John R. Lawson

He was the leader of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at the time of the Colorado Coalfield War and the Ludlow Massacre.

[4] Born to Scottish parents in Pennsylvania in 1871, Lawson was raised in a union household by a father who was at various times part of the Knights of Labor and United Mine Workers.

At age 10, Lawson began work as a "trapper boy," preventing the build-up of dangerous gases in the enclosed spaces of a mine.

[5] During the Cripple Creek Strike–on the night of 17 December 1903–Lawson's family home was among those of other strikers that were dynamited in what some historians believe was an attack executed by mine operators.

[7] Following years of strikes which ended in relative failure, Lawson joined the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company as vice president, serving in that position from 1927 to 1939.