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Page 2 of 3 Other small organizations of linemen and wiremen in New York, Denver and on the West Coast were contacted. J.T. Kelly wrote of Henry Miller, “Every movement, whether revolutionary or peaceful, every organization established, no matter what the object, has associated with it the name of some individual whose mind conceived and whose energy and perseverance established it; and thus the name of Henry Miller will forever be associated with the organization of the Electrical Workers of America.” Brother Miller was born on a ranch near Fredericksburg, Texas, on January 5, 1858. At the age of 14, he worked as a water boy for a government project to string a telegraph line from San Antonio, Texas, to Fort Clark. He became a lineman and made his way around the country working for railroads, Western Union and fledgling electric utilities. By June of 1886 he was working for the St. Louis Municipal Electric Light and Power Company. After small attempts at union organizing, he saw his chance to begin the process of establishing a city-wide, and hopefully national, electrical workers’ union when electrical workers came to St. Louis for the 1890 exposition featuring electricity. James T. Kelly was born in Overton, Pennsylvania, in 1862, into a deeply religious family. He started out as a teacher at a small college but gave that up to enter the electrical construction trade as a wireman. He settled in St. Louis around 1890. His son, John R. Kelly, remembered his father fondly. Of his father John wrote, “I remember my father decorating a horse and buggy and participating in several Labor Day parades in St. Louis.” He went on to write that his father convinced the city of’ St. Louis to produce its own power from the steam generated by the boilers in the then-new city hospital. A powerful speaker and writer, he is credited with writing the preamble to the Brotherhood’s first constitution and was the first editor of The Electrical Worker, the predecessor of today’s IBEW Journal. J.T. Kelly’s wife, Sarah, helped her husband a great deal throughout his organizing efforts. Page 3 of 3 |
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A year later, in September of 1891, the call went out to all those newly organized locals to meet in St. Louis to pull this loose collection of’ locals into a national union. And on November 2 1, 10 men—T.J. Finnell from Chicago; F.J. Heizlenan from Toledo; E.C. Hartung from Indianapolis; Harry Fisher from Evansville; Henry Miller, J T. Kelly and William Hedden from St. Louis; and J.C. Sutter, Joseph Berlovitz and James Dorsey representing locals by proxy—met at what became the First Convention of the National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. They met for a week and worked out a constitution, adopted procedures and designed a logo—the now-famous clenched fist holding lightning bolts. Miller was elected first Grand President and Kelly first Grand Secretary.
