Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons History Theses & Dissertations History Spring 2019 “Mixed Up in the Coal Camp”: Interethnic, Family, and Community Exchanges in Matewan During the West Virginia Mine Wars, 1900-1922 Lela Dawn Gourley Old Dominion University, lelagourley@gmail.com Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/history_etds Part of the Labor History Commons, Labor Relations Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Gourley, Lela D. "“Mixed Up in the Coal Camp”: Interethnic, Family, and Community Exchanges in Matewan During the West Virginia Mine Wars, 1900-1922" (2019). Master of Arts (MA), thesis, History, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/83vh-2m96 https://digitalcommons.edu/history_etds/26 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the History at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons.
For more information, please contact digitalcommons@odu. “MIXED UP IN THE COAL CAMP”: INTERETHNIC, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY EXCHANGES IN MATEWAN DURING THE WEST VIRGINIA MINE WARS, 1900-1922 by Lela Dawn Gourley B. May 2013, University of Charleston B. May 2013, University of Charleston A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS HISTORY OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY May 2019 Approved by: Elizabeth Zanoni (Director) John Weber (Member) Maura Hametz (Member) ABSTRACT “MIXED UP IN THE COAL CAMP”: INTERETHNIC, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY EXCHANGES IN MATEWAN DURING THE WEST VIRGINIA MINE WARS, 1900-1922 Lela Dawn Gourley Old Dominion University, 2019 Director: Dr.
Elizabeth Zanoni The West Virginia Mine Wars are etched in the popular memory of West Virginians, who view these events as an important part of their identity as Mountaineers; yet, there is still much historians do not know about the Mine Wars, especially when concentrating on the perspectives and experiences of the working-class miners. These everyday miners and their families are the topic of this thesis. Using oral histories from the Matewan Development Center Records housed in the W. Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, this thesis argues that community-building across ethnic and racial lines within Matewan’s coal camps was not only possible, but occurred at a degree unmatched by other West Virginia industrial communities.
In these camps, miners lived less segregated lives than their counterparts, presenting a fairly mixed community in which inter-ethnic exchanges laid an early foundation for cross-ethnic organization and resistance against the coal operators. As miners in southern West Virginia struggled to unionize against pro-coal forces and their attempts to divide miners and the larger community along racial and ethnic lines, miners turned to their foundation of community in the coal camp to withstand strike tactics, including their almost two year banishment to tent colonies. Tent colonies presented opportunities for informal exchanges between miners – exchanges that were just as valuable as formal exchanges in their day to day lives. By examining both formal and informal exchanges between Matewan’s mining population, this thesis argues that the “mixed up” quality of Stone Mountain Coal Corporation’s coal camps stimulated a shared working-class identity that was then mobilized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) on a scale previously not achieved in West Virginia’s southern coalfields.
iv Copyright, 2019, Lela Dawn Gourley, All Rights Reserved. v This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Lewis and Cindy Reedy, for always placing education at the forefront of our lives; to my husband, Joseph, for constant support – and proofreading! – while pursuing my M.; and to my son, Sullivan, for being my driving force while completing the thesis writing process. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people who have contributed to the successful completion of this thesis. I extend thanks to my committee for their guidance during the editing of this manuscript.
To my advisor, Dr. Elizabeth Zanoni, I say thanks, for her patience, guidance, and dedication through multiple drafts and numerous life changes that, at the time, seemed to derail the entire process. Without the tireless work of the Old Dominion University Perry Library Interlibrary Loan staff – from finding obscure 1920s publications to elusive microfilm copies of newspapers – this project would not be what it is today without their keen efforts. The staffs of the West Virginia State Archives at the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, the Eastern Regional Coal Archives at the Craft Memorial Library, and the W.
Eury Special Collections at Appalachian State University offered valuable aid as I scrounged through archival records, oral history interviews, and file cabinet after file cabinet of microfilm rolls. On a more personal note, to my husband, Joseph, thank you for pushing me when I was ready to quit a hundred times over. Thank you for using vacation time to travel to archives with me. And thank you for sharing the responsibility of our new son this last year; without your help, this project would not have reached completion.
To my cousins, Stephen Reedy and Brenna Craig, thank you for loaning books from your collections to kickstart the research process and never complaining about the length of time in which they have remained in my possession. My closest and oldest friends, Breanne Meadows and Miranda Smalley, thank you for being my shoulder on which to cry in tough times, the ears on which fell my complaints, and for taking the time to put fresh eyes on this paper in the final hours. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES. PERPETUATING A FALSE NARRATIVE: MATEWAN’S PLACE IN THE OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF WEST VIRGINIA HISTORY .7 MATEWAN IN POPULAR HISTORY .15 LITERATURE REVIEW AND HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTION.
“JUST MIXED UP IN THE COAL CAMP”: INTERETHNIC INTERACTIONS IN MATEWAN COAL FIELDS .37 LIVING ARRANGEMENTS WITHIN THE COAL CAMP .41 THE COMPANY STORE AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE CAMP. STRUGGLE TO FORM THE UNION: COAL COMPANIES’ SUPPRESSION OF UNIONIZATION, 1912-1920 .64 THE BALDWIN-FELTS DETECTIVES AGENCY AND THE PAINT CREEK AND CABIN CREEK STRIKES OF 1912 .68 THE LOGAN BANNER: CORPORATE PARTERNALISM AND THE INFILTRATION OF POPULAR OPINION .75 THE PAINT CREEK AND CABIN CREEK STRIKES: LABOR LESSONS LEARNED. “TO MAKE THE COMPANY COME TO THEIR MILK”: MAKING COMMUNITY IN TENT COLONIES DURING THE 1920 STRIKE .100 SURVIVAL MODES UNDER HARSH CONDITIONS.108 CREATING COMMUNITY BONDS IN A TIME OF STRUGGLE .136 viii Page PERMISSION FOR REPRODUCTIONS OF MAPS .144 PERMISSION FOR REPRODUCTIONS ORAL HISTORY TESTIMONY.146 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Polk and Company's map of West Virginia 1900.
Polk and Company Published by: Buffalo, NY, Matthews-Northrup Co. “Outline map of West Virginia.” Published by: Chester, VT, The National Survey, [date not known]. “Coal lands map: Kanawha, New River, Logan and Mingo coal fields.” Published by: Charleston, WV: Clark & Krebs, Inc. “Tent Colony of Striking Union Miners, Lick Creek, WV, April 12, 1922.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
“Tents, Lick Creek, WV, April 12, 1922.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. “A tent of the Lick Creek, WV, tent colony, April 12, 1922.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. “Group of Striking Union Miners in the Lick Creek District of West Virginia, April 12, 1922.” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Polk and Company's map of West Virginia 1900.
Polk and Company Published by: Buffalo, NY, Matthews-Northrup Co., 1900; Removed from West Virginia Gazetteer, 1900-1901. Reprinted from West Virginia State Archives, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Charleston, WV. “Outline map of West Virginia.” Published by: Chester, VT, The National Survey, [date not known]. Reprinted from West Virginia State Archives, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Charleston, WV.
“Coal lands map: Kanawha, New River, Logan and Mingo coal fields.” Published by: Charleston, WV: Clark & Krebs, Inc. Reprinted from West Virginia State Archives, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Charleston, WV. 4 CHAPTER I PERPETUATING A FALSE NARRATIVE: MATEWAN’S PLACE IN THE OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF WEST VIRGINIA HISTORY Introduction On May 19, 1920, Albert C. Felts of the Baldwin-Felts Detectives Incorporated, along with twelve of the company’s private detectives, arrived in the town of Matewan in Mingo County, West Virginia, to evict the families of striking miners from Stone Mountain Coal Corporation housing.1 That evening the attempted arrest of Matewan Chief of Police Sid Hatfield led to a shootout resulting in the death of seven Baldwin-Felts detectives – including Albert and Lee Felts – as well as Matewan Mayor Cabell Testerman and three striking miners.
The ill- named “Matewan Massacre” sparked further unrest in the West Virginia coalfields, leading to the Battle of Blair Mountain, one of the greatest, yet under-studied, armed struggles in U. The evictions at Stone Mountain Coal Corporation were not the first of their kind in the West Virginia coalfields. Miners had long endured the brutish nature of the mine-guard system and the coal companies’ use of Baldwin-Felts Detectives Agency. The term “West Virginia Mine Wars” describes a period from about 1900 to 1933 in which West Virginia experienced four 1 Stone Mountain Coal Company was the actual company operating in Matewan, and Red Jacket was one of the company’s camps.
Interviewees almost exclusively use the terms “Red Jacket Coal Company,” “Red Jacket,” and “Red Jacket Junior,” when referring to the events surrounding coal mining in Matewan around 1912-1922. There are also interviews in which the interviewee uses “Stony Mountain Coal Company.” 5 large labor strikes. 2 Of this era, Historian David Alan Corbin wrote, “These events resulted in an untold number of deaths, indictments of over 550 coal miners for insurrection and treason, and four declarations of martial law. They shook the foundations of the largest trade union in the United States and rocked the nation’s sense of honor and decency.” 3 The strikes in Mingo County and the events surrounding the miners’ march and the Battle of Blair Mountain mark the bloodiest labor struggle of the Mine War era.
4 The West Virginia Mine Wars, including the culminating Battle of Blair Mountain, are etched in the popular memory of West Virginians, who view these events as an important part of their identity as Mountaineers, an identity that connects them to a larger history of coal mining, community formation, and labor relations in Appalachia. However, there is still much historians do not know about the Mine Wars, especially about the perspectives and experiences of the miners. These miners and their families are the topic of this thesis. Using oral histories from the Matewan Development Center Records housed in the W.
Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, this thesis argues that community- building across ethnic and racial lines within Matewan’s coal camps was not only possible, but occurred at a degree unmatched by other West Virginia industrial communities. The oral histories reveal miners and their families in Matewan as a community of peers who lived, as the 2 Howard B. Lee, Bloodletting In Appalachia: The Story of West Virginia's Four Major Mine Wars and Other Thrilling Incidents of Its Coal Fields (Morgantown: West Virginia University Library, 1969); Fred Mooney, Struggle in the Coal Fields: The Autobiography of Fred Mooney, ed. 3 Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebellion, xiii.
4 Lee, Bloodletting in Appalachia; Mooney, Struggle in the Coal Fields; Savage, Thunder in the Mountains; Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebellion. 6 daughter of an African American miner recounted, “mixed up in the coal camps.” 5 In these camps, miners lived less segregated lives than their counterparts, presenting a mixed community in which inter-ethnic exchanges – in the workplace, at home, and during leisure time – laid an early foundation for cross-ethnic organization and resistance against the coal operators. As miners in southern West Virginia struggled to unionize against pro-coal forces and their attempts to divide miners and the larger community along racial and ethnic lines, miners turned to their foundation of community in the coal camp to withstand brutal strike tactics, including their almost two year banishment to tent colonies.