William Fairley

William Fairley

William Robert Fairley (born November 9, 1846 in Leasingthorne, England; died November 27, 1927 in Ensley) was a labor organizer and negotiator who served on the executive board of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and as a commissioner in the conciliation section of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Fairley was the son of Robert and Margery Jobling Fairley of Leasingthorne, in County Durham in North East England. He married the former Jane Ann Pattinson, had two children, Robert and Bridget.

The family immigrated to the United States in 1880. He worked as a coal miner in Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky before settling in the Birmingham District around 1887. He assisted Henry F. DeBardeleben in the sinking of new mines at Henry Ellen. He was later employed at the Pratt Mines.

During the 1894 miner's strike across the Birmingham District, Fairley, while not formally involved with the union, was credited with effecting a resolution by chance. He came to Birmingham's L & N Station and ran across DeBardeleben, who asked him to meet him in the lobby of the Morris Hotel to discuss the strike. Nat Baxter and George McCormack of the Tennessee Company were also present. In conversation, Fairley mentioned a letter DeBardeleben had contributed to the The Birmingham Age-Herald in which he referred to his mining community at Johns as a "garden of Eden." Fairley noted that in Genesis, the garden of Eden "was a place of joy and continual happiness... until the serpent appeared." He then identified DeBardeleben as the serpent and bringer of unhappiness, which brought a roar of laughter from the group. The spirited discussion continued until 4:00 AM when Fairley was due to catch a train to New Orleans. As the story goes, the mine operators agreed to meet the union leadership the next day, beginning the negotiations that brought the strike to an end.

Fairley was elected president of the UMWA District 20 covering the state of Alabama in 1898, and was elected to the national board along with union president John Mitchell later that year. By the turn of the century, Fairley was credited as a "leading spirit" in organizing for the UMWA in Alabama, and as a "stormy petrel" in his disputes with mine owners and operators.

In 1904 a group of "non-resident labor leaders" operating in Colorado's Cripple Creek district— including Fairley, Mary "Mother" Jones, William Wardjon, Chris Evans and Charles Demolli— were "deported" by the state militia under orders from Governor James Peabody.

Between 1907 and 1918 Fairley resided at 516 Balsam Avenue in Pratt City.

During the Taft administration (1909–1913), Fairley was appointed as an immigration inspector at the Port of New Orleans.

Fairley suffered from chronic illness as he reached his 80s. He died in 1927 and is buried at the Fraternal Cemetery in North Pratt.

References

• "To Run Labor Leaders Out of Colorado" (March 27, 1904) The New York Times, p. 1
• "Mr. Fairley Talks of Miners' Strike" (August 3, 1904) The Birmingham Age-Herald, p. 5
• "W. R. Fairley Died After Lingering Illness" (December 15, 1927) Coal Mining Review, Vol. 16, No. 11, p. 9

External links

• William R. Fairley at Findagrave.com