Tag: Welch WV

Hellraisers Journal: Hired Gunthugs Acquitted of Murder in Killing of Miners’ Hero Sid Hatfield at Welch, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Sallie Chambers re Murder of Sid Hatfield n Ed, Blt Sun p2, Aug 5, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 27, 1922
Welch, West Virginia – Gunthugs Acquitted of Murder in Killing of Sid Hatfield

From the Baltimore Sun of April 25, 1922:

Three Are Acquitted Of Hatfield Killing
———-

Matewan Defendants Sid Hatfield n Ed Chambers, WV Hx Center, see also UMWJ p14, June 15, 1921

Welch, W. Va., April 24.-The final chapter in one of Mingo’s numerous industrial tragedies was written here today when a jury in Circuit Court returned a verdict of not guilty against C. E. Lively, Buster Pence and William Salters, indicted in connection with the killing of Sid Hatfield.

A similar verdict was returned when the same defendants were tried on charges of having killed Ed Chambers.

On August 1 last, Hatfield and Chambers came to Welch to answer for the part they were alleged to have played in the shooting up of the little mining town of Mohawk. As they were walking up the Courthouse steps, near where the three defendants were standing, a shot was heard, and when the smoke of general shooting cleared away the bodies of Hatfield and Chambers lay at the bottom of the steps.

They were accompanied by their wives when the shooting occurred.

Lively was the chief witness against Hatfield and the other men who were tried in connection with the killing of seven private detectives at Matewan. In that fight 10 men met death, including Mayor C. C. Testerman.

Shortly after this affray, Hatfield married Testerman’s widow, and soon after Sid went down at Welch his widow married a State trooper. 

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Were Unarmed When Murdered on Steps of McDowell County Courthouse

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Sallie Chambers re Murder of Sid Hatfield n Ed, Blt Sun p2, Aug 5, 1921————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 6, 1921
Matewan, West Virginia – Widows of Hatfield and Chambers Speak Out

From the Baltimore Sun of August 5, 1921:

Hatfield Was Unarmed, His Widow Asserts
———-

Mrs. Chambers Declares That Her Husband
Also Was Without Weapon.

Sid and Jessie Testerman Hatfield, Stt Str p14, Sept 15, 1920
Sid Hatfield (inset) and
Jessie Testerman Hatfield
—–

Matewan, W. Va., Aug. 4.-Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers, Mingo mountaineers, who were killed on the steps of the Courthouse at Welch, McDowell county, in a gun fight last Monday, were unarmed, their widow told newspaper men here today. Both Mrs. Hatfield and Mrs. Chambers accompanied their husbands to the court last Monday, where Sid, former chief of police at Matewan, was to have answered a charge of being the instigator of the “shooting up” of Mohawk, McDowell county, last year.

The widows said that they or their husbands did not anticipate trouble in Welch and that Hatfield locked his pistols in a traveling bag and Chambers laid aside his arms before starting for the Courthouse.

The women declared that C. E. Lively, Baldwin-Felts detective, charged with being implicated in the killings, boarded the train on which they were going to Welch early in the morning and followed them about the town until it was almost time for them to appear at the court. Mrs. Chambers, describing how she and her husband and Sid and his wife went to the Courthouse and started for the entrance, said:

I heard a shot fired. I turned and looked at Sid and he was falling. Then I looked at my husband and he was falling loose from my arm. The shooting then became general. I saw only two men shooting and they were C. E. Lively and a short, heavy-set man who wore glasses.

Mrs. Hatfield said that she lost consciousness while the shooting was going on. She charged Sheriff Bill Hatfield with negligence in not protecting her husband.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Bodies of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Brought Home to Matewan from Welch for Double Funeral

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote FK re Murders of Sid and Ed, Wlg Int p1, Aug 2, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 3, 1921
Matewan, West Virginia – Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Return Home

From The West Virginian of August 2, 1921:

Mingo WV, HdLn Sid and Ed Taken Home, WVgn p1, Aug 2, 1921

MATEWAN, W. Va., Aug 2.-Sid. Hatfield and Edward Chambers, who yesterday were shot to death on the court house steps at Welch, W. Va., as they were about to be tried for the part they were alleged to have played in a pistol attack on a mining town in the Mingo coal field were brought home last midnight. The open space around the little railroad station was filled with former friends and neighbors but there was no demonstration. State police and armed militiamen patrolled the streets and after the body had been taken to the little homes where the men had formerly lived the crowd quietly dispersed.

Mrs. Hatfield and Mrs. Chambers who were in Welch when the tragedy occurred arrived on the same train and were given sincere sympathy by their friends in the village.

 

Arrangements for the double funeral were not completed today but it was stated by friends of the family that services probably would be held tomorrow afternoon and interment made in the cemetery here.

Matewan was quiet this morning. At an early hour friends of the dead men called at their homes, looked for a moment upon the body and then passed out to their dally work or to discuss the tragedy as they walked along the streets. There were no better known men in all the Tug river country than Hatfield and Chambers and many incidents of their stormy lives in he narrow valley and out through the mountains were told and retold as the day advanced.

Armed militiamen and state policemen were here in force but from outward appearances they were not needed as the town was strangely quiet. Leading citizens who had sounded public sentiment in the fear that reprisals for the killing of the men might develop during the day expressed the opinion that there would be no disorder of any kind. Many persons from the surrounding country came in during the morning and it was expected that a great crowd would be here for the funeral.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: West Virginia’s Militia Intent on Driving Miners’ Union From the State

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 2, 1921
West Virginia’s State Militia Serves Interest of Coal Operators

From the United Mine Workers Journal of August 1, 1921:

[-from pages 3 & 4]

Mingo Co WV, Lick Creek Tent Colony, UMWJ p3, Aug 1, 1921
General View of the Miners’ Tent Colony, Lick Creek, W. Va.

More complete details of the raid which was made upon the headquarters office of the United Mine Workers at Williamson, W. Va., by the so-called military authorities of that state have been received at the Journal office, and they are of even a more harrowing and outrageous character than was at first suspected or realized. The raid was a down-right act of brutal disregard for all of the constitutional rights that are supposed to be enjoyed by every American citizen, but which seem to belong only to coal operators in West virginia. More and more it becomes apparent that the military raid on the union headquarters was merely another part of the plan of the Williamson coal operators to run the United Mine Workers out of that field. Of course, they will not succeed in doing this, but their failure to accomplish this end will not be through any fault of the West Virginia military establishment.

The last issue of the Journal contained the bare facts of the raid on the office of the Union and the arrest of David B. Robb, International Fiscal Agent; Ed Dobbins, International Board Member, from District 12; International Organizers, John W. Brown, Robert Gilmour, Jasper Metzger and Herbert Halls; J. B. Wiggins and Henry Koop, local workers; Claude Mahoun, Charles Lee, Whetrell Hackney and J. H. Reed, striking miners. A squad of the improvised militia, led by Major Davis, invaded the office and ordered the men to line up on the sidewalk in front. Next they marched the twelve men to the Williamson City jail and locked them up. The twelve men suffered terribly from the intense heat and close confinement, but even this fact did not appear to satisfy the authorities, for two days later they handcuffed the men in pairs, loaded them on a train and took them to Welch, county seat of McDowell county, and placed them in the McDowell county jail.

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Hellraisers Journal: Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Murdered by Baldwin-Felts Gunthugs at Welch, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Telegram Workman to FK re Sid Hatfield n Ed Chambers, WVgn p4, Aug 1, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 1, 1921
Welch, West Virginia – Hatfield and Chambers Murdered by Gunthugs

From The West Virginian of August 1, 1921:

Bnr Hdln, Sid Hatfield Killed, WVgn p1, Aug 1, 1921

CHAMBERS ALSO DEAD AS RESULT OF
BATTLE WITH DETECTIVES AT WELCH
———-

Victims Were to have Appeared in
Court There Today
—–
FIVE ARE ARRESTED
—–
Shooting Took Place in the
Court House Yard,
Report
—–

WELCH, W. Va., Aug. 1-Sid Hatfield, chief of police of Matewan and Edward Chambers, a police man of that place, were killed in a gun fight in the court house yard here shortly before noon today. C. E. Lively, a [Baldwin-Felts] private detective and four other persons were arrested in connection with the shooting…..

Matewan Defendants Sid Hatfield n Ed Chambers, WV Hx Center, see also UMWJ p14, June 15, 1921

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[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Sid Hatfield Arrested, Held at Williamson, Will Be Taken to Welch, County Seat of McDowell County

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Tom Morello, Law Rulers Ruled, Which Side Are You On—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 31, 1921
Matewan, West Virginia – Sid Hatfield Arrested on Year-Old Charge

From the Baltimore Sun of July 29, 1921:

Sid Hatfield crpd, WDC Tx p12, Dec 12, 1920

Sid Hatfield Arrested On Year-Old Charge
———-

Matewan’s Former Police Chief Accused
Of “Shooting Up” Mining Village.

Williamson, W. Va., July 28.-Sid Hatfield, former chief of police of Matewan and a conspicuous figure in the industrial conflict in the Mingo coal field, was arrested late today at his home charged with participation in the “shooting up” of Mohawk, a mining village in McDowell county, about one year ago.

Hatfield was brought here and the arresting officer said he would be taken to Welch, the county seat of McDowell county, tonight.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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