Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 6, 1921 Matewan, West Virginia – Widows of Hatfield and Chambers Speak Out
From the Baltimore Sun of August 5, 1921:
Hatfield Was Unarmed, His Widow Asserts ———-
Mrs. Chambers Declares That Her Husband Also Was Without Weapon.
Sid Hatfield (inset) and Jessie Testerman Hatfield —–
Matewan, W. Va., Aug. 4.-Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers, Mingo mountaineers, who were killed on the steps of the Courthouse at Welch, McDowell county, in a gun fight last Monday, were unarmed, their widow told newspaper men here today. Both Mrs. Hatfield and Mrs. Chambers accompanied their husbands to the court last Monday, where Sid, former chief of police at Matewan, was to have answered a charge of being the instigator of the “shooting up” of Mohawk, McDowell county, last year.
The widows said that they or their husbands did not anticipate trouble in Welch and that Hatfield locked his pistols in a traveling bag and Chambers laid aside his arms before starting for the Courthouse.
The women declared that C. E. Lively, Baldwin-Felts detective, charged with being implicated in the killings, boarded the train on which they were going to Welch early in the morning and followed them about the town until it was almost time for them to appear at the court. Mrs. Chambers, describing how she and her husband and Sid and his wife went to the Courthouse and started for the entrance, said:
I heard a shot fired. I turned and looked at Sid and he was falling. Then I looked at my husband and he was falling loose from my arm. The shooting then became general. I saw only two men shooting and they were C. E. Lively and a short, heavy-set man who wore glasses.
Mrs. Hatfield said that she lost consciousness while the shooting was going on. She charged Sheriff Bill Hatfield with negligence in not protecting her husband.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 4, 1921 Buskirk Cemetery, Kentucky – Sam Montgomery Speaks for Hatfield and Chambers
Double Funeral Held for Miners’ Heroes, Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers
August 3.-The double funeral for Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers was held today in a drenching rain, at Buskirk Cemetery, on the Kentucky side of the Tug river, just across the bridge from Matewan. Sam Montgomery delivered the funeral oration and said, in part:
We have gathered here today to perform the last sad rites for these two boys who fell victims to one of the most contemptible systems that has ever been known to exist in the history of the so-called civilized world. Deliberately shot down, murdered in cold blood, while they were entering a place which should have been a temple of justice, and by whom? Men who are working under the direction of and taking their orders from coal operators who live in Cincinnati, Chicago, New York City, and Boston.
Sleek, dignified, church-going gentlemen who would rather pay fabulous sums to their hired gunmen to kill and slay men for joining a union than to pay like or lesser amounts to the men who delve into the subterranean depths of the earth and produce their wealth for them. At the same time these same men prate of their charities, their donations to philanthropic movements, act as vestrymen and pillars of the churches to which they belong.
Even the Heavens weep with the grief-stricken relatives and the bereaved friends of these two boys.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 3, 1921 Matewan, West Virginia – Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Return Home
From The West Virginian of August 2, 1921:
MATEWAN, W. Va., Aug 2.-Sid. Hatfield and Edward Chambers, who yesterday were shot to death on the court house steps at Welch, W. Va., as they were about to be tried for the part they were alleged to have played in a pistol attack on a mining town in the Mingo coal field were brought home last midnight. The open space around the little railroad station was filled with former friends and neighbors but there was no demonstration. State police and armed militiamen patrolled the streets and after the body had been taken to the little homes where the men had formerly lived the crowd quietly dispersed.
Mrs. Hatfield and Mrs. Chambers who were in Welch when the tragedy occurred arrived on the same train and were given sincere sympathy by their friends in the village.
Arrangements for the double funeral were not completed today but it was stated by friends of the family that services probably would be held tomorrow afternoon and interment made in the cemetery here.
Matewan was quiet this morning. At an early hour friends of the dead men called at their homes, looked for a moment upon the body and then passed out to their dally work or to discuss the tragedy as they walked along the streets. There were no better known men in all the Tug river country than Hatfield and Chambers and many incidents of their stormy lives in he narrow valley and out through the mountains were told and retold as the day advanced.
Armed militiamen and state policemen were here in force but from outward appearances they were not needed as the town was strangely quiet. Leading citizens who had sounded public sentiment in the fear that reprisals for the killing of the men might develop during the day expressed the opinion that there would be no disorder of any kind. Many persons from the surrounding country came in during the morning and it was expected that a great crowd would be here for the funeral.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 2, 1921 West Virginia’s State Militia Serves Interest of Coal Operators
From the United Mine Workers Journal of August 1, 1921:
[-from pages 3 & 4]
General View of the Miners’ Tent Colony, Lick Creek, W. Va.
More complete details of the raid which was made upon the headquarters office of the United Mine Workers at Williamson, W. Va., by the so-called military authorities of that state have been received at the Journal office, and they are of even a more harrowing and outrageous character than was at first suspected or realized. The raid was a down-right act of brutal disregard for all of the constitutional rights that are supposed to be enjoyed by every American citizen, but which seem to belong only to coal operators in West virginia. More and more it becomes apparent that the military raid on the union headquarters was merely another part of the plan of the Williamson coal operators to run the United Mine Workers out of that field. Of course, they will not succeed in doing this, but their failure to accomplish this end will not be through any fault of the West Virginia military establishment.
The last issue of the Journal contained the bare facts of the raid on the office of the Union and the arrest of David B. Robb, International Fiscal Agent; Ed Dobbins, International Board Member, from District 12; International Organizers, John W. Brown, Robert Gilmour, Jasper Metzger and Herbert Halls; J. B. Wiggins and Henry Koop, local workers; Claude Mahoun, Charles Lee, Whetrell Hackney and J. H. Reed, striking miners. A squad of the improvised militia, led by Major Davis, invaded the office and ordered the men to line up on the sidewalk in front. Next they marched the twelve men to the Williamson City jail and locked them up. The twelve men suffered terribly from the intense heat and close confinement, but even this fact did not appear to satisfy the authorities, for two days later they handcuffed the men in pairs, loaded them on a train and took them to Welch, county seat of McDowell county, and placed them in the McDowell county jail.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 1, 1921 Welch, West Virginia – Hatfield and Chambers Murdered by Gunthugs
From The West Virginian of August 1, 1921:
CHAMBERS ALSO DEAD AS RESULT OF
BATTLE WITH DETECTIVES AT WELCH
———-
Victims Were to have Appeared in Court There Today —– FIVE ARE ARRESTED —– Shooting Took Place in the Court House Yard, Report —–
WELCH, W. Va., Aug. 1-Sid Hatfield, chief of police of Matewan and Edward Chambers, a police man of that place, were killed in a gun fight in the court house yard here shortly before noon today. C. E. Lively, a [Baldwin-Felts] private detective and four other persons were arrested in connection with the shooting…..
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 31, 1921 Matewan, West Virginia – Sid Hatfield Arrested on Year-Old Charge
From the Baltimore Sun of July 29, 1921:
Sid Hatfield Arrested On Year-Old Charge ———-
Matewan’s Former Police Chief Accused Of “Shooting Up” Mining Village.
Williamson, W. Va., July 28.-Sid Hatfield, former chief of police of Matewan and a conspicuous figure in the industrial conflict in the Mingo coal field, was arrested late today at his home charged with participation in the “shooting up” ofMohawk, a mining village in McDowell county, about one year ago.
Hatfield was brought here and the arresting officer said he would be taken to Welch, the county seat of McDowell county, tonight.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 30, 1921 Mingo County, West Virginia – Mine Workers’ Organizers Set to Brave Martial Law
From the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger of July 29, 1921:
MINE ORGANIZERS TO BRAVE MARTIAL LAW AT MINGO ———- Hundred, Including Mother Jones, Not Afraid of Arrest
Charleston, W. Va., July 29.-(By A. P.)-One hundred members of the United Mine Worker of America from the Cabin Creek and Paint Creek fields will start for Mingo County, according to C. F. Keeney, president of District 17. “Mother Jones,” labor organizer, is expected to arrive here tonight, Keeney said, and also will leave for the Mingo fields immediately.
Decision to send the union men into the district, which is under martial law, was made after C. H. Workman, an organizer, was reported arrested in Mingo recently. Keeney claimed that Workman had permission from State authorities to return to the fields to wind up personal business.
Keeney stated that if the organizers were arrested he would send more men into the district until every jail was filled, and that if they were not arrested he said he would prove that organizers “can go into a strike zone and conduct themselves in an orderly manner.”
Mother Jones at Matewan, about June 21, 1920. United Mine Workers Journal of July 15, 1920
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