John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America and founder of the Congress of Industrial Organization, came to Panama, Illinois, from Iowa with his family in 1908 to work in the mines and within one year became president of UMWA Local 1475. In 1909, Illinois UMWA District 12 hired him to lobby in Springfield after the Cherry Mine Disaster killed 259. In 1911 the American Federation of Labor hired him as an organizer. He became the UMWA acting president in 1919, was elected to that office in 1920, and held it until 1960. The UMWA was the nation’s largest union, and Lewis ruthlessly held power. Frustrated Illinois miners rebelled against him in 1932 and organized the Progressive Mine Workers of America, leading to bloody battles between insurgents and UMWA loyalists. In 1935 Lewis launched the Congress of Industrial Workers, challenging AFL craft unions with industrial unionism and bringing millions of workers into the union movement. He negotiated better wages, safety, health, welfare, and retirement programs for miners. Nationally renowned from the 1930s to the 1950s, and famous for his bushy eyebrows, stentorian voice, and Shakespearean rhetoric, he was both feared and cultivated by politicians. His support was critical to President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 reelection, though he did not support Roosevelt in 1940. Lewis kept a Springfield home and is buried in that city’s Oak Ridge Cemetery.