“We’ll hang Don Chafin to sour apple tree…”
-Miners of West Virginia
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 26, 1919
Charleston, West Virginia – Don Chafin Shot at District 17 Headquarters
From The West Virginian of September 24, 1919:
William Petry
LOGAN DEPUTY SHOT IN
MINE WORKERS’ OFFICES
—–
Vice President Petry, of United Mine Workers,
District Seventeen, Fatally Wounds Deputy
Sheriff Armed With Warrants.
—–
(By Associated Press)
CHARLESTON, Sept. 24–Don Chafin, deputy sheriff of Logan county, here to make the arrest of a man wanted for trial in Logan county was shot and seriously wounded here today in the offices of the headquarters of district No. 17, United Mine Workers of America, by vice president Petry of the Mine Workers organization. Chafin who was shot over the heart, was taken to a local hospital where it is said his condition is critical. Petry was arrested and taken before a justice of the peace where he gave bond in the sum of $10,000 for his appearance before the Grand Jury.
See also: The Battle of Blair Mountain
The Story of America’s Largest Labor Uprising
-by Robert Shogan
Basic Books, Jul 26, 2006
(search: “chafin was known to take a drink”) https://books.google.com/books?id=FXYFQd49BtwC
Like many men of his age and station, Chafin was known to take a drink. On one occasion, in September of 1919 when he evidently had one or so too many, he sauntered into UMW headquarters in Charleston, brandishing a pistol and claiming he had a Logan County warrant for a union staffer. Though Chafin was then simply the county clerk, not the sheriff, brother-in-law Hearst had thoughtfully appointed him a deputy. Still he was outside his bailiwick in Kanawha County, where he had no authority to arrest anyone.
This was barely two weeks since the forced disbandment of the miners’ army [of 1919] that had massed at Marmet to march on Chafin’s fiefdom, and feelings toward Chafin in the union’s offices were not cordial. Chafin’s bellicosity did not improve the atmosphere. One word led to many more, and William Petry, vice president of District 17, ordered Chafin to leave. In response Chafin waved his revolver in the air, whereupon Petry shot him through the chest with his 22-caliber pistol. Chafin recovered, and Petry, who was cleared when the local authorities accepted his claim of self-defense, said his only regret was that he had not used a larger-caliber gun.
Note: according to Howard Lee’s Bloodletting in Appalachia
https://books.google.com/books?id=FfmAAAAAMAAJ
-after the shooting Petry reproached himself:
That’s what happens when a man carries a toy pistol. That goddamned son of a bitch is liable to get well. I should have had my old forty-four.
