Tags
Appalachia, crime, Ethel, genealogy, history, Logan Banner, Logan County, murder, photos, true crime, West Virginia
Italian Killer in Ethel (1914)
13 Friday Nov 2020
Posted in Italian American History
Category Archives: Italian American History
Ethel, Logan County, WV (2020)
11 Saturday Apr 2020
Posted in Battle of Blair Mountain, Coal, Huntington, Italian American History
Tags
Appalachia, Battle of Blair Mountain, Bearwallow Branch, C&O Railroad, C.W. Campbell, Camp Branch, Charleston, coal, Dingess Run, Dingess-Rum Coal Company, Don Chafin, Ethel, Ethel Hollow, Freeze Fork, history, Huntington, James L. Caldwell, John Q. Dickinson, Logan County, Mash Branch, photos, Red Campbell, Rockcamp Branch, Rockhouse Branch, Wanda, West Virginia
In the 1890s, land speculators James L. Caldwell, a banker from Huntington, C.W. Campbell, an attorney from Huntington, and John Q. Dickinson, a banker from Charleston, acquired many acres of land on Dingess Run and Rum Creek. The trio procured some of Logan County’s finest coal lands with six accessible seams of coal. They formed the Dingess-Rum Coal Company in June of 1903 to administer their lands, which totaled over 26,000 acres. They surveyed a railroad bed up Dingess Run and laid the cross-ties, leaving only the rails to be laid by the C&O Railroad, which occurred by late 1906. From there, the railroad extended up Right Fork and Left Fork (Ethel Hollow). At the juncture of the two forks, the company town of Ethel, named for the daughter or wife of an early coal operator, was established around 1907. In 1923, the town was populated by 2000 residents.
Ethel was originally located at the mouth of Left Fork (now Ethel Hollow) of Dingess Run. Today, Ethel includes Camp Branch, Freeze Fork (town and stream), Rockcamp Branch, Rockhouse Branch (now Georges Creek), Mash Branch (formerly Wanda), and Bearwallow Branch (formerly Red Campbell). It is situated at the base of Blair Mountain.
Ethel Coal Company Supply Building, constructed about 1914 by Italian stonemasons. The building served as a staging area for Don Chafin’s defensive forces in the Battle of Blair Mountain. 1 March 2020
Remnants of Ethel No. 1 Company Store, built between 1907 and 1916. 1 March 2020
World War I Statue in Logan, WV (1928)
26 Monday Aug 2019
Posted in Huntington, Italian American History, Logan, World War I
Tags
A.D. Collins, A.F. Benjamin, American Legion, Bee Stewart, Betty Davin, Boy Scouts, C.L. Wright, Clarence Bartram, David Hensley, Doris Bradley, Edward Gunther, Favaro, Floyd W. Clay, Gunther-McNeely-Nowlan Post, Hatfield Island, history, Huntington, Italy, James Greever, James L. Robinson, John B. McNeely, John Martin, Keefer Jennings Whitman, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Lorena greever, M.B. Kendall, M.D. Tony Kendall, Madge Adkins, Margaret McNemar, Marshall College, Marshall University, Midelburg Island, Mike Tarka, Morris P. Shawkey, Newton Cook, Oscar Dial, Pete Minotti, Peter White, Robert F. Caverlee, Roy Lowe, Roy Simms, Scotty McDonald, Tony Curia, Ulysses B. Vance, W.C. Turley, West Virginia, Willard Ball, William F. Munsey, Willie F. Smith, World War I
From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history about the World War I statue now located at Hatfield/Midelburg Island:
Soldier Monument Dedication Nov. 11
Granite Figure of Doughboy Will Be Set Up This Week, Minotti Says
The $6,000 granite doughboy memorial to World War veterans, the erection of which is being sponsored by Pete Minotti of this city, will be placed on the base near the west Court House entrance sometime during the next three days.
Word was received here by Mr. Minotti that the monument had been shipped from Chicago Monday and that it would arrive in Logan sometime tomorrow. Mr. Minotti said that the figure would be placed on the base and all the work completed this week.
Dedication will be held Sunday afternoon, November 11, at 2 o’clock. The American Legion of this city will have charge of the ceremonies to which the public is invited.
Boy scouts of the community are busy selling tags to help defray expenses of purchasing and erecting the monument. The doughboy figure is larger than life size, being seven feet tall. The figure depicts an American soldier carrying a rifle in one hand and throwing a bomb with the other hand. He is pictured as in the midst of a barb wire entanglement.
Logan (WV) Banner, 30 October 1928
***
8 Tons of Granite In New Monument to Logan Soldiery
Seventeen thousand pounds of Vermont granite will surmount the concrete base of the monument now being erected in the Court House yard. Atop the granite blocks will be placed a seven-foot statue representing an American doughboy carrying a rifle and bomb poised for throwing.
The monument will be 19 feet high, says Pete Minotti, local contractor, who is backing and taking the leading part in providing a suitable memorial for Logan county’s heroic dead. The base will be hidden by an earthen mound or terrace on all four sides.
Dedication of this memorial will be the feature of this year’s celebration of the signing of the Armistice on November 11.
Logan (WV) Banner, 2 November 1928
***
Arrange Plans for Unveiling of Statue
Plans for the dedication of the new monument to the memory of World War participants, living and dead, will be completed at a special meeting of the local post, American Legion, at the Court House Dugout Thursday night at 7:30.
The unveiling and dedicatory services are set for 2 o’clock Sunday afternoon, Armistice day. Pete Minotti, originator of the plan and the donor of the monument, will make the presentation. Formal acceptance will be by M.D. (Tony) Kendall, a leading legionnaire of the city. There will be other addresses and vocal numbers by Mrs. Madge Adkins, popular and talented singer.
Boy Scouts will aid the Legion men in carrying out an appropriate program of exercises.
Logan (WV) Banner, 6 November 1928
***
Monument to Soldiers Ready For Unveiling
Exercises to be Held at Court House at 2:00 O’clock Sunday Afternoon
Minotti is Moving Spirit
Huntington Educator Will Deliver Address–Flag-Raising Comes First
On the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, Logan county soldiers who paid the supreme price will be honored by their kinsfolk and the citizens of the county when the Pete Minotti memorial is unveiled Sunday afternoon at two o’clock.
The memorial, a fine bronze reproduction of a doughboy mounted on a suitable granite base, was erected near the western entrance to the Court House during the first part of this week and by tomorrow evening everything will be in complete readiness for the dedication exercise.
The American Legion will have charge of the services with the Boy Scouts and several others assisting. The Boy Scouts will conduct a flag-raising just before the unveiling exercises.
The dedicatory address will be delivered by C.L. Wright, superintendent of Huntington schools and a brilliant orator. These exercises will be opened with prayer by Rev. Robert F. Caverlee. Pete Minotti, whose generosity and whose love for his–adopted–country have made this memorial possible, will make the presentation speech. Thereupon the unveiling will take place, with Misses Scotty McDonald, Margaret McNemar, Lorena Greever, Doris Bradley and Betty Davin and James Greever participating. Formal acceptance will be made by M.B. Kendall, commander of Fifth district, department of West Virginia, American Legion. Salute and taps will be followed by benediction by Rev. A.F. Benjamin.
This monument, costing $6,000, is 19 feet high.
A bronze name plate at the statue’s base has inscribed across the top the dates, “1917-1918,” and underneath are the names of the 39 Logan County World War veterans killed, mortally wounded or fatally afflicted by disease while in service. At the bottom is the name, “Pete Minotti Memorial,” and the date, “1928.” The American Legion crest is also on the plate.
Logan (WV) Banner, 13 November 1928
***
Big Concourse At Dedication of Monument
Dr. M.P. Shawkey Delivers Eloquent, Patriotic Address At Sunday’s Exercises
P. Minotti the Generous
Presents Memorial to Legion Post as Custodian–Flag-Raising Ceremony
Logan county paid tribute Sunday to a long list of its heroic dead sleeping in foreign and native soil when hundreds of people witnessed the dedication of the monument to the memory of the warriors who fell in the World War.
The Pete C. Minnotti memorial depicting a khaki-clad doughboy hurling a grenade amid barb wire entanglements was dedicated with fitting ceremonies on the eleventh Armistice Day. Dr. M.P. Shawkey, president of Marshall College, delivered the address. C.L. Wright, superintendent of the Huntington schools, who was unable to be present because of illness, was scheduled to deliver the address and Dr. Shawkey filled his place.
In his presentation speech Mr. Minotti reminded the people that the memorial was erected so that people passing by hurriedly in the pursuit of riches might glance up at the soldier figure and remember the boys who fell fighting for freedom and democracy. Mr. Minotti said that he convicted the idea of erecting some memorial to the dead soldiers last summer as he journeyed through his native land, Italy, and in every city and hamlet, no matter how small, the people had erected some kind of a memorial to their dead heroes.
Generous and Patriotic
“Adjoining counties had honored their soldiers and it was time that Logan county honor their dead with a fitting memorial,” said Mr. Minotti.
During the last two months Mr. Minotti, through the cooperation of the American Legion, has been busy planning for and erecting the monument that now graces the Court House lawn near the western entrances. This generous donor, an Italian by birth and an American by choice, was born at Favaro, Italy, October 22, 1885. He came to Logan county 22 years ago and since that time Logan has been his home.
The monument was accepted by A.D. Collins, commander of Gunther-McNeely-Nowlan post, in behalf of the Legion.
Dr. Shawkey spoke of the prosperity which this country enjoys and the lofty position which the nation commands. Yet he urged that the goal which the people should strive for should be a happy and contented country is preference to wealth and a dominating position.
In the unveiling ceremony Misses Scotty McDonald, Margaret McNemar, Lorena Greever, Doris Bradley, Betty Davin and James Greever participated. Previous to the unveiling the Logan county scouts had charge of the flag raising ceremony. W.C. Turley was chairman of the dedication. Following the ceremony a rifle squad fired three volleys of shots over the monument as a salute to the dead.
C. & O. Band Made Special Music
It is also said that the light in the right hand of the doughboy which represents a grenade is the only one of its kind in the state and it was Mr. Minotti’s original idea.
On the bronze tablet on the base of the monument are inscribed the names of 39 men who died in action of wounds and of disease in Europe.
Roll of Honor
The men killed in action are:
Willard Ball, Clarence Bartram, Floyd W. Clay, Newton Cook, Tony Curia, Oscar Dial, Edward Gunther, David Hensley, Roy Lowe, John B. McNeely, John Martin, William F. Munsey, James L. Robinson, Roy Simms, Willie F. Smith, Bee Stewart, Mike Tarka, Ulysses B. Vance, Peter White, Keefer Jennings Whitman.
Those dying of wounds are: John L. Blankenship, Elmer Cook, Homer Hobbs, Noble J. Lax, Lawrence Marcuzzi, Denver Mullins, William R. Nowland, Haskell Phillips, Henry H. Runyon, Harold Thompson. Those dying of disease in Europe: Allen Bryant, Thomas J. Cox, Fred E. Hahne, Joe Hardy, Clyde Jeffrey, Johnnie Johnson, Allen Tabor, Homer Vance, and Levi J. Vance.
Those who died of disease in the United States but whose names do not appear on the tablet are William O. Bailey, Elbert Billups, James L. Brown, Elbert Carter, Sam Dillard, George D. Fletcher, Bert W. Green, Calvin Hughes, Wilbert S. Jeffreys, Sam Johnson, Claude B. Justice, Druie Mounts, Moss F. Stone, James Weaver, and Roy White.
The soldiers from Logan county who were wounded in action but whose names do not appear on the tablet were Albert Adams, Zatto Adkins, William W. Adkins, Lovell H. Aldridge, Willie Allen, Frank Ball, Elisha Ball, Frank J. Bell, Walter S. Blake, Evert Blankenship, Tom Boring, George F. Breeden, H. Brewster, Charles Brewster, H.C. Brown, Floyd Chambers, James Chapin, Greenway Christian, Gay T. Gonley, George E. Covey, Ella Craddock, Dan Craft, Jim F. Crawford, John H. Crittenden, James Cyrus, Thomas Y. Davis, Bird Dingess, Rector H. Elkins, James M. Ellis, Carl Ellis, Frank Ferrell, Sidney Ferrell, Robert L. Gore, Burton W. Gore, Ben H. Gosney, Meddie Craley, Orvil Grubb, Earl Hager, William E. Hanshaw, John H. Harris, William Harris, Stonewall Hensley, James Jackson, Albert Jeffrey, Henon Jerrell, Ned Johnson, Floyd Johnson, Thomas P. Justice, Luther Lacy, Tony Ladas, Charles Burton Litten, George Luty, Herbert L. McKinney, Nick Mallozzo, Clifton Manns, Bill Manville, Ben Maynard, William D. Maynard, George Meadows, Shellie Moxley, Charlie M. Munsey, Spencer Mullins, Thomas R. Newmann, Clarence W. Parkins, James D. Peters, Arlie J. Price, Alfred Prichard, Finnie Walter Pugh, Bert Rayborn, Frank C. Reynolds, John Roberts, Dennie Robertson, Jennings Robinson, Otto Sanders, Burnie Sanson, Lee Shelton, John A. Shepherd, Clarence Smith, John Smith, Mack Smith, Patsy Vance, Frank Ward, John L. Ward, Charlie Warcovies, Thomas Weir, Joseph White, John B. Wilkinson, Jr., Frank C. Willcoven, Tom Williams, Will Wilson, Jasper Wooten, and Wilson Workman.
Sunday’s exercises were witnessed by a crowd comparable in size to that which greeted Colonel Roosevelt here during the campaign. While the Roosevelt crowd was considerably larger, Sunday’s crowd occupied most of the space fronting the monument and the main entrance to the Court House, and those on the outer edges heard but snatches of the speeches. And of course there were present scores of kinsmen of those whose names appear in rustless bronze on this granite shaft. As they gathered close to scan these names and to note the expression on the face of the doughboy representation, tears poured down the cheeks of Gold Star mothers as if to climax the hallowing of this spot–this heart center of the city and county–this monument to the ashes, this temple to the fame of those who laid their lives on their country’s altar in the greatest crisis in human history.
Much of the time since the dedication, at least during daylight hours, this new monument has been the cynosure of groups of varying size.
Logan (WV) Banner, 13 November 1928
Recollections of McKinley Grimmett of Bruno, WV 4 (1984)
07 Friday Sep 2018
Tags
Accoville, Appalachia, Bill Mosely, Bruno, Buffalo Creek, Burl Christian, Cap Hatfield, coal, crime, Cub Creek, Democratic Party, deputy sheriff, Devil Anse Hatfield, Don Chafin, Elech Luster, Elech Steven, Elk Creek, genealogy, Harve Grimmett, Henderson Grimmett, history, influenza, Italian-Americans, Joe Browning, Joe Hatfield, justice of the peace, Logan County, Logan Lumber Company, Mallory, Mallory Coal Company, Matilda Hatfield, McKinley Grimmett, Nancy Grimmett, Phil Elkins, Sand Lick, Scott Browning, sheriff, Spice Creek, Tennis Hatfield, Thomas Hatfield, Watt Elkins, West Virginia, World War I, Wyatt Belcher, Wyoming County
McKinley Grimmett was born on November 30, 1896 to Henderson and Nancy (Hatfield) Grimmett at Sand Lick, Logan County, WV. On May 14, 1916, Mr. Grimmett married a Ms. Plymale, who soon died, in Logan County. One child named Alva died on June 21, 1919 of whooping cough, aged fourteen months. His World War I draft registration card dated September 12, 1918 identifies him as having blue eyes and light-colored hair. He was employed by Mallory Coal Company at Mallory, WV. On November 13, 1919, he married Matilda “Tilda” Hatfield, daughter of Thomas Hatfield, in Logan County. He identified himself as a farmer in both of his marriage records. During the 1920s, he served as a deputy under Sheriff Tennis Hatfield.
The following interview of Mr. Grimmett was conducted at his home on July 17, 1984. In this part of the interview, he recalls his occupations. The post-World War I flu pandemic, early Bruno residents, timbering, the Hatfields, politics, and crime are featured.
***
Do you remember the flu that came along after World War I?
Oh yeah, I’ve seen ‘em up here in my graveyard bury as high as three or four in one day. Buried a man and his wife and kid all in one day there. It was bad. I was running a drum at Mallory for the company. I went there well that morning and at 10 o’clock they hauled me back in a jo-wagon. I couldn’t walk with the flu. I was down for four days and the mine didn’t run. I got over it awful quick. The doctor come… Dr. Shrewsbury, used to be at Mallory. Next day was Saturday and Sunday and he told me to stay off for Monday. And he said he’d send after me. Come and get me, bring me back in the evening. All he wanted me to do was run the drum. Not get hot or anything. I got over mine. My sister come there to see me. She had seven kids. She come there and took it. And all her kids come to see her and they all took it. And her husband come to see about them and he took it. And her husband couldn’t talk plain. Keenan Walls was her husband. He called onions “inghams.” My mother would say, Keenan, what do you want to eat today? They fried them. She’d fry them onions. He said, I don’t know hardly unless you fry me some more inghams. Yeah, they’s about 250 graves in that graveyard of mine.
Tape stops.
There’s a lot of people up this creek. Used to be there wasn’t about six families when I was a boy growing up. Wyatt Belcher lived down below the mouth of the creek. And Burl Christian lived up here a little ways. And Watt Elkins lived over there. And my daddy lived next. And my daddy’s brother Harve Grimmett lived next. Phil Elkins lived next. Now in the head of the creek where this backland was, that was before McDonalds got a hold of it. They lived on it, built log houses and everything else. I couldn’t tell you who all… Mountses there. I made several caskets. I made my mother’s coffin. I bought my daddy a steel coffin and I had to take some straw out of it. He was a pretty good sized man like myself. They both had the flu. And she had a lot of chickens here. I lived up at the old homeplace and they lived here. She wanted to know where that straw come from. I told her the truth about it. I told her I had to take it out of Daddy’s casket. It was a little too tight on him and I wouldn’t put him away that way. And said, Kin—she called me Kin, my nickname—said, whenever I die I want you to make my casket. She’d seen me make so many, you know. She wanted me to do that. And so I made it. I went to Logan and I bought the handles. It cost me $105 dollars. Looked like silver. And I bought plush stuff and lined it and everything. And I went down here to this planing mill and I bought the first class lumber. Didn’t have a knot in it. Logan Lumber Company run it then. And I made it. Oh, I’ve made oodles of ‘em. I made the old man Joe Browning’s in Spice Creek up here one time… And he’d sawed beech lumber now for me to make that casket out of. And old man Scott Browning, I got him to help me. And I bet you he weighed about 300 pound. And that beech lumber was 22 inches wide and I still had to put a slab on each side up at his hips down about four inches wide on each side. They couldn’t get enough men around that to lift it. I don’t see how they ever got it down in the grave. I didn’t go to the grave with ‘em. I made the casket and that was all.
Would you rather work with timber or coal?
Well, it’s according to what kind you do with lumber. I believe I would rather work in the mines because I’ve always had a good job in the mines. I worked 44 years and two months around the mines and I never was laid off. Born and raised here in Logan County. Never been in jail. Never been arrested. Never been sued. I never bothered nobody’s business only my own. I’ve been honest with everybody.
Were you ever politically active?
Yeah, I was, whenever them Hatfields was in there. They’d make you, whether you wanted to or not. Tennis and Joe and all of them. You get in that bunch of Hatfields at that day and time you couldn’t get away from ‘em. They’d claim me as their cousin all the time, ‘cause I was half-Hatfield myself. I don’t reckon my mother was any relation to any of them. She didn’t know nothing about them. She was from Wyoming County up on Big Cub Creek, you know. Now she heard lots of talk about Devil Anse and Cap and all of them. She was afraid for me to be with them all the time.
Did you like politics?
Yeah, I liked it pretty good.
Did you ever run for office?
Yeah, I run for JP one time. ’52. Bill Mosely run against me. And I beat Bill over here at his office precinct but he beat me up at Buffalo. Yeah, I run for JP one time. I never did run any more.
Who has impressed you the most in politics?
I reckon Tennis has been the one. Now Joe is a man that was still kind of sulky like. He didn’t seem like that he appreciated what you’d done or something like that. Either that or he thought hisself a little bit higher than you was. Something like that. I don’t know. I couldn’t figure him out. But Cap now, he’d cuss them out and everything else.
Do you remember the ’32 election?
Oh yeah. I remember. Why, coal companies, they went in with the Democrats and they fired us off of the deputy force. The coal companies put us on as guards. And we stayed that way for about three months. And Democrats come in and they cut that law out. And we went on back to work and that didn’t change nothing. I tell you, it was a sight whenever Chafin was in there. Lord, they killed people and everything. Up Buffalo at Accoville, they was building a railroad up through there. Well, that day and time they built camps for their men to stay in and they rode horses, the bosses did, ride him right out on the job. And they’d get up in the morning, Elech Steven and Elech R. Luster was the two bosses—one was superintendent, one was boss—and they’d go around, one had a ball bat and a hole drilled through it and a strap of leather in it and it was a small ball bat now and if them colored people or hunkies and Italians wasn’t up they’d knock the window lights out and then nail the window up instead of buying them a window and putting it back in. And they killed them two, the hunkies and Italians. They come out on ‘em and shot ‘em both and killed ‘em. About eight of them. Well, they killed three of ‘em before they got out of sight, the Americans did, up Accoville Hollow there. And the rest of ‘em come through and they shot one right over the Huff Knob and he rolled plumb from the top of that ridge down just like a dog bouncin’ plumb into the river. That made four of ‘em they got. Then they got two more up here on Elk Creek. Then they got two more up at Spice. Made the eight. Well, they killed them all. And they brought them—I was up there at the store at Elk Creek whenever they brought them two Italians down there… Now, this old raw bacon. Slabs that come that wide and be that long, grease would be running out. And they would cut them off raw meat and throw it to them like throwing it to a dog and they’d eat it.
NOTE: Some names may be transcribed incorrectly.
Recollections of McKinley Grimmett of Bruno, WV 2 (1984)
03 Monday Sep 2018
Posted in Battle of Blair Mountain, Coal, Italian American History, Logan, Man
Tags
Alva Grimmett, Appalachia, Barnabus, Blair Mountain, Bruno, Buffalo Creek, Cabin Creek, Campbell's Creek, carpenter, Charleston, Christian, coal, Democratic Party, deputy sheriff, Don Chafin, drum runner, Ed Goodman, Emmett Scaggs, George McClintock, Great Depression, Hatfield Bottom, Henderson Grimmett, history, Joe Hatfield, John Chafin, Kanawha County, Kistler, Landsville, Logan County, Mallory, Mallory Coal Company, Matilda Hatfield, McKinley Grimmett, moonshining, Nancy Grimmett, prosecuting attorney, Republican Party, Sand Lick, sheriff, Superintendent of Schools, Tennis Hatfield, Thomas Hatfield, United Mine Workers of America, West Virginia, Wild Goose Saloon
McKinley Grimmett was born on November 30, 1896 to Henderson and Nancy (Hatfield) Grimmett at Sand Lick, Logan County, WV. On May 14, 1916, Mr. Grimmett married a Ms. Plymale, who soon died, in Logan County. One child named Alva died on June 21, 1919 of whooping cough, aged fourteen months. His World War I draft registration card dated September 12, 1918 identifies him as having blue eyes and light-colored hair. He was employed by Mallory Coal Company at Mallory, WV. On November 13, 1919, he married Matilda “Tilda” Hatfield, daughter of Thomas Hatfield, in Logan County. He identified himself as a farmer in both of his marriage records. During the 1920s, he served as a deputy under Sheriff Tennis Hatfield.
The following interview of Mr. Grimmett was conducted at his home on July 17, 1984. In this part of the interview, he recalls his occupations. Coal, Don Chafin, Tennis Hatfield, unionization, and the Great Depression are featured.
***
Did you ever go to work in the mines?
Oh yeah. I’ve been… That’s what I done over here for 44 years and two months, in and around the mines.
Who hired you?
Yeah, a fellow by the name of Frazier down here at Logan. Superintendent. Not at Logan. Landsville. I stayed there four years, pretty nigh of five years. Then I quit down there and I come to Christian and I stayed up here. A fellow by the name of Harry Venebale hired me over here, the superintendent. And I stayed with him 34 years. Wouldn’t let nobody else hold a lever but me. Drum runner. I’d run as high as 35 railroad cars a day off of that hill. I’ve done it many a day.
Did you do other jobs?
Oh yeah. Days the mines didn’t work I was the carpenter boss. That is, I was overseer over ‘em all. After the union come in, why I wouldn’t take it as a boss. They just run me as a leader, you know. At that time, I’d either have to go in as a boss or get off the union, you know. And I knowed the union was the best for me and I stayed with the union.
Did you have any role in organizing the union?
Oh yeah. I had a big… They wouldn’t let us organize on their property. We had to go across an island over there in the river and have our meeting to organize.
Is it true that local men had the union organized and were waiting for Washington to allow it?
Yeah, that’s about right. We got it. No, they come from Cabin Creek and Kanawha County and Campbell’s Creek over there and tried to organize us. Don Chafin was the high sheriff. He got so much ton per coal and everything. And we couldn’t do a thing because he had every child, woman, and everything else on his side to block us every way. They come to Blair Mountain and had fights. Killed several people, too. Both sides. But I never was in it. I was running a drum and they never did ask me to go. But they paid ‘em. They did go from over there. And went from around here, too. To fight against them, you know. And there was several of them got killed up Dingess Run there. I’ve been at the place where one fellow, sink hole he was in. There was four of them got killed: deputy sheriffs. George Gore and a fellow by the name of Mitchem. I don’t know the other two. I’ve forgot ‘em now. George Gore and Mitchem. But I know where they was at and everything there.
Can you describe Don Chafin?
I’m not too familiar with him now. But he controlled Logan County all the time. Whatever he said, why they had to do or they’d get around you and beat you to death or something like that, throw you in the river, tie your hands behind you – stuff like that.
Were you a Chafin deputy?
I worked for Tennis Hatfield and Joe.
How did Tennis hire you?
Well, Emmett Scaggs run against him. And the County Court was Democratic and they give it all to Emmett. Tennis carried it up to the high court and he won it. About that time, that’s when it was, 1922 I believe it was, last part of 1922, well Emmett, he was a well-educated fellow, he had been the superintendent of schools and everything, he turns around and registers and turned to be a Republican, well then they appointed him prosecuting attorney. You understand? Give him a job. Now the Democrats didn’t do that—Tennis and all of them did. It made a full change around whenever Tennis was elected. The County Court had been Democratic all the time and it turned over, changed hands, and make a Republican County Court. Just like they’ve got now, it’s all Democratic. And a Republican couldn’t get nothing. I’ve seen John Chafin and Hi beat an Italian man. He had two ducks carrying them. Had to wade the river. They fired him over there at Christian. Had to ride horses that day and time. Didn’t have no cars. And they jumped off their horses after they overtook him and they beat him until he couldn’t walk. My dad had a store down at the mouth of the creek and he went and got him and got him up to the store and his ducks got loose. And Mother got the ducks and she raised all kinds of ducks from ‘em. But I haven’t seen that man from that day to this. He’s dead now. But they liked to beat him to death. Now Henry Allen was another one. They barred him from the union. He was a big organizer when it first started. And he got to playing crooked work and they put him out of the union. And he’d done something or other to the party. And they beat him around there at Kistler so hard – the creek was up. Buffalo was a big creek any way. They throwed him up there at Ben Gall’s store in the creek and he washed down there at Kistler and lodged up behind the middle pier at the railroad track. Some men run in and helped him out. I forget who it was. I didn’t see that go off but that’s what happened. Well, he come up here, Henry did, to where I was walking and wanted me to get him a job. Well, I told him I would talk to the boss. A fellow by the name of George Kore. George Kore give him a job working for Tony Lumber Company, helping build houses, you know. He worked about three days and why George fired him and wouldn’t have nothing more to do with him. Henry’s dead now. That’s the last I knowed of him.
Do you remember the names of any early union organizers?
I never did meet ‘em. I tell you they kept me busy all the time as a repair man and drum runner, and days that the mines didn’t run I had to do repair work on the houses and tipples and stuff. Them organizers was, one of ‘em was a fellow by the name of Hall. I’ve seen him but I forget his first name. He had an office over there in Charleston. He was president of the union then. Don Chafin went over there and aimed to tell him what to do and he shot Don. It put Don in the hospital for a long time. After he got out there, Don Chafin and Tennis Hatfield had been in to the Wild Goose business selling bootlegging moonshine whisky up at Hatfield Bottom [in Barnabus]. And they fell out. And Tennis, he goes before the federal grand jury. I forget who the judge was. I knowed him. [George McClintock] And Tennis indicted him and sent him to the pen for four years. But they never did do nothing to Hall for shooting him over there in the miners’ office. But he never did go back in it anymore.
You remember when the mines began to mechanize?
Oh, yeah. I was in there then. I worked up til ’62.
How did the mines change?
Well, they loaded by the car that day and time when they first started. Then they got conveyors in. And they cut the coal and they throwed it on them conveyors by hand. And they built belt-lines from here all across the river, just as far as you wanted to, you know. Had different offsets in it and different motors pulling the belt line. And it come out into a big tipple and dumped into a tipple and then I took it from that. I run it 2100 feet down the incline over there on two monitors on three rails. Now you figure that out. Ten tons to each monitor Now they come up there to the middle way place and they put four rails, you understand? And then one monitor passed the other one at that middle place. All the time. They had a big drum. The drum was twelve foot in diameter and fourteen foot long that way. Built out of gum. Six by six gum. Rope was inch and a quarter.
Was there much bitterness among people when mechanization started?
Oh, no. They was all for it. They was everything was settled. Whatever the union said, they had to do at that time. It was all loaded by the ton by the car. There wasn’t no weighing or nothing like that ‘til they got the union. Then they had to put scales in, you know, and weigh these cars of coal and they had to pay so much a ton. Why, there was people over there at Christian – I never will forget it. Ed Goodman was his name. He’d be broke every week. He’d never load over four or five cars. Just 35 cents a car and a car would hold about four tons, five. And they was starving him to death. He’d come in there on paydays and I’d come in. I was always the last man getting off the hill. He was wanting on dollar scrip. He’d come over and whisper to me and tell me they wouldn’t let him have a one dollar scrip. And I’d vouch for him. Sometimes I’d pull my pay envelope out—they put your money in a pay envelope, you know—and I’ve pull out my pay envelope and give him a dollar and that would do him until Monday. He had a big family. They all weren’t home at that time. He managed. And then when the union come in, they had to treat him the way they did the rest of them.
Did you maintain steady work during the Great Depression?
Yeah. I’ve always had work. I get awful good Social Security. I study all the time – they worked me too much. I actually couldn’t stand it hardly. They’d work me Sunday and every other day. But now I never got no big money at that time. I started off at four dollars a day and I ended up with two hundred and fifty dollars a month. I stayed on that way for 19 years. They wouldn’t give me a raise. I asked ‘em for more money. Miners got a raise, you know. They said no, he couldn’t give it. Was going broke. I said well if you won’t give it I’ll be leaving you first of the month. And he didn’t think I would. Day before I was supposed to quit I sent my toolbox off the hill and everything. They had a man-car there that they rode backwards and forwards that people rode up and down the hill in. That night the man said if I would stay he would split the difference with me. Give me half. Give me twenty-five dollars. I said no I won’t do it. I’ve made you a fortune here. So he wouldn’t come up to fifty dollars and I wouldn’t come off it. Next day they had a wreck. A fella was running… I was sitting here. And they wasn’t no timber around there and I could see the monitors from here. And he wrecked and I never seen such dust in all of my life. And I got in my car and went over there. And they tore one up so bad they had to buy a new one. A monitor. That cost ‘em some money, too.
NOTE: Some names may be transcribed incorrectly.
Sons of Italy Organized in Logan, WV (1927)
28 Saturday Oct 2017
Posted in Italian American History, Logan
Tags
Albert Ferolio, Alex Defobio, Antonio Iaquinto, Appalachia, Caio Duilio, Caio Duilio Lodge, Charles Bennett, Dante Belladonna, David Ferzacca, Fairmont, Frank Vinci, genealogy, Gentile Varzza, history, J.C. Gates, John Caldarazzo, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, merchant, New York City, Patsy Ferzacca, Patsy Veltri, Petro Defobio, Petro Toriano, Sons of Italy, Vincinzo Procobio, West Virginia
From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this story about the Sons of Italy dated January 14, 1927:
Local Italians, led by Vincinzo Procobio, president of all the lodges of West Virginia, organized a local lodge of Sons of Italy at Logan, Saturday night, January 8th. Seventy-six charter members enrolled on the night of the organization, and prospects are good for a large local lodge.
The following officers were duly elected and installed: J.C. Gates, president; Frank Vinci, vice-president; Patsy Ferzacca, treasurer; Gentile Varzza, corresponding secretary; David Ferzacca, secretary of finance; Charles Bennett, orator; Petro Defobio, Petro Toriano, Antonio Iaquinto, John Caldarazzo, Dante Belladonna, trustees.
J.C. Gates made an excellent speech in which he emphasized the importance of unity among the members of the Italian race resident in Logan county, for the purpose of fostering a brotherhood among Italian people. Mr. Gates has the distinction of being instrumental in bringing the organizers to this county. He also eulogized the newly elected officers, and spoke of the well known the objects of the order of Sons of the other officers of the lodge, for their qualifications and special fitness for the offices to which they were elected.
The objects and purposes of the lodge of the Sons of Italy are as follows: To become a volunteer, secret, beneficiary organization, operating by the lodge system, with a representative form of government to perpetuate the objects of the order of Sons of Italy of America as shown by the constitution and laws of the order; To unite fraternally all persons of Italian birth or blood who are of good moral character and sound bodily health, and between such ages as may from time to time be designated; To give all possible moral and material aid to its members and those dependent upon them; To provide relief in event of sickness or distress among its members; To promote the moral, material, and intellectual betterment of its members; and To respect without distinction, whatsoever religious, philosophic, or political beliefs its members may respectfully entertain; To encourage and assist its members in obtaining American citizenship.
Patsy Veltri is the grand deputy of the lodge. He also took a very active part in organizing the local lodge. The local lodge is named for a famous Italian–Caio Duilio–and will be called the Caio Duilio Lodge of Logan.
The headquarters of this order is at Fairmont, West Virginia, and the Supreme Office is in New York City.
Albert Ferolio, local merchant, asked today what he thought of the prospects of the local lodge, was very enthusiastic in speaking of the plans for it. Mr. Ferolio says the Italians intend to organize all of their people, and that it will bring his people closer together in a social way. It will be a material help to them in learning the English language and in the work of preparing them for citizenship. Alex Defobio is also enthusiastic in his support of the enterprise.
Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 14 January 1927.
Brandon Ray Kirk 