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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 23, 1921
Matewan, West Virginia – Sid Hatfield and Co-Defendants Return Home
From The New York Times of March 22, 1921:
Home Folk Welcome Defendants.
MATEWAN, W. Va., March 21.-This little mining village called it a holiday today to greet the sixteen mountaineers, defendants in the Matewan battle trial, who were found not guilty by the jury at Williamson this morning.
Apparently all residents of the town were at the station late in the day when the train, which brought home Sid Hatfield, Chief of Police, and his fifteen companions, arrives.
A special car attached to the train held the hillmen and their bodyguard, Pinoon, six deputies, Captain Brockus and ten State troopers.
As the sixteen men stepped from the train and rushed into the arms of relatives and friends women laughed and cried, alternately, and for an hour the defendants were kept busy shaking the hands of men, women and children.
“It is the happiest day Matewan ever knew,” declared one rugged mountaineer as he grasped the hand of Sid Hatfield.
“At least for me,” Sid replied.
Chief Hatfield was the centre of the admiring throng, and it was with great difficulty that he made his way to his home through the crowd. It took him more than an hour to traverse the 100 yards from the railroad station to his residence.
Arrived at the door of his home, Hatfield gazed upon his right hand, swollen from the hearty grasps of his neighbors, and remarked: “It’s good to know you have so many friends.”
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From the Chicago Daily Tribune of March 22, 1921:
List of Those Acquitted.
The sixteen men acquitted [of the murder of Albert Felts] are:
Sid Hatfield, police chief; Reece Chambers, William Bowman, Clair Overstreet, Doug Mounts, Jesse Boyd, Charles Kiser, Ben Mounts, William B. Coleman, Ed Chambers, Lee Taylor, James Overstreet, Al Williams, Van Clay, Fred Burgraff, and Hallie Chambers.
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SOURCES
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Mar 22, 1921
https://www.newspapers.com/image/20639199/
Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Mar 22, 1921
https://www.newspapers.com/image/355006049/
IMAGE
Sid Hatfield, Akron Beacon Jr p1, Mar 21, 1921
https://www.newspapers.com/image/228384957/
See also:
Mar 22, 1921, New York Times-Williamson WV, Jury Acquits Matewan Defendants of Coal Strike Murder
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74177485/mar-22-1921-new-york-times-williamson/
Hellraisers Journal: Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia:
Sid Hatfield and Fifteen Co-Defendants Found “Not Guilty”
Tag: Matewan Defendants of 1920
https://weneverforget.org/tag/matewan-defendants-of-1920/
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Sid Hatfield (The Early Years) – Glen Simpson