Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 4-25-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

—>16 Lee, Howard B. Bloodletting in Appalachia. 1969, p. 30.

— 4 mine guards

–>12 attacking coal mine strikers

—>16 Wikipedia. “Paint Creek – Cabin Creek strike of 1912.” 2-23-2025 edit.[1]

Narrative Information

Lee: “In April, 1912, the mines along Paint Creek and Cabin Creek[2] spewed out their 7,500 coal-begrimed miners in the first major strike, and the worst labor war, in the history of West Virginia’s coal industry….the late Bill Blizzard, one of the strike leaders, said that ‘At least fifty men died violent deaths in those desolate gorges, while the death toll among women and children from malnutrition was appalling.’

….

“Finally, conditions in the strike zone became so intolerable that a committee of the United States Senate, headed by Senator William E. Borah, of Idaho, came to the area to investigate the situation…. [p. 17]

“At the beginning of the strike there were 55 mines operating on Cabin Creek and 41 on Paint Creek, employing 7,500 miners. Those workers and their families made up a population of about 35,000 people, who lived in the squalid mining camps along the two creeks. [p. 17]

“With the exception of the Cabin Creek miners, the whole Kanawha River coal field had been unionized for several years. But for some reason the Paint Creek union miners had been paid two and one-half cents less per ton for mining coal than the prevailing wage at surrounding union mines. In negotiating for a new contract they demanded an increase of this small difference, which would have amounted to about fifteen cents a day for each miner. The operators refused the demand, and a strike was called for April 17, 1912.[3]

“Encouraged by the strike of their nearby Paint Creek neighbors, the non-union miners on Cabin Creek submitted the following demands to their employers:

That the operators accept and recognize the union;
That the miners’ right to free speech and peaceable assembly be restored;
That ‘black-listing’’ discharged workers be stopped;
That compulsory trading at company stores be ended;
That ‘cribbing’[4] be discontinued, and that 2,000 pounds of mined coal constitute a ton;
That scales be installed at all mines to weigh the tonnage of the miners;
That miners be allowed to employ their own check-weighmen, as provided by law; and
That the two check-weighmen determine all ‘docking penalties.’[5]

“These demands simply asked for observance by the operators of individual rights guaranteed to miners by State statutes and the Federal and State Constitutions. Nevertheless, the coal barons rejected all demands and the Cabin Creek miners joined their Paint Creek neighbors in the strike.”

[pp. 17-18]

….

“For nearly a month the strike was conducted without the slightest violence. In the meantime, the operators contracted with the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency for sufficient mine guards to ‘break’ the strike. On May 10, 1912, the first contingent of guards arrived, bringing with them a number of trained bloodhounds. They continued to arrive in detachments until there were three hundred or more guards on the two creeks.

“These guards were professional strikebreakers, all tried on a dozen industrial battlefields, and willing to shoot with or without provocation. They were led by Albert and Lee Felts, brothers of Thomas L. Flelts, head of the agency, both killed eight years later in the Matewan Massacre.

“Many of these guards were not even residents of the State, some had criminal records, and a few could boast of at least one ‘notch’ each on their guns. They immediately began a campaign of assault, intimidation, and terrorism without parallel in the history of American industrial struggles.” [pp. 20-21]

….

“The first move of the operators was to evict all strikers from their company-owned houses. The coal companies owned all the land on both sides of the creeks for a distance of twenty miles or more; and upon their autocratic command the guards loaded the miners’ meager household goods into freight cars, hauled them across the boundary line of the company property, and dumped them along the railroad tracks. Other guards, armed with high-power rifles, herded men, women, and children into groups, like so many cattle, and drove them down the valleys and off the company property.

“Homeless, hungry and ragged, the strikers and their families found shelter in caves, tents, and improvised shacks, on privately owned lands. Day and night, month after month, stretching into more than a year, these starving human beings huddled in their filthy and unsanitary quarters, and were fed by the miners’ union. The children were denied access to the public schools because they had moved out of their school districts; while the strikers could neither approach to post office nor travel roads on the creeks without permission from the coal operators, because they were on company-owned lands.” [pp. 21-22]

….

“In further preparation for the coming storm, the coal companies installed numerous searchlights at strategic places and constructed a number of concrete forts or ‘pillboxes’ at commanding points in the valleys. The most formidable looking of these structures was on Cabin Creek in front of the company buildings of the Carbon Fuel Company. From its portholes, rifles and machine guns could sweep the valleys and mountainsides in all directions.

“With their forts in place and surrounded by mine guards, the operators began to reopen their mines with imported scab workers, and that act intensified the bitterness among the strikers. To lure strikebreakers to the fields the operators published false and deceptive advertisements in large eastern papers offering ‘Steady employment at good wages in the mines of West Virginia, no strikes, free transportation.’ The new workers were brought in by special trains, escorted by mine guards; but once in the camps they were virtual prisoners and kept under guard. But as they learned the truth, many escaped at night and joined the strikers….” [p. 24]

….

“The operators were led by the late Charley Cabell, known as the ‘Boss of Cabin Creek,’ superintendent of the Carbon Fuel Company, largest producer in the district….He rejected all offers of the Governor for a compromise, and ordered a fight to the finish. Of course, he was simply carrying out the orders of the mine owners.

“The strike leaders were two fiery, dynamic, young miners scarcely out of their teens – Frank Keeney and Bill Blizzard….” [pp. 24-25]

“The spark necessary to start the conflagration on the two creeks was furnished by the sudden appearance among the strikers of Old Mother (Mary) Jones, an organizer for the miners’ union and idol of coal miners everywhere. She was an 82-year old, fiery, fearless, profane, and vulgar labor agitator, who for more than forty years had been a firebrand in American industrial troubles. She possessed no qualities of leadership, but was a sort of gadfly sent out by the union leaders to annoy the operators. [p. 26]

….

“The old agitator addressed…[a] mob of strikers from the front steps of the Capitol. She denounced the Governor…I warn this little Governor that unless he rids Paint Creek and Cabin Creek of these goddamned Baldwin-Felts mine-guard thugs, there is going to be one hell of a lot of bloodletting in these hills.’ Then she screamed at her listeners: ‘Army yourselves, return home and kill every goddamned mine guard on the creeks, blow up the mines, and drive the damned scabs out of the valleys.’

“With money supplied by the union, the strikers purchased all guns and ammunition in the city stores, ordered a half-dozen machine guns, 1,000 high-power rifles, and 50,000 rounds of ammunition, and returned to their jungle. In the meantime, the operators had converted all company buildings in the valleys into arsenals in which they had stored sufficient arms and ammunition to equip a regiment of soldiers. In short, both sides were rapidly preparing for the gathering storm.

“The Governor submitted to both sides a proposition to arbitrate the differences, but it was rejected by the operators. With all hope of a compromise gone and embittered by the wrongs they had suffered, the strikers resorted to the rifle. Armed and desperate, they roamed the mountainsides and picked off mine guards in the valleys below at every opportunity.

“The first bloodshed occurred when two Baldwin-Felts mine guards, W. W. Phaup and Robert Stringer, were ambushed and fired upon by strikers. Stringer was killed instantly, and Phaup was shot through the shoulder. The badly wounded guard eluded his assailants in the darkness, and [end of p. 27] made his way through the jungle to the Sheltering Arms Hospital on the mountainside below the town of Montgomery….” [top of p. 29]

….

“For weeks the witless carnage continues. Assaults, murders, pitched battles, and destruction of property were daily occurrences, while nightly, from wooded mountain slopes, the strikers poured a with4ring rifle fire into the mining camps.

“Both valleys became infernos of blood and hate. Strikers’ wives fought beside their husbands with tigerish fierceness, and a few were victims of such brutal assaults by mine guards that they were delivered of stillborn babies…

“The sniping finally culminated in a general battle at the mining camp of Mucklow, on Paint Creek, in which no fewer than 100,000 shots were exchanged by the contending forces. The village was shot to pieces, not a house escaped, some were shot through as many as 100 times.

“The newspapers reported sixteen killed – four mine guards and twelve strikers. This was probably correct as to the guards, but only speculation as to the number of strikers killed, as they carried away their wounded and buried their dead and made no report to the authorities….” [pp. 29-30]

Aftermath: Martial Law declared by WV Governor and US Senate Investigation:

United States Senate. Investigation of Paint Creek Coal Fields of West Virginia:

“The Committee on Education and Labor, to which was referred Senate resolution 37, met, and acting in accordance with the authority in said resolution, appointed a subcommittee, consisting of Senator Swanson as chairman, and Senators Shields, Martine, Kenyon, and Borah, to conduct said investigation on behalf of the committee. The said subcommittee immediately organized and promptly proceeded with its work. On account of the very broad field of inquiry and the varied subjects of investigation, it was deemed that the work could be more thoroughly and satisfactorily

accomplished if it should be specifically divided among the different members of the subcommittee. The chairman of the subcommittee was directed to assign the subjects of investigation to the different members of the subcommittee as he should think advisable. Acting under this authority the chairman assigned to Senator Borah resolution No. 1, which is as follows:

Whether or not any system of peonage has been or is maintained in said coal fields.

“Also resolution No. 4, which is as follows:

Investigate and report all facts and circumstances relating to the charge that citizens of the United States have been arrested, tried, and convicted contrary to or in violation of the Constitution or the laws of the United States. [p. 1]

….

“Each Senator thus designated procured and introduced all available evidence upon the subject assigned to him. This investigation has been most thorough, rarely excelled in this respect. All persons and interests affected were permitted to appear by counsel, introduce and examine witnesses, and submit briefs for the consideration of the committee. The hearings were not closed until all the witnesses desired by anyone interested had testified, all important and pertinent evidence available to the committee had been obtained and examined, and all relevant documentary evidence inserted in the record. A study of the 2,291 pages of the hearings will give one full and fair information concerning the matters referred to the committee for investigation, and. also the conditions prevalent in the mining section which were made the subject of this inquiry. The apprehension entertained by many that this investigation would tend to increase and intensify the severe conflict and strife existing between the contending parties, at the time the resolution was passed, has not been realized.

“The hearings of the committee were commenced on June 10, 1913, at Charleston, W. Va., and continued there until June 18. The hearings were discontinued at that time on account of important

legislation pending in Congress, but were resumed in Washington on September 3, 1913, and concluded there on October 29, 1913.

“On July 29, 1913, the operators and miners entered into a contract entirely satisfactory, which will continue in force until April 1, 1916. The differences between the operators and miners which were considered irreconcilable have been amicably adjusted. Peace now reigns in this section where heretofore existed strife, contention, and armed conflict. The relations between the operators and miners have become friendly and conciliatory. Business has been resumed, and the mines are being operated. Martial law has been abolished and civil law and authority fully reestablished. The committee is satisfied that the investigations have greatly aided in the accomplishment of these beneficial and much desired results. The committee confined its investigations to the subjects designated in the resolution and refused to enter into other or irrelevant matters when suggested….” [p. 2]

“After carefully considering the evidence of witnesses, documents introduced, the briefs of counsel, and the reports of the various Senators upon the particular subjects assigned to them, the committee makes and respectfully submits the following report and findings:

….

“Fourth. This branch of the inquiry was assigned to Senator Borah, who has made to the chairman of the subcommittee a very complete report and from which the committee briefly forms the following conclusions:

“(1) That martial law was declared as to Paint and Cabin Creek country about September 2, 1912, and continued in force with the exception of short intervals until in June, 1913.

“(2) That during the reign of martial law a number of individuals were arrested, tried, and convicted and sentenced and punished for offenses alleged to have been committed by them.

“(3) That these parties were arrested upon orders issued by the military authorities and not by virtue of any warrant issued by the civil authorities or from the established courts of the State, and were put upon their trial, without the finding of any indictment by the grand jury, before a court martial created by the order of the commander in chief and composed of individuals selected by him. [p. 3.]

“(4) That the charges made against these parties thus put upon their trial were in the nature of specifications drawn up and presented by the military authorities, and upon these they were put upon their trial before said court-martial without a jury.

“(5) That in the trial of these parties and in the assessing of punishments the court before which they were tried deemed itself bound alone by the orders of the commander in chief, the governor of the State, and in no respect bound to observe the Constitution of the United States or the constitution or the statutes of the State of West Virginia relative to the trial and punishment of parties charged with crime. That they acted under the claim that all the provisions of the constitution, both State and National, and the statutes of the State relative to such matters were suspended and for the time inoperative by reason of the existence of martial law.

“(6) That at the time these arrests were made and the trials and convictions had the civil courts were open, holding their terms as usual, disposing of cases and dispensing justice in the usual and

ordinary manner.

“That in some instances arrests were made outside the military zone for offenses alleged to have been committed outside the military zone and at a time when martial law did not prevail, and when such arrests were made the parties were turned over by the civil authorities to the military authorities for detention, trial, and punishment.

“(7) That in rendering judgment and assessing punishment the parties were punished by terms of imprisonment unknown to the statutes or in excess of the punishment provided for such offenses

under the laws of the State.

“That a number of these parties were sent to jail and many to the State penitentiary under sentence from this court-martial as approved by the governor. Most of those who were sent to the penitentiary were given a conditional pardon before the term for which they were sentenced had expired, the pardon being conditioned in a general way upon good behavior. That the parties sentenced to the penitentiary were received into the penitentiary as ordinary convicts and treated in every respect as parties sentenced for crimes by the criminal courts of the State.

“(8) That under the laws of West Virginia a warrant of arrest may be issued from one justice of the peace court, and the hearing and trial upon the said warrant of arrest may be transferred and brought on for hearing before any other justice of the peace in the same county.

“(9) That a place of holding court—that is, for the civil or common law courts – was at Charleston, W. Va., a distance of several miles from the disturbed district or military zone.

“(10) That no threats of violence or use of force was made or had against the judges or the courts at any time during the existence of the disturbance or the reign of martial law.

“(11) That great feeling and interest doubtless prevailed generally throughout the country, but the existence of this feeling and its effect upon grand or petit juries was not tested by the calling of a

grand jury, or the submitting of the charges against these persons to a grand jury, and no attempt was made to try them before a petit jury – the officers of the country, after the declaration of martial

law, proceeding upon the assumption that the feeling and prejudice was so strong as to prevent the operation of the civil authorities, together with a further belief that the declaration of martial law had the effect of suspending and nullifying all constitutional and statutory rights of the accused.” [pp. 4-5]

….

“Seventh. The conditions existing in this district for many months were most deplorable. The hostility became so intense, the conflict so fierce, that there existed in this district for some time well-armed forces fighting for supremacy. Separate camps, organized, armed, and guarded, were established. There was much violence and some murders. Pitched battles were fought by the contending parties. Law and order disappeared, and life was insecure for both sides. Operation and business practically ceased.

….

“Among the contributing causes may be enumerated the following:

“The failure of the operators in the Paint Creek district to renew their expiring contract with the United Mine Workers; the determination of the coal operators under no circumstances to recognize the mines as an organization or union, and the equal determination of the miners to organize and form a union, a right as they claim guaranteed to them without discrimination by the laws of West Virginia; the employment by the operators of mine guards, many of whom were aggressive and arbitrary; mine guards in the employment of the operators acting as deputy sheriffs and clothed with the authority of law; the failure of the civil authorities to attempt even to preserve peace and order at the beginning of violence and permitting things to drift from bad to worse without vigorous interference and assertion of authority; discontent among the miners occasioned by no opportunity to purchase homes; no cemeteries except upon the company’s grounds; post offices located in the company’s stores; private loads only to the schools and stores; the disposition of the coal operators to keep strict espionage of all strangers who entered the district and to exercise their right of private ownership of this large district and to exclude from it all persons objectionable to them.” [p. 5]

….

“On the 1st day of April, 1912. the contract between the union miners in Kanawha Valley and the operators expired. Upon the expiration of this contract Gov. Glasscock became interested, or perhaps we should better say was consulted, with reference to the troubles between the miners and operators in the Kanawha Valley. The progress of this trouble we need not refer to here, as that is discussed under another head. Suffice it to say that the governor upon the 2d day of September, 1912, declared martial law as to that portion of the State of West Virginia which was involved in the strike difficulties. Martial law remained in this district from the 2d of September up to and including the 14th or l5th of October. The second period of martial law began on the l5th of November, 1912.

“During the first period of martial law there were certain trials before the military tribunals held at Pratt, in Kanawha County, W. Va. The men who were tried before these tribunals were arrested by order of some military officer upon charges formulated before the judge advocate general, and the arrest was made by serving a copy upon the party charged and taking him into custody. That is to say, they were brought before this military court by virtue of the specifications served upon them and not by any civil process issued by any common law or civil court. The parties charged were given time to get their witnesses and counsel, but the courts proceeded wholly and exclusively upon what was deemed to be military authority, and under the military law and not under the civil law.

“At these first trials there were some 55 or 66 persons tried altogether – about 15 persons who were known as Baldwin guards, 2 miners, and a group of persons consisting largely of Greeks, amounting to some 40 or 43 individuals. They were tried as high as 30 in a group.

“Three of the parties were adjudged guilty and sent to the penitentiary, some as high as two years; others to one year in the penitentiary, and some were sentenced to the county jail. There were some

acquittals.

“In proceeding with these trials the tribunal adhered to military law and procedure in so far as it recognized any law at all, and did not in any respect follow the law and practice provided by the civil law. [p. 6]

“There were also trials by court-martial during the second period of martial law. These trials were held in the same way and the procedure was precisely the same. In the second trials most of the parties charged were found guilty and sentenced to long terms in the penitentiary, some as high as seven and one-half years, ranging from that down to one year.

“It is proper perhaps to state here, as it is a fact, that these persons when received at the penitentiary were treated in the same way and subjected to the same rules and discipline and regarded in every respect as if they had been sentenced by the civil law courts.

“The number who were tried during the second period of martial law was somewhat indefinite, but perhaps from 15 to 20. The offenses were offenses alleged to have been committed both during

the reign of martial law and also at a time when martial law did not prevail.[6]

“There were also court-martial trials at a later period, during the reign of martial law. This was what was known as the big trial, by reason of the number of parties tried. The trials grew out of offenses alleged to have been committed during what was known as the battle of Mucklow. The parties were charged in the specifications with conspiracy with intent to destroy personal property, and conspiracy to inflict bodily injuries, murder committed in pursuance of conspiracy, accessories after the fact, and carrying deadly weapons. These offenses were all charged in one set of specifications. The offenses for which these parties were tried, both in this trial and in the other trials, were offenses which could have been punished under the civil law and in the common-law courts of the State. That is to say, they were offenses against the laws of the State of West Virginia. Just what the result of this latter trial was, as to convictions, the committee was unable to ascertain, as the judgments were perhaps never approved by the governor, but the parties, a number of them, were detained and imprisoned in the different county jails of the State. [p. 7]

[An example of questioning by Senator Borah of Capt. Morgan, who had been a member of the military court:]

“Senator Borah. Now, then, Captain, if the military tribunal of which you were a member had seen fit to sentence a man to the penitentiary for life for perjury, you would have felt that you had the power to do it, would you not?

“Mr. Morgan. Well, we might have made that recommendation – a commission might have been found to make that recommendation.

“Senator Borah. I am not assuming you did it. I am now testing the question of your power as you viewed it.

“Mr. Morgan. Yes, sir; as I viewed it at that time I considered it to be a law.” [p. 9]

Sources

Lee, Howard B. Bloodletting in Appalachia. Morgantown, West Virginia University, 1969.

United States Senate. Investigation of Paint Creek Coal Fields of West Virginia (Report No. 321.). Washington DC: 3-9-1914. Accessed 4-25-2025 at: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/public/gdcmassbookdig/investigationo00unit/investigationo00unit.pdf

Wikipedia. “Paint Creek – Cabin Creek strike of 1912.” 2-23-2025 edit. Accessed 4-25-2025 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Creek%E2%80%93Cabin_Creek_strike_of_1912

[1] “On July 26, miners attacked Mucklow…leaving at least twelve strikers and four guards dead.”

[2] “These two small streams flow into the Kanawha River about ten and fourteen miles east of Charleston, the State’s Capital City, and extended southward through the mountains for twenty-five miles. The valleys are narrow gorges between high mountains, and are just wide enough in places for the railroad tracks and the highways that pass up the creeks.” [Lee, p. 15]

[3] Cites Charleston newspapers, Gazette and Mail, of April 19, 1912.

[4] Coal cars which had been framed (cribbed) around the top of a coal cart or car which allowed an additional 500 to 1,000 pounds more coal to be added, without additional pay to the miner for more than 2,000 pounds. (Lee, p. 187.)

[5] Lee note: “Docking: In cases where a company’s check-weighman at the tipple decided that a miner had left too much slate and rock in his car of coal, he ‘docked’ such miner by arbitrarily reducing his total mined coal tonnage as much as the weighman’s whim dictated. The miner had no remedy. I have heard miners say that the waste in their car, if any, did not exceed ten pounds. Yet, they were ‘docked’ from 500 to 1,000 pounds. Operators have told me that it was their policy ‘to dock miners considerably more than the waste in their cars’ This was done, they said, ‘to punish the miner and make him more careful in the future, and warn other miners that they had better send clean coal to the tipples.’ Gut whatever the purpose, it was still labor larceny.

[6] See Lee, p. 45, who interviewed Mother Jones who told him she had been arrested and jailed for the speech she gave at Cabin Creek Junction three months before the first martial law declaration.

1912 — July 26, striking miners and mine guards “battle,” Mucklow, Paint Creek, WV–>16