Bloor, Ella Reeve, 1862-1951

Radical, labor organizer, socialist, and communist; b. Ella Reeve; married 1st: Lucien Ware; 2nd: Louis Cohen; and 3rd: Andrew Omholt; also known as "Mother Bloor", of Arden, Del.

"Mother Bloor [Ella Reeve Bloor] speaking at a picnic in Akron, Ohio, 1942"

Ella Reeve Bloor, popularly known as "Mother Bloor," was noted for her energetic organizing work on behalf of labor, communism, socialism, and radical causes from the 1910s to the 1930s. "Mother Bloor" was born in 1862 on Staten Island, New York. She married Lucien Ware in 1881 and gave birth to six children between 1882 and 1892. In 1895, Bloor published Three Little Lovers of Nature. The following year, she divorced Ware and in 1897, she married Louis Cohen. In the brief span of her second marriage, Bloor had two sons and published Talk about Authors and Their Works for young adults. Bloor was an activist in the suffrage movement during the 1880s and 1890s. In 1901, she joined the Socialist Party and approximately a year later she divorced Cohen. Partnered with Richard Bloor in 1906 to investigate Chicago's meat packing industry, Bloor took her colleague's name despite the fact that they were never married. Throughout the 1910s-30s, Bloor was an advocate for political prisoners and conscientious objectors as well as an organizer of mining, textile, and farming strikes. She ran for Lieutenant Governor of New York on the socialist ticket in 1918 and participated in the formation of the Communist Party of the U.S.A. in 1919. Two years later, she served as a union delegate to the Second International. Upon her return from the Soviet Union, Bloor hitchhiked throughout the United States while writing articles for the Daily Worker. In 1930, she married Andrew Omholt, her third husband. Seven years later, Bloor returned to the Soviet Union for the twentieth anniversary celebration of the October Revolution. When Bloor returned to the United States she retired to April Farm, Pennsylvania in 1937. Three years later, she published her autobiography, We Are Many. In her early eighties, Bloor undertook a campaign against fascism between 1942 and 1945. In 1951, Bloor died at the age of 89.

For more information, please refer to the biographical essay by Thomas and Richard Edwards in Notable American Women: The Modern Period .

Labor organizer; Radical; Socialist; Communist.

Born Ella Disbrow Reeve in Staten Island (NY), 1862; also known as "Mother Bloor"; married Lucien Ware, 1881, had 6 children (divorced, 1896); married Louis Cohen, had 2 children (divorced circa 1902); took colleague Richard Bloor's name, but they never married; married Andrew Omholt, 1930. Bloor was active in suffrage movement circa 1880s-90s; joined the Socialist Party, 1901; investigated the meat-packing industry for Upton Sinclair, 1906; organized worker strikes in mining, textile, farming, circa 1910s-30s; participated in formation of Communist Party of U.S.A., 1919; wrote for the Daily Worker; and went to Russia for 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution in 1937. Bloor published several works including Three Little Lovers of Nature (1895); Talk About Authors and Their Works (1899); and her autobiography, We Are Many (1940).