When Miners March

by William C. Blizzard

  That Chafin had many ways of making money known only to corrupt politicians is demonstrated by the fact that in 1924 he was convicted of violation of the national prohibition law, fined $10,000 and sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. The system of government in Logan is also shown by the fact that he, Circuit Court Judge Robert Bland, and Prosecuting Attorney John Chafin, the sheriff’s cousin, were afterward indicted in federal court at Charleston for beating up or having beaten up the principal witness in the whiskey trial.

  1/22/1953 (Forty-fifth)

  This writer has in his possession a large number of sworn affidavits or copies of same attesting to the treatment received by persons unfortunate enough to have business in Logan County in these years. As early as 1919 the UMW had attempted to send organizers into Logan. Some few did get into the county long enough to find the jail, but nearly all received the treatment outlined below:

  “This day, Samuel Arthur personally appeared before me, B.S. Hastings, a Justice of said county and being by me first duly sworn, says that… in the year of 1919, he was commissioned (along with others –Ed.)… by the United Mine Workers of America, as an organizer for the purpose of organizing Logan County, and they went to Huntington, West Virginia, and purchased railroad tickets over the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad for a station on the Guyan Valley in Logan County called Mann, (named for one of the U.S. Steel syndicate men of 1901 –Ed.) and Logan, county seat of Logan County, there were a bunch of gunmen or Deputy Sheriffs got on (the) train and asked them where they were going and what their business was, and he and other organizers told them they were going to a station called Mann, and that the United Mine Workers of America had leased a piece of land at this place where they were going to erect a tent and organize Logan County and the gunmen told them they would advise them to not set their feet on the ground of Logan County as they would be killed and that the United Mine Workers did not have a lease on a damn thing in Logan County and that the coal companies owned all the land and at every station there would be a bunch of gunmen or Deputy Sheriffs get on (the) train until they reached Mann, and when they got to Mann, there were two machine-guns trained on the train they were on, and he and the others decided that they would not get off at Mann, as they thought they would have trouble or be killed outright….”

  Machine-Gun Persuasion

  The affiant continues by relating that the organizers simply remained on the train and went back to Huntington and “every station they passed, there were a number of gunmen and that there was an armored train followed them from end of line to Barboursville and there was also a box car on rear of the train they were in and it had a machinegun in the car.” Such were the powerful means of persuasion the coal operators of Logan County used in order to keep out the UMW. The UMW men were able to do nothing but ride the train for approximately 16 hours.

  Don Chafin’s deputies did not find it necessary to know that you were a UMW organizer, in order to have an excuse to beat you mercilessly. Mere suspicion of Union sympathies was enough for these thugs. Witness the affidavit of one Sam Copley, a UMW member:

  “…Upon mere suspicion on the part of any of the said deputies that a man is a member of the United Mine Workers of America or any other labor union, the said deputies either order him from the county or set upon him and beat him or kill him.

  “Affiant says that upon two occasions he has been set upon and beaten by said deputies while in said county for the sole and only reason that he was and is a member of the United Mine Workers of America, and that he has seen many other persons beaten for the same reason; that in the month of May or June, 1921, while at Ethel in said Logan County, he was assaulted and beaten by John C. Gore and eight or ten other deputies, who used pistols and blackjacks upon affiant until spit blood for over two weeks thereafter, that upon said occasion affiant was merely passing through said county from Mingo in Coal River when the said deputies learned of his going through and followed him in automobiles, and, after passing him on the road, turned about and, without any warning of any kind, beat affiant almost to insensibility; and that then the said deputies warned him never to pass that way again under penalty of instant deaths….” It should be noted before continuing that the above-mentioned John C. Gore was evidently one of Chafin’s principal underlings, and that he later met with a bad end on top of Blair Mountain in the county he so zealously guarded. But this will be covered in some detail a little further on in this history. Let us continue with the affidavit of Sam Copley.

  The Logan Way of Life

  “Affiant further says that, in common with many hundred others, he was indicted in Logan County in connection with the armed industrial disturbance occurring in August and September, 1921, and, on the 13th day of April 1922, having been required to go to the county seat of said county for the purpose of entering into a new bond for his appearance, he was again set upon by several of the said deputies at the said town of Ethel as he was getting off the train on his way home, and was struck with a pistol, knocked under the train and bruised until he was scarcely able to reach home; that the said deputies again warned affiant never to pass that way again under penalty of being killed. Affiant further says that shortly after his said indictment he was arrested by members of the Department of Public Safety and lodged in the Logan County jail and was confined therein fourteen days; that during said confinement he contracted smallpox, and was fed mostly on rocks and beans, and affiant believers he would have almost starved had it not been for some food he was able to get from the outside; that upon the slightest protest being made as to the food, the jailer, a man by the name of White, would beat and abuse the complaining prisoner; that upon one occasion, when a prisoner made a complaint about his treatment and asked for a broom with which to sweep out his cell, the said jailer White beat him with a large jail key until he was very bloody about the head and face and was almost insensible.

  “Affiant further says that the blanket which was given him while in said jail was stiff with human blood, and that the mattress was covered with blood, and affiant was then advised by other prisoners in said jail that a prisoner had been killed in the bed given affiant. Affiant says that the ceiling and walls of his cell, which was about eight by twelve feet in size, were spotted with blood, the said cell being commonly referred to by prisoners as the ‘Bull Pen’ and, at the time herein referred to, contained twelve prisoners.”

  Such was the admirable state of things in Logan County that at no time was the governor required to declare martial law as was his habit in Mingo. This was because, as can be seen, there was REALLY law and order in Logan!

  We shall labor this point a bit further, as it was not necessary that you be a Union organizer, a Union member, or anything else but a plain decent citizen who happened to offend Don Chafin in order to get beaten or shot in Logan County.

  The pastor of the First Baptist Church of Stone Branch, in this most blessed section of the United States, happened to be in Logan town, the county seat, eating a bit, when asked this question by Chafin: “You belong to the God Damn Union, don’t you?’ The pastor replied that he did not, whereupon

  “…Sheriff Chafin assaulted affiant and punched him in each side and said get up God Damn you, he (affiant) arose and the sheriff smacked him on the side of the head with a pistol, then he ordered his gunmen to go through this affiant, who then and there searched affiant’s grip and person, and took affiant’s credentials from his vest pocket, examined and returned same to him and said, ‘Be God Damn sure you do nothing here but preach,” then they rushed affiant out the door.”

  1/23/1953 (Forty-sixth)

  Another gentleman named D.E. Gunther was a stock and mine salesman in Logan County who had prudently gotten a letter from Chafin which said he was all right. When Gunther was stopped by a deputy sheriff, which happened at least 25 times in his travels, the letter from Mr. Big was all the pass needed in order to go on his way, sometimes with a friendly automobile lift from the deputy.

  But the favo
r of tyrants, as Gunther discovered, is a transient thing. He was staying one night at a Logan town hotel, and was awakened by loud singing and later by some noise in the room next to his. This happened to be a bathroom, the door of which was locked. Turning on the light to investigate the noise, Gunther discovered that it was 3:58 a.m., and that someone was trying to enter his room by kicking at the locked bathroom door. Gunther told the kicker that it wasn’t his room and not to come in. The kicker, however, had a mind of his own, and declared with adequate swearing that he intended to enter.

  Gunther phoned the hotel clerk and asked for peace and quiet, and the clerk told him to repeat what he had said, which Gunther did, as the noise next door stopped. The hotel clerk said he would be right up. Let Mr. Gunther continue:

  “I sat on the edge of the bed, and in about as long as it would take for a person to come to the third floor someone rapped on my door. I asked what was wanted, and the reply was ‘Open the door. ‘ Thinking it was the clerk, I opened the door and was confronted with Sheriff Chafin, who had a gun in his hand against me. I asked, ‘What is the matter, Mr. Chafin?’ and he replied, ‘You dirty ——, what is the matter.’ and struck me on the chin, knocking me partly across the room. As I went backward, I turned a chair over and fell, my head striking something, and before I could recover from the blow and fall, Chafin was over me and kicked me in my right side and back over my kidney. He then jerked me to my feet and knocked me down again.

  “I begged him to stop, for I knew I was not guilty of anything wrong. Chafin then told me to dress and get out of there, to leave the hotel, town, the county and state….”

  ‘Law and Order’ in Logan

  Gunther tried to dress and Chafin left the room. Then the sheriff returned and “started swearing at me, still covering me with his gun. He then knocked me down three times and kicked me twice. I was yelling for help, but no one came. (The proprietor’s room was just opposite to my room on the same floor. He told me the next morning that his wife became hysterical as a result of the racket and yelling, but he never made any effort to come to my assistance.)”

  The hotel clerk also told Gunther that “it would have been just like committing suicide to have even put his head out the door.” So we see that sometimes the hotel accommodations in Logan in 1921 were all that might have been expected of a cell in the Nazi Buchenwald. Gunther was comparatively lucky, for he did collect $2,500 damages from Chafin in an out-of-court settlement, something which no coal miner ever got.

  The truth of Senator Kenyon’s statement that “there is complete industrial harmony in Logan County” should by the above be documented sufficiently to satisfy most readers. Certainly the coal miners in 1921 had been convinced in a brutal and bloody manner, and part of their resolve as they gathered at Lens Creek seems to have been to capture the county and take it out of the hands of Don Chafin.

  Let it be most solemnly and emphatically stated, lest there possibly be any doubt remaining at this point, that the thousands of miners assembled for their now-famous march to Blair Mountain were no armed hoodlums intent on plunder, murder and assorted villainy. These were men of the same stamp as those who opposed the Stump Act, who fought Royal Governor William Berkeley under Nathaniel Bacon, who suffered with Washington at Valley Forge. They were men who wished to make a reality of their mocking state motto which proclaimed that Mountaineers Are Always Free.

  A great many, perhaps most, of these miners were familiar with Jack London’s famous novel, The Iron Heel, a fictional representation of an iron-shod dictatorship. But to them this was no fanciful world but a reality which existed in their own state. And they, like brave men, preferred to risk their lives rather than exist under such a regime. The coal operators prepared long lists of the names of miners who participated in the March of 1921 in order that they might be jailed and prosecuted or hounded out of the State of West Virginia. The operators did not realize that in so doing they were preparing something else, and that something is a Roll of Honor.

  Democratic League Is Formed

  Reference has been made to the fact that on Aug. 1, 1921, the date of the murder of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers, the miners attempted to establish what they called a Constitutional League. The nomenclature is perhaps unfortunate, as it may be confused with an operator organization named the American Constitution Association, a pro-Fascist group formed before the term “Fascism” was coined in its present-day significance. We shall pay our respects to this latter association and its principal spokesmen a little later. Just now we want to quote from the original invitation that such a Constitutional League be formed, as this shows the real nature of the demands of the marching miners.

  And it also indicates that many citizens other than miners were sympathetic with the Union cause and angry at the dictatorial methods used against Union organization. Though the league itself never became effective, due to later developments, the proclamation of purpose is interesting and revealing. It begins thus:

  “TO LABOR, ORGANIZED AND UNORGANIZED, AND ALL GOOD CITIZENS OF ANY PROFESSION OR CALLING WHO BELIEVE IN THE MAINTENANCE AND PERPETUATION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THESE UNITED STATES AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS OF THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA, GREETINGS:

  “In view of recent developments in Mingo County and elsewhere, and because of the admissions made by Captain J.R. Brockus of the state police in his testimony before the Senate Committee appointed to investigate conditions in Mingo County, we here and now call upon you to take cognizance of the fact that all civil liberty and constitutional rights are fragments of past history insofar as West Virginia is concerned…. Pioneers inscribed upon the emblem of this great state that ‘Mountaineers are always free men.’ The freedom signified by that emblem has ceased to exist…”

  1/24/1953 (Forty-seventh)

  “THE MEN IN CHARGE OF THE SO-CALLED MILITARY OCCUPATION OF MINGO COUNTY AT THIS TIME ARE THE SAME MEN WHO BROUGHT THE STATE INTO NATIONAL DISREPUTE IN 1912.

  “Do you not think the time for action has arrived? Do you not think some organization should be formed that would protect the Constitutional Rights of even the most humble citizen? Do you not think that a Constitutional League should be organized for the purpose of publicity and to secure political action in the interest of the majority of the people instead of a few corporations who are absentee land owners, paying no taxes to the state, contributing nothing to its upkeep and only interested in the state of West Virginia for the dividends they are permitted to clip by exploiting its natural resources? Why not call mass meetings in every locality and get an expression from the citizens and write the Secretary of the West Virginia State Federation of Labor as to whether they are in favor of organizing a Constitutional League or not, and if so, the proper literature will be furnished with which to complete each branch of the league. Ask the doctors, lawyers and all professional men to join you in the resurrection of civil government in Mingo and other counties of West Virginia….

  “Resolutions and protests are not heeded by the political office-holders of today. They adhere to nothing but action and if you expect your activities to count for anything, you must perfect an organization that will effectively combat political aspirants who are owned and controlled by Big Business.

  “THINK OF THESE MATTERS AND ACT AT ONCE.”

  The above signed by C.F. Keeney, then President of UMW District 17, James Riley, President W. Va. State Federation of Labor, H.L. Franklin, Sec.-Treas. W. Va. State Federation of Labor, and Fred Mooney, Sec.-Treas. of District 17.

  Hatfield Murder Gives Impetus

  The decision to form a Constitutional League and the printing of the above occurred before the authors had learned of the murders of Hatfield and Chambers. This outrage, combined with the refusal of Governor Morgan to intercede when appealed to on August 7, pushed the pace of events to blinding speed. The miners of the Kanawha field would not be stopped in their desire to liberate their brothers in Mingo and Logan.

  The sub-district system was then in effect in the
organizational setup of District 17. William Blizzard, who had entered the mines on Cabin Creek at an age when children in nearby Charleston were entering school, was president of Sub-district No. 2, which encompassed the Mingo and Logan territory. He was credited by the coal operators with being the field-general of the army of marching miners, although he was still in his twenties.

  From the written notes and diaries of coal company spies and coal operators it is evident that there was considerable “unrest” in the whole Kanawha field from the time of the killing of Hatfield and Chambers on August 1 until the culmination of the miners’ anger in the Armed March. It is significant to observe that these records reveal that standard equipment of every coal company in these peaceful, organized localities seemed to be a large supply of high-powered rifles and an occasional machine gun. Just why they kept such arsenals is not clear, but it was certainly not to hunt the squirrels that abounded in the surrounding hills.

  The miners knew of the arsenals and simply appropriated them; in many cases, however, promising their return at a later date. There is every reason to believe that the coal miners, after learning of the refusal of Governor Morgan to listen to their requests of August 7, met in their local unions and made decisions as to their willingness to participate in an Armed March into Logan and Mingo, the assembly point to be at Marmet.

  War Veterans Among Miners

  World War I veterans among the miners helped to give the group an appearance of military discipline. Mention is made of one man being shot as a spy near Marmet, and this is not difficult to give credence to, as many other lives were at stake. There was a password for getting into and out of Lens Creek (some testimony asserts that it was “redbird” at one time), and the official “uniform” was a pair of overalls and a red bandana handkerchief around the neck. It was a citizens’ army which assembled at Marmet, crudely organized, but well armed and serious, with great unity of purpose.