John L. Lewis was born February 12th 1880, to Welsh immigrant parents in the coal mining camp of Cleveland, Iowa- one mile East of Lucas, Iowa. He began working in the Big Hill Coal Mine in Lucas, IA as a teenager, joining the UMWA Local #799 in 1900. In 1907, John married Myrta Bell, daughter of the local town doctor. The following year they moved to Springfield, Illinois where he began his rise to power in the United Mine Workers of America and served as President of the UMWA for forty years and was founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.