The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1921-01-04
MlNCO COUNTY, COAL
FIGHT SCENE, ONCE
indian BATTLE-GROUND
(By Associated Press)

WILLIAMSON, West Va. Jan. A.
Since the early days when first set
tiers from Virginia fought their way to
the western country against bands of
hostile Indians, Mingo county, West
Virginia, and Pike countk, Kentucky,
lust across it's border, have been al
most continuous backgrounds.
Mingo countys latest struggle Is be-
tween the coal operators and the min
ers. but after series of outbreaks
which attracted countrywide attention
federal troops are maintaining order
After the early settlers had disposed
of the Indians, the moonshiners TOOK
the field and for years fought and
sometimes vanquished the hated rev.
enue agents, protected as they often
were against attack in the high hills
and deep valleys that cover this sec
lion. Then came the famous Hatfield
Mccoy feud of the early sos and 9O's,
which resulted in the practical wiping
out of the Mccoy family, and which
caused two state governors to take
hand in it's suppression. For some
years after the feud the moonshiners
again took the field, and although pro-
hlbition is now a law of the land, the
vi llShCi hdo ilSfOl bSNh o.
en- up entirely in these hills.
Chapter Of Blood.
StfIl another chapter of blood was
written in Mingo when efforts were
made this year to organize the coal
miners. An unhappy climax came
about in Matewan. w. Va, on May 10,
1920, when in a fight in the streets ten
men were killed, seven of whom were
guards of a private detective agency,
sent into the district to eject union
miners from company homes.
Since the Matewan fight Mingo has
been the scene of other disorders and
railroad mining properties have been
destroyed by explosives. Intermittent
warfare between operators guards and
miners and their sympathiZers follow
ed in such proportions that recently
Governor Cornwen. of West Virginia,
called on the federal government fo1
trops. When a provisional battalion
was sent to Mingo, martial law was
declared here and several other towns
and villages.
In the meantime, miners elected
from company houses organized tent
colonies, and hundreds of families are
living in canvas homes in Mingo. This
situation raised a question of santa
tions.
Trials Pending.
In the clashes in Mingo the names
Hatfield and Mccoy have figured prom
inently In the Matewan fight Chief
of Police Hatfield took part and later
was indicted for murder. His trial is
pending. In the week following a Nc
Coy on a lonely mountain road was
badly wounded by an unidentified
assailant.
These fights have caused old set
tiers to bark back to the day when the
Hatfield clan, following the killing Of
one of their brethren, under the lead
crship of Devil Anse" Hatfield, swore
what was known as the BLACK Oath.
The story is told that twenty members
Of the clan, kneeling around a camp
fire in the hills of Mingo county
pledged themselves to the absolute de
struction of the Mccoy family. AS a
result men, women and children of the
enemy clan found no mercy, and the
teud became known far and wide as
one of the bloodiest in the history O
the mountains.
Strange to say three of the detec
tive guards who were killed in the
Matewan fight this year were descend
ants OF state guards and officers who
were sent into Mingo in the early 90's
to put down the feud.
With the federal troops in the sec
ton, the county, for the first time il
many years apparently is in a fail
way to obtain peace and calm.