Hellraisers Journal: Senators Resume Investigation of West Virginia Coal Fields; Gunthugs Joining State Militia

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Quote West Virginia Miner re Gunthugs, LW p1, Sept 24, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 25, 1921
Mingo County, West Virginia – Senate Probe Resumes; Gunthugs Infest State Militia

From The Labor World of September 24, 1921:

Mingo Probe by Sen Com Continues, LW p1, Sept 24, 1921

Reports from the West Virginia mining region all tell of a peaceful situation. Those miners who had jobs have returned to work, the private gunmen are sleeping on their arms and the remaining 1,200 Federal troops are bivouaced amid the shady valleys and hillslopes of Boone and Kanawha counties. No further casualties have been reported General Bandholtz has been recalled to Washington by Secretary of War Weeks and the command of United States troops has been turned over to Col. Carl A. Martin, senior officer of the 19th Infantry.

A delegation of operators called on President Harding and Secretary Weeks with a request that the troops bet kept in the war zone until Governor Ephriam A. Morgan has organized two or three regiments of State militia authorized by the last session of the legislature. Miners claim that the State militia is being built up of men in the employ of the coal operators and deputy sheriffs who served under Don Chafin of Logan county during the “invasion.”

[Said one of the miners:]

I cannot see that it will improve the situation here by putting a militiaman’s uniform on a gunman. It does not change his nature or make him any less a gunman. The constables and Baldwin-Felts detectives will simply change their coats and be in one way or another the paid employes of the companies that they now are. Nothing will be better until the might of armed guards is supplanted by civil rights guaranteed to American citizens under the Constitution.

The Senate committee is now at West Virginia and will continue its investigation of the mining trouble. Senator Kenyon of Iowa is believed that if the public is made acquainted with the facts that such a storm protest will be aroused that the West Virginia officials will be forced to correct the evils complained of. Very little help can be expected in the way of national legislation.

Taking of testimony in the trial of cases growing out of the killing of ten men, seven of them Baldwin-Felts detectives, at Matewan last May, was postponed for a few days owing to illness in the family of Judge R. D. Baily.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Senators Resume Investigation of West Virginia Coal Fields; Gunthugs Joining State Militia”

Hellraisers Journal: Williamson, West Virginia-Jury Disagrees in Murder Trial of Reece Chambers and Fred Burgraff

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Quote Sid Hatfield, re Evictions per R Minor, Lbtr p11 , Aug 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 22, 1921
Williamson, West Virginia – Hung Jury in Trial of Matewan Defendants

From the Baltimore Sun of  September  21, 1921:

Matewan Defendants, Hung Jury, Blt Sun p3, Sept 3, 1921

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Williamson, West Virginia-Jury Disagrees in Murder Trial of Reece Chambers and Fred Burgraff”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Nation: “Marching Through West Virginia”-Redneck Miners’ Army Mingo Bound

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 15, 1921
“Marching Through West Virginia” by Heber Blankenhorn

From The Nation of September 14, 1921:

Marching Through West Virginia

By HEBER BLANKENHORN

I

IF—as the war correspondents used to begin—you will place your left hand on the map of West Virginia, with the edge of the palm along the Kanawha River at Charleston, the down-pointing thumb will lie along the road southwest into Logan and Mingo counties, and the outstretched fingers will represent the valleys whence the miners collected for the march along the thumb-line. That region has filled the country’s newspapers with communiques, dealing with contending “armies,” “lines” held along Spruce Fork Ridge, intrenchments, machine-gun nests, bombing planes, so many dead for the day, so many wounded.

Miners March Map Marmet to Mingo, NY Dly Ns p8, Aug 27, 1921

Marmet is ten miles from the State capital at the mouth of Lens Creek Valley. On the afternoon of August 22 a cordon of 100 armed men is stretched across the dirt road, the mine railroad, and the creek, barring out officers of the law, reporters, all inquirers. Inside lies the “trouble.” The miners have been mobilizing for four days. A snooping airplane has just been driven off with hundreds of shots. Accident and a chance acquaintance let me in.

The men, a glance shows, are mountaineers, in blue overalls or parts of khaki uniform, carrying rifles as casually as picks or sticks. They are typical. The whole village seems to be out, except the children, women, and old men. They show the usual mining-town mixture of cordiality and suspicion to strangers. But the mining-camp air of loneliness and lethargy is gone. Lens Creek Valley is electric and bustling. They mention the towns they come from, dozens of names, in the New River region, in Fayette County, in counties far to the north. All are union men, some railroaders. After a mile we reach camp. Hundreds are moving out of it—toward Logan. Over half are youths, a quarter are Negroes, another quarter seem to be heads of families, sober looking, sober speaking. Camp is being broken to a point four miles further on. Trucks of provisions, meat, groceries, canned goods move up past us.

This time we’re sure going through to Mingo,” the boys say.

Them Baldwin-Feltses [company detectives] has got to go. They gotta stop shooting miners down there. Keeney turned us back the last time, him and that last Governor. Maybe Keeney was right that time. This new Governor got elected on a promise to take these Baldwin-Feltses out. If nobody else can budge them thugs, we’re the boys that can. This time we go through with it.

“What started you?”

This thing’s been brewing a long while. Then two of our people gets shot down on the courthouse steps—you heard of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers? The Governor gives them a safe conduct; they leave their guns behind and get killed in front of their wives. It was a trap.

“But that was several weeks ago.”

Well, it takes a while for word to get ’round. Then they let his murderer, that Baldwin-Felts, Lively, out on bond-free-with a hundred miners in jail in Mingo on no charges at all—just martial law. Well, we heard from up the river that everybody was coming here. We knew what for. When we found lots had no guns we sent back to get them.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Nation: “Marching Through West Virginia”-Redneck Miners’ Army Mingo Bound”

Hellraisers Journal: Labor World: Samuel Gompers on the Fight of West Virginia’s Miners Against Government by Gunthugs

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Mingo Co Sprigg Local Sec E Jude re Gunthugs, UMWJ p14, Aug 15, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 12, 1921
Gompers on Fight of West Virginia Miners Against Government by Gunthug

From the Duluth Labor World of September 10, 1921:

Gompers re WV Gunmen v Mine Workers, LW p1, Sept 10, 1921

WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 8.—Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, in a statement issued this week sets forth the fundamental facts in relation to the situation in West Virginia. He declares that in the mines there an unrestrained, unlimited greed absolutely dominates.

“The appetite of this private greed is upheld by a private army of killers the like of which exists in no other state,” says the labor chief. He shows how the state government has crumbled under the rule of the mining interests and declares the federal government must destroy the rule of gunmen by restoring civil government.

Information Lacking.

[Says Mr. Gompers in his statement:]

With the situation in West Virginia at a most critical juncture it is almost beyond belief that there has not been placed before the public complete and accurate information regarding the events leading up to the position taken by the President of the United States.

There are certain basic facts which must lie considered before there can be fair and proper judgment of the West Virginia situation. These facts have not been presented adequately and in most cases not at all.

The public press has been negligent and the federal government has been equally so in not presenting to the people the full underlying truth.

Prejudice Miners’ Case.

The great mass of news relating to West Virginia conveys the impression that lawless bands of miners are roving the state without reason except an unjustified bitterness against the mine owners. “Uneducated mountaineers,” they are called.

There are four basis facts which are consistently ignored and which it is the duty of government and press to present. These are:

1—The mines of West Virginia constitute the last refuge of autocracy in the mining industry. In these mines an unrestrained, unlimited greed dominates absolutely. Absentee owners hold immense tracts of rich mining land, demanding only dividends.

Private Army of Killers.

2—T’he appetite of this private greed is upheld by a private army of killers the like of which no longer exists in any other state. This private army is paid by the mine owners and naturally seeks to justify its presence by making “business” for itself in the form of trouble. The Baldwin-Felts detective agency recruits this army, but the mine owners pay the bill. Deputy sheriffs, paid by mine owners, form another wing of the private army, equally dangerous.

A Direct Protest.

3—The present strike is a direct protest against the action of the mine owners of West Virginia in refusing to abide by the award of the United States coal commission. If the United States government at this time de­fends the mine owners and does not destroy the private armies of the mine owners the government is in the position of sustaining a defiance of an order issued by its own authority.

4—The state government of West Virginia has broken down, not because the miners have protested against lawlessness, but because it has failed to stop the mine owners from enforcing law as a private business at the hands of privately paid and privately directed gunmen.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Labor World: Samuel Gompers on the Fight of West Virginia’s Miners Against Government by Gunthugs”

Hellraisers Journal: Frank Keeney Fears Massacre of Miners, Rushes to Madison to Stop March; Redneck Army at Danville

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Quote Mother Jones, WDC Tx p15, Aug 26, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 27, 1921
Madison, West Virginia – Advance Forces of Miners’ Army Reaches Danville

From The Washington Times of Aug 26, 1921:

Page 1:

Miners March, FK FM Fear Massacre, WDC Tx p1, Aug 26, 1921Miners March, Near Madison WV, WDC Tx p1, Aug 26, 1921

By International News Service.

MADISON, W. Va., Aug. 26.-The advance forces in the union miners’ “army” of 5,000 men, which is marching toward the Mingo county strike zone, arrived at Danville, a little hamlet along the Coal river, two miles northeast of this place, at noon today.

The men had been marching since 3 o’clock this morning, at which time they broke camp at Racine, sixteen miles northeast of here. The marchers were tired but maintained orderly lines. They hope to reach the Boone-Logan county border by tonight.

—– 

By International News Service.

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio, Aug. 26.-Two hundred Federal soldiers from the Columbus barracks arrived at Camp Sherman today to join the 19th United States Infantry here, which is prepared to move at a moment’s notice, into Mingo county, West Virginia.

—–

By International News Service.

MADISON, W. Va., Aug. 26..-C. F. Keeney, of Charleston, president of district No. 17, United Mine Workers of America, left here this morning to head off the invasion of Logan county by 5,000 armed union miners.

Guns and Planes Ready.

Just before leaving Kenney said he had been advised that the sheriff of Logan county had machine guns planted covering all roads and that airplanes were loaded with bombs. Any attempt to march through Logan county would mean a massacre of the union miners’ force. Keeney made haste to reach the men before bloodshed resulted.

The marchers left Racine today for Madison and will not reach here until late this afternoon or tonight. The miners’ army is 12 miles from here now.

Deny Pitched Battle.

Published reports that Sheriff Don Chafin of Logan county and 300 Deputies had engaged in battle late Thursday with the miners’ army were flatly denied by both Kenney and local authorities. A small rumor was magnified into a great fact last night, it was stated. There was no battle or trouble of any kind.

—————

[Most emphasis not added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Frank Keeney Fears Massacre of Miners, Rushes to Madison to Stop March; Redneck Army at Danville”

Hellraisers Journal: District 17 Leaders Denounce Mother Jones; Telegram from President Harding Declared a Fake

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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 26, 1921
Marmet, West Virginia – Telegram Read by Mother Jones Declared “Bogus”

From The Wheeling Intelligencer of August 25, 1921:

Mother Jones Denounced by Keeney n Mooney re Fake Harding Telegram, Wlg Int p1, Aug 25, 1921

Charleston, W. Va., Aug 24.-Reports received at the offices of Governor E. F. Morgan that the men, estimated by county officials to number more than 5,000, most of them armed, assembled at Marmet from the coal fields of eastern Kanawha county, had taken a vote today to break camp and return to their homes, were denied tonight by C. Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney, president and secretary-treasurer respectively of District 17, United Mine Workers of America.

It was the first statement that has come from the offices of the miners’ union here, since the men began to assemble last Saturday. It was in answer to a statement coming from the governor’s office to the effect that Keeney and Mooney had a “tilt” with “Mother” Jones over the purported speech to the men this morning advising them to return to their homes during the course of which she was said to have read a telegram from President Harding urging the men to break up their camp.

Both Keeney and Mooney declared the telegram purporting to have come from the president was “bogus.” They said they called George B. Christian, secretary to President Harding by long distance telephone this afternoon who told them, they say, that “no such telegram was sent by the chief executive.”

Alleged Harding Message.

[Keeney and Mooney said:]

“Mother” Jones went to the camp of the miners on Lens Creek, Tuesday night and told the men she would bring them a message from President Harding on Wednesday.

This morning the men sent a committee of two to Charleston to request us to go to Marmet and verify the telegram. We returned with the committee, arriving in time to hear “Mother” Jones address some 500 miners assembled at the lower end of the camp, advising them to go home. She read a telegram which she said was signed by President Harding, in which the president asked the miners to stand by the constitution and return to their homes and work and promising them he would use his power to drive the Baldwin-Felts guards from the state, never to return.

After she had finished reading the telegram, we asked “Mother” Jones to show it to us. She refused to comply and some strong words were exchanged.

Keeney and Mooney said they then returned to Charleston and called President Harding’s secretary, who, they say, denied that any telegram had been sent.

“Mother” Jones Leaves.

“Mother” Jones could not be located here tonight. At the hotel at which she stopped while in the city, it was said she checked out today and left on Chesapeake & Ohio train No. 2 for the east.

Keeney and Mooney said they investigated the reports that the men assembled at Marmet had taken a vote to return home and “found them unfounded and untrue.”

Small groups of armed men straggled into the camp today, according to information received by Sheriff Henry A. Walker, and he estimated the number now assembled to be approximately 6,000. Reports earlier in the day that the men would be joined by others from the coal fields of Indiana and Illinois could not be verified. Trains coming in from outside the state have not carried more than the usual number of passengers today, railroad men said tonight.

Two large automobile trucks belonging to C. H. James & Son of this city were chartered by five men from Marmet today, and provisions were solicited from Charleston stores and restaurants. Purchases were also made for the men in camp in Charleston stores, 15,000 loaves of bread having been bought from a grocery company. The trucks were manned by five residents of Marmet led by C. Silvas and [?] Medley both miners.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: District 17 Leaders Denounce Mother Jones; Telegram from President Harding Declared a Fake”

Hellraisers Journal: Witnesses to Murder of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Declare Lively’s Claim of Self-Defense is False

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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 21, 1921
Sworn Statements Show That Neither Hatfield Nor Chambers Had Guns

From the Duluth Labor World of August 20, 1921:

Mingo Sid Hatfield Thugs Story False, LW p1, Aug 20, 1921

(Charleston, West Va., Special to the Labor Press.)

That the statement of Lively, carried in the press to the effect that he acted in self defense, and that Sid Hatfield pulled his gun first, is absolutely false has been sworn to by three reputable citizens of McDowell county, who were present when the shooting took place and they have furnished the names of many others who will substantiate their statements.

One of the men making sworn statements said that “this is one of the most foul and brutal murders he has ever read or heard of.” He also said that he saw Lively run down the steps and pick up the gun that he had thrown over toward Chambers and say “here is his gun and it is empty too.”

Fired Into Dead body.

In the sworn statement of another he says,”I seen men shooting Chambers and saw them come down the steps past Chambers and saw him raise up a little as they passed and at that time saw one of them place a pistol almost against him and fire into him body.”

The affidavits of these men prove conclusively that murder had been carefully planned and arranged beforehand and that it was a deliberate and cold blooded murder and that neither of the victims used or attempted to use  a gun.

The editor of the West Virginia Federationist is in receipt of a letter from an attorney who with others are investigating the murder. Accompanying the letter are three affidavits from eye witnesses, but the names of the witnesses are withheld from publication They will be produced in court and at the trial.

[…..]

Organized labor throughout the state is passing strong resolutions against the reign of terror in West Virginia. The governor of the state is severely condemned for not furnishing protection to Hatfield and Chambers as he had promised to do when informed of the plot to take their their lives.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Witnesses to Murder of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Declare Lively’s Claim of Self-Defense is False”

Hellraisers Journal: Governor Replies to Miners: Will Not Call Special Session to Abolish the Mine Guard System

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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 19, 1921
Charleston, West Virginia – Governor Morgan Replies to Miners

From The West Virginian of August 18, 1921:

Gov re Miners Demands, WVgn p1, Aug 18, 1921

———-

OPERATORS ARE UNIT ON
MINE WAGE QUESTION
———
They Agree That Amount Paid Men
Will Have to Come Down
———-

Coal operators are apparently of the general belief that a wage readjustment is necessary to get anywhere in the present status of business. There might be some difference of opinion as to the open shop perhaps, but when it comes to the proposition of having a wage reduction operators appear to be a unit.

There continues to be some discussion of the open shop, but there appears to be little new developments along those lines, as operators trying it are doing it on the quiet. On the other hand the officials of the United Mine Workers of America contended their forces were holding and that no more than two non-union mines were operating today and one of those with some difficulty. Statements from other sources place the number higher but at best they are at variances…..

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Governor Replies to Miners: Will Not Call Special Session to Abolish the Mine Guard System”

Hellraisers Journal: C. E. Lively, Baldwin-Felts Gunthug and Confessed Labor Spy, Held for the Murder of Sid Hatfield

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Quote Sallie Chambers re Murder of Sid Hatfield n Ed, Blt Sun p2, Aug 5, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 7, 1921
West Virginia Gunthug, C. E. Lively, Held for Murder of Sid Hatfield

From the Duluth Labor World of August 6, 1921:

HdLn Spy Lively Held for Murder of Sid Hatfield, LW p1, Aug 6, 1921

Matewan Defendants Sid Hatfield n Ed Chambers, WV Hx Center, see also UMWJ p14, June 15, 1921

Sid Hatfield, former chief-of police of Matewan, W. Va., who made such a heroic struggle in behalf of law and order when Baldwin-Felts private detectives attempted to evict striking miners from their homes 14 months ago, was assassinated in cold blood on the steps of the court house at Welch Tuesday morning last, where Hatfield was going to face trial on an alleged shooting charge. Ed. Chambers, Hatfield’s companion, was also killed. Neither was armed.

C. E. Lively, a private detective, and George “Buster” Penice, a deputy sheriff, are being held for the shooting. A coroner’s jury “could not” be obtained. The Baldwin-Felts men threatened to “get” Hatfield. They hold it was his gun that put five of their number out of business in the Matewan affair.

[…..]

The assassination of Hatfield and Chambers will bring to a head the charges union labor have made against the private police-ridden methods employed by the coal owners of West Virginia, such as surpass the most brazen of feudalism just before the French revolution. Every right guaranteed by the constitution has been ignored. King Coal rules with a rod of iron. His ukases supersede federal, state and local laws. The courts and state officials are his puppets, except in rare cases. Those who refuse to obey his edicts are removed from office, and the fearless, like Sid Hatfield, are put to death.

West Virginia is the shame of America. Its governor has boldly defended the reign of capitalistic lawlessness with which the state is festered. Its legislature has enacted laws against labor and justice that would make a czar tremble in his boots out of fear that they would hasten his downfall. Its courts have accepted the mandates of the coal barons, just as they did of old when they were the mere tools of kings and princes.

Innocent men, dangerous to the mine owners, have been wrongfully convicted, merely to be gotten out of the way. Lively “killed this man” in Colorado, where conditions were once equally as bad, but his employers were influential enough to save his neck, so he might continue his nefarious work. He has lived to kill another, a brave, young mountaineer whose independent spirit was a challenge to outlawry in West Virginia, the pocket state of “wealth gone mad.” It will be interesting to observe developments in the case. 

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: C. E. Lively, Baldwin-Felts Gunthug and Confessed Labor Spy, Held for the Murder of Sid Hatfield”

Hellraisers Journal: Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Were Unarmed When Murdered on Steps of McDowell County Courthouse

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Quote Sallie Chambers re Murder of Sid Hatfield n Ed, Blt Sun p2, Aug 5, 1921————

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 and Jessie Testerman Hatfield, Stt Str p14, Sept 15, 1920
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.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Were Unarmed When Murdered on Steps of McDowell County Courthouse”