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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 5, 1912
Martial Law Declared in Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike Zone
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of September 4, 1912:
Special Dispatch to the Intelligencer.
CHARLESTON, W. Va., September 3.-With more than 200,000 rounds of ammunition, seven modern Colts’ machine guns, fifteen hundred rifles of various kinds, from the highest priced and most modern make, down to the ordinary 22-caliber and bushels of revolvers, that is the term used by the militia authorities in answering the question as to the number of concealed weapons they now have-is the sum total of artillery the state captured during the first twelve hours of martial law in the Paint and Cabin Creek section of Kanawha county and of the Kanawha coal district.
Promptly at 6 o’clock this morning the proclamation went into effect. The nine companies of state militia with every available officer was scattered through the district and promptly at the hour fixed swooped down on store and cabin, operators residence and fortifications constructed by the coal operators and took possession of all firearms and other dangerous weapons. In no instance today was it necessary to arrest in order to secure weapons. That the miners and any of the mine guards had an idea that martial law was coming and got beyond the reach of the militia is definitely known.
Attack a Surprise.
This district is mountainous, making it possible for great numbers of men to conceal themselves and then attempt to escape under cover. While some may be successful the militia has stretched out along the boundary line to guard against just such a condition. The territory embraced in the proclamation is about twenty miles in length and from seven to twelve miles wide and contains at the present time about 18,000 or 20,000 people. Under the West Virginia law the rules and regulations of the regular army control in case of martial law is:
“A court-martial and a military commission have been appointed which may try offenses committed by either soldiers or citizens in the territory under martial law,” said Governor Glasscock today.
“For this duty I have selected men in whom I have the highest confidence because their power is almost ultimate and they may impose such punishment, including death, as they deem proper in the exigencies of the occasion.”
[…..]
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, UMW Strong
-Speech Charleston WV Levee, Aug 1, 1912
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735035254105/viewer#page/88/mode/1up
The Wheeling Intelligencer
(Wheeling, West Virginia)
-Sept 4, 1912
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092536/1912-09-04/ed-1/seq-1/
(see page 9 to read complete article)
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092536/1912-09-04/ed-1/seq-9/
See also:
Aug 15, 1912, Wheeling Majority
“Kanawha Miners Still on Strike” by G. H. Edmunds
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092530/1912-08-15/ed-1/seq-1/
Aug 29, 1912, Wheeling Majority
“Slavery in West Virginia”
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092530/1912-08-29/ed-1/seq-1/
Sept 1, 1912, Baltimore Sun
-WV Mine Guards Shot at Cabin Creek, Mother Jones Blamed
Part I
Part II
Sept 2, 1912, Wheeling Intelligencer
-Situation Along Paint Creek Controlled by Troops
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092536/1912-09-02/ed-1/seq-1/
Sept 3, 1912, Wheeling Intelligencer
-Guerrilla Warfare Renewed, Militia Ordered to Paint Creek
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092536/1912-09-03/ed-1/seq-1/
Tag: Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912-1913
https://weneverforget.org/tag/paint-creek-cabin-creek-strike-of-1912-1913/
Tag: Wheeling Majority
https://weneverforget.org/tag/wheeling-majority/
Struggle in the Coal Fields
The Autobiography of Fred Mooney
West Virginia University Library, 1967
(search: flobert) -pages 18-19
Note: Mooney describes how, after martial law declared, he buried his good rifle and gave up his old Flobert.
https://books.google.com/books?id=nE3tAAAAMAAJ
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They’ll Never Keep Us Down – Hazel Dickens