Early Life
Born in Willow Springs, Illinois the son of a teamster (wagon driver) of Irish ancestry, Daniel Keefe left school in the fourth grade and began working on the Chicago waterfront. At the age of 25, in 1877, Keefe organized fellow workers into the Association of Lumber Handlers (ALH) and in 1882 was elected leader of the organisation. While successful in expanding membership of the organization, from the start Keefe was considered conservative within the labour movement, focusing on winning wage rises and keeping the ALH away from broader trade union struggles of the time, notably the Eight-Hour Day movement during the 1880s.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)