16 Tons & What Do You Get? The Forgotten WV Coal Wars

In the early 20th century, the mountains of West Virginia were home to a series of conflicts that turned bloody and violent, owing in part to a group of hired guards who would evict miners, destroy property, and murder. Join us as we cover Bloody Mingo, the Matewan Massacre, the Battle of Blair Mountain, and the Paint Creek/ Cabin Creek strike. 

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Ref:
Battle of blair mountain by Louise Mosrie. Battle of Blair Mountain by. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://louisemosrie.com/track/2133041/battle-of-blair-mountain 

History. UMWA. (2022, February 22). Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://umwa.org/about/history/ 

Magazine, S. (2021, August 25). What made the battle of blair mountain the largest labor uprising in American history. Smithsonian.com. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/battle-blair-mountain-largest-labor-uprising-american-history-180978520/ 

A miner's story. eHISTORY. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/gildedage/content/MinersStory 

Strike, K. (2019, June 18). A dying Miner's letter to his beloved wife (1902). Flashbak. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://flashbak.com/a-dying-miners-letter-to-his-beloved-wife-1902-416871/ 

U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Matewan massacre (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/matewan-massacre.htm 

U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Mother Jones (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/mother-jones.htm 

Transcript

Marissa: 0:00

PTM makes light of dark subject matter and may not be suitable for all audiences listener discretion is advised.

Matthew: 0:10

Find a vein and drain the black gold, hoping to God that the timbers hold. Like my father before me. It's all I know. We live only to harvest the coal. mine owners mercy is shallow as a grave. Living in shanty towns. We got no say 14 hour shifts and such a meager wage. And Mother Jones can't help us now. Anyway. Anyway, we'll take the roads we'll take the train by force. Oh, deliver us Lord from the Gathering Storm. Lay down your Bible. Take up your gun. Blair mountain. Here we come. Each day a miner would move from the light of the surface world to descend into the darkness of the coal mines uncertain if they would ever return to the light again, deadly accidents were at constant threat. Mines could suddenly flood collapse or explode as volatile gases and cold us ignited with little warning paid by the carload or the ton. Miners worked long hours seven days a week often to bring up carloads, that company men would declare as unfit, thusly reducing their daily wage. The miners were paid in companies scripts, those scripts were only good at the company stores, company owned houses, company owned insurance, the company provided payment for the car load of coal. That payment was then given back to the company to provide basic needs for the miner and his family. Not only was this to provide the food, clothing and shelter, but also the equipment needed for mining itself. You see, the company provided a right to mind an area but did not supply the miner with the equipment to do so. It was up to the miner himself to supply his picks, shovel, headlamps, clothing, safety equipment and even dynamite to do their jobs. When all of a sudden done the miners are often left deeply indebted to the company. In the first half of the 20th century. Poor wages and working conditions led to numerous strikes and deadly clashes with hired company detectives. Join us as we add another entry into this our Macabrepedia. Hello, and welcome to Macabrepedia America true crime in the truly bizarre we are your hosts Marissa and Matthew.

Marissa: 2:40

Hey, you say my name first you're the

Matthew: 2:43

lead host. Today we will be focusing on the dark history around Cold War's of the early 20th century we will discuss primarily the Cold War's of Appalachia, but particularly those in the West Virginia

Marissa: 3:04

The Forgotten Cold Wars and a lot of ways which kind of pisses me off but we'll get into that.

Matthew: 3:14

Well, and it shouldn't be forgotten because of the fact that because of this, this the Cold War's and the in it stretch all across the country. So the but we're focusing on West Virginia for obvious reasons, being one that you're from the Virginia West Virginia area of Appalachia, and as well as the the being some of the bloodier engagements with within between the detectives and the union, unionized coal workers, but

Marissa: 3:54

things that should not be forgotten, but in many cases happen,

Matthew: 3:57

right, man, but resulting from that, though, was like the 40 hour work week, weekends off kind of thing. So a lot of people, equipment, OSHA Yeah, a lot of people paid paid with their lives to get what we take as like, obvious working conditions, right. So a little bit of a backdrop to the story to kind of set the scene a little bit. So coal is generally found in mountainous areas, right? Obviously, these are generally secluded, hard to get to places when a coal seam or a vein was found generally called seams. But when a coal seam or a vein was found, it could be mined for 10 years, 50 years, who knows how long but it's in these remote areas. So what would happen is the company the coal company itself would start building a town around this coal field because like I said, it could be there for 50 years. Who knows so the workers, they're not coming and going, like, they're not commuting in. They're gonna live right here. Because of the fact that the company owns your house and everything you're basically renting it, it's a it's an employee housing. So at any time, if you are no longer an employee, you no longer have a house. So they get you indebted to them there. And these houses, in some cases, I mean, they get they become rundown, and there's a lot of people living there. And some of them worked as like, boarding houses and stuff, if you'd if if some of the miners the earlier miners didn't have a place to stay, they would, they would room with other miners, and then they would kind of circulate through, like, like bed use based upon their shift. So like, first, there'll be like a, there would be like an upper upper storey to the house. And they would have that just set up as like a hotel effectively for other workers. And each person would rent out a bed that they could sleep in during the end of their shift. And they would have like a first shift, and then that person would get up and leave, the next person would come in and they'd have their bed for for second shift, third shift, etc. So and then the the workers are paid in company script. Yeah, now company script is a generally like a coinage or whatever, it's it's money. It's not us dollars, though, it's made up money typically for that, yeah, it's totally made up money. And then the company script is only good at company stores, and to buy things from the company. So your paycheck is going back into the company,

Marissa: 6:23

forever, you can charge whatever they want,

Matthew: 6:25

you could get a raise, and then they just raise the price of everything because they control everything. So

Marissa: 6:31

I mean, not only that, but they also would build like the church in the town, they would build like, wherever you would go and play like a field in the in the case, they would they would build schools, they would build every little, literally every building would be owned by the company. And they would have built that,

Matthew: 6:46

right. And this this, this, this was regionally different. But for the most part, what ended up happening was the the mines open up, locals get jobs there, the and there's a big like ebb and flow of need for coal during this time. So we're like World War One happens. And then it's like, you need to have tons of coal because you're using it not only for energy, but for making steel and all this stuff.

Marissa: 7:11

This is right after the Industrial Revolution has really been taken off. So you need coal,

Matthew: 7:16

right? So cool. It was but the locals would have the wood would fill the positions. But these are remote areas. So it's not like a lot of people generally live there. Yeah, so they've moved the whoever's willing to go into the into the mines, which is hellacious ly dangerous, when they ran out of locals to get in there, they would start going to places where people were immigrating in from other countries. So Ellis Island, they would they would have the companies would have people stationed there, what they would also do is they'd send people overseas, again, to kind of have you've listened to some of our other episodes to the poor areas of like, of Europe, namely, like Southern Italy, so there they go to like Sicily and stuff like that, and they would get these these people over there. And they would offer them a way out, come to America, you're gonna we have this job for you, it's going to make a ton of money in they tell them this is how much money you're gonna make. And it's like, it blows their mind. Because that much money isn't as unheard of there, what they don't tell them is that you have to give it all back to the company in order in order to pay for your houses and stuff. But this sounds like a like, that's the promised land. And then they're like, Well, I don't have the money to get there. Don't worry about it, you start working, we'll take a little bit out of each week's paycheck and we'll pay it all back. So then you have these mines that are a lot of the poor of the of the of the area, and the poor from other countries. They don't speak the same languages. And they all come here, the poor, and the immigrants are living in these these houses. And they become like, indebted not just because of the financial stuff, but the way of life. Like they don't have anything if they leave here, and they don't have prospects anywhere.

Marissa: 8:58

So all of their friends are there, if they've made friends, if they know anybody in this country, they are also going to be working in the mines. So they leave they're gonna leave everybody that they know.

Matthew: 9:06

Sure so so yeah, so you get the company was utilizing this by making it so that once you're there, it's hard to leave because you don't have any other options. You know, like it's not just like, oh, well this sucks, I'm gonna leave. It's not that simple, right? Because everything you know at the whole life you've built can just be taken by your company if you if you decide not to do it. So in some of the accounts that I had seen the as far as the pay the actual wages go some accounts that I saw, found that the company would basically take about three quarters of your pay back

Marissa: 9:41

to trade it for

Matthew: 9:42

US dollars. No, no. Well, you could do that too. So you can take a company script and you can trade it for actual dollars and you lose a quarter Yeah, you'd basically you'd basically you basically get 75 cents on the dollar effectively but no like for like the dues for like insurance for your equipment for your housing for For your food for the coal that you need in order to heat your home, all comes from the company. And that basically is three quarters of your of your paycheck. So there was a, there was people that were, you know, some of the numbers and stuff would be like, they'd make $58 for the month, which at the time is like $2,000. And then they basically and ended the month with like, $400 in their pocket Well, the equivalent, like 15 bucks, right, just to support their family with clothing and stuff for that for the rest of their family on top of that. So it had the potential to be very lucrative. But it wasn't very lucrative because you're paying all this stuff. And then

Marissa: 10:35

you could never save any money at all right?

Matthew: 10:37

And that's what you were doing. And regionally it was a little different, because what I'm actually referring to is actually an account from Pennsylvania, from 1902. And they didn't have company stores anymore, but they still because they had company stores. But company stores weren't the only game in town. So there would be people who could who would come into town and they'd open up their own stores because this was allowed at that time. But then the company would be like, Hey, I saw your wife shopping at whatever. Oh, yeah. brandmark. And because they were shopping there, that's, that's that's not a company on store. That's, you know, my, my brother in law has a store and it's just right over here. And then if you're like, Yeah, well, we like we, it's cheaper. If I go over here, yeah, that's great. And then you'd find out the next day that the the seam that you were mining, you're no longer allowed to go there. And so then you had to basically, you're getting bullied around. Because you know, you have to you still have to go shop at the company store. Because even though you have the option to go somewhere else, they're just going to make your life miserable. And then all these little annoyances and stuff if you if you do that the job itself very, very dangerous, right? You're underground, deep underground, right? There's a couple of different styles of mines to mean, we don't have to get in all that for the most part your your deep underground. And once the seam is found, they cut it out. This could be hundreds of feet deep. And in some cases, some some of the cases the seam itself where all the coal actually is it a coal is also there's a couple different types of coal. So if we don't need to get into the science of coal, but basically, it's crushed plant carbon that eventually turns into this burnable thing. And it starts as peat and then gets crushed out and more and more dense in some areas are way denser than others. And they're used for different things

Marissa: 12:24

use different types of coal for different rights.

Matthew: 12:25

So but for the most part, you could get the seams or these veins that are like eight to 10 feet high. And you cut them out and you're able to stand but there are some of the seams where these people are mining better as little as like 17 inches high. And it was a saying that the scene was so tight that if you went in with your shovel turned the wrong way, you'd have to crawl back out in order to flip it over. So these people are like down in this dark, hard to breathe dust filled area. And they have a little candle on their head which could ignite at any time. So you dig out these these seams, you're paid by the carload so what a carload is, is you have you know, the, the Indiana Jones in you know, kind of yeah tonnage of the car. Yeah, and that and then the pull them up. And it's these are pulled out by like donkeys or if the seam is too small to get the to get the donkey through. Then you have a pony. And if it's too small for a pony, you have a goat. And if it's too small for a goat, you have dogs that are pulling all of these these carts out, and you pull it out. And also those animals were like left in the shaft when they weren't in use. Yeah. And they only got to see light like once a week, just so they didn't go mind blind from being in the dark so long, but also

Marissa: 13:47

they were worth more than a human in a lot of ways that the coal miner the coal companies believed that they were worth more

Matthew: 13:53

Yeah, it was easier to hire another miner than it was to replace a donkey. So the so they pull out these carloads. The carload would have there would be a company man waiting at the top, and he would make note of the quality and could easily discriminate against the workers by declaring that the carload held too many rocks or pieces of debris. So it would lower the value of the car loads, you didn't get full credit for this. And you couldn't do anything about it. It was just their word and versus yours. Also, they have armed guards that are standing there protecting the mind. So the carload would then be dumped into a series of shoots in a place called a breaker building, which is a big building that has like these like slides on it effectively. And the the call would then be sifted through and sorted through by the children of the miners. These young these young boys are called breaker boys. And they would sit above the chutes and they pull up pieces of slate and such before this was all before child labor laws, so they'd be this. This is all before child labor laws and probably before they were enforced, you know, because I'm sure there was a Bit of a, there's a gap. There's a bit of a gap. Yeah, so these kids were like eight years old, sifting through coal just sitting there all day. And then once they got to about the age of like 12, they would begin to actually start driving the animals. So pulling the mules out and everything, you can

Marissa: 15:15

see it on their faces. If you see pictures of these, these kids who are coal miners, you can just tell there's already beaten down by life. They're not.

Matthew: 15:23

Oh, it's hard work. Yeah,

Marissa: 15:25

that's, it's,

Matthew: 15:25

it's I mean, not only that, it's monotonous. Yeah, like you're sitting there just sifting through rocks all day, you know, that's, that's, that's tough. So then at 12, they get into handling the animals so that then at the age of like, around 14, they'd be once they became strong enough, they would then be brought into the mines to help put up support timbers. So basically, you dig out the hole, and then you take these timbers or you could leave, you can leave pillars of uncut coal to hold up the ceiling, because cave ins were a real real issue. So they bring in these timbers and they knock them up so that they help support up the ceiling. And eventually, the boy would become a miner themselves. So this is a cycle of father teaching son, son, becoming a minor son becomes married, has some boys of his own, etc, etc, that those boys go into the mines. And then it becomes this generational cycle of repeating, repeating, repeating. So this creates family units that work together in the mines. Which also means that if there was a mining accident, like a cave in or an explosion, multiple generations of men, like entire male family lines would just be wiped out. That's a long way of saying conditions were super shitty for that. So that's kind of the the fuel that's going to ignite the fires.

Marissa: 16:43

Yeah, I mean, as you said, conditions were super shitty. They were inhumane. But before they're 20, the turn of the 20th century. I mean, the miners couldn't really do anything. If there was any resistance at all. It was very short lived. It didn't last long. But for miners the system resent resembles something like feudalism. So sanitary and living conditions in the company houses were abysmal. Wages were low state politicians supported wealthy coal companies, rather than the minor.

Matthew: 17:10

Well imagine that yeah, that's the good thing that's gone. Ah, no.

Marissa: 17:14

But in many, many companies, they would do this, they would pay them with scrip, of course. And then they would go to the company store. This allows the companies to maximize their profits and ensure that miners remained poor, but also loyal to the company. So by the turn of the century, many miners were fed up with this horrendous these horrendous conditions, and the state became a powder keg requiring only a spark to ignite it. There's a poem by Carl Sandburg that goes, you live in a company house, you go to a company school, you work for this company, according to the company rules. You all drink company water and all US company lights. The company preacher tech teaches us what the company thinks is right? That pretty much sums it up. So at this point in time, we've got some unrest, to say the least. And then we get to 819 12. So we're gonna get into April 18 1912, and konavle County, West Virginia. At this time, there were a total of 96 coal mines operating in this small area between Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, which is not huge. But 96 coal mines, some of the workers weren't making as much as their counterparts because there were various coal mines who were unionized or not union unionized, and there was a lot of different discrepancy in the pay. So they were asking for a modest raise. The company refused to give the employees this raise that would make them earn what the other miners in the area were making. So they decided to go on strike. Their demands were one the company operators must recognize the union to the miners have the right to real to free speech and peaceable assembly. So number three, they must stop blacklisting, the workers for the forced trading at the company stores must end which means give us actual real money right? Five the cribbing should be discontinued and 2000 pounds of mined coal constitute a ton scales must be installed at the mines to weigh the tonnage The miners are mining to make this fair right six the miners must be allowed to employ their own check weigh in as to check the weights found by the company against the weights find that found by their own check Weyman seven the to check Weyman determine all docking penalties. So if there's any issue with coal and they want to dock for that they have to agree. These were their demands seems very

Matthew: 19:46

logical seems pretty logical. If you're not doing shitty things then you shouldn't it shouldn't be an issue.

Marissa: 19:52

Yeah. So soon 7500 miners went on strike to protest this. This is all along the Kanawha River coalfields Switching between these two rivers.

Matthew: 20:03

And also like what a union is? Yeah, go ahead. So what a union is, is basically it's a group of people who have similar occupations. So they so you have like, miners or telecommunications, I, we both belong to telecommunications at some point unions. But basically, they just make sure that it's just even Stephens. It's just fair across the board kid as fair as possible. That's right. And a lot of people were against this, the companies were against this, and that what they like to do is say, Well, this is socialism. Exactly. This is Russia. This is Russian propaganda, you know, kind of a thing. This is Communist propaganda coming over here.

Marissa: 20:42

And that was one side compared to the side of being like, we just want fair wages and safety features, right, so that we can be safe at our jobs, and also money that's commensurate with the danger of the job. That's basically what they wanted, and also an eight hour workday.

Matthew: 20:57

Right. And the union justice was a was a group that you paid your dues into, and they basically represented fairness, you know, to make sure that it is and there's still there's Yeah, made bargain for things and you come up with compromises and stuff, but it's just it's, it's, it's still even today, at least in the US, it's still kind of a can be a bit of a hot button. Yeah, cuz you're talking point which I don't understand why, like, I don't understand. If somebody has, if somebody, one of our listeners has, like a, like a reason why they why they think unions are bad, like a solid reason, feel free to let me know, because right now, I mean, I belong to a union, I didn't really like paying the dues. I mean, I don't really I mean, it, it has, it doesn't seem to have a downside to as far as I read. But I can see why companies wouldn't like that, because there was a time when I was working in in the union. And we just got to like a$700. Check. And it was because somebody in California, they were getting back pay because of chairs, because they weren't allowed to sit during their shift. So we but because we're all part of the same union. If somebody gets compensated for something like that, across the board, everybody gets compensated for something like that. So I can see why companies wouldn't like it. But as an individual seems workout. It seems to

Marissa: 22:21

work for the worker. Yeah,

Matthew: 22:22

that's why companies hate it.

Marissa: 22:23

Yeah. And, I mean, I was part of a union. But after I left, I kept in touch with some of them. And they ended up negotiating a pay raise of $10 an hour for everything that they did, because Beckley which was not that far away. That was what they were making for the same job. So they negotiate it so that they would make the same amount of money. I mean,

Matthew: 22:41

it is communist in a way, like on a very, very, very high level, like a very, like surface level. Yes, it's it's about fairness.

Marissa: 22:49

And the only one thing I will say, that I didn't particularly care for is that it's definitely not a meritocracy. As far as like if you have seniority, you will get a job a raise whatever, or a schedule, whereas somebody who's newer won't get it. That's the only thing though, and that I feel like is nothing compared to the the money and the safety and everything. But anyway, that's just my opinion. But anyway, getting back to this, there were 7500 Miners there, and they went on strike to protest this they stopped work so that their demands can be attained. So no coal is coming out. The Cabin Creek miners join the Paint Creek miners. So everybody's striking together, because that's the whole idea behind strikes

Matthew: 23:30

is like all the 96 Coal learning.

Marissa: 23:33

Once the strike began, the United Mine Workers pledged their support and pledge that their finances, their financial support the miners, which is the union, this is the coal miners union. And they were pretty new, they weren't brand new, but they were pretty new at this point. But they are very interested in working their way into southern West Virginia. That's their point here, they're going to support these guys, they really want to be in this area. So they promised to provide any aid that they could. They were very eager to help. Partly because of this, the first month of the strike passed without any incident, there was no violence at all. They were you know, financially supporting these guys trying to make everything good.

Matthew: 24:11

And the reason they were trying to was they needed something like this in order to get into the region is the people, particularly the people of Appalachia, and this is still something that I feel is still a true statement. They are fiercely independent people. Yes. So when you come in here, and you say you're gonna get paid, just you jack and Sue are gonna get paid the same amount no matter what. Jack says, I work harder than Sue, I should get paid more. I want to be I want to, you know, my worth should not be based on what Sue does, you know, kind of a thing. So that's,

Marissa: 24:44

and that's probably a lot of the mindset behind the people who didn't unionize. I'm saying so when I was part they were trying

Matthew: 24:49

they needed somebody they needed something where they could show what the union could do for somebody. Yeah. So that's kind of where where that kind of comes in because they have to kind of explain it a little bit and kind of Get it Get it in there. But

Marissa: 25:01

yes. And I actually think I misspoke. Some of the minds were not union and they didn't go on strike. But there was there was a lot of, you know,

Matthew: 25:08

and when when they went on strike, I don't know if you have this in what you're planning on saying, but there was a, there were people called scabs. Yeah. And scabs were. This is also where are those like immigrants come from? Right. So you have like the particularly like Pennsylvania, I think it was. Slovakians were like a huge group of, of immigrants that they brought over because Slovakians were like it. They had some tough they were they were trying to escape their country. So they've been pretty much do anything. If you could get them away from

Marissa: 25:38

people do it today, though. I mean, when, like I said, my friends who still work in a union, they went on strike a few years ago, they were people who were coming in from other areas, and they were scabs, and they were crossing the picket line and pissing everybody off. But they were making a ton of money. Because that's, that's the pole for crossing the picket line, they will pay you like three, four times as much money as they pay the other people while they're on strike so that you can still get the work done.

Matthew: 26:00

But yeah, but yeah, so they have these, these scabs come in, and the scabs will go into the mines and just do the mining while these other guys are sitting up there. So it kind of makes you choose, like you're sitting up here, trying to slow production, we still have production going and all you're doing is losing opportunities. You really want to drag this on. So

Marissa: 26:17

yeah, so that definitely does happen. But anyway, the human human Mine Workers of America, they also sent in this woman called Mary or Mother Jones. Mother Jones was a renowned union organizer. So they sent her in along with the vice president. His name is Frank Hayes, but mother donation no relation, but Mother Jones, he was known as she was known as the miners angel. She became incredibly famous during this time, and Upton Sinclair even wrote her into one of his novels called the Cold War. And I don't know if you know, but Upton Sinclair is the one who wrote the jungle which was talking about the horrors of the meatpacking industry at the time. Anyway, he wrote that, but he wrote

Matthew: 26:59

on any part of that book, this is

Marissa: 27:00

a long time ago, as we know, but he said about her there, quote, their broke a storm of applause, which swelled into a tumult as little woman came forward on the platform. She was wrinkled and old, dressed in black looking like somebody's grandmother. She was in truth, the grandmother of hundreds of 1000s of miners. She would travel about inspiring miners to strike and creating unions. So she was very instrumental in this entire thing. She would flame the protests within their hearts pretty much and cause them to really just want to fight back.

Matthew: 27:40

Do you happen to know why she got involved with this?

Marissa: 27:43

Oh, it was it was part of her history. She just felt this desire to help people. She was so iconic, she would wish she had witnessed the potato famine when she was a young girl in Ireland, of course. And then she moved to Chicago when she was young. She met a man named George Jones, and they moved to Tennessee. George was an iron worker. Yeah,

Matthew: 28:04

also that yeah, iron and steel companies were very much similar to how coal work.

Marissa: 28:11

They had four children together. But they all died in the in this yellow fever epidemic. So George and all 44 children all died. So widowed and childless, she returned to Chicago and opened up a dress shop that was burned down to the ground in the Great Fire of 1871. In Chicago. Yeah. So by the time the 20th century, Dawn, she was an aging and poor Irish widow, who had survived so many things, but now had nothing. So that's when she created Mother Jones, who was more or less a character, she would wear black, and she exaggerated her age. She said she was much older than she actually was. This woman was a symbol of the downtrodden everywhere. And she took on the role of the grandmotherly figure, which actually, in some ways freed her from the gendered roles of the day. Because, you know, women didn't have a huge say in a lot of things. But she was the grandmother of every minor so they could all see something in her that they were drawn to. Right. She would run about the country being made being she was hired by the UFW a for a while, and she worked for whatever cause would need her. The United Mine Workers and so she would work for garment workers, streetcar operators, steel workers, copper miners, everybody who she felt like needed a union she would go in and she would try to help them unionize, to help them get a better life. And eventually coal miners and she would help workers fight terrible conditions like the 12 hour workday, awful safety conditions that cause high mortality rates when she started working for the UN WA. It had 10,000 members, but a few years later as she after she had helped them for a while it grew to 300,000 she also organized many of the wives into a mop and broom broom. aid to fight alongside the miners, which is super cute. And so this is the woman who was really brought in to help the miners at the time. And while she lost many battles, she won many as well. Sure. So then we get to May 19 1912, the Paint Creek Mine operators called in the Baldwin felts detective agency. They were union busters to break up the strike. We saw them a bit before when they were investigating the curly axe murders. Yeah. But they were for the most part union breakers. That's what they were they were hired to

Matthew: 30:40

say they're hired thugs. And they go in there and they they bust skulls. Yeah.

Marissa: 30:45

If you talk to anybody in Appalachia right now, like who knows the history of it, and you bring up the Baldwin felts detectives, they will be like, Oh, those guys sucked, like they will not have a good opinion of them. And they they shouldn't have. I mean, the Baldwin Felts. They sent in 300 guards into the fray. The detectives. They were a private security firm. They were known for being available to violently suppress strike activity, particularly in Appalachia, but also some in the western minds. Yeah,

Matthew: 31:16

they they show up. And Colorado, Colorado at Ludlow, which is called the Ludlow massacre, because they showed up in massacred Yeah, they were burning families in their in their tents after they had been evicted and they drive by what their what their death machine is. They're not good people. Yeah. And they'd fire rounds into their houses and under their tents and stuff like that. So yeah,

Marissa: 31:38

I did actually my research come across a couple people who are trying to defend them and I'm like, How are you defending them? I feel like these guys were genuinely shitty.

Matthew: 31:47

Yeah, period. There were rumors like they were doing so the have a group of miners assembling together, and camp Creek and Paint Creek, and then they get the Baldwin felts agency to show up there. 300 strong, and what do they do?

Marissa: 32:08

So the mining companies send in guards to evict the miners from their company homes. When they start evicting families, effectively turning them out and making them homeless, the miners start to fight back. The pink Creek Cabin Creek strike in 1912 turned into a 13 month long struggle that would eventually results in the deaths of 12 strikers and 13 company men. Well,

Matthew: 32:32

I mean, they got a better shot, but they took up more of the company men than they

Marissa: 32:36

Yeah, that's true. So the Baldwin felts guards, they, they went and they made iron and concrete forts with machine guns throughout the strike areas. foxholes, and pillboxes while evicting minor families, they destroyed about $40,000 worth of personal property at the time. 40 Yeah,

Matthew: 32:55

cuz they go into your house and they throw all your belongings out. Yeah. And they often would would manhandle you, they'd grab you, and then throw you out, and they'd beat you while you're lucky. Yeah, there was a the one of the company coal company lawyers had a quote that said, it's like a servant who works within your house, if the servant leaves your employment, or if you discharge them, you, you tell them to get out of their servants quarters. It's a question of master and servant. And this was in this was in defense of this kind of behavior, where you just grab a family and throw them out. It's, it makes a little bit of sense. But you know, if you no longer working there, you can't be on company property. But the way that they go about it is the way they went about Yes. It's because they're trying to show other people not to do the what this person is doing. It's punishing for the sake of those who can witness

Marissa: 33:49

Yeah, well, also the Baldwin Felts. They were very much trying to build a reputation so that their reputation would precede them, right. And they wouldn't have to put as much work for

Matthew: 33:56

exactly. If you go it's kind of like if you go in, they go into make a reputation on their first go so that when somebody says, straighten up, or the Baldwin felts are going to be called you go, Well, I guess we better straighten up. So the boogey man of the coal industry,

Marissa: 34:13

and they did assert control over the area, they would block travel over the bridges that were crossing the streams there. Because the bridges were owned by the mining company. The strikers were prevented from using these bridges over the streams and they couldn't leave on trains that were traveling the area or the Baldwin Felts. Detectives would beat those who tried to board. Yeah, they also had a special train car. And they called this train car, the Bull Moose special, and it was reinforced with iron plating and machine guns were installed inside. This is something that they would do elsewhere also with the Ludlow massacre in Colorado, when they had an improvised armored car with an machine gun on it called the Death special. So this is something that they just did on February 7 19. In 13, a coal operator named Quinn Martin and the local canola Sheriff Bonner Hill got on the train. They turned off the lights and drove the train through Holly Grove, a tent colony that the UWA had established for the evicted miners. They did this because once they returned out of their homes, they would go to this tent colony as wait place to live.

Matthew: 35:22

They did the same thing in Ludlow. Yeah, then the

Marissa: 35:24

Baldwin the Baldwin detectives fired the machine guns into the tents at the colony. Several miners died in the attack, including Francis Ernesto estas, who was shot in the face while trying to protect his pregnant wife. Something that infuriated the miners 100 machine gun bullets were put through his tent. That's nuts.

Matthew: 35:47

Go ahead when they were in the n Mo, we're not covering the Ludlow one, but there's there's so many parallels that it's very similar. So, in Ludlow, they had this tent city and then they they dug they dug basements into the tents because the Baldwin felts were taken their deaths special Yeah, truck driving it through and just firing randomly through people's tents so they they've dug basements, they dug holes so that they could they could lay in there, which ended up being against them used against them because what the Baldwin felts did at that point was they burnt the tents. And as the flaming tents fell down on the miners, they couldn't get out of there the whole protective holes that they had dug. So these were shady people super shady. Anyways, continue I'll stop with the Ludlow stuff.

Marissa: 36:31

Yeah, but I mean these the the miners were lucky they weren't dealing with winter and Avalanche at this point, because this was April at least, because later on during the winter when this would happened. I mean, they're in a tent.

Matthew: 36:44

Yeah. And they can't get access to coal. Yeah.

Marissa: 36:48

So anyway, Mother Jones would describe the carnage which the coal companies would inflict when they would hire these private detectives to break the strike. She said quote, on a mattress wet with blood lay a miner. His brains had been blown out while he slept in five other shacks men lay dead, and one of them a baby boy and his mother sobbed over the father's corpse. So the news of this attack made national headlines and calls raged across the country, with one merchant even sending guns and ammunition to the striking miners in response. Another Yeah, I mean, it wasn't just coal miners. At this point, people were just mad anybody merchants and just middle class people everywhere, which is mad. Another woman Sarah Blizzard led a group of women to damage the railroad tracks which prevented a second attack by the Baldwin felts in this manner. Good for them. The West Virginia governor at the time, William glass Kok declared mount martial law and sent in state militia into the region. At first, the miners thought this was a good thing, and that they would restore peace and protect their rights. But very quickly, it was clear that they were not only there to break up the strike, but they really just they wanted them all to stop and to go away. The soldiers arrested 200 strikers and they arrested Mother Jones. They imprison them and tried them before military tribunals for inciting violence. But despite the fact that this was fairly illegal, Mother Jones refused to recognize the jurisdiction jurisdiction of the military court, and refused to even enter a plea. She was sentenced to 20 years in the State Penitentiary, but caught pneumonia, and was pretty sick for a while, she managed to smuggle a message out to a pro labor senator and was released without comment. After 85 days in prison, wow. The guards and coal operators faced no consequences for the murders or any of their actions in the violence. The governor's use of martial law was condemned across the country, but little changed in the coal fields of West Virginia. So then we're going to fast forward a little bit. This was done this was in 1919 12. You can imagine this is making everybody upset. They want to unionize and it's it's just it's not working because they keep getting beat back. And they're scared of the Baldwin felts detectives and all this. So we're gonna go to Matewan, West Virginia, the coal mines in Matewan Mingo. County, West Virginia, which is where Matewan is would only hire non union workers and strictly enforced employment contracts that included joining a union as immediate grounds for termination. These contracts were known as yellow dog contracts by fellow miners, basically because they were signing their rights away. And yellow is of course, like a way to call somebody a coward, which it kind of was signing your rights away. But I mean, people felt like they had no choice. They had to make a living. These miners lived almost exclusively in company towns. So if you were fired, you were homeless in 1920. The United Mine Workers of America President John Lewis was trying to end this three decade old resistance to unionization in the region. Mother Jones gave speeches she was 83 at the time very effective If I tried to unionize the workers, over 3000 Mingo County miners join the union despite having signed these yellow dog contracts, and so they were all fired. The coal companies then hired the Baldwin felts detective agency to evict the families from the company houses. And they arrived to meet one.

Matthew: 40:21

Now Matewan is not a company town. It is partly a

Marissa: 40:25

company town, but it's it is distinctly different from some other places that were only company towns. Mate one was its own town,

Matthew: 40:32

and then it boomed because of your company coming in. But it was already there prior which is kind of unusual. It was

Marissa: 40:39

good thing for them in some way. Yep. But one of the felts brothers Albert felts tried to bribe mate ones Mayor testament Testament with $500 to place machine guns on the roofs in the town. These guys like it's just,

Matthew: 40:54

it's just funny, because it's like, you'd think that you'd have guards because they're protecting the mines, like from like people getting into the mines or doing something that it's not it's to quell resistance from the workers and the mines. Yeah, there was even some there was even some accounts where when people went on strike, if there were people still in the minds, they would just lock them in. The company would just lock them in and be like, you're the ones leaving them down there. We're closing the mind. You're not going to work. So we're not gonna we're not pulling them out. Yeah,

Marissa: 41:27

basically very inhumane. This whole thing.

Matthew: 41:30

It's literally working with a gun to your head. Yeah, with it with a promise of a huge paycheck. And then you get that huge paycheck and then it's one quarter of what you thought it was going to be. Anyway, so builds buildings with turrets.

Marissa: 41:43

Yeah, so they wanted to place machine guns on the roofs of the town, but the mayor refused. So the Feltz brothers moved on to they just they start evicting the families. They're like, okay, whatever. The first family they evicted was a woman and her children. The husband was away at the time. So he wasn't there. But they went in they forced them out at gunpoint. And they all they threw all their belongings into the road. And it was raining. This is a very sad,

Matthew: 42:08

or like situation a film that anybody Yeah,

Marissa: 42:11

I mean, lots of miners are watching and they're just getting super angry. The scene was enough to infuriate most of them and the miners who witnessed it. Were just furious. They just got so bad. So they sent word to town about this. Police Chief Sid Hatfield heard about it, and deputized a group of miners on the spot. He said, Okay, you guys can come help. You know, I need some deputies. The Baldwin felts agents walk to the train station to get on it to leave town, a train that was headed back to headquarters in Bluefield, West Virginia. Said Hatfield in the minors confronted them and they told them that they were under arrest.

Matthew: 42:46

And by Hatfield, it is yes, that family lineup he is related

Marissa: 42:49

to the Hatfields and McCoys but only distantly. And he did kind of play it out because he liked it. But

Matthew: 42:55

yeah, and the dude's a badass, he's like, he's like, Alright, I need a group of people. You're all deputies now. I mean, it's like fucking tombstone right there. He's, he's awesome. And he's a good looking dude, he he's a good looking except for his fucked up mouth.

Marissa: 43:10

He does have a fucked up man got like three teeth, right? It was gold. These got gold teeth, but like,

Matthew: 43:14

Yeah, but then I'm like, This plaque that's in town for reasons we'll find out in a second. It actually says the first line is Sid Hatfield known for his flashy gold smile, but there's actually like, footage of him laughing and he looks like he's a really good looking dude. That's, it's weird. He's, I mean, it's weird to say that but he is like, strikingly good looking. He is very hands. Yeah. And he until he opens. Well, yeah. But then he starts laughing. He's got like, these just got like, two two teeth. And so he must have gotten he must have had some, or he only had those two teeth. And they were both gold, which is also funny. So no, that'd be great if it was just a joke on his thing. But anyways, he had the guy's a bit of a badass. And he became really, really famous because he becomes even more of a badass. Yeah.

Marissa: 43:58

So Sid Hatfield in the minors that he deputized confronted him and they told them that they were under arrest.

Matthew: 44:04

When else them coming up to the Bolton felt, yes,

Marissa: 44:07

when Albert felts heard this, he replied back to him. Well, I have a warrant for your arrest. Hatfield.

Unknown: 44:12

You can't arrest me. I'm here to arrest you. Yes.

Marissa: 44:16

Mayor Testerman was alerted that said Hatfield had been arrested and he ran out into the street. He demanded to see the warrant. He's like, What are you talking about? Why are you trying to arrest him? Hatfield had backed up into a store at this point. So Testerman went over, and it looked at the warrant, and he declared that this was bogus. Felts told him that he could not take any bond and the mayor asked him for the warrants. And he gave the warrant to the mayor and the mayor read the warrant and said it was bogus. It was not legal and that felt and then felt shot the mayor, then the shooting, shooting started in general.

Matthew: 44:50

What do they know who shot first? Okay, so that's a bit of a controversy. Yes.

Marissa: 44:54

So when he said this, I really got it, set it off. A gunfight erupted immediately with what Okay, so there's a bit of discrepancy here with the accounts. Some say that the felts agents started the fighting angry that Testerman wouldn't let them arrest Sid Hatfield. Others say that Testerman or Cid Hatfield started shooting at the Baldwin felts agents. And still others claimed that Sid Hatfield started the fight by shooting May your testament in the back

Matthew: 45:20

but all we know for sure is there was a fire fight.

Marissa: 45:25

There was

Matthew: 45:26

William Defoe. Boondock Saints. Thank you.

Marissa: 45:28

I love that movie.

Matthew: 45:30

I love William Defoe.

Marissa: 45:31

He's good. Mayor Testerman was shot and killed and they're suing suing fight along with two of the felts brothers, Albert and Lee. But why do people think that said, shot Testerman just started out. I mean, that seems really tragic.

Matthew: 45:48

The guy shows up and he's like, Wait, they're trying to arrest you. And then he just shoots them. That seems a little little sketch.

Marissa: 45:54

It does seem weird. But the idea is, it's pretty much a conspiracy theory, but it says that. Okay, it started because Sid Hatfield actually married. May your test Germans widow Jesse just 11 days after the shootout. In fact, they were arrested the day after the massacre in a hotel room for having improper relations. So you could say that maybe he just wanted him out of the way. I don't know. This led to an attempt by the Baldwin felts to say, to have him arrested for shooting at your Testerman they're like oh, you did it then.

Unknown: 46:25

Yeah, that was you that did it. That was oh, yeah, go off. No, that said Jesse

Marissa: 46:29

would later claim that her first husband had actually asked sit Hatfield to watch after her and their young son because he knew that it was a really dangerous situation. You decide

Matthew: 46:39

it doesn't matter the next day next day? I don't think said shot shot the guy I'm not gonna say he wasn't happy. Yeah, said Friday to shoot Testerman but see and testament go down. He probably thought that solve some problems, because that news was a couple

Marissa: 46:58

in total, 10 men were killed. Seven were from the Baldwin felts detective agency and three reminders from town. So they actually did get the Baldwin felts pretty good here. This gunfight became known as the Matewan massacre, and it carried enormous significance for the miners. This show that the big and bad Baldwin felts detectives they could be stopped. They really had never been bested before. That's the importance of the main one masquerade showed people that they could best them

Matthew: 47:26

Yeah, and they didn't they didn't they never stepped foot with a with a Hatfield said you told me earlier that said stop drinking because it's slowed has gone hand down. Man. They were messing with the wrong dude. He shot them shot him a little bit of that golden glare from his teeth was like, Y'all know what you just got yourself into?

Marissa: 47:49

Yeah, police chief said Hatfield. He became an instant local legend. Massively famous. I mean, the Baldwin Felts. They were famous for busting strikes. They killed minors. They ruined families. They ruined lives. But he got him. Yeah. So he was a symbol of hope against the oppression of the coal companies.

Matthew: 48:07

Also probably why the wife was willing to jump his bone

Marissa: 48:10

down. And like you said, he wasn't good looking.

Unknown: 48:14

good looking dude. And he's quick with the steel. And flashy with the gold teeth. He's got it all

Marissa: 48:21

he does. And he's really into the Hatfields I mean, poof. So the viewer

Matthew: 48:25

if you were to make you couldn't make it better West Virginia. Really good.

Marissa: 48:31

So the summer and fall of 1920 were big for both gaining power in the Union, but also for gaining power for the coal companies. They were both both sides were really like trying to consolidate power at this point because they knew something was coming. shootouts happened here and there. People were arrested tents were destroyed. Minor families were tossed out into the elements. All of this thinking these things continued. Sid Hatfield continued to mount a resistance. He converted Mayor testaments jewelry store into a gun shop. As had been decided, said Hatfield was put on trial for killing. So this was killing opera felt. So this was he was still charged with murder. The trial began on January 26 1921, bringing a lot of national attention to the miners. He would speak to reporters, which did nothing but help his reputation was legend, of course, so he's getting he's getting big. All men were acquitted in the trial, though, which really, really pissed off the Baldwin felts because it Hatfields scot free. The jury was sympathetic trying to let everybody off but nobody would answer for

Matthew: 49:34

killing all the fellas didn't get anything either, though. They didn't. Nobody went to jail for the Baldwin felts being hardly outside basically, we're just like, yeah, call it a draw,

Marissa: 49:44

but they were mad because two of the felts brothers who were the brothers of the Baldwin felt Yeah, they were the fellas of the Baldwin felt Yes, they were killed. So this is big for the personal it was personal. But nobody was would answer for the killing of these two brothers. So meanwhile 80% of the mines had reopened with EX strikers and scabs, which you mentioned earlier, those who were willing to cross the picket line. In May 1921. Union miners launched an assault on non union minds and this became known as the three days battle. It finally ended when martial law was declared. Hundreds of miners were arrested for even the smallest offense. They responded with guerrilla tactics and sabotage like they were arrested for literally anything that they could put them on. That in August for on August 1 1921. Sid Hatfield traveled to McDowell County courthouse and Welch West Virginia. He was going because he had to stand trial. Basically he was accused of dynamiting a coal tipple. A tipple is, yeah, it's a structure that's used to load coal onto railroad cars for transport, which he probably did what everybody was kind of like an elevator to. Yeah, he traveled to the courthouse with his wife, a friend Ed chambers and Ed's wife, again, Said's wife was the widow of Mayor Testerman. And they had just 11 days after he had died. But here they are just said his friend Edie and both of their wives. They are traveling up the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse. As they walked up the courthouse stairs, a group of Baldwin felts agents were standing at the top. They opened fire on the unarmed men who were flanked by their wives. These guys didn't have any weapons on them. They were just walking into the courthouse. Hatfield was killed instantly. Chambers was struck multiple times and he rolled to the bottom of the stairs. His wife was yelling over them, he was just she was begging and pleading, leave him alone. But one of the agents of the Baldwin felts came over and they shot him again point blank in the back of his head. It killed him. Of course, Hatfield and chambers bodies were returned to Matewan. And the news of the killings spread.

Matthew: 51:56

Well also in one of the accounts that I saw about that particular thing, there was witnesses that said that the Baldwin felts then turned around and fired bullets into the, into buildings to make it look like there was returned fire.

Marissa: 52:08

Yeah, they did. You can actually still see the bullet holes in the McDowell County Courthouse today from these assassinations like if you go there, you can see these bullet holes. So about a week later, 1000s of miners were preparing to march into Logan and Mingo counties to forcibly set up the union there. I mean, people were really pissed off about this. They were just trying to make some headway in what they wanted. They were planning to free the minors who had been arrested for participating in strikes, but they figured they would stop in Logan County on the way because maybe maybe they would kill the czar of Logan as the sheriff there was known okay into a second. Alright, so Mother Jones heard about this and she tried to convince them to stop and up until now Mother Jones has been a pretty leading figure in this entire fight to unionize the coal fields. So when she did this I'm accused her of losing her nerve. She produced a telegram that she claimed was from the President of the United States, Warren G. Harding, telling the miners to go home and that he would forever illumine eliminate the mind guards if they did. But most people did not believe her. She said that she feared there would be a bloodbath between the miners and union fighters and then the Logan County detectives

Matthew: 53:18

the marches are not not the Baldwin felts agency

Marissa: 53:22

no but you know what they're just about as bad right but

Matthew: 53:26

the this is also 1921 Right so a lot of these guys who are picking up arms to do this our veterans of World War One are so they all have a gun Yeah, they all have guns and they all have at least some some training in with them and not to mention, you know, just you know, they've they've seen that most likely have seen some some some battle in their time. So not saying that the Logan Sheriff's Department probably also didn't have a budget but this is going to be like to two groups of trained military guys basically rolling on each other.

Marissa: 54:07

Yeah, they used to do both civilian armies. For the most part. The march of the miners to Logan County coalfields began that nights the Sheriff of Logan County, his name was Don Chafin. He was very anti anti union. And basically in Logan County instead of relying on private guards like the Baldwin Felts. Instead, they relied on the Logan County deputies. So they they filled in and did the work that the Baldwin felts did elsewhere. The sheriff charged a hefty fee for this. This kind of union busting was very expensive. I mean in 1919 he charged $37,000 But that translates to $638,000 in today's money. That's what he made 1919 doing this.

Matthew: 54:55

I thought you had already done the inflation conversion with 37

Marissa: 54:58

No Wow. Yeah. Ah,

Matthew: 55:00

so over a half a million dollars worth of this for this. My my private organization pretty much my my wall. Yeah, it's it's his goon squad but that's the Sheriff's Department. That's crazy.

Marissa: 55:16

So when 1000s of miners marched to Mingo County to free the minors who had been arrested for these tiny little petty crimes, they first were going to stop and Logan County to kill the sheriff. I get it. He's kind of a dick, right? Nearly 9000 men marched to Blair Mountain, which they would need to cross in order to enter Logan County. They're just going there on the way Sheriff Chafin organized his own volunteer army to repel them. This army consisted of regular people like teachers, shopkeepers and other people who were just afraid of the miners and what they might do these people are marching on them. It was Gary just

Matthew: 55:50

pitching it as this is an invasion that's going to come and massacre the lot of everybody there.

Marissa: 55:55

Yeah. There were 3000 people in this Logan County army against the 9000 miners. But importantly, they were they had the high ground for one thing, they also had much better communication, the Logan County deputies and that army I mean, the miners there were more of them, but they just they weren't communicating effectively. So they were not very effective at all. Chief and actually even had three biplanes and he used them to drop bombs Wow, yeah, and chemical weapons on the miners. These were leftover from World War One. But they just had them sitting around, so why not? They were spread gunfights throughout the week. Overall, 30 deaths were reported by chafe inside versus about 50 to 100. On the minor side, they also arrested 1000 miners for murder and treason against the United States. The US Army eventually marched in and put an end to the conflict. Some of these men were acquitted by sympathetic juries and others were sent away. But the last one was actually paroled in 1925. So none of them were really in prison for long. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history, and the largest armed uprising since the US Civil War. It did serve a purpose and raising public awareness of the plight of coal miners, and This eventually resulted in major union victories, and President Roosevelt's New Deal, but we don't talk about it. They didn't teach this in West Virginia schools even for you. I don't even think they still do, but they definitely didn't for years. I mean, I think a lot of it's, they're still scared of what people could do against the coal mines and against people, and they don't want them to rise up like that. And I think that's a lot of why they've squashed this part of history.

Matthew: 57:40

Yeah. Also, I mean, coal, coal from for environmental reasons is already he already gets pretty Yeah, kind of gets a lot of bad publicity. That's a bring to bring all this into, I don't know, it could help it could hinder. I mean, I'm not this is not me saying one way or the other about protocol or not. There's definitely benefits to whatever. But as far as like, you could, I mean, to show the sacrifice that these people went through in order to do to get the results that they did and what their job was and everything like there's you got to no matter whether you agree with it or not, as far as the industry as a whole currently, nowadays, like the individuals who are doing the job, he you got to have a bit of respect for it. You know what I mean? It's, it's it goes, but the people who are doing it are putting their life on the line for their for their jobs, and for what they believe in, you know, there's a lot of respect that has to go to the miners regardless.

Marissa: 58:35

Yeah. And you have to understand this was 100 years ago, things were quite different. Also, I mean, I don't understand why they wouldn't teach it in school, except it. I mean, I don't know.

Matthew: 58:45

I mean, at least touch on. I mean, I didn't grow up in Appalachia. So I didn't either,

Marissa: 58:49

but I did, but I didn't grow up in West Virginia, like they teach your state's history. Shut up. They teach your status history. So like, I didn't ever learn that. I never would have learned that but West Virginia, they would have learned that but they didn't.

Matthew: 59:02

You'd still think that it was close enough to your area that they probably know that now. I guess it's state Correct.

Marissa: 59:08

Yeah, they don't touch on local stuff at all. But, but the United Mine Workers of America, they still represent coal miners, but they also now represent healthcare workers, truck drivers, manufacturer workers, and public employees in United States. They were able to achieve an eight hour work day, which is huge. The Union achieved collective bargaining rights in 1933. Health and Retirement benefits for the miners and their families were earned in 1946. In 1969, the US wa convinced the Congress to enact the federal coal mine Health and Safety Act, which provided compensation for miners who had black lung disease. There's only one doctor in the state now, that is able to certify that somebody has black lung, because they are just trying to regulate that so that it makes it almost impossible to get diagnosed with black lung now.

Matthew: 59:58

Yeah, we didn't even talk about mine. There's asthma is what it was.

Marissa: 1:00:02

Today their constitution has the goals of payment of the salary that's commensurate with the dangerous work conditions. payment to be fair, made fairly and legal tender, not with company script, provide safe working conditions, but operators to use the latest technologies in order to make it as safe as possible. provide better ventilation systems. So you know, to help decrease instances of black lung disease, in for safety laws and making it illegal for for mines to have inadequate roof supports or contaminated air or water. Limit regular hours to an eight hour work day in child labor, have accurate scales to measure the coal products. So what you know workers could be paid fairly establish unbiased public police forces in the mind areas that were not controlled by the operators. So no more Baldwin Felts. The workers reserved the right to strike but would work with operators to reach reasonable conclusions to negotiations. I mean, nobody wants to strike. They get to the point where they feel like they're not able to negotiate successfully and then they strike but nobody wants to they want to reach this agreement.

Matthew: 1:01:14

This also stopped being paid by the tonnage while they were still paid by the tonnage. But it was, they also had daily wages at that point, too. So

Marissa: 1:01:22

actually paid for the work of building the mind. And yeah, establishing everything. But Western, the Western Union School System tended to forget this entire thing for a long time. And I don't want to like overdo it, but like it, it's kind of frustrating to me that this is just not as well known as it should be.

Matthew: 1:01:45

I'm I will go out on a limb. And I suspect that every state has bits of history like this, that that if you like once you realize that it's not for the coal specifically, but those bits of history that are like why had they not taught why did why do we not know?

Marissa: 1:02:00

Or has it but this is like kind of a major, like the biggest labor uprising since ever in the US and people don't talk about it in New York Times calls this conflict among the best and largely forgotten American stories. The Smithsonian actually said that called did an article called The coal mining massacre America forgot. And the Saturday Evening Post, wrote a quote, wrote an article called The Buried History of Western years Cold Wars. So I mean, I don't know if this educated anyone but I definitely feel like I should have known more about this growing up from that area. And I didn't my grandpa was a coal miner. My uncle was a coal miner. My cousin was a coal miner. I mean, I but I didn't. Yeah,

Matthew: 1:02:45

also fun little fact that the same Fire in the hole is from the US mining. Is it? Yeah, because you would drill a hole into the wall with a hand crank, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, and then you put a charge in there with your dynamite or whatever. This is underground. This isn't like when you see the you see those the explosions happening when they're doing like the quote unquote strip mining across the top before you see like, everything explodes. But this is they they're in the shaft with them. And they put the dynamite in there and then before they light it, they yell fire in the hole Fire in the hole Fire in the hole, and then blow it up. Wow, I thought I thought it was from cannons from like, yeah, ship to ship battles firing all the fire because you're drilling it into a hole, pop it in there. Interesting. dTT I guess it's also that you know, that song is at the at this McCobb minute. That's our facts within the show about other McCobb things that may or may not be related related to the topic at hand. And that's the theme song that even when you're just making mouth noises, you still want to make sure that you're not doing any copyright infringement. We should have a theme song. So for today's McCobb minute, what I wanted to share and this is this is the McCobb minute is generally a fun little fact. But to kind of highlight the what we're dealing with in the topic here. I mean, joking aside, oddly enough on May 19 1902, because you said Matewan was maintained on May 19 1902. In Freder, Ville, Tennessee, are afraid of a coal mine in Tennessee. 214 miners were killed in an explosion. 26 of those miners were trapped, spending their final hours writing letters to their loved ones. When their bodies were recovered, their letters were then put into the local newspapers. And one of the ones that are wanted to share with you was Alice do the best you can. I am going to rest. Goodbye, little Ellen, darling. Goodbye for us both. Albert said the Lord had saved him. Do the best you can with the children. We are all praying for air to support us. But is getting so bad without any air. Howard Elbert said for you to wear his shoes and clothing. It is now half past two o'clock on Monday. Powell Harmons watch is in the arteries Woods hands. Ellen, I want you to live right and come to Heaven. Raise the children the best you can. Oh how I wish I could be with you. Goodbye. All of you. Goodbye. Bury me and Elbert in the same grave my little Eddie, Ellen. Goodbye, Lilly. Goodbye, Jimmy. Goodbye, Horus. Goodbye. It is 25 minutes after two o'clock. There's a few of us alive yet. Oh God. For one more breath. Ellen, remember me as long as you live, Goodbye, darling, written by Jay L. vowel. The he's speaking for him and his 14 year old son who are suffocating to death and a mind with 26 other people who also share who also have their little notes that they wrote, all of which are heart wrenching. And just say write having enough time to know that you're going to die and have enough time to actually write this letter, or these letters is just absolutely incredible. And knowing because they will find your body eventually, but not not in time, almost certainly. And all and this is just to illustrate how dangerous and deadly this job was. And this, and every one of these men who write these letters all say that they found the Lord or they're going to God or whatever, these are all that these are all God fearing people. And, and the thing with that, though, is they had to understand before they ever stepped foot into the elevator to get into the shaft that there might they might not come out. So they had to be at peace during these times. And just to imagine sitting there holding your child as you just suffocate to death as you you know, brought brought them to work that day, you know, and it's just, it's just incredible. It's very, very sad. It's an incredibly, incredibly strong, very powerful, I'll post the link to it. So you can read the rest of them. But they're, they're, they're, they're worth they're worth taking a look. I mean, there's there's there's a handful of them. But they're it's incredible. And you can even I'll leave a lot I'll leave a link where you can actually see it written in their their own handwriting and stuff. It's it's powerful stuff.

Marissa: 1:08:03

I'm sure they did die,

Matthew: 1:08:05

did it? Yeah, yeah. This these were all found, recovered with their, with their bodies after they cleared out the mind. And, sadly enough, they knew that their bodies are going to be found that the reason they knew that their bodies were going to be found was not because they're the companies trying to rescue them, because they still need to mine because there's still coal in that mine, you know, so there will be found eventually. It's really incredible stuff. I know it's a bit of a downer, but this is Macabrepedia would deal with death and death adjacent stuff here. But I think that is what we have for you today. Thank you so very much as always for joining us. If you want to reach out to us, you can do so on Facebook and Twitter at Macabrepedia.

Marissa: 1:08:52

We're also on Instagram at Macabrepediapod. And you can always email us at macabrepediapod@gmail.com.

Matthew: 1:08:59

Thank you for listening. Please share if you have anybody that may even be remotely interested in listening to these types of stories. And thank you for everyone who has reviewed us so far. Yeah, I know. Also, I found out we can be reviewed on Amazon or audible. Oh yeah, I did not. I did not know that. But yeah, you can also review us on Audible no one has done so so far. But I've never even use Audible listener, not a sponsor. But I didn't even know you could do that. For podcasts. I never even thought to go to Audible for podcasts. But anyway, thank you so much. All of you who support us on Patreon, those who listen and reach out we appreciate all of the feedback, all of the interactions that we get from people. Thank you so much as always, and join us next week as we add another entry into this our Macabrepedia