The loss of her husband and their four children , three girls and a boy ( all under the age of five ) in 1867 , during a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis marked a turning point in her life . After that tragedy , she returned to Chicago to begin another dressmaking business . She did work for those of the upper class of Chicago in the 1870s and 1880s . Then , four years later , she lost her home , shop , and possessions in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 . This huge fire destroyed many homes and shops . Jones , like many others , helped rebuild the city . According to her autobiography , this led to her joining the Knights of Labor . She started organizing strikes . At first the strikes and protests failed , sometimes ending with police shooting at and killing protesters . The Knights mainly attracted men but by the middle of the decade member numbers leaped to more than a million becoming the largest labor organization in the country . The Haymarket Riot of 1886 and the fear of anarchism and upheaval incited by union organizations resulted in the demise of the Knights of Labor when an anarchist threw a bomb into an altercation between the Chicago police and workers on strike . Once the Knights ceased to exist , Mary Jones became involved mainly with the United Mine Workers . She frequently led UMW strikers in picketing and encouraged striking workers to stay on strike when management brought in strike-breakers and militias . She believed that " working men deserved a wage that would allow women to stay home to care for their kids . " Around this time , strikes were getting better organized and started to produce greater results , such as better pay for the workers
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Mary Harris Jones