Tag: Huntington WV

Hellraisers Journal: From the Duluth Labor World: Keeney and Mooney Were Far Away at Time of Alleged Crime

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————–

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 11, 1921
Keeney and Mooney Were at State Convention at Time of Alleged Crime

From the Duluth Labor World of October 8, 1921:

UNION LEADERS WERE FAR AWAY
———-
Keeney and Mooney Were at State Convention
at Time of Alleged Crime.
———-

UMW D17, Mooney Keeney, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

HUNTINGTON, W. Va., Oct. 6.—At a mass meeting of citizens these ques­tions were submitted to Governor Morgan and the coal owners of southern West Virginia.

“We would like to know how C. F. Keeney and Fred Mooney, president and secretary of the miners’ organi­zation, can be held without bond for a murder which we understand was committed in another county while they were attending the West Vir­ginia state federation of labor meet­ing in the city of Huntington, and the personal aides of the coal owners’ as­sociation, who we know did kill Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers, still run at large on a small bond?

“We would like to ask if the law is being carried out which provides for a weighman at the mines also in re­gard to pay days.

“The coal owners of Logan claim they pay more for coal than is paid in union fields. In the same state­ment they say if their fields were or­ganized the price of coal would be so high the public could not buy. Please explain.”

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: “Newspaper Reporters Fired on by State Police” by Mildred Morris

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mildred Morris, re Reporters Held in Logan WV, UMWJ p4, Sept 15, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 16, 1921
Mildred Morris Describes Her Sojourn into the Battle Zone of West Virginia

From the United Mine Workers Journal of September 15, 1921:

HUNTINGTON , W. Va .– Four newspaper correspondents who have the memorable experience of penetrating the mountainous regions where war between the miners and state police has been raging for nearly two weeks and being the first to obtain an eye-witness picture of the firing line, are alive tonight by the grace of God.

As a member of the party I arrived here after escaping from Logan, where the four of us had been placed under guard.

Under a shower of bullets from both sides we convinced ourselves that war–real war-has been going on in West Virginia.

Three times a fusillade of steel bullets poured on us from the Springfield rifles of the state gunmen and three times we were fired on by the miners.

And after it was all over we were taken with our wounded to Logan, under guard.

Boyden Sparkes, of the New York Tribune, was shot through the leg and a bullet all but penetrated his scalp. One of the miners whom we had persuaded to act as a guide was shot in the ankle and is seriously wounded. When we were able to convince the state police, whose lines we had penetrated, that we were non-combatants merely on a sightseeing tour all military operations ceased while officers stared at us in amazement and asked:

“How in h–-l we had got there and what we meant?”

Military passes we presented from General Bandholtz, representative of the War Department, and commander of the United States troops now in the war zone were scorned.

“We don’t know nothing about him. Nobody has told us federal troops are here and we haven’t seen them, so we don’t know nothing about them,” the young officer in charge informed us.

Charged with being spies and “red necks” we were taken to state military headquarters in Logan and after an insulting examination by Sheriff Don Chafin of Logan county, we were ordered taken to a hotel. Each of us, including the wounded members of our party, was placed in charge of a guard, who was given orders to accompany us wherever we went.

For more than three hours I was subjected to indignities by this guard and other members of the state police.

Only after frantic appeals Mr. Sparkes was permitted to communicate with his office in New York in order that his wife might know he was not seriously injured. None of the rest of us was permitted to establish our identity and our passes from General Bandholtz were received with the same scorn by Sheriff Chafin and his attaches as the officers of the state police on the battle front had shown. My guard, an insolent youth, insisted on going with me into the bedroom assigned to me. When I objected he said he was acting under orders. To avoid this indignity, I was compelled to sit in the hotel lobby while more insolent and youthful members of the state police made insolent queries and threatened me if I refused to answer.

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Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Logan County, West Virginia: “Private Ownership of Public Officials” -Part II

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Organize Logan Co, Nation p724, May 29, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 31, 1920
Logan County, West Virginia – Coal Operators Own Public Officials, Part II

From The Nation of May 29, 1920:

Private Ownership Of Public Officials

By ARTHUR GLEASON

[Part II of II.]

WV Coal Fields Witnesses on Gunthug Terror, Wlg Int p1, Oct 1, 1919
Wheeling Intelligencer
October 1, 1919

There is only one incorporated town in Logan County, and that is the town of Logan, with a population of 3,500. Unidentified strangers are not wanted in Logan. The train that carries you the three hours from the city of Huntington into Guyan Valley is used by men who make it their business to find out yours. Deputies meet the train, as you pull into Logan—Dow Butcher, Buck White, Squire White, and Pat Murphy. You are sized up. This affectionate interest is directed for one purpose—to detect organizers and to invite them to go home. Commercial travelers, social workers, business and professional men pass in and out. Order is well kept; all the decencies are observed. Logan is a prosperous, busy little city. I stayed over night, received a welcome, and met a group of excellent sincere local folks, nurses, teachers, health experts, coal magnates. They are busy in every good work. They draw the line in this one matter alone: Logan County is not to be unionized. This led to an amusing mistake some time previous to my own visit. Mr. J. L. Heizer told me of it; it was his own experience in Logan. Mr. Heizer is chief clerk of the Department of Mines for the State of West Virginia. He is also Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias for the State. He went to Logan to induct certain brethren. Mr. Heizer said on the train to Mr. Wayne Chafin that he had heard a lot about Don Chafin, and wanted to meet him. In the middle of the night, Mr. Heizer said,

When I went to the hotel room, two men were standing at the door, and one of them stepped forward and said: “I understand you want to meet Don Chafin?”

I said “Yes.”

He said, “By God, you’ve met him now.”

A young man with me, E. R. Dalton of Huntington, tried to pacify Mr. Chafin, who stuck a gun into the stomach of Mr. Dalton and said, “Young man, you get to bed, and get there quick. I can kill both of you in this room.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Logan County, West Virginia: “Private Ownership of Public Officials” -Part I

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 30, 1920
Logan County, West Virginia – Coal Operators Own Public Officials, Part I

From The Nation of May 29, 1920:

Private Ownership Of Public Officials

By ARTHUR GLEASON

[Part I of II.]

WV UMW D17 50 Orgzrs v Don Chafin Logan Co, Hbrg PA Tph p7, Oct 16, 1919
Harrisburg Telegraph
October 16, 1919

WEST VIRGINIA has started in again on the organized killing which every few years breaks loose in the mining districts. On May 19, eleven men were shot to death in the town of Matewan, Mingo County. Seven of them were detectives, three were miners and one was an official. This skirmish is the first in the 1920 war between the coal operators of the State and the United Mine Workers of America. Mingo is one of the counties in the southwest of the State which have been held against organized labor by detectives, armed guards, and deputy sheriffs.

With the beginning of May, the miners formed local unions, and brought in 2,000 members. As fast as the miners join the union, the coal companies are evicting them from the company-owned houses. I saw the typewritten notice of the Stone Mountain Coal Company on the window of the company-owned grocery store. It stated that the houses of the miners were owned by the company, and that the miners must leave the premises at once if they join the union. Ezra Frye, the local organizer, acting for the United Mine Workers, had leased land, and was erecting tents for the evicted families. He had ordered 300 tents on the first allotment. Matewan lies on the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. It is run politically by the Hatfield clan, who for generations have had a feud with the McCoy clan. The economic struggle is making a new alignment across the old feudist divisions. No stranger is safe just now in these unorganized counties. We had a spy who trailed us from Charleston to Matewan. In the town, we were kept under constant guard.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Logan County, West Virginia: “Private Ownership of Public Officials” -Part I” →