Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 26, 1921 Williamson, West Virginia – Trial of Sid Hatfield and 19 Matewan Men Set to Start
From Indiana’s Logansport Pharos-Tribune of January 25, 1921:
TWENTY MEN GOING ON TRIAL FOR THE KILLING OF MINE GUARDS AT MATEWAN —–
FRIENDS AND FOES MEET IN WILLIAMSON, W. VA., AS POLICE CHIEF AND 19 CITIZENS FACE COURT —–
(N. E. A. Staff Special.)
WILLIAMSON, W. Va., Jan. 26.-Friend and foe rub elbows here, as miners and Baldwin-Felt guards assemble for the trial of Sid Hatfield, chief of police at Matewan, and 19 of his fellow citizens charged with killing seven Baldwins in a street battle.
Five Baldwin-Felts detectives engaged in the same battle will be tried under change of venue at Lewisburg, Greenbrier county, in April.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 26, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – Relief Workers Bring Cheer to Tent Colonies
From The Washington Post of December 25, 1920:
CHRISTMAS CHEER FOR MINGO TENTS ———- Relief Workers Give Fruits and Toys to Strikers’ Families
Williamson, W. Va., Dec. 24 (By the Associated Press).-Relief workers who have been employed during the last week in distributing Christmas cheer to the striking miners and their families in the Tug River coal field, reported to union headquarters here tonight that their task was completed. Two carloads of goods have been assigned to the tent colonists throughout the district, and strikers who reside in houses have been provided with seasonal necessities.
Besides the candies, fruits and toys, nearly 2,000 hams were distributed for those who may not be able to have turkeys. The big community Christmas tree erected in the courthouse yard in Williamson was lighted for the first time tonight with scores of colored electric bulbs. There will be no formal ceremony about the tree, which was intended for the soldiers on strike duty in the coal fields as well as the residents, until tomorrow night. All civic clubs have joined in an effort to make tomorrows celebration the most successful ever held in this community…..
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 21, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – “Civil War Has Become a Fact”
From The Literary Digest of December 18, 1920:
WEST VIRGINIA’S WAR
THE BIGGEST AND BLOODIEST FEUD in the history of West Virginia, say special correspondents on the ground, continues in the vicinity of Williamson, in the bituminous coal-mining district [note: photo above incorrectly states “anthracite field”]. With the private feud on a gigantic scale is combined an industrial war-a strike and lockout. “The issue of the open versus the closed shop is being put to the acid test,” says John J. Leary, Jr., in the New York World, and the scene of the battle between coal-operators and miners is said to be just across the river from the county in which the McCoy-Hatfield feud was waged a generation ago. The strike in the Williamson coal-field began in May with an attempt of the United Mine Workers to unionize the men, we are told by the New York Herald, and the death-toll since that time is thirty-nine. Six hundred men have been wounded. Mine-workers, on one hand, and mine-guards, private detectives, and deputy sheriffs, on the other, have staged a civil war, during which time the estimated loss in production of coal has been 5,000,000 tons and the loss to the miners $3,500,000 in wages, according to the figures of The Herald. Many coal-plants and at least one power-house have been dynamited, declares the New York World, while Mr. Leary continues in that paper:
Murders and killings on both sides have been frequent; hundreds of families have been driven from their poor homes; civil war has become a fact. Back of the mountaineers are the 400,000 union coal-miners of the country. Back of them the sympathy, and, if necessary, the support of the other 3,600,000 members of the American Federation of Labor.
Back of the operators are the open-shop interests. Quietly, but none the less effectively, they are protecting and sustaining the smaller operators who have small resources. They are assisting with advice and with experts in such matters. Likewise they are assisting in Charleston, the capital of the State.
Meantime, the deadlock.
At any time it may flare up again with heavy loss of life on one side or the other, or both.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 17, 1920 Tug River Field, W. V. – Scabs Arrive as Lick Creek Tent Colony Prepares for Winter
From the United Mine Workers Journal of October 15, 1920:
Bringing in Strike Breakers in the Tug River Field
The Butte Daily Bulletin September 24, 1920
Dispatches from Williamson, W. Va., say that coal operators in the Tug River strike field have begun the importation of strike breakers on an extensive scale. It is said that 125 men, recruited mainly from factories in Akron, O., and other points in that region, have been sent to Williamson to be distributed throughout that district, and across the river in Pike county, Ky.
A man believed to be Anton Skilba, of Cleveland, is at the tent colony of strikers on Lick creek, two miles up the Tug River from Williamson, suffering from a fractured skull, received in one of the numerous clashes in the mountains.
The Lick creek colony contains sixty-two tents housing 107 men, women and children. Preparations are being made to put board floors in the tents, presaging an intention to cling to the makeshift homes and continue the strike into the winter. Living conditions there are of the most primitive type. Food in many cases is cooked on stoves made of rocks and mud.
None of the children wear more than one garment. The men and women are shabby. Food is scarce and what there is of a very coarse variety.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 16, 1920 Williamson, West Virginia – Bride of Sid Hatfield Main Attraction at Court
From The Seattle Star of September 15, 1920:
Mrs. Sid Hatfield [Jessie Lee Maynard Testerman Hatfield], wife of Chief of Police Sid Hatfield, of Matewan, West Virginia, under indictment for the killing of Albert Felts, mine detective, in a streetbattle last May, is said by many to be the prettiest woman in Mingo county. She was the widow of Mayor Testerman, shot, it is charged, by Felts. She married Hatfield shortly after Testerman’s death. It is said that this was the dying wish of the mayor. Mrs. Hatfield accompanied her husband to court at Williamson and was the center of attraction in the crowded court room during the preliminary hearings of Hatfield’s case.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 31, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – U. S. Troops Arrive to End Mine War
From the Baltimore Sun of August 30, 1920:
U. S. TROOP BATTALION TAKES OVER MINE AREA ———- Soldiers From Camp Sherman, Ohio, Arrive At Scene Of Clashes In West Virginia. —–
WILL HOLD 50-MILE “FRONT” —– Riot Equipment Carried-Trials Of Those Accused Of Killing 10 Men At Matewan To Be Held September 6. —–
(By the Associated Press.)
Washington Times August 29, 1920
Williamson, W. Va., Aug. 29.-A battalion of United States Infantry, numbering between 400 and 500, under command of Col. Samuel Burkhardt, Jr., arrived here this morning from Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio.
A detachment of soldiers will be stationed at each mine in the strike zone from Kermit East to Delorme, a distance of 50 miles, it was announced.
Colonel Burkhardt was met by T. M. Davis, adjutant-general of West Virginia, representing Gov. John J. Cornwell, who yesterday asked the Government for troops because of disorders in connection with the coal strike in the Mingo Field during the summer. They visited a number of points in the district and mapped out distribution of the troops. Of the 65 mines in the district 20 or more have remained open during the strike, according to operators.
The troops were armed with regulation riot equipment, including rifles and machine guns, and carried one-pound cannon. Five trucks. one ambulance, and several motorcycles were also unloaded from the troop train.
The situation throughout Mingo county was reported quiet today. Martial law has not been proclaimed yet in the strike district, nor will it be, Colonel Burkhardt said, until occasion for such action arises.
The residents of Matewan and Williamson are said to have been relieved considerably by the arrival of the United States troops, owing to the frequent disturbances in the region during the strike. Their presence was welcomed particularly, according to local authorities, in view of the approach of the trials of 24 men indicted for the killing at Matewan May 19 of seven detectives, the Mayor of the town and two other men in a battle between miners, citizens and private detectives.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 22, 1920 -Mother Jones News for July 1920, Part II Speech at Williamson, W. Va., Described; Found in Indianapolis
From the Buffalo Labor Journal of July 8, 1920:
MOUNTAIN MEN AROUSED —–
Williamson, W. Va. [June 20, 1920]-“The motto of West Virginia, ‘Mountainers are always free,’ will be made effective,” declared Mother Jones in an address to over 5,000 miners of Mingo county. A drenching rain did not deter the workers from coming out of the mountains, the tent colonies of evicted strikers and neighboring towns. Mayor Porter of this place assured the meeting that he was in perfect sympathy with their efforts to rid the state of Baldwin-Feltz detective thugs, employed by the coal owners.
Secretary Pauley of the West Virginia Federation of Labor told the miners that trade unionists through out the state are behind them in this fight for law and order.
The recent murder of the mayor of Matewan and other citizens by the Baldwin-Feltz detective thugs, who were attempting to evict miners without due process of law, has aroused organized labor to greater activity against these private armies of the coal owners. The same condition prevails in Logan and McDowell counties. Governor Cornwell ignores these outlaws while delivering lectures and issuing statements on the need for “100 per cent. Americanism.”
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 21, 1920
-Mother Jones News for July 1920, Part I
Found in Washington, D. C., after Visit to Matewan, West Virginia
From the United Mine Workers Journal of July 1, 1920:
…..Mingo county is now 100 per cent organized. Approximately 6,000 new members have been taken in in that county since the Matewan battle.
The first convention of the United Mine Workers of America ever held in Mingo county was held at Williamson, the county seat, on June 23. The sessions were held in the court house, the purpose of the convention being to formulate a set of demands as to wages and working conditions to be presented to the operators. The above photograph was taken on the court house steps, and it shows the delegates, some of the officials of District 17, and also some of the international organizers who were active in effecting the organization……
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[There follows a long account of the Battle of Matewan.]
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