Coal Mine Wars Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

‘Blair Footsteps’ Find Permanent Place At New Mine Wars Monuments

This weekend, organizers with the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum located in Matewan will uncover monuments meant to provide permanent markers about the Battle of Blair Mountain and other related events.

The work is driven by the momentum of last year’s celebrations that marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain. There were walking tours, new museum exhibits, concerts, picnics and labor symposiums.

One program called Blair Footsteps offered an interpretive pop-up trail with five temporary exhibits that were up for two weeks. The trail marked where miners walked to Blair Mountain, ready for battle.

Director of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum Kinsey New-Walker said the event was so successful, attendees didn’t want to see the markers come down.

“We got a lot of feedback from the centennial where folks were like, ‘Make these markers permanent,’” New-Walker said. “These stories are virtually invisible. So the thing that was missing was these history sites in the landscape and so, the Mine Wars Museum launched a new project to have something permanent.”

They called the project, “Courage in the Hollers: Mapping the Miners’ Struggle for a Union.” It’s a public history project that has so far secured resources to install two monuments in the West Virginia coalfields.

Along with some other partners, the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum is helping to organize two events this Labor Day weekend, one in Marmet and one in Clothier.

“We chose Marmet and Clothier because they are typically the beginning and ending points of the march,” New-Walker said. “Marmet is where mine workers and their families gathered and prepared to march.”

The statute in Marmet is of Mother Jones. There will also be silhouettes of miners who participated in the March, laying down their work gear and picking up their weapons.

“One thing about the miners’ march on Blair Mountain is we don’t have a comprehensive list of families who participated or miners who participated because of the secrecy and the suppression that surrounded the events and the aftermath,” New-Walker said. “But the silhouettes are actually community members who have participated in this process, shared their stories and helped make the monuments a reality.”

Tom Long and Patty McGrew, Marmet community members posing for the monument silhouettes.

Silhouettes will also stand in Clothier where, according to New-Walker, “thousands pass through on their way to the front. Volunteer nurses set up field hospitals, and others set up kitchens and ammunition depots.”

The physical monuments and trails are important because the miners’ march was removed from textbooks.

“Back in the 1930s, we have a letter from the governor at the time who stated that he wanted no mention of Mother Jones or the miners’ march in the state’s history textbook,” New-Walker explained. “That kind of sets off this trend of not talking about this history. So visitors who come to the museum can actually flip through that display and see books and letters for the 1930s all the way up to the 1970s.”

“The miners’ march and the act of people having the power is a different power structure than they were used to,” New-Walker said. “It was a moment in time and in the Jim Crow era where people banded together across racial, ethnic, religious and gender lines. New stories continue to surface because miners and their families have been hushed. Either if it’s from censorship from the state, but also, after the Battle of Blair Mountain, miners were put on trial for treason.”

New-Walker said the efforts have been community driven and the project has brought a powerful message.

Community members of Marmet stand outside George Buckley Community Center, planning for the monument that will soon be dedicated there.

“People brought artifacts to community meetings and shared stories about how weapons were potentially used in the Battle of Blair Mountain and photographs of the places that they grew up.”

“In a lot of ways, I think that this history can be a chance for us to rebuild ourselves too,” she said. “For me, there’s a lot of pride in this history because like the folks that were coming out to the community meetings, I am also the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of union coal miners. It’s a pride point for me, and I think it is for a lot of people to come out and have something positive to share about their history, their ancestors.”

Monuments will be unveiled in Marmet and Clothier this Labor Day weekend.

Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022 at 1 p.m. at the UMWA Local Hall 2395, End of Coal Valley Road, off Hwy 17, Clothier, West Virginia, 25183

Monday, Sept. 5, 2022 at 4 p.m. in Marmet at the George Buckley Community Center, 8505 MacCorkle Ave, Marmet, West Virginia, 25315

Project partners include the International United Mine Workers of America, UMWA Local 1440, the West Virginia Humanities Council, and the Berea College Appalachian Center.

Those interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP by Sept. 1: https://tinyurl.com/monumentrsvp

West Virginia Historians Recognize 100th Anniversary Of Mine War Trials

One hundred years ago, the West Virginia Mine Wars drew to a close as several union organizers were put on trial for treason in the aftermath of the Battle of Blair Mountain.

Recently, Shepherd University’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities worked with mine war museum Coal Country Tours to recognize this overlooked part of history. For the Charles Town treason trials’ 100 year anniversary, panel discussions explored their importance at the school and through a live concert featuring period songs about workers’ rights at Charles Town’s Old Opera House.

After the Battle of Blair Mountain, a notable battle fought between miners and coal companies over labor rights, over 500 union coal miners were indicted on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to murder, and treason against the state. Among those charged were United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) organizers like Bill Blizzard, Frank Keeney, and Fred Mooney.

Though the conflict happened in the state’s southern coalfields, the trials themselves were moved to the other side of the state in Charles Town.

Doug Estepp, who runs Coal Country Tours, says the decision to move the trials was because the area had no prior coal mining history.

“If the trials had taken place down there, it would have probably led to fighting again or trouble at the very least,” Estepp said. “So a change of venue was granted and it was brought to Charles Town in the Eastern Panhandle, far away from the coal fields.”

The first and most publicized trial was that of Bill Blizzard, a union leader who was involved with the Battle of Blair Mountain and other disputes like the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike.

Chuck Keeney, great-grandson of fellow union leader Frank Keeney and history professor at Southern West Virginia Community College, says Blizzard was put on trial first because of his direct involvement at Blair Mountain. Keeney says the coal companies hoped to dismantle the UMWA by targeting notable figures.

“They were hoping that they could delegitimize the UMWA and say that the UMWA itself was a treasonous organization. And then by consequence, labor unions were treasonous organizations,” Keeney said.

An original copy of the petition for the trials’ change of venue with a list of the indicted miners. This is one of the artifacts at Wess Harris’ When Miners March Traveling Museum, which was on display at Charles Town’s Old Opera House Friday evening.

Walter Allen was the only miner convicted of treason. He was granted bail but skipped out and disappeared from the region. Rev. James Wilburn and his son John were also convicted of murder after causing the first casualty at Blair Mountain. The trials eventually moved away from Charles Town during Frank Keeney’s trial, which moved twice to Morgan County and Greenbrier County before ending with no verdict.

Though most of the indicted miners were either acquitted or never tried in court, union membership dropped from around 55,000 members to under 1,000. Estepp calls the trials the final nail in the coffin for the UMWA during that period.

“The UMW was pretty much exhausted, both financially and physically after the march, the strikes, the Battle of Blair Mountain. And so what was left of the treasury was basically expended,” Estepp said.

Judge David Hammer, of the 23rd Judicial Circuit Court, says that even though the trials destroyed the union, the conflict eventually resulted in more federal protections for workers like the National Labor Relations Act and the Mine Safety and Health Act. His office is in the same courthouse where Blizzard was tried.

Copy of the original jury list for Bill Blizzard’s trial, stored at the Jefferson County Courthouse.

“So many of the concerns that were at the forefront in 1922, have actually been resolved by federal action. So looked at from that perspective, the mine wars did have a tremendously beneficial purpose,” Hammer said.

Though the trials happened a century ago, Keeney argues its legacy still matters today. He says the more West Virginia’s history is understood, the more its people can take pride in their home state.

“If you’re from West Virginia, and you’ve lived here your whole life, it’s kind of a state with an inferiority complex. And the trials themselves are trials that show people that are defiant,” Keeney said.

The courtroom inside the Jefferson County Courthouse as it appears today. Aside from some cosmetic changes and technological upgrades, this is the same room where the mine war trials were held a century ago.

The Jefferson County Courthouse where the Blizzard trial was held is still intact today. Much of the courtroom still resembles what it looked like a century ago. Copies of jury lists and affidavits from the original trial are kept at the courthouse, but the original documents are stored at West Virginia University.

Museum Brings Visitors Off Trails And Into W.Va. Coalfield Town

On a warm September morning, ATV riders roll into Matewan, fresh off the Hatfield McCoy Trails. The dirt paths in the backwoods of Southern West Virginia brought Ryan Logue all the way from Kansas City, Missouri.

In Matewan, W.Va., it’s common to see ATVs and riders lining downtown during riding season.

“The fact that you can just ride your ATVs just right up to the front door here,” Logue said, “and nobody cares if you’re muddy, they just say come on in. And the trails, you really have to see for yourself.”

The Mine Wars was a time of tension and bloodshed in American history when coal miners demanded better working conditions and fair wages. Logue heard about the Mine Wars Museum on YouTube.

“This was kind of a sidestep that we wanted to take,” Logue explained, “just to kind of see this and the fact that we can just write up pretty much right to the front door is just incredible.”

The Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, W.Va. moved to a new location on the same street in 2020.

The Mine Wars Museum opened in 2015 in the heart of coal county in Matewan. Last year, the museum moved to a more spacious location just across the street. The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) purchased the building for the museum.

Inside the two front double doors is a display of red bandanas to the left. To the right, is a mural of the museum’s logo, and straight ahead, a petite woman sitting at a desk. A movie poster for the motion picture “Matewan” hangs over her brown hair.

Kim McCoy sits a desk before greeting visitors at the Mine Wars Museum.

Shop manager and tour guide Kim McCoy was born and raised in Matewan.

“I’m the daughter of a coal miner and the granddaughter of a coal miner, both my grandfathers were coal miners,” McCoy says.

“I was born right up the railroad tracks here at the Stony Mountain coal camp. That’s where I spent my holidays with my grandparents was in an old coal camp house.

“So when my grandfather would talk about the mine wars, you could hear the passion in his story and I remember learning these stories from him growing up.”

Logue and his friends took off their ATV helmets as McCoy guided them through the museum.

Matewan native Kim McCoy (left) shows Ryan Logue (right) and his friends through the Mine Wars Museum.

“Here in the museum, what you learn about is the Paint Creek/Cabin Creek strike that happened between 1912 and and 1914,” McCoy said. “It was the first time that the coal miners rebelled against the coal company owners on Paint Creek.

“The coal company owners would go up to Ellis Island and would bring in immigrants off the boat. They would promise these immigrants the ‘American Dream,’ but what they got was as close to slavery as you can get without it being called slavery.”

McCoy used that description because everything was controlled by the coal companies. When the immigrants arrived in the southern coalfields, they were given a job doing back-breaking work underground. They were given a place to live – even places to go to church but the workers didn’t own any of it. The coal companies did.

Miners were paid in scrip that could only be used at coal company-owned stores. Often, children were expected to work in the mines.

The notion of working so young sticks with Logue throughout the tour.

“I can’t even imagine at eight years old being told, ‘this is what you’re going to do for the rest of your life and it’s going to be absolutely terrible and we basically own you,’” Logue said.

The museum has a collection of recordings where visitors simply push a button to hear stories from UMWA President Cecil Roberts, and other voices from the coalfields like Grace Jackson, who marched with Mother Jones on Cabin Creek when she was 12 years old.

Kim McCoy shows visitors tents like the ones give to striking miners by UMWA.

At the end of the room, a wooden post holds up a wide canvas tent. It’s like the one striking miners lived in after being evicted from coal company houses.

“The living conditions of these people and all they wanted was a chance to just live a fair life and they were just kind of owned by this company,” Logues said.

Along with ATV riders, the museum has hosted elementary and even college students. Bobby Starnes teaches Appalachian Studies at Berea College, where one of her classes is actually called the Mine Wars. Her father was a ‘union man,’ like Kim McCoy’s. To Starnes, the stories of the coalfields go much deeper than a tale of organizing.

“As a teacher of Appalachian Studies, it’s an amazing resource. As the daughter of a coal miner, it touches every corner of my heart,” Starnes said as she fights back tears. “It’s my father’s story. It’s my family’s story. It’s my people’s story. And they tell it with such grace and dignity and beauty.”

Companies identified miners and the amount they produced with a metal tag that hung close to the entry of a coal mine.

Starnes and her students traveled about three hours from Berea, Kentucky, to Matewan, West Virginia to visit the museum. She says it’s been an important part of her curriculum.

“It just adds so much depth and understanding,” Starnes said. “When you can put your hand on a piece of scrip that some miner was paid with, and know that your hand is on top of the hand that earned that money by going into those mines. That means something. And we talked about the difference between looking at it in pictures and holding it in your hand.”

Starnes even volunteered over the summer to go through newspapers and sources to help with archiving. She couldn’t help but to read them all.

“After reading those stories, it becomes easy to demonize and marginalize people who are, quote, savage,” Starnes says.

“That’s a word that was used a lot in the documents. Part of it is that those stories were stories told by powerful people. I mean, who do you think owns the New York Times? Who do you think owned the major newspapers in the country, it was the same people who owned the railroads, and the coal mines. There is this image of us that is pervasive, and that we have to speak out against and clarify who we really are and what we really stand for.”

ATV riders from Kansas City, Missouri stopped into the Mine Wars Museum to learn more about the Mine Wars.

The Mine Wars Museum, Starnes says, does just that. It gives context and shares the stories of the coalfields to perhaps give meaning behind some of the behaviors of violence so many years ago.

The Mine Wars Museum is open Fridays and Saturdays 11am to 6pm

Events Across the State To Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Mine Wars, Battle of Blair Mountain

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain. While the anniversary is still weeks away, organizations and communities in southern West Virginia are already commemorating the centennial.

The Battle of Blair Mountain is one of West Virginia’s largest moments in American history.

As part of the Mine Wars, coal miners marched near the Boone-Logan County line from late August to Sept. 3. The march was the largest labor uprising in U.S. history.

It happened in the early 1900’s after coal miners in West Virginia endured years of dangerous conditions underground and brutal political and cultural treatment above ground.

By 1921, the miners decided to fight for their fellow miners in the Mingo County town of Williamson, who were locked up without trial. They were charged with violating martial law, an act that gives absolute power to the federal military during times of “war, rebellion, or natural disaster.” The battle ended when martial law was declared again, and U.S. Army troops disarmed the miners.

The uprising has been largely underreported but organizations and communities are hoping the events this year will provide more opportunities for people to visit and learn about America’s labor history.

Dozens of events are taking place online and in communities that played an important part in the Battle of Blair Mountain and the Mine Wars. Some of those towns include Matewan and Williamson in Mingo County, Madison, in Boone County and Welch in McDowell County.

Some of the groups working to organize the events include the Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, the West Virginia Humanities Council, and the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.

The next event is a performance of the play “Terror of the Tug” in Summers County at Pipestem Resort State Park amphitheatre on Saturday, Aug. 7 at 8 p.m. The main events are happening Sept. 3 and Labor Day, the first Monday of the month, Sept. 6. Some of the events include outdoor plays, reenactments, tours, virtual roundtable discussions and retracing the march to Blair Mountain.

The anniversary is Sept. 3, so Labor Day Weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the centennial. You can find a list of events commemorating the 100th anniversary at this site.

Changes Come To Matewan With New Focus on Tourism

Inside Appalachia Associate Producer Eric Douglas began his journalism career in Matewan, West Virginia nearly 30 years ago. He recently revisited the town and sat down with Inside Appalachia Host Jessica Lilly to discuss what has changed and efforts to revitalize the town with tourism.

The downturn of the coal industry hurt Matewan, like much of southern West Virginia. Government records show that there were 3,000 people working in coal mining 30 years ago in Mingo County, bringing in $130 million dollars in wages. Coal accounted for about one-third of all the jobs in the county and more than half of the total income.

Today there are about 1,300 people working in the coal mining industry in Mingo, and $107 million worth of income. Adjusting for inflation, that income level is less than half of what it was in 1991.

Douglas spoke to a number of people and visitors in the town to get their take on the efforts. David Hatfield owns the bed and breakfast in town.

Coal trucks regularly made their way through downtown Matewan, but the creation of the flood wall reoriented the town.

“Thirty years ago, you had coal trucks running up and down the street here, because the main highway came right through the middle of Mate Street,” he said. He explained they town had all of the traditional businesses, restaurants, and retail.

Hatfield said as coal mining declined in the area, the businesses that served the miners did too.

In 1997, the US Army Corps of Engineers completed a floodwall to protect the town from floods on the Tug River. It stands 30 feet high and surrounds the town as a massive concrete shield.

“When the floodwall was done, they moved the road to main highway back here on the other side of town, so it took the traffic out of the main street here in town and that’s what killed downtown Matewan,” he said.

Now, he said, he views the floodwall as an eventual blessing. Now tourists will be able to walk the downtown area without heavy traffic flowing through town.

On a recent Monday afternoon, father and daughter duo, Bill and Gwynn Powell, from Georgia ate lunch in the Mexican restaurant in Matewan. They were visiting the town for its rich history.

“We came specifically to Matwan because I’d wanted to see the site of the bloody Matewan business,” Bill said. “We will work our way back to Bramwell and to Coalwood and some places like that.”

The “bloody Matewan business” he’s referring to is the Matewan Massacre in 1920, a gunfight on the town streets during a particularly nasty coal mine strike.

Gwynn said she was surprised by the variety of things to see and do as they traveled to places in McDowell and Mingo counties.

“We’ve enjoyed having all the different foods,” she said. “We found an authentic Greek restaurant right there in the middle of Kimball. We pulled off and saw a coal being taken out and put on the train cars and had found abandoned cities.”

Rich Roach from Hagerstown, Maryland has been coming to Matewan for the last several years. He was originally inspired to make the visit by the film Matewan.

The film “Matewan” depicts the strike and the gunfight that Bill Powell referred to. It was directed by John Sayles and premiered in 1987.

“When we got down here, we got more interested in the Hatfields and McCoys component as well as as the Matewan component,” he said.

This story is part of an episode of Inside Appalachia that explores tourism in southern West Virginia and the lasting impacts the Hatfield and McCoy feud has had on the region’s identity.