Mining Towns of Macoupin County:
Coal mines were developed in the county in the late 1800s. By 1910, there were 22 shaft mines, 17 of which were shipping coal by rail to industrial centers. Virden had 4, Girard 1, Nilwood 1, Carlinville 1, Gillespie 3, and Staunton had 4. The “pit villages” of Mt. Clare, Benld, and Sawyerville had become overnight boom towns.

These new, deeper mines brought in immigrants from throughout Europe. Miners who came from the British Isles were strong union and labor activists. The Virden mine riot of 1898 is a significant event in the American labor movement. Miners from all of these towns joined in the battle. A monument in Virden and the Union Miner’s Cemetery in Mt. Olive commemorate this event and the fight to end “industrial feudalism” in the mines. Some of those killed in the riot and their leader, “General” Alexander Bradley, a British coal miner from Mt. Olive, are buried in this cemetery. Also buried here is “Mother” Jones, a famous union activist who asked to be buried “under the same clay” as the martyred Virden miners.

The struggle of immigrant miners and their conflict with mine owners is a story that resonates across time to the present. Even 9 and 10 year old children labored in the mines with their fathers. Mother Jones and the labor movement responded to this suffering to give us the 40 hour work week, child labor laws, and minimum wage laws. These towns still reflect their coal mining roots.

The diverse ethnic make-up of these communities is evident in their cultural and social values and traditions.

Relationship to Route 66:
These towns are located on the original Route 4 alignment which was Route 66 from 1926 to 1930. Many are classic, small town, middle-American communities with autonomous downtown businesses, schools, grocery stores, gas stations and other amenities. Their public squares are still the center of civic activities.