Medieval West Virginia! With its tent colonies on the bleak hills!
With its grim men and women!
When I get to the other side, I shall tell God Almighty about West Virginia!
-Mother Jones
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Tuesday February 23, 1915
Fairmont Field, West Virginia - Striking Miners in Bitter Struggle, Call for Mother Jones
Striking miners in the Fairmont Field have clashed with "deputies" (most likely deputized company gunthugs-if experience is any indicator) leaving many injured and a constable in very grave condition. The miners, who are mostly foreign-born, are on strike in an attempt to unionize. They have asked for assistance from the United Mine Workers and have issued a called for Mother Jones to come and help them.
Sent to the "Dangerous Fields."
Mother Jones is all too familiar with the Fairmont Field, for it was there that she was sent by John Mitchell when that area was found to be too dangerous for other organizers. He wrote to her on May 10, 1902:
Dear Mother:
...I think the Fairmont [field] would be the place in which you could do the most good, as the coal companies up there have evidently scared our boys, and of course, with good reason, as they have brutally beaten some of them. I dislike to ask you always to take the dangerous fields, but I know that you are willing to go wherever you can perform the best service...
[Emphasis added.]
Mother faced many dangers as a union organizer in the West Virginia strike zone during that year. In August, she was in the New River field holding a meeting for strikers when someone opened fire on the meeting. A. D. Lavidner, a miner, carried her on his back, out of danger, to the other side of the creek. December 2nd, her hotel in Montgomery was set on fire. Mother barely escaped alive. This was the third fire within a few weeks time. It was suspected that Mother Jones was the target.
And, certainly, she will never forget the Massacre of the Raleigh County Miners.
"We fully expected to hear of her being killed by the gunmen."
Mother Jones with strikers' children in West Virginia.
Nevertheless, she was back again in West Virginia in 1912 during the strike of that year. Miner Fred Mooney recounts how she went into the "forbidden territory" of Cabin Creek with Frank Keeney when no one else had the courage to do so:
He [Frank Keeney] proceeded to locate Mother Jones and after a thorough understanding was reached, a date was set for Mother Jones to go into the forbidden territory. I was standing on the bridge at Cabin Creek Junction the day Mother Jones entered Cabin Creek. Her hair was snow white, but she could walk mile after mile and never show fatigue. When we saw her drive by in a horse drawn vehicle we knew the meaning of that visit and. She arrived at Eskdale without mishap, but after she passed through the business center of town and as she approached the southern residence section a body of gunmen could be seen just ahead....
But she drove her rig near [to the gunmen] and one of the miners assisted her to alight. She surveyed the scene with a critical eye and walked straight up to the muzzle of one of the machine guns and patting the muzzle of the gun, said to the gunman behind it, "Listen here, you, you fire one shot here today and there are 800 men in those hills (pointing to the almost inaccessible hills to the east) who will not leave one of your gang alive."
It was a bluff, there were no miners in those hills. But the bluff worked. Mother Jones held her mass meeting in Eskdale, and the miners of Cabin Creek joined the strike with Eskdale as a militant center of strike activity.
Readers of Hellraisers will recall that it was not that long ago that Mother was held in the military bastile of West Virginia and subjected to a court martial along with other organizers, striking miners, and Socialist editors.
While held in the West Virginia bastile, visitors were forbidden, but one reporter did manage to get in to see her, A.J. Hollis of the Pittsburgh Leader who managed to interview her through the basement floorboards. He was detained for several hours in the bullpen for his efforts. An exception was made for Cora Older, wife of the editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, who quoted Mother Jones:
I can raise just as much hell in jail as anywhere.
Despite what she has been through in West Virginia, we are sure that she will answer the call of the striking miners if she is able to. However, she is just recently arrived in Colorado and is assisting the miners and their families there.
From the Washington D. C. Evening Star of February 21, 1915:
MINERS FIGHT SHERIFFS
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One Man Fatally Hurt, Four Seriously,
in West Virginia Coal Field.
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FAIRMONT, W. Va., February 20.-In a fight between a party of deputy sheriffs, led by Sheriff C. D. Conaway of Marion county and striking miners at Marion county, [there were men] injured probably fatally, four seriously and many suffered cuts and bruises.
The trouble started when miners attempted to effect the release of two miners who had been arrested on felony charges. The miners drove the sheriff's party into a store, but fled to the hills when twenty-five special deputies reached Farmington in a special trolley car from Fairmont. Constable W. R. Riggs of the sheriff's party is in a critical condition. The seriously injured are Sheriff Conaway, two deputies and a miner.
One thousand miners employed in three mines of the Jamison Coal Company walked out yesterday because they alleged the company had put into force a new wage scale which reduced their pay. Company officials say the men quit when the company began to charge them for powder used in mining. The district is unorganized, and it is reported the miners have sent for organizers of the United Mine Workers of America and "Mother" Jones, the labor leader.
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From the Pennsylvania's Altoona Tribune of February 22, 1915:
Another West Virginia Riot.
Fairmont, W. Va., February 21.-Sunday passed quietly at Farmington, where one man was injured probably fatally in a clash between a sheriff party and striking miners last night. The miners held a meeting today but no action was taken. Captain John Arnold, of the West Virginia militia, arrived here to investigate the situation as the personal representative of Governor H. D. Hatfield. Constable W. R. Riggs in yesterday's fight is reported to be dying.
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From West Virginia's Bluefield Daily Telegraph of February 23, 1915:
SPECIAL GRAND JURY CALLED FOR TONIGHT
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Will Investigate Clash at Farmington in Which
Four Deputies Were Injured.
Fairmont, W. Val, Feb. 22.-Judge W. Haymond late today called a special session of court for tomorrow night to empannel a special grand jury to investigate the clash at Farmington Saturday night in which four members of a sheriff's party were injured, one probably fatally. The clash resulted from an attempt by officers to arrest striking miners of the Jamison Coal and Coke Co.
Several miners were arrested at Farmington today and are held as witnesses. Simon Lasselo was arrested as he boarded a passenger train. He was found to be suffering from a bullet wound in the leg and was taken to a hospital. Constable W. R. Riggs, the most seriously hurt, in Saturday's affray, is reported to be slightly improved.
A message from Charleston tonight said that John C. Bond, state adjutant general, denied that any requests for state militia had been made to him by officials of Marion county.
Reports from the region where the striking miners and sheriff's deputies clashed Saturday were to the reflect that the men had made no further move and the mining villages were quiet.
Major Jackson Arnold, of the West Virginia national guard, who came here as Governor Hatfield's representative to investigate the situation, conferred today with the county court with a view to restoring order.
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SOURCES
Evening Star
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Feb 21, 1915
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
Altoona Tribune
(Altoona, Pennsylvania)
-Feb 22, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
(Bluefield, West Virginia_
-Feb 23, 195
http://www.newspapers.com/...
"The Death of Constable Riggs: Ethnic Conflict in Marion County
in the World War I Era"
-by Charles H. McCormick
http://www.wvculture.org/...
"Mother Jones and the Massacre of the Raleigh County Miners"
by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
"The West Virginia Court-Martial of Mother Jones"
-by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
See also:
The Autobiography of Mother Jones
Edited by Mary Field Parton
Chicago, Charles H. Kerr & Company, 1925.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/...
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter IX
Chapter XVIII
IMAGES
Counties in Fairmont Field
http://www.wveha.org/...
Mother Jones with Strikers' Children
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/...
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The Death of Mother Jones-Gene Autry
O'er the hills and through the valley
In ev'ry mining town;
Mother Jones was ready to help them,
She never turned them down.
On front with the striking miners
She always could be found;
And received a hearty welcome
In ev'ry mining town.
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