Tag: UMW District 17

Hellraisers Journal: Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney, Freed in Mingo County, Are Now Locked Up in Kanawha County Jail

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 5, 1921
Keeney and Mooney Locked Up in Kanawha County Jail

From The Washington Post of November 3, 1921:

MINE LEADERS FREED, REARRESTED; JAILED
———————-
Keeney and Mooney, Held in Mingo Case,
Now Face Logan Charges.

UMW D17, Mooney Keeney, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

Charleston, W. Va., Nov. 4. (By the Associated Press).-President C. F. Keeney and Secretary Fred Mooney, of District 17, United Mine Workers of America, were brought here today from Williamson, W. Va., where they were earlier released from the county jail on $10,000 bail each. Later they were taken to the Kanawha county jail on charges connected with the march of armed men last August from Marmet to Madison.

Keeney and Mooney were indicted several months ago in connection with the industrial strife in Mingo county and have been in jail at Williamson since that time.

They also were indicted in this county and in Logan county in connection with the armed march. The indictments in Kanawha allege conspiracy and insurrection under the “red men’s act.” Prosecuting Attorney Burdett today set Novemer 28 as the tentative date for their trial.

Williamson, W. Va., Nov. 4.-C. F. Keeney and Fred Mooney, indicted in Mingo county in connection with the killing of two men during the recent disorders, were released from county jail here early today on $10,000 bond each. As soon as the bonds were executed deputies from Kanawha arrested them on charges in connection with the march of armed men from that county through Boone county in August. After the Kanawha capiases had been served, Keeney and Mooney were started for Charleston.

When the Kanawha deputies appeared late last night, accompanied by attorneys for the union leaders, they found only a clerk in the sheriff’s office. Sheriff A. C,. Pinson and Maj. Tom B. Davis, assistant adjutant general, Gov. Morgan’s personal representative in the martial law district, were in Logan, W. Va.

The attorneys produced an opinion by the Sate attorney general, holding that Logan warrants for the arrest of Keeney and Mooney, issued October 15 in connection with the armed march, were null and void because they had not been served within the stipulated time.

The sheriff’s clerk then communicated with Sheriff Pinson, Maj. Davis and Logan county officials by telephone and finally, with the sanction of the sheriff, the major, and the Logan authorities, the Kanawha warrants were served.

———————-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: “West Virginia, The Civil War in Its Coal Fields” by Winthrop D. Lane, Part III

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 1, 1921
Winthrop D. Lane on West Virginia’s Coal Field War, Part III

From The Survey of October 1921:

WV Civil in Coal Field, Title, by Winthrop Lane, Survey p177, Oct 1921

[Part III of III.]

WV Mingo Tent Colony, Survey p182, Oct 29, 1921

What, meanwhile, has the state government been doing to bring peace and order to a situation so intense as this? For four months it has been maintaining martial law in Mingo County, for one thing. This is the third time within a year that some form of military control has been proclaimed in that strike-swept area; on the other two occasions federal troops were called in. Today the state is using its own forces, a rifle company of the national guard, which is now being reorganized. When a “three-days battle” occurred along a ten-mile front in Mingo County on May 12, 13 and 14, during which shots were exchanged by union and non-union elements, the tent colonies were fired into and damage was done to the property of coal companies, local authorities appealed to Governor E. F. Morgan to assist them. Governor Morgan, accordingly, proclaimed that a state of “war, insurrection and riot” existed in Mingo County, and directed Major Thomas B. Davis, acting adjutant-general, to proceed there and with the aid of the state constabulary and deputy sheriffs to place the region under martial law.

The legality of this procedure was assailed by the United Mine Workers of America when its members were arrested under the martial law proclamation. The state Supreme Court of Appeals held the edict invalid. The reason given by the court was that the proclamation could only be enforced by the occupancy of the zone covered by a military force, and that the state constabulary and deputy sheriffs were not a military force.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: “West Virginia, The Civil War in Its Coal Fields” by Winthrop D. Lane, Part III” →

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: Senators Visit Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County, West Virginia, Hear Miners’ Side of Story

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, WDC Tx p15, Aug 26, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 21, 1921
Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County – Senators Hear Miner’ Side of Conflict

From the Baltimore Sun of September 19, 1921:

Mingo, HdLn Sens Visit Lick Creek Echols, Blt Sun p1, Sept 19, 1921

Williamson, W. Va., Sept. 18.-Senator Kenyon’s investigating committee, boiled down finally to himself and Senator Shortridge, of California, went among the people in the Lick Creek tent colony today to get the miners’ side of the underlying cause of industrial troubles in the Mingo region.

There was no comment from the committee after 50 or more men and women had been questioned. Tomorrow the operators will be heard and then Senator Kenyon and his associate will determine how far to proceed and where under the Senate resolution directing the inquiry.

The tent colony is populated by miners who have been on strike 14 months. The first of the group whose testimony was obtained was George Echols, a negro preacher, 75 years old, who showed the ragged gaps in his tent, put there, he testified, by “State constabulary or private guards.” Inside, the old man picked up his month-old baby, born in a home with only the earth as flooring, and proudly displayed it to Senator Shortridge as an evidence of healthy living outdoors in the Mingo Mountains.

Women Eager To Talk.

Wide slashes and bullet holes in other tents also were pointed out as alleged evidence of some of the colony’s hardships. News that the Senatorial party was on the way brought out a big attendance, the women being the most eager to talk. From individual groups the Senators tried to find out how the trouble might be settled. Most of the miners declared they had not been amply paid for their work; that while they might make $8 a day, expenses for tools, dynamite and other things cut the net to $3. Other alleged grievances were against the so-called “mine-guard” system, and the claim of the men that once they joined the union they were instantly fired.

The witnesses also complained that many men from the colony had been put in jail and not told of the charges against them. Howard Hanvers, one of the spokesmen, said they objected to enforcement of law by private guards.

“Have any mine guards been shot by miners?” Senator Kenyon asked, and the witnesses agreed that while they had heard such reports they had no direct knowledge.

Told Of Breedlove Murder.

The story of Alexander Breedlove, who was shot to death last June near the camp, when a 13-year-old boy, alone with him in a thicket begged that he be not deserted, was told in detail by half a dozen witnesses. The men said after Breedlove was captured he was given one minute to pray and fell dead with a prayer on his lips. Senator Kenyon found that the boy, Willie Hodges, lives in Huntington, and efforts will be made to get his testimony.

Just after his arrival Senator Kenyon was presented with a memorial from local counsel of the United Mine Workers, setting forth their side of the case along with a series of charges against the operators. The memorial covered broadly the same ground touched on by the union heretofore.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney Surrender on Murder Charge, Jailed at Williamson, W. Va.

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 20, 1921
Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney Held at Mingo County Jail on Murder Charge

From The Washington Times of September 19, 1921:

Mingo, FK n FM Jailed at Williamson on Murder Charge, WDC Tx p3, Sept 19, 1921

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney Surrender on Murder Charge, Jailed at Williamson, W. Va.” →

Hellraisers Journal: Editor Pew Wires Governor Morgan, Demands Explanation Concerning Arrest of Mildred Morris

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Editor Pew of INS to WV Gov re Mildred Morris Held Captive at Logan, UMWJ p8, Sept 15, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 17, 1921
Editor Marlen E. Pew Wires Protest to Governor Morgan of West Virginia

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

DEMANDS AN EXPLANATION

Battle of Blair Mt, Mildred Morris re Taken to Logan, WDC Hld p1, Sept 5, 1921
The Washington Herald
September 5, 1921

NEW YORK, Sept. 3.—The shooting and arrest of newspaper correspondents in the West Virginia reign of terror, which included a woman reporter, has aroused members of the press throughout the country.

An indignant protest was sent to the governor of West Virginia tonight by Marlen E. Pew, of the International News Service. Mr. Pew wired as follows:

Hon. E. F. Morgan, Governor,
Charleston, W. Va. 

Sir: Miss Mildred Morris of our Washington staff, one of the best known, most accomplished and conscientious reporters in this country, assigned to Logan because of her special knowledge of industrial affairs, wires me tonight that she was slightly injured, arrested and submitted to indignities today by state guards. Miss Morris weighs, I should  say, about 100 pounds, but I do not believe that all the thugs in the livery of your state can terrorize or intimidate her when she is sent on a mission for the press.

I think I am justified in asking you if there is a censorship of terror in your state. If the state guards of West Virginia, their native sense of chivalry dead and buried, are of the belief that they can prevent the publication of the truth concerning not only the surface, but the underlying facts of this private war, by insults and injury to a woman representing some 600 newspapers and equipped with credentials from the commander of the federal forces in your state, I am here to tell you that they are mistaken. Please advise me by telegram tonight what you propose doing to redress this wrong to this lady, and whether we may expect some respect for the constitutional right of the press from the government of West Virginia, if indeed West Virginia still has a government in the meaning of the original democratic institution.

I am indignant and I want your blood to boil as a man as well as a governor and punish this particular infamy.

MARLEN E. PEW,
Editor and Manager, International News Service.

—————

[Emphasis and newsclip 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: From The Nation: “Marching Through West Virginia”-Redneck Miners’ Army Mingo Bound

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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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.

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

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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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.

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Hellraisers Journal: Forty Warrants Issued For Rebel Miners’ Army in West Virginia; Illinois Miners Returning Home in Rain

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 11, 1921
Forty Warrants Issued For West Virginia Miners’ Army

From the Baltimore Sun of September 9, 1921:

WARRANTS OUT FOR 40 IN W. VA. MINERS’ ARMY
———-
Special Grand Jury Next Week To Hear Evidence
Of Recent Disorders.
———-

PART OF TROOPS WITHDRAWN
———-
Military Authorities Indicate They Anticipate
No More Marches Into Mingo.
———-

re March of IL Miners, Returning Home, Blt Sun p2, Sept 9, 1921

Charleston, W. Va., Sept. 8.-The first step toward the prosecution of those alleged to be responsible for disturbances along the Boone-Logan county border was taken today when 40 warrants were issued at Logan at the instance of County Prosecutor John Chafin, it was, announced today at Governor Morgan’s office. It was stated further that a special grand jury would be called there next week before which witnesses, already summoned, are expected to appear.

It was not known at the Governor’s office for whom the warrants were issued, according to the announcement.

Part of the Federal forces sent into West Virginia last week today were withdrawn. The Twenty-sixth Infantry returned to Camp Dix, New Jersey; the Eighty-eight Aero Squadron, with the exception of two airships and crews, left for Langley Field, Virginia, and the Chemical Warfare Service Section for Edgewood Arsenal, New Jersey.

No official statement was made concerning further withdrawals of troops, but it was learned that, should the Nineteenth Infantry be sent back to its home station, the Fortieth Regiment, Col. E. A. Shuttlesworth commanding, now on duty in Logan county, would be distributed throughout the district affected by the gathering of miners and others during the latter part of August.

The military authorities today indicated they anticipated no further attempts at marches into Mingo county on the part of protestants against State martial law in force there.

—–

Federal Agents Investigating.

Washington, Sept. 8.-Any action by the Federal Government to fix the responsibility for the recent mine disorders in the West Virginia coal fields will depend on the results of investigations now being made, it was said today at the Department of Justice.

Federal agents are at work, it was said, but no reports from them have yet reached the department. 

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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