Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 19, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – Summary of Testimony before Senate Committee
From The Omaha Daily News of June 18, 1913:
United States Senate Committee Taking Testimony in the Kanawha Hotel, Charleston, West VirginiaGroup of Paint Creek Coal Miners’ Wives and Children
Tuesday June 10, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – First Session of the Senate Investigating Committee
The Senate Investigating Committee began taking testimony this morning in Charleston. Five U.S. Senators make up this committee: Senator Swanson, the Chairman, and Senators Martine, Shields, Borah, and Kenyon. Together they are more formally known as the Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor of the United States Senate. They are here to investigate conditions in the Paint Creek District of West Virginia. Also present were the attorneys representing the United Mine Workers and the coal operators. Bonner S. Hill, Sheriff of Kanawha County was also represented by counsel.
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Friday June 13, 1913, Afternoon Session Charleston, West Virginia – Testimony of Maud Estep, the widow of Francis Estep
Maud Estep was called as a witness before the Senate Investigating Committee. She was sworn in by Senator Kenyon. Mrs. Estep is the widow of Francis Estep, the striking miner who was shot down during the attack on the Holly Grove Strikers’ Colony last February.
This is a summary of her testimony:
She continues to reside at Holly Grove. Before the strike she lived on Cabin Creek and Acme. Her husband died on the 7th of February of this year. Her husband was shot by gunmen from the Bull-Moose Special as it passed by their house.
Well, he was shot from the train, I suppose; the train went up there, and they were shooting from the train at the house..Between 10 and 11 o’clock, some time; I don’t just exactly know what time; that was by my time.
At the time of the shooting, they were living in house across from the station, near the creek.
She describes the panic as shots were fired at the house:
He was in the house when the train commenced shooting down on the other side. We were all in the house sitting there carrying on and talking. We heard the train come shooting, and he hollered for us to go to the cellar, and he went out the front door – him and some more boys that were in there; they ran out of the front door, and I went through the kitchen way, and I never got any farther than the kitchen door; we were all trying to get to the cellar. He was standing right at the corner of the cellar near the kitchen door where I was standing hollering for me to go and get into the cellar. It was so dark that I could just see the bulk of him. It scared me so – and I had a little one in my arms – that I could not go any farther.His cousin was there on a visit, and after the train commenced shooting he took hold of me and told me not to fall, and about that time a shot struck him [the cousin] in the leg.
The cellar of the house was right off the ground. The house was elevated a few feet above the ground.
There had been a cellar under there, and it was torn down, and they were fixing it up, so if any trouble started I could go there.
She was pregnant at the time, and that baby is 2 months old now. The child that she was holding as her husband was shot will be 2 years old on the 16th of September.
The first thing we heard was shots from the train. I suppose it started from the train. It was away below our house. We live up above the first town where the station is…We heard [the train] after it commenced shooting. We had not heard it before. We had our doors closed.
She learns that her husband is dead:
I didn’t know he was killed until after the train quit shooting, and I heard some of them speak to him and call his name, and I never heard him answer…[His body was] right on the outside of the house, pretty near to the back corner of the house.
She has never been back to that house since the night her husband was killed.
Her husband did have gun, but she is unsure if he was holding it when he was shot.
Her husband’s last words:
The last I heard him he was hollering for me to go in and get in the cellar. Hessie Willis was in there with me, and me and her went out the back way, and he was standing there; I could just see him in the dark; I could just see the bulk of him in the dark, and he was saying: “You women get in right quick; get in the cellar.”
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Saturday June 14, 1913 as Reported by The New York Times of June 15th
Charleston, West Virginia – More testimony on the Attack on Holly Grove
There was a dramatic outburst from Senator Martine this past Saturday [June 14]. As he heard testimony about the attack on Holly Grove, the Senator from New Jersey rose to his feet and shouted:
What sort of man is this man, Paul Morton, I mean, Quinn Morton. Is he an ordinary American citizen that he could order such a thing.
The attorneys for the coal operators also stood up and shouted, “Mr Morton will be brought before your committee and you will see him and talk to him.”
The Senator replied:
Lord help me, then.
The Senators had been hearing testimony from the ex-mine guard, Lee Calvin, who was on the train at the time of the attack. He told how he was recruited that night by Sheriff Bonner Hill and Quinn Morton, a mine operator. There were 10 or 12 men with rifles on the armored train. He stated that he refused to take up a rifle when offered one. The lights were turned down, and they were told not to raise the windows but to shoot right through them.
As they approached Holly Grove, he saw a steady stream of gun fire coming from the baggage car where he knew a machine gun was mounted. Calvin denied seeing any gun fire coming from the tents before the attack began. He testified:
I just heard the engine whistle blow and the shooting from the train began. I am positive the shooting first began from the baggage car.
As the train moved past Holly Grove, Calvin stated that Coal Operator Quinn Morton came running back through the car and shouted:
Back up the train and we will give them another round.
Quinn was reminded by the Sheriff that there were women and children in the camp.
It was at this point in the testimony that Senator Martine jumped to his feet and had his outburst. When chastised by the coal attorneys for this show of emotion, The Senator responded:
I just can’t help it.
Also on Saturday, about a dozen men and women from the Holly Grove Camp gave their testimony about the late-night attack on their little village. The miners refer to the “Bull Moose Special” with its armor-siding and mounted machine guns as the “Death Special.”
Mrs. Annie Hall came into the room still limping from the injury she received that night. She told how she held her three little children and tried to shield them from the bullets. They hid in the chimney corner as the bullets flew through the house. The bullet which struck Mrs. Hall in the foot passed first through the family Bible and the hymn book.
Miners described the brutality of mine guard: how they arrest men at random, how they lock the men into box cars like cattle, how they stand their prisoners in front of Gatling guns to terrorize them. One miner stated:
I never thought that I’d get home no more. My wife begged them not to take me and they took a hold of me. They took a hold of my wife, too, because she hung on me.
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Monday June 16, 1913, as reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer of June 17th:
Charleston, West Virginia – T.L. Felts Testifies before Senate Investigating Committee
T. L. Felts of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency testified before the Senate Investigating Committee. He was asked by Senator Martine:
Would you rather have a man who could shoot well or pray well?
He replied:
I would rather have the shooter for our kind of work.
Felts admitted that his detective agency assisted the coal operators through a system of espionage that tracked the movements of union organizers.
The union called witnesses who testified regarding abuses committed by the mine guards.The attack on Holly Grove was described by three miners who were there the night of the attack. A Holly Grove merchant testified about his arrest by 15 mine guards. His crime was to allow evicted miners to pitch their tents on his property. He was also guilty of allowing the furniture of 40 to 50 miners to remain on his property after the mine guards had dumped it there.
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Tuesday June 17, 1913, as reported by The New York Time of June 18th:
Charleston, West Virginia – Senator Martine and Coal Operator Come Close to Blows
Senator Martine nearly came to blows with the coal operator, Quinn Morton, during the hearings of the Senate Investigating Committee on Wednesday, June 17. He was seized by Senator Swanson just as he was closing the distance between himself and Morton. With the aid of the Sergeant of Arms, Senator Martine was taken from the room.
The trouble started as Senator Martine was questioning Quinn Morton about the attack on Holly Grove. Quinn insisted that the first shots came from the Holly Grove Camp. The Senator demanded:
In your conscience, do you approve of the use of a machine gun to shoot up a village inhabited by defenseless women and children?
Mr Morton and his attorneys objected to that line of questioning. Never-the-less the question was repeated. When the Coal Operator refused to answer, the Senator said:
Well, I can stand the silence and so can the people, if you can.
Senator Martine left the room, but returned and resumed questioning Morton. As Senator Martine was asking Morton how he liked the result of the attack on Holly Grove (the death of Francis Estep), Senator Swanson adjourned the meeting.
Mr Morton then suggested that they would all feel better after a few drinks. This was the point at which the Senator charged at the Coal Operator shouting:
You are a blackguard of the worst character to address such a remark to me.
We thank the Senator for his passionate defense of the miners and their families of the Holly Grove Camp. And we agree that it is an insult to suggest that the Senator should feel better about the murder of a striking miner after a few a drinks.
Conditions in the Paint Creek District, West Virginia
Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, United States Senate, Sixty-third Congress, first session, pursuant to S. res. 37, a resolution authorizing the appointment of a committee to make an investigation of conditions in the Paint Creek district, West Virginia [June 2-Oct. 29, 1913] Volume I (June 2-June 18, 1913, Charleston, WV) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433004194795&view=2up&seq=11
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The Senate Investigating Committee began taking testimony this morning in Charleston. Five U.S. Senators make up this committee: Senator Swanson, the Chairman, and Senators Martine, Shields, Borah, and Kenyon. Together they are more formally known as the Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor of the United States Senate. They are here to investigate conditions in the Paint Creek District of West Virginia. Also present were the attorneys representing the United Mine Workers and the coal operators. Bonner S. Hill, Sheriff of Kanawha County was also represented by counsel.