after death on June 11, 1969, at Doctors Hospital in Washington, he always maintained ties with Lucas County and old friends and kinfolk.
Today, a principal memorial to him is the excellent John L. Lewis Museum of Mining and Labor, in Lucas. Here's a link to its home page.
And Happy Labor Day, Mr. Lewis!
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