The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-07-18
Four Dead Lie in the Little
MOrgue in West Virginia Town
ON SHERIFF'S DEATH
SON is SWORN IN
RumOred That Total Number of
Deaths Are Being Concealed.
(By Tho AssocIated Press,

WELLSBURG, w. Va, July 17.-Four
known dead, whose bodies lay in the
morgue here tonight, were silent witness
es Of the gun fight which ragged for more
than an hour at daybreak around the
Clifton mine of the Richland Coal Com
pany at Cliftonville, ten miles away.
Sheriff Duval who led his little band of
deputies against large crowd of men.
said to thaye crossed from the union coal
field of Pennsylvania, was among these
dead.
Sees Father Shot.
With Sheriff Duval when he and his
men pressed battle against the attacking
force and drove them back from the mine,
after the tipple had been fired and at
least two of the participants had allen,
was his son. Thomas. The later saw
his father shot down, the body later be-
Ing found to contain marks of seven bull
lets, but continued on with the defenders
Not long afterward, when the fight was
over, he was made sheriff of Brooke coun-
ty In his fathers place by q court order.
Search For Bodies
Watchers at the mine were waiting for
the ruins of the tippel, burned in the at
tack to cool before searching for bodies
of two men believed to be burned under
the debris.
Rumor persisted that the bodies in the
morgue by no means represented the total
casualties of the fight, but none Of the
deputy sheriffs would confirm reports
that numbers of men had been shot down
and their bodies dragged through the
woods by their companions
Error in repeated announcements at,
the sherifrs office during the day that
at least seven men had been killed and
their bodies brought here were accounted
for tonight by an official who said that
men now known to be wounded were at
first reported dead.
Get 25 prIsoners.
Three wounded men of the attacking
force were in hospitals in Wheeling and
Is others, captured by the deputies in
the battle were in the Ohio county Jail
not far away.
Twenty five prisoners, three of whom
had been shot, were confined in the
Wellsburg Jail.
Mob Gathers.
The Pennsylvania authorities at Avella,
the nearest town in that state to the
scene of the figh and the place where
the mob gathered before 1t begun it's
march last night, were arresting suspect
ed persons and questioning them. One
man who had sought medical attention
at hospital In Washington. shortly aft
er noon, was turned over to the district
attorney and later taken to Avella.
The Young Sheriff.
Among the first duties of young Duvab
who was elected sheriff by the county
court was to arrange with w. 8. Wilkin,
prosecuting attorney, or a special grand
jury to investigate the fight. He also
conferred with the coroner fof the inquest
81 men who. he alleged too part in the
battle. Nearly all of them. the authori-
ties said, were from the Cross Creek
section just over the border in Penn
sylvania.
Situation DepIorable.
Prosecuting Attorney Wiukin reporting
to Governor Morgan at Charleston, to-
night said the situation here was "deplor-
able For the present. II was explained,
no call would be sent for the national
guard, as the authorities felt the situa-
tion was safe in the hands of Captain
White who has arrived In the county
with company of state police from Hay
wood to reinforce the squad sent from
Moundsville earlier in the day These
men Immediately proceeded to Clifton
vile.
Irving Mosingo, the only deputy
wounded, was said to be in a serious con-
dition.
N0o