From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, we find the following story dated October 16, 1914:

THUGS AND OUTLAWS IN FORCE

MONITOR JUNCTION, NEAR THIS PLACE IS THE SCENE OF UNLAWFUL CARNAGE

TWO COLORED MEN ARE SHOT

Last Monday Night, Oct. 12, Was a Period of Unlawful Foray in Logan County.

Unlike the posse who ran to earth in a few hours the robbers and murderers so recently killed in Mingo County, the Logan County officers have turned not one stone to apprehend what seems to be the most dastardly and cowardly criminals now loose in any county. Rumor has it that the beginning of these depredations was the day of registration before the County Court on last Monday. Upon that day there were some colored men in Logan City for the purpose of registration, more than certain people thought were best, and these latter began to lay sneaking plots to drive the colored men away. On the evening of last Monday, certain men went over the bridge at the lower end of the town to some box cars used as shanties by colored laborers. These colored men were asked by their visitors if there were any strangers in the shanties and especially any who had come to Logan to get registered. The white men received a negative reply and went on up the creek. It seems very clear that the purpose of this visit was to ascertain just where these colored men were stopping for the night, so that a night attack could be made upon them and thus run them away. About 500 yards up the creek from the shanties above mentioned there stands an old two-story framed house. In the upper story of this house lives a family by the name of Spears; in the first floor lived some colored people. About midnight two men pushed open the back door of the colored people’s abode and began shooting: one going to a bed where with a revolver he beat up a colored fellow, while his partner thug proceeded further into the house, firing his pistol at the windows and furniture. Both colored men who were lying in the bed were shot several times and are in a precarious condition. During the melee, Hallie Wootson, a colored woman staying at the house, ran between the would-be murderers and pleaded with them to cease firing till she could get her baby from the room; with an oath the thug forced her from the room, not even allowing her to properly dress herself. This woman states that there were from 15 to 20 men on guard.

Mrs. Spears, the white woman living in the upstairs of this house, states that two of the men came upstairs to her room and knocked. She told them to come in, to which they replied, “No, you don’t want to see us, go to bed, we won’t hurt you.” However a bullet was fired into the very room in which Mr. and Mrs. Spears were sleeping. From the looks of the windows and doors of this house, one hundred shots must have been fired. Mrs. Spears also states that an automobile was in the vicinity and was driven away soon after the band of men left.

About one hour after the above mentioned attack, another attack was made on Senator E.T. England’s offices. Cobble rocks were thrown through the front windows breaking them into countless pieces. Someone who knew a little more than the ordinary along certain lines was present either in person or by advice since certain well known gases were inserted under the two outside office doors. This last ruse did not avail the highwaymen of anything since their purpose was in no wise accomplished.

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Courting Trouble.

The question that naturally comes to us is, “Why have not the officers of Logan County–and there are over 100 in number we understand–taken up the Monitor Junction matter and attempted to  bring the guilty ones before the bar of justice?” Is it because some of them know more than they care to tell? We will say this, that the circumstances surrounding this trouble are, to say the least, very suspicious, as far as some of the officers of Logan County are concerned. The antagonism which the colored people of this County meet when they attempt to register for the purpose of voting is extreme and even unlawful. The Federal Constitution gives them the right to vote providing they can properly qualify themselves. Therefore we ask: How can they qualify themselves when they are not allowed the right to go before the proper tribunal which the law establishes for that purpose? There is not a single fact concerning the trouble that occurred at Monitor Junction and in the city of Logan but what points to the fact that there is an unlawful conspiracy on the part of certain persons to intimidate the colored voter, and to kill him if necessary if that is the only way to keep him from voting.

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 16 October 1914.