Rodgers, Elizabeth Flynn (1847–1939)

Irish-born American labor leader and chief executive officer of the Women's Catholic Order of Foresters. Born Elizabeth Flynn in Woodford, Ireland, on August 25, 1847; died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, on August 27, 1939; daughter of Robert Flynn and Bridget (Campbell) Flynn; married George Rodgers (an iron worker, died 1920); children: ten.

First woman to become a Master Workman with the Knights of Labor (1886).

Though she was born in 1847 in Ireland, Elizabeth Flynn immigrated with her family to London, Ontario, early in her life. She was educated there, and at some point married George Rodgers and started a family. They moved to Chicago, Illinois, where George's job as an iron molder led him to active involvement in the labor movement around 1876. He joined the Knights of Labor, one of the largest and most powerful of the early labor groups and one which accepted all workers. Rodgers also joined the Knights of Labor, reputedly the first woman in Chicago to do so, and became head of an all-woman local assembly in September 1881. She served in a variety of roles within the organization before being appointed Master Workman (president) of her district—including all the Knights of Labor assemblies in Chicago and its suburbs except for the stockyard area—following the death of the incumbent in 1886. At that point, the organization claimed over 700,000 members nationwide. Later that year, Rodgers was nominated for the post of general treasurer at the Knights' national convention. Attending with her husband and infant son (who gained a fair share of publicity), she cited her ten young children in declining the post. However, 1886 also had seen the deaths of seven police officers during the infamous Haymarket Riot in May, and the repercussions of the riot, for which seven rioters were sentenced to death and four hanged, severely impacted public acceptance of the labor movement. The Knights of Labor's enrollment and power declined sharply, and Rodgers left the labor movement around 1887 for a role as a partner in a printing firm. With 12 others, she formed the fraternal life insurance agency Women's Catholic Order of Foresters. The former Knights of Labor Master Workman served as High Chief Ranger (chief executive officer) of this organization until 1908. Rodgers died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 92, in the home of a daughter in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, in 1931.

sources:

James, Edward T., ed. Notable American Women, 1607–1950. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1971.

Read, Phyllis J., and Bernard L. Witlieb. The Book of Women's Firsts. NY: Random House, 1992.

Stephen Tschirhart , freelance writer, Birmingham, Michigan