West Virginia Coal Wars

   The coal wars were a series of conflicts between Coal Companies and Coal Miners between 1912 and 1921. In my opinion this was the coolest and most badsss thing to ever happen in west Virginia and it always bothered me that this gets little mention in history books.

 

     It all began in Paint Creek/ Cabin Creek in 1912. Miners went on strike demanding better pay, to have the right to trade where they wanted and recognition of their union, the UMW.

     The companies responded by hiring The Baldwin-Felts agency to guard the mines. They also hired men from the south and from NY to work in the mines to keep operations running.

    After the agents arived, coal miners either moved out of or were evicted from their company owned homes. They moved into coal camps supported by the union. The union supplied the miners and their famlies with canvas tents. The agents built forts around the mines that were outfitted with machine guns. They had a train they called the "bull moose special", which consisted of a locomotive, an armored passenger car and an armoured baggage car, that they used to escort other trains in and out of the mines that were carrying non union miners.

Violence was pretty much a part of daily life for a long time. A lot of the violence were around these trains. The strikers would attack these trains by destroying the tracks and/ or firing on the cars, as the police and mine guards fired back. On July 26th the miners attacked the town of Mucklow, which is where the agents were stationed. This left twelve strikers and four guards dead.

    On September 1st, 1912, the striking miners made it clear that they intended to kill the mine guards and destroy company operations. When the companies heard of these threats, they brought in even more guards and waited. In responce, Governor Glasscock  declared Martial Law to be in affect on September 2nd. He sent in around 1,200 state troops into the area. At first the striking miners thought the troops were there to help them but soon found out they were sent to break the strike. The troops confiscated rifles, machine guns, pistols and 1000's of rounds of amunition from both sides.

     This seemed to help things for awhile and Martial Law was lifted on October 15th, 1912. One month later on November 15th it was reimposed and lifted again on January 10th,1913.

     On February 7th, the miners atacked Mucklow again, killing at least one person. In retaliation, Coal Operator Quinn Martin, Kanawha county sheriff Bonner Hill and several deputies attacked the tent colony at Holly Grove with the Bull Moose special, drive by style that same evening. They turned off the train lights and fired machine guns at the temporary settlement.

     Martial law was back in affect for the third time on February 10th again one month later. 

     On March 4th Dr. Henery D. Hatfield was sworn in as Governor and he kind of saved the day. He immediately came to the area and released the people who were being held under Martial Law, he transferred 86 year old "mother" Jones to Charleston to get medical treatment (she was an organizer sent by the UMW) and he moved to impose conditions for a strike settlement. Miners could either accept these terms or be deported from the state.

     The paint creek miners signed the "Hatfield contract" on May 1st. The cabin creek miners continued to resist until around July.  Despite the strike, little changed.

    Then there was the shootout in Matewan May 19th, 1920. This is often referred to as the BATTLE OF MATEWAN or THE MATEWAN MASACRE. There's a movie about this called MATEWAN that I reccomend you watch. There was a lot going on in the world in the 1920's, but in southern WV, it wasn't all bow ties and flapper dresses. The Baldwin-felts agents were coming to town to evict miners from company houses. When sherrif Sid Hatfield heard about this, he rounded up a small posse and they went to have a talk with the agents at the train station, the Mayor of Matewan also went. Their simple argument escalated quickly and turned deadly. Ten people were killed that day, including the Mayor and two brothers of the Baldwin-felts founder 

     On September 1st, 1921 Sid Hatfield was assinated by members of the Baldwin-felts detective agency. This outraged miners as they thought of Sid as a hero because of the shootout in Matewan. Within days, thousands of angry miners were in Marmet led by UMW organizers. They planned to march to Mingo county and confront the mining companies (thats a long march).

In order to get to Mingo county, they had to go through Logan county and Logan county was ruled by an anti union sheriff. When the Logan sheriff heard about this march, he assembled a 3,000 man posse to keep the marchers from crossing through, he called this posse "the Logan Defenders". They made machine gun nests and dug trenches around the mountain. This became known as THE BATTLE OF BLAIR MOUNTAIN. This was a long time coming. From the 1800s up until years after this, being a coal miner sucked. They had to lease the tools they used to mine with from the company, they worked in horible conditions, they got paid very little and it was only in "scrip" which was coal mine currency that could only be spent in company stores. Basically, the company owned you.

      I'm not sure if the marchers even knew anyone was waiting on them in Logan county but they soon found out. On August 28th around 10,000 miners showed up at the Logan county line. The two sides fought for days. This was an all out guerilla style war. I told you it was a badass story. The sheriff of Logan county even chartered air planes and equipped them with bombs and teargas to drop on the miners. This fighting went on until the first couple of days into September when the West Virginia Army National Guard intervened by order of president Warren G. Harding. 

     The state charged around 20 union men with treason and some others with murder, but one in particular that I wanna talk about is Bill Blizzard. Bill was a union organizer and was charged with treason but was acquitted on May 27th, 1922.

     The trial took place at the Charles Town courthouse in Jefferson county. The same courthouse where abolitionist John brown had been found guilty of treason years before.

     I have personally visited the former home of Bill Blizzard while on a ghost walk with the Charleston Ghost Tour Company www.charlestonghosttourcompany.com  the mansion which sets on Kanawha Boulevard in Charleston is said to be haunted by the ghost of Bill Blizzard. Today, the house serves as a headquarters for the UMWA.

     Bill Blizzard's mansion

Sources:

Kathy Weiser-Alexander,Legends of America.com, Paint creek & Cabin creek strike November 2021

 

History.com, Battle of blair mountain 

UPDATED: SEP 1, 2018 | ORIGINAL: AUG 25, 2016

Wvpublic.org, May 27, 1922: Labor Leader Bill Blizzard Acquitted of Treason Charges, May 27th, 2020