Feeney, William P.

William Patrick Feeney was born in England of Irish parents and came to the United States at the age of fourteen, during the last quarter of the 19th century. He lived for some years in California, Pennsylvania and worked as a coal miner. In about 1910, Feeney moved from California to Charleroi, Pennsylvania and, in 1911, was elected from that district as a Representative in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. During the 1911 session, Feeney introduced legislation to secure a Miner's Certificate Law. The legislation failed at the time, but was eventually enacted in 1937. After leaving the state legislature, Feeney was hired by the United Mine Workers. He was active as a union organizer in Charleroi during the Great Steel Strike of 1919 and in the devastating Coal Strike of 1922, when he worked to bring coke workers in the Connellsville coke region into the mineworkers union. During a special convention of UMWA District 4 miners in Uniontown, Pennsylvania in February, 1934, Feeney was warmly commended for his work in "organizing the Connellsville Coke Region" and for his service to the union as an International Representative. William Feeney died in Charleroi of pneumonia on March 9, 1939. Condolence telegrams from John L. Lewis, Van Bittner, Philip Murray and other union leaders were received by his family.