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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 6, 1921
Fighting West Virginia Miners Have Gone Home; Quiet Prevails
From The West Virginian of September 5, 1921:
Tag: Fred Mooney
Hellraisers Journal: Armed West Virginia Miners Seize Trains, Advance on Logan by Way of Jeffrey, Sharples and Blair
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 2, 1921
Armed West Virginia Miners Advance Through Logan County
From The West Virginian of September 1, 1921:
Hellraisers Journal: Redneck Miners’ Army Confronts Sheriff Chafin’s Deputized Gunthugs at Blair Mountain
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 1, 1921
Blair Mountain, West Virginia – Miners’ Army Battles Chafin’s Gunthugs
From The West Virginian of August 31, 1921:
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Hellraisers Journal: Keeney and Mooney Speak to Miners at Madison, Convince Most to End March on Mingo Strike Zone
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 28, 1921
Madison, West Virginia – Keeney and Mooney Convince Miners to End March
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of August 27, 1921:
GEN. BANDHOLTZ INDUCES ACTION
BY THE LEADERS
———-600 OF THE MARCHERS HAD
REACHED MADISON
———-
Conditions Reported Quiet on the
Boone Highways Friday Night.
———-Madison, W. Va., Aug. 26.-The march of miners from Marmet to Mingo in protest against martial law came to an end late today, when President C. F. Keeney, of district 17, United Mine Workers of America, induced 500 or 600 of the men to agree to return to their homes. Keeney said that special trains would be provided for the men here, while the thousands along the road between Madison and Peytona had already taken the back track.
Mr. Keeney said he was trying to have a train get here tonight. It is only a short run over the Coal River branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad to St. Albans, on the main line, and an equally short one from there to Charleston.
To Board Trains for Home.
He planned, he said, to get the men here aboard the train at the earliest possible moment., for they were footsore and weary, and many of them had marched a long distance before they reached Marmet.
A meeting of the advance guard of about 600 marching miners was held in the baseball park here, the men occupying the grandstand. Enough stragglers had come in along the Peytona- Madison road to swell the audience to about 600.
They sat in the bright sunshine and listened intently while Mr. Keeney and Secretary Mooney explained to them the details of the conference they have had with Brigadier General H. H. Bandholtz, U. S. A., representing the war department, in Charleston this morning. Mr. Keeney told the men that General Bandholtz had insisted that march end at once, and suggested the possible course of the federal government if the men persisted in the determination to pass through Logan and into Mingo county.
Told to Go Home.
Two or three of the miners, who were said to be leaders among the men, also addressed the meeting. The more conservative of these speakers urged the men to take such advice as Mr. Keeney had to offer.
Mr. Keeney promptly told them to go back home.
That broke up the meeting and some of the audience who had joined the marching force from this vicinity, immediately started for their homes…..
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SITUATION AGANIN CRITICAL WHEN
MARCHERS REFUSE TO TURN BACK
———-Failure of State Authorities to
Send Trains Criticized
-Band of 500 Seize Train, and
Are Headed for Logan County.
———-Charleston, W. Va., Aug. 26.-
The situation here tonight is critical. State officials made a serious mistake in not sending trains to Madison before dark to take the miners back to their homes.
This statement was made at 11:30 tonight by C. Frank Keeney, president of District No. 17, United Mine Workers, who is reported to have “turned the men back” in their march from Marmet toward the West Virginia side of Tug river, in Mingo County.
At the same time, State Tax Commissioner Walter S. Hallanan and other state officials received reports that a crowd of armed men estimated at 500, had commandeered a train at Clothier, on Coal river and were headed toward Blair, Logan county. Most of the armed men boarded the train at Danville…..
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[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: District 17 Leaders Denounce Mother Jones; Telegram from President Harding Declared a Fake
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 26, 1921
Marmet, West Virginia – Telegram Read by Mother Jones Declared “Bogus”
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of August 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.
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[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Miners Rally at Charleston, Speakers Include Mother Jones and Frank Keeney
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 13, 1921
Charleston, West Virginia – Mother Jones and Frank Keeney Speak at Miners Rally
From the Martinsburg Journal of August 9, 1921:
MINERS ASK MORGAN TO SETTLE WARFARE
They Submit Basis for Settlement.
[Mother Jones Speaks]
———-
Charleston, Aug. 7-Governor Morgan tonight asked for time in which to consider the demands submitted by the miners in a ten-hour mass meeting here today. The chief executive promised to send his answer to Frank Keeney, president of District 17, United Mine Workers, within the next few days. Keeney will convey the governor’s answer to local unions by mail.
The miners and their sympathizers began arriving in Charleston early this morning and by noon a throng variously estimated from 1,500 to 2,500 had gathered on the old capitol lawn. Mother Jones and other speakers addressed the crowd. The meeting disbanded at 10 o’clock…..
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Miners Rally at Charleston, Draft Resolutions for Settlement of Troubles in Mingo County
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 12, 1921
Charleston, West Virginia – Miners Mass Rally Sends Resolutions to Governor
From The New York Times of August 8, 1921:
DRAFT MINGO PEACE TERMS
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Miners Adopt Resolutions and Present
Them to Governor.CHARLESTON, W. Va., Aug. 7.-Resolutions setting forth terms for a settlement of the industrial controversy in Mingo County were adopted here to-day at a mass meeting of union miners and presented to Governor Morgan. The Governor requested time to consider them, and said that he would send his reply to C. F. Keeney, President of District 17, United Mine Worker of America.
More than 1,000 miners were at the meeting, held in the open near the site of the Capitol, recently destroyed by fire. They were addressed by “Mother” Jones, labor organizer, and other speakers.
The resolutions suggest these point for a settlement:
Appointment of a commission of six, three to represent the and three the operators, to adopt rules and methods for adjustment of any disputes arising between the two parties.
Creation of a board of arbitration, consisting of one to be selected by the miners, one by the operators and these two to select a third who shall be a non-resident of the State. This board will settle questions on which the commission fells to agree, and their decisions shall be binding and final.
That employers involved agree that all employes return to work without discrimination against any one belonging to a labor union.
Establishment of an eight-hour working day.
That employes shall have the right to trade where they desire.
That employee shall have the right to elect check weighers, and that 2.000 pounds shall constitute a ton.
That where coal is not weighed on a standard scale and the miner is paid by the car or the measure, the weight of each car shall be stamped thereon.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Double Funeral for Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Held in Drenching Rain, “Even the Heavens Weep”
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 4, 1921
Buskirk Cemetery, Kentucky – Sam Montgomery Speaks for Hatfield and Chambers
Double Funeral Held for Miners’ Heroes,
Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers
August 3.-The double funeral for Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers was held today in a drenching rain, at Buskirk Cemetery, on the Kentucky side of the Tug river, just across the bridge from Matewan. Sam Montgomery delivered the funeral oration and said, in part:
We have gathered here today to perform the last sad rites for these two boys who fell victims to one of the most contemptible systems that has ever been known to exist in the history of the so-called civilized world. Deliberately shot down, murdered in cold blood, while they were entering a place which should have been a temple of justice, and by whom? Men who are working under the direction of and taking their orders from coal operators who live in Cincinnati, Chicago, New York City, and Boston.
Sleek, dignified, church-going gentlemen who would rather pay fabulous sums to their hired gunmen to kill and slay men for joining a union than to pay like or lesser amounts to the men who delve into the subterranean depths of the earth and produce their wealth for them. At the same time these same men prate of their charities, their donations to philanthropic movements, act as vestrymen and pillars of the churches to which they belong.
Even the Heavens weep with the grief-stricken relatives and the bereaved friends of these two boys.
Hellraisers Journal: Frank Ingham, Union Miner, Charges He Was Beaten by McDowell County Sheriff’s Deputies
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 16, 1921
Washington, D. C. – Frank Ingham Before Senate Investigating Committee
From the Washington Evening Star of July 15, 1921:
From Hearings before Senate Committe
-Now Investigating West Virginia Coal Fields
-July 14, 1921, excerpt from testimony of Frank Ingham:
Mr. INGHAM. Then they [McDowell County sheriff’s deputies] drove the car down there between Welch and Hemphill, and there they stopped and they dragged me out of the car, and they took me about 100 yards away from the car and then they began to beat me over the head and back with these iron clubs, and then when they decided that I was dead, when they decided that there was not any life in me, they drew off of me and stood and talked, and Ed Johnson, the sheriff’s deputy , he came back to me and kicked me in the face…He holds the position of deputy sheriff under Sheriff Daniels, and he come back and he kicked me in the face and he robbed my pocket…Well, I had prayed earnestly to God, and I believe that God heard me and that he answered my prayer, and I was conscious all the way. I had $25.07 in my pocketbook, and I also had a receipt from Mr. R. H. Campbell; I had borrowed $100 from him and I had a receipt from him and one from Dr. Hamburger, and my railroad ticket…Ed Johnson [took those things]….I never got anything [back].
And then they went off and they left me lying in the woods, and they went out to the road and they got in their machine and drove back toward Welch, and the automobiles ran out of my hearing. I raised my head up from off of the ground, and I stayed there until I collected strength enough to get out of the road, and then I went out to a little coaling station, I believe they call it the Farm coaling station, I believe they call it that, and an engineer was there and a fireman was there coaling up an engine, and they asked me what was the matter with me and I told them that I had been in the hands of the mob. They asked me what I had been in the hands of the mob for and I told them because I belonged to the union.
[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Fred Mooney, U. M. W. District 17 Secretary-Treasurer, Testifies Before Senate Investigating Committee
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 15, 1921
Washington, D. C. – Fred Mooney Testifies on Behalf of Mingo Miners
From the Washington Evening Star of July 14, 1921:
Peace may be near in Mingo county, W. Va., where several hundred coal miners have been on strike for more than a year, it was developed today before hearing begun before a sub-committee of the Senate committee on education and labor to determine the causes of the industrial situation in Mingo county.
Members of the committee, headed by Senator Kenyon, sought to ascertain whether the Governor of West Virginia had acted upon the suggestion submitted three days ago by the miners. Questions asked by members of the committee carried a suggestion that the committee might attempt to bring the sides to the coal controversy together if it were found that a real basis had been suggested for a compromise.
Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer of District 17, the miners’ union, representing the Mingo field, told the committee that the strikers were ready to go back to work if the operators would receive them without prejudice and would not insist upon employing only non-union labor…..
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[Emphasis added.]
