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…..
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:
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.
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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.
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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.
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” Jonesover the purported speech to the men this morning advising them to return to their homes during the course of whichshe 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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