———-
Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 21, 1920
Matewan, West Virginia – Mayor Killed in Battle with Baldwin-Felts Gunthugs
From The West Virginian of May 20, 1920:
(By Associated Press)
WILLIAMSON. W. Va., May 20.-Six troopers of the West Virginia State police arrived here at dawn on their way to Matewan, W. Va., according to Sheriff Blankenship. He reported there had been no further disturbances in the mining towns. Armed deputies still were patrolling the streets awaiting the arrival of the state police.
The list of dead had been reduced from 12 to 10, he said, with five wounded, but he was unable to say what names might be eliminated from the death toll.
———-
(By Associated Press)
MATEWAN, W. Va., May 20.-With 100 deputy sheriffs armed with rifles patroling the streets and detachments of the state, constabulary expected to arrive at any moment, the situation in this mining village, the scene of the killing of 12 persons last night in battle between private detectives and citizens, was quiet early today.
The deputies rushed here late last night by Sheriff Blankenship of Mingo county, had the situation well in hand at day break. They made no effort to disburse gatherings of citizens at the Norfolk and Western railroad station where the state troopers were expected to leave their trains when they arrived.
Last night’s shooting in which Baldwin-Feltz detectives clashed with citizens and the Matewan police, resulted from action of the detectives who [illegally] evicted a number of miners from coal company houses yesterday. Two Stone Mountain mines were closed recently when it became known that an effort was being made to unionize them. The miners claimed that the detectives were sent to dispossess families of workers who had been dismissed by the concern.
A shot said to have been fired from a coat pocket by Albert Feltz, a detective [company gunthug], and which ended the life of Mayor Testerman, of Matewan, started the battle an instant after he fired. Felts, according to authorities, was killed by “Sid” Hatfield, chief of police of Matewan. The shooting then became general and when the battle ended seven detectives [company gunthugs], the mayor and four coal miners were dead and three other persons badly wounded. Felts it is said had a warrant for the arrest of Sid Hatfield [how this agent from a private detective agency, hired by the mine owners, has the right to arrest the chief of police of Matewan is not explained] on a charge that he had taken a prisoner from detectives some time ago. The mayor was reading the warrant when killed.
The death list is as follows: Mayor Cabell Testerman, L. C. Felts, H. E. Felts, E. A. Powell, A. J. Booker, J. W. Ferguson, L. M. Brown, C. B. Cunningham, all detectives; James Mullen, Patrick Kinsley, William Bohr, Isaac Brewer, miners……
—————
U.M.W. HEAD SAYS AFFAIR
IS SHOCKING
———-
Lewis Sends Telegram to
Governor Cornwell
About It.
—–(By Associated Press)
WASHINGTON, May 20. John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, here in connection with the coal miners’ wage negotiations, sent a telegram to Governor Cornwell of West Virginia today commenting on the disturbance last night at Matewan and urged that measures to “prevent further lawless activities by murderous hirelings of the coal operators” be taken. The telegram as made public by Lewis follows:
Press dispatches today tell of another shocking outrage in the long list of such incidents that have been perpetrated in your state by private detectives in the employ of coal corporations. Undoubtedly the American public must be astounded to know that such conditions can exist in any state in this Union.
For years the terrible evil of this system has been pointed out, but this latest outrage indicates that little or nothing has been done to insure to peaceful citizens the right to live. Twelve human lives have been sacrificed to this system and the blood of these twelve men justly belongs on the hands of those who could prevent such murders but who fail to do so.
I desire once more to direct your attention to the failure of the State of West Virginia to afford protection to its citizens in the coal mining districts and to urge that policies be adopted and measures carried out that will prevent further lawless activities by these murderous hirelings of the coal operators.
In a statement Lewis said:
We have repeatedly called the attention of Governor Cornwell to the terrible conditions existing in the Guyan river, Tug river, Little Coal river, and Pocahontas coal fields of that state. In all of those districts police powers have been assumed by the private detectives in the employ of coal companies. There is no warant in law or justice for the action of private detectives in assuming police powers. That power belongs exclusively to the state.
[Emphasis added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE & IMAGES
The West Virginian
(Fairmont, West Virginia)
-May 20, 1920
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072054/1920-05-20/ed-1/seq-1/
See also:
Thunder in the Mountains:
The West Virginia Mine War, 1920–21
by Lon Savage
University of Pittsburgh Pre, Sep 11, 1990
(search: “the battle of matewan”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=u-n7AwAAQBAJ
Per Savage:
-Three dead on miners’ and citizens’ side of battle:
Cabell Cornelius Testerman
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102838611/cabell-cornelius-testerman
Bob Mullins, 53, miner
Tot Tinsley, miner
Note: Isaac Brewer, friend of Sid’s, though gravely wounded did not die. He was later one of the 22 indicted, along with Sid Hatfield, in connection with the killing of the Baldwin-Felts gunthugs who invaded Matewan on May 19, 1920.
-per Raleigh Register of Beckley WV for July 8, 1920
https://www.newspapers.com/image/47827930/
Re A. C. Felts, “Professional Foe of Miners”
From The New York Times of February 13, 1914
-Testimony from Baldwin-Felts Gunthug re Machine Guns
and Death Special at Colorado, 1913-1914
CHARGES MURDER BY UNION.
Detective the Victim, Witness Tells
Committee Sifting Colorado Strike.
DENVER, Feb. 12-A direct charge that George W. Belcher, a detective, was murdered in Trinidad by United Mine Workers of America at the instigation of A. B. McGary, an Organizer of the union, was made today by A. C. Feltz [sic], superintendent of a detective agency. The killing of Belcher took place Nov. 20 last. Feltz, the first witness of the day before the House committee investigating the Colorado coal mine strike, said that Louis Zancanelli had confessed the murder.
The “Death Special,” an armored automobile used by the mine guards, greatly interested the committee. Feltz testified that at least one machine gun and some ammunition were paid for by Vice President Babcock of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company. This gun, he said, was sent to him from the West Virginia coalfields, where it had figured in the Federal investigation of the strike there. Other machine guns, besides rifles and ammunition, he said, were purchased by him for the mine operators.
[Photograph added.]
A. C. Felts was the co-founder of the Baldwin-Felts Detective agency along with his brother. The Death Special was built at the command of A. C. Felts in the CF&I garage at Sopris from a a car supplied to him by the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company, using steel plates from the CF&I steel plant at Pueblo. CF&I was owned by Rockefeller.
Belcher was the mine guard who gunned down UMW organizer Gerald Lippiat and who took part in the attack upon the Forbes Colony in which striking miner Luka Vahernik was killed. The Death Special was used in that attack.
SOURCES
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-of Feb 13, 1914
A. C. Felts, before House Committe at Denver,
re Machine Guns and Death Special
Blood Passion
The Ludlow Massacre and Class War
In The American West
-by Scott Martelle
Rutgers U Press, 2008
(search: “death special”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=sH5oOK3MKqUC
Death Special
https://www.du.edu/ludlow/gallery2.html
Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado
-Vol. 1, p.1-1477
Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on mines and mining, House of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to H. res. 387, a resolution authorizing and directing the Committee on Mines and Mining to make an investigation of conditions in the coal mines of Colorado
-United States. Congress. House. Committee on Mines and Mining
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1914
https://books.google.com/books?id=ILgAAAAAYAAJ
Testimony of Albert C Felts on page 327
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=ILgAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA327
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matewan, the Movie
https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1572
“Few Clothes” Johnson/Don Chain played by James Earl Jones
Black Coal Miners in America:
Race, Class, and Community Conflict, 1780-1980
by Ronald L. Lewis
University Press of Kentucky, Jan 1, 1987
(search: “few clothes”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=6fV-BMYCjLMC
“Great scene from Matewan, the People Fight Back!”
Fire in the Hole – Hazel Dickens