Background
John Brown Lennon was born in Lafayette County, Wisconsin. When he was two years old his parents, John Alexander and Elizabeth Fletcher (Brown) Lennon, moved to Hannibal, Missouri.
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John Brown Lennon
Edit ProfileEducation
He attended the public schools at Hannibal, Missouri.
Career
After his father entered the Union army in 1861, John, at the age of eleven, was obliged to assist his mother with the responsibility of their small farm. His father was a tailor by trade and after the war reopened his shop in Hannibal, where John served four years' apprenticeship. In 1869 he went West, settling in Denver, Colorado, where he set himself up as merchant tailor. The next year he was joined by his parents and sisters, his father took charge of the shop, and young Lennon became a journeyman for various merchant tailors of Denver.
He helped organize a Tailor's Union in Denver, of which he became secretary. Before the end of the convention year 1883, the Denver union became affiliated with the new national organization, the Journeyman Tailors' Union of America. The following year, while acting as president of his local union, Lennon was appointed as a delegate to the convention of the national union at Chicago. Here he was chosen national president, and in 1885 became one of the vice-presidents. Elected general secretary in 1887, he moved to New York, the seat of the national headquarters. At this time he also became first editor of The Tailor, the official journal of the organization. In 1896 the general office was removed to Bloomington, Illinois, which was Lennon's home thenceforth until his death. He continued as general secretary until July 1910.
A delegate from the Tailors' Union to the convention of the American Federation of Labor for the first time in 1889, he was elected treasurer of the latter organization in 1890 and served continuously until 1917. As a member of the executive council he was closely associated with Samuel Gompers and others prominent in the Labor Movement. In his later years he became well known as a public speaker, delivering numerous addresses upon the church and labor, and the anti-saloon movement before considerable gatherings in various parts of the country. He was a leader in organizing the forces arrayed against the liquor traffic and a member of the committee on social service of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. In 1913 he was appointed by President Wilson as one of the three labor members representing the conservative traditions of the American Federation of Labor on the Commission on Industrial Relations, whose report was published in 1915. In 1917 he became a member of the board of mediators of the United States Department of Labor.
Achievements
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Lennon was instrumental in the founding of a Tailor's Union in Denver. He supported the formation of the Illinois Labor Party. He was also well known for his religious advocacy in the Presbyterian and Unitarian Churches and for the cause of alcohol prohibition through his involvement in the Anti-Saloon League.
Connections
On April 5, 1871, Lennon married Juna J. Allen of Hannibal.
