Christopher Evans (March 8, 1841 – November 5, 1924) was a British-born American labor union leader. Born in

Upper Gornal Gornal is a suburban area and electoral ward of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, in the West Midlands county in England. It encompasses three historic villages: Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal, and Gornal Wood. Gornal was formerly part of Staffordshi ...

, then in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, to Welsh parents, Evans was working in a coal mine by the age of 10. He emigrated to the United States in 1869, settling in

Mercer County, Pennsylvania Mercer County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 110,652. Its county seat is Mercer, and its largest city is Hermitage. The county was created in 1800 and later organized in 1803. Merce ...

, to work in a coal mine. There, he promoted labor unionism, set up a miners' institute, and organized a literary society at the mine. In 1873, he founded a local lodge of the Miners' and Laborers' Benevolent Association. That year, he was the Shenango Valley delegate to the founding conference of the Miners' National Association, and a couple of months later, he affiliated his lodge with the new association. Evans came to New Straitsville in 1875, to collect money for striking miners in Mercer County. He received a strong response there, and after the failure of the strike in 1876, he moved to the new town. During this period, he promoted the

Knights of Labor Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American labor federation active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also ...

. In 1877, the local miners went on strike, and Evans spoke at secret meetings at Robinson's Cave, then negotiated a pay rise which ended the industrial action. By the 1880s, Evans was becoming disillusioned with the Knights of Labor, which he saw as ineffective. In 1882, he was a founder of the Ohio Miners' Amalgamated Association, and he served on a relief committee during another local miners' strike. In 1885, Evans was the founding secretary of the National Federation of Miners and Mine Laborers. He negotiated a merger between it and the mining sections of the Knights of Labor, which formed the

United Mine Workers of America The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American Labor history of the United States, labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing worke ...

in 1890. His role in the process increased his profile such that in 1889, he was elected as secretary of the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...

, serving until 1894. He then became a full-time organizer and statistician, working for the

. In 1905, while organizing in

Trinidad, Colorado Trinidad is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 8,329 as of the 2020 census. Trinidad lies north of Raton, New Mexico, and s ...

, Evans was beaten unconscious by three masked men on a train. After this, he chose to write a two-volume ''History of the United Mine Workers of America''. He died in 1924.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Chris 1841 births 1924 deaths American trade union leaders English emigrants to the United States Knights of Labor people People from Staffordshire United Mine Workers of America people Secretary-Treasurers of the American Federation of Labor