—————
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 29, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Rev. John E. Wilburn to be Witness at Trial of Miners
From The West Virginian of April 28, 1922:
PASTOR ACCUSED OF TREASON
MAIN MINERS’ WITNESS
———-
Kept in Solitary Confinement More Than
a Month and Then Handcuffed.
———-By C. C. LYON
CHARLES TOWN, W. Va., April 27.-Counsel for the hunreds of West Virginia miners on trial here for alleged treason and murder in connection with their armed March to Logan county last August are only waiting a chance to put the Rev. John E. Wilburn, for five years pastor of the Baptist church at Blair, Logan county, on the stand as their star witness.
Rev. Wilburn himself has been held without bail, he was brought in handcuffs to Charles Town from Logan. He is now in jail here.
In court he is the center of all eyes.
Reign of Terror
On the witness stand the Reverend Mr. Wilburn will tell a story of the reign of terror in the Logan and Mingo county coal fields of the “‘battle of Blair Mountain” where men died on both sides, of the alleged mistreatment of miners and their families by the deputies said to have been hired by the coal operators, and of his own mistreatment in the Logan county jail following his arrest.
A round-shouldered, tired little man, with kindly blue eyes, a soft voice and an almost saintly manner-that’s Mr. Wilburn.
Not a word of complaint against anybody has passed his lips.
His Experiences
Mr. Wilburn told me his story here in the Charles Town jail.
[He said:]
I am 45 years old and was born in the mountains of Tennessee. I received a common school education and at 16 I was converted to Christ and joined the Baptist Church.
The ambition of my life was to become a minister, but we were very poor, so I went to work in the coal mines to earn a living while I studied.
I was miner and student for nine years before I was ordained a minister. That was 22 years ago.
I saw that my field of usefulness lay with my own people in the mining camps. But they were too poor to maintain their churches so I went on working in the mines to support my family while I preached.
Family Prayer Daily
I am the father of five sons and three daughters and never has there passed a day at our home that we haven’t had our family prayers.
Five years ago I became pastor of the Baptist Church at Blair, Logan county. At the same time got a job as track-layer in a union mine. My three sons also worked in this mine.
I was put in solitary confinement [because of?] all the trouble there.
In September I went back to my old home in Tennessee to conduct a series of revival services and it was not until January that I learned that the Logan County grand jury had indicted me for alleged participation in the “battle of Blair Mountain.”
I immediately wrote Sheriff Don Chafin that I would come back if he wanted me, but, not hearing from him, I continued my revival meetings. When I returned to Logan County in March I was dumbfounded to learn that I was under indictment for murder and treason.
I was jailed at Logan. My two sons, John 18, and Frank 16, had been in jail without bond since December 31. A third son, Isaac, had been in jail but was admitted to bond.
The authorities offered me many inducements to turn state’s evidence and testify against the miners but I spurned their offers.
I was put in solitary confinement in the Logan jail on March 14 and remained in solitary confinement until Saturday, April 22, when I was handcuffed to another miner and brought to Charles Town.
—————-
—————
