Battle of Matewan

At the time, the United Mine Workers of America had just elected John L. Lewis as their president. During this period, miners worked long hours in unsafe and dismal working conditions, while being paid low wages. Adding to the hardship was the use of coal scrip by the Stone Mountain Coal Company, because the scrip could only be used for those goods the company sold through their company stores. A few months before the battle at Matewan, union miners in other parts of the country went on strike, receiving a full 27 percent pay increase for their efforts. Lewis recognized that the area was ripe for change, and planned to organize the coal fields of southern Appalachia. The union sent its top organizers, including the famous Mary Harris "Mother" Jones.[1] Roughly 3000 men signed the union's roster in the Spring of 1920. They signed their union cards at the community church, something that they knew could cost them their jobs, and in many cases their homes. The coal companies controlled many aspects of the miners' lives.[2] Stone Mountain Coal Corporation fought back with mass firings, harassment, and evictions.[3]

Matewan, founded in 1895, was a small independent town with only a few elected officials. The mayor at the time was Cabell Testerman, and the chief of police was Sid Hatfield. Both refused to succumb to the company's plans, and sided with the miners. In turn, the Stone Mountain Coal Corporation hired their own enforcers, the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, dubbed the "Baldwin Thugs" by the miners. The coal operators hired them to evict the miners and their families from the company owned houses.[4] As a result, hundreds of miner families spent the spring of 1920 in tents. The assemblage of tents was known as Stony Mountain Camp Tent Colony. [5]

On the day of the fight, a group of the Baldwin-Felts enforcers arrived to evict families living at the mountain coal camp, just outside Matewan. The sheriff and his deputy, Fred Burgraff, sensed trouble and met the Baldwin-Felts detectives at the train station. News of the evictions soon spread around the town. When Sid Hatfield approached Felts, Felts served a warrant on Hatfield, which had been issued by Squire R. M. Stafford, a Justice of the Peace of Magnolia District, Mingo County, West Virginia, for the arrest of Hatfield, Bas Ball, Tony Webb and others, which warrant was directed to Albert C. Felts for execution. The warrant turned out to be fraudulent. Burgraff's son reported that the detectives had sub-machine guns with them in their suitcases. Hatfield, Burgraff, and Mayor Cabell Testerman met with the detectives on the porch of the Chambers Hardware Store. It is still unknown whether it was Hatfield or the leading detective, Albert Felts, who shot Testerman first, though what followed was Hatfield shooting Felts. Later Thomas Felts (brother of Albert and Lee Felts who died in the battle) and the Baldwin-Felts spy Charles Lively spread rumors that Sid shot Testerman because he had feelings for his wife. The rumors were never confirmed, although Sid did marry her only twelve days after Testerman's death, the day after the two of them were arrested in a hotel room and charged with "improper relations." [6] After the detective and mayor fell wounded, Sid kept firing, but Felts escaped. He took shelter in the Matewan Post Office, and Hatfield eventually found him there and shot him. When the shooting finally stopped, the townspeople came out, many wounded. There were casualties on both sides. Seven Baldwin-Felts detectives were killed, including Albert and Lee Felts. One more detective had been wounded. Two miners were killed: Bob Mullins, who had just been fired for joining the union, and Tot Tinsley, an unarmed bystander. The wounded mayor was dying, and four other bystanders had been wounded.

Section of Matewan's flood wall commemorating the Battle of Matewan

Governor John J. Cornwell ordered the state police force to take control of Matewan. Hatfield and his men cooperated, and stacked their arms inside the hardware store. The miners, encouraged by their success in getting the Baldwin-Felts detectives out of Matewan, improved their efforts to organize.

On July 1 the miners' union went on another strike, and widespread violence erupted. Railroad cars were blown up, and strikers were beaten and left to die by the side of the road.

Tom Felts, the last remaining Felts brother, sent undercover operatives to collect evidence to convict Sid Hatfield and his men. When the charges against Hatfield and 22 others for the murder of Albert Felts were dismissed, Baldwin-Felts detectives assassinated Hatfield and his deputy Ed Chambers on August 1, 1921, on the steps of the McDowell County courthouse located in Welch, West Virginia.[7] Of those defendants whose charges were not dismissed, all were acquitted.

Less than a month later, miners from the state gathered in Charleston. They were even more determined to organize the southern coal fields, and began the march to Logan County. Thousands of miners joined them along the way, culminating in what was to become known as the Battle of Blair Mountain. The Matewan Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 27, 1993.

• Bailey, Rebecca (2008). Matewan before the Massacre: Politics, Coal, and the Roots of Conflict in a West Virginia Mining Community. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.
• Official Matewan, WV Website at Matewan.com
• Police Chief Hatfield's memorial
• Matewan Massacre. May 19th, 1920.
• Matewan Massacre, West Virginia Division of Culture and History
• State of West Virginia (2002). Marking Our Past: West Virgnia's Historical Highway Markers. Charleston: West Virginia Division of Culture and History.
• West Virginia Mine Wars Museum independent history museum covering the Mine Wars Era in Matewan, WV.
• https://web.archive.org/web/20180517152645/http://www.wvculture.org/history/collections/sc2003-135/mdcoral25.html