Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1922-04-25
Trial Of West Virginia
Miners Opens in His
toric Charles Town
Court House.


WOODS.
AMPLE ACCOMMODATIONS FOR
EVERYBODY.
The trials of the West Virginia
Miners charged with participating IN
the Armed Invasion of Logan County
during August last were called up IN
the jefferson Circuit Court yesterday
Judge ]. M. Woods called the court
to ORDER about ten o'clock, and alter
the visiting counsel were introduced
to the Court, the roll of defendants
were called.
Those interested in the trials had
been gathering in Charles Town for
The last several days and about four
hundred are here, composed OF the
defendants, representatives for the
State, witnesses, &c.
A special train from Charleston
bearing about one hundred and sew
enty-iive Of the defendants arrived
over the 3. & o. Railroad last Fri
day night, and were met by repre-
sentatives of the Business Mems AS
sociation, and taken to the Rouss
Hall, from where they were sent to
lodgings.
A special train with nine prisoners
and the witnesses and representatives
of the state from Logan County to
the number of one hundred and
twenty arrived here at five o'clock
Sunday morning over the Norfolk &
Western Railway.
The State has headquarters at the
j Jefferson Hotel, and the Defendants
have headquarters at the Palm Hotel,
with the overflow from the hotels at
private houses scattered all over
town, and there are plenty available
for everybody need
ing them, which can be secured by
applying to the hotel proprietors, or
to Messrs. Thos. r. Moore, B. r. Shu-
CART and ]. w. Birkitt, of the Bust
ness Mems Committee.
Everything is perfectly quiet and
orderly, and no disorder of any kind
whatever is anticipated.
The trials are the out come of the
armed march of West Virginia
Miners and others into Logan County
in August last.
The first big outbreak was in 1912
when Mother" Jones and war swept
into the Cabin and Paint Creek dis
tricts of Kanawha county. Many
were killed on both sides and for
months the state national guard pa
trolled the region.
Comparative quiet prevailed until
1919 when the national coal strike
occurred. Logan county was pro-
ducing vast quantities of non-union
coal. The result was the organizing
of miners army of strikers from
the union fields of the state, with re-
Inducements from the north. The
mob swept forward against Logan
county, but prompt Intervention of
the authorities brought about it's dis
abandonment.
On the heels of the coal strike the
union announced it would attempt
to organize the Williamson fields, on
the Norfolk & Western railroad. The
operators made a determined stand.
A year of blood-shed, property de-
struction and terror followed. On
two occasions the federal troops
were on duty and the virtual civil
war between operators and the union
attracted nation wide attention.
Martial law is yet employed by the
state, in Mingo county, to maintain
order.
A protest meeting against alleged
condition in the mine fields was held
in Charleston in August, 1921. Mob
psychology got into action.
A rumbling of war appeared in the
coal camps and early in August,
miners began to assemble at Marmet,
w. Va, within a short distance of
the state capital. Little secrecy was
attached to the mobilization and
arms and supplies were brought in
openly. Newspaper men visited the
camps as did the sheriff of Kanawha
county.
Strangely enough the authorities
sat blinking in the summer sun as
the miners gathered. When 1000
to 5000 men had modified and were
well armed mysterious leader ap-
peared, it was announced the army
was going to Logan to "get" Don
Chain, and one of the biggest in
dustrial instructions of American
history was underway.
A march of several thousand
miners started. They were heavily
well provisioned and equip
ped for actual warfare. President
Harding dispatched a war depart
poap+ off,o;a1 70 Cbor1acfo, +bo r+o+o
capital, and after a conference with
Frank Keeney, president of District
II, United Mine Workers of Ameri-
ca, the after headed off the army at
Boone County.
Keeney addressed the vanguard of
the miners in a baseball park. The
miners agreed to disband and go
home. Word was sent back to the
main body that Keeney had told
them to dispense.
Then it was that disturbance in
which several were killed took place
at Sharples, between Capt. J. R.
Brockus and Deputy Sheriffs, Mine
&C., and Union Miners, quite
a sharp fight developing. They
claimed that they were rounding up
moonshiners, and the Union Miners
claim that they came over the hill
out of Logan County and attacked
them without provocation.
A hurried e-mobilization occur
red. The call to arms was general
over the coal fields of southern West
Virginia. The country side was
secured for recruits and within twen-
ty-tour hours formidable array es-
tlmated at 5000 armed men was
against the Logan border.
A week of bloodshed, of terror and
actual warfare on the Boone-Logan
border followed.
Logan county modified its forces
and an s. 0. S. call to southern West
Virginia brought a thousand volnn-
teers. High power rifles, machine
Catarrh
Catarrh is local disease, greatly