Oliverius, Dixie

Frank Hefferly was born in Austria on May 24, 1878. His father had immigrated to the United States ahead of his family and found a job in the coal mines of Gallup, New Mexico. Frank Hefferly joined his father in the mines at age 11. He joined the United Mine Workers of America in 1898. Following an unsuccessful conclusion to a long strike to organize the coal miners of Gallup, Frank Hefferly was compelled to leave New Mexico and search for employment elsewhere.

He found work in Colorado and northern New Mexico, but due to management hostility, Hefferly could not hold a job long in any one location. Frank Hefferly received organizer's credentials from District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in 1902 and succeeded in organizing southern Colorado and northern New Mexico coal miners with whom he had worked. He had considerable trouble with Colorado, Fuel, and Iron Company (C.F. & I.) "detectives" and Pinkertons who were hired to prevent the unionization of the coal mines. In 1903, after losing employment in the C.F. & I. mines, Hefferly made his way to Illinois where he worked as a miner and held various positions in the UMWA local in Collinsville. In 1911, he was elected to the State Executive Board for the northern part of the Belleville Sub-District of District 12, UMWA. While in this capacity, he was allocated disputes to settle between union miners and operators. He held this position until 1914, during which time his expertise allowed him to build support within District 14.

In 1914, Frank Hefferly was elected Vice-President of District 12, UMWA, and reelected again in 1915. A year later, Hefferly ran for the Presidency of District 12, UMWA, and lost in an election which aroused charges of fraud and nativism. In May of 1918, he resigned his position in the International Organization of the UMWA and returned to the mines in Collinsville, where he was elected President of Local #848 of the UMWA. A mining injury forced him back into the employment of the International Organization as organizer in 1919. During this period, he developed a mutual trust and admiration for John L. Lewis, then Vice-President of the International Organization of the UMWA. Hefferly was sent to Colorado to organize the coal mines along the Front Range into the UMWA. But during the 1920's, the political climate in Colorado was extremely hostile to organized labor and little headway was made.

When violence and internal strife shook the UMWA in Illinois, Lewis sent Hefferly to District 12 to restore order and unity. In 1933, Frank Hefferly was assigned to District 15, the coal mines of Colorado and New Mexico, as president. In six months, the previously unorganized coal miners were brought into the UMWA. By the middle 1930's, Hefferly was the President of the Colorado State Federation of Labor, A. F. of L. It was a position he would give up when the UMWA broke with the American Federation of Labor. Following this split, Frank Hefferly became the president of the Colorado State Industrial Council and the Director of the Steel Workers' Organizing Committee, affiliates of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. From 1938 to 1942, Hefferly worked to organize the steel workers of C.F. andamp;I., the packing house workers of Swift and Armour, the rubber workers of Gates and the department store employees in Denver and Pueblo into locals of the CIO.

In 1942, when John L. Lewis split from the CIO and had been the subject of vilification by CIO leaders, Hefferly left also to rejoin the UMWA. He became the President of District 15, a post he held until his death. Hefferly died on May 22, 1960, a grand patriarch of the UMWA and the personal friend and colleague of virtually every major office holder in the International Organization.

Frank Hefferly had three sons: Frank Hefferly, Jr. (1905), Fred K. Hefferly (1907-1988), and Joseph E. Hefferly (1909). His second son, Fred K. Hefferly, also joined the UMWA and was active in CIO and UMWA affairs from the 1930's until the 1970's.

Fred K. Hefferly, born August 25, 1907 in Collinsville, Illinois, married and had three children: Fred K., Jr.; Joan Faltermeier; and donor Dixie Olivarius of Denver, Colorado. In 1938, Fred K. Hefferly became an organizer for the CIO. While in this role, he met with Colorado area steel workers, meat packers, retail workers, and rubber workers in an attempt to form locals affiliated to the CIO.

The pullout of Lewis from the CIO, which had affected Frank Hefferly, had a similar influence on Fred. He withdrew from the CIO in 1942 soon after his father departed. He sought and was given a job with the UMWA as an organizer for District 50 and later with District 15. He was instrumental in the organization of the Rifle, Colorado miners into a local of the UMWA. Later, he rose to the offices of Secretary-Treasurer and President of District 15 of the UMWA, which he held by the time of his retirement in 1967. Like his father, Fred K. Hefferly was a staunch supporter of John L. Lewis and his successors, Thomas Kennedy and W. A. “Tony” Boyle. From 1967 to 1971, Fred acted as an organizer-at-large for Districts 12 and 21, reporting directly to the respective District Presidents and to UMWA President Boyle. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, Fred K. Hefferly actively campaigned within the UMWA for Boyle and his ticket. Fred K. Hefferly died in 1988.

From the guide to the Frank and Fred K. Hefferly Collection, 1902-1972, (University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries. Archives Dept.)