Today in Labor History: Miners’ union formed

On this date in 1861, the American Miners Association was formed.  It was the first attempt to found a national miner’s union. Mainly composed of miners from Illinois and Missouri, workers from Ohio and others states participated. It founded a publication, the Weekly Miner.  The organization had a fitful start and met its demise in 1868, but its existence helped spark the United Mineworkers Union, which was founded in 1890. One of its songs, republished by Ohio History Central, is below:

Step by step, the longest march
Can be won, can be won;
Single stones will form an arch
One by one, one by one
And, by Union what we will
Can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill,
Singly none, singly none

Photo via Wikipedia.