Appalachian History

The Battle of Blair Mountain marked a turning point in the national movement to better the conditions of working people by demanding the legalization of unions. It was the largest armed labor confrontation in U.S. history, and it began on August 24, 1921.

The highway historical marker erected last April by the state of West Virginia in front of the United Mine Workers headquarters in downtown Charleston honoring him claims organizer Bill Blizzard had mobilized 7,000 striking miners; other estimates place the figure as high as 13,000.

West Virginia coal operators did all they could to oppose unionism. The main problem was that mine workers were forced to sign legally binding "yellow-dog" contracts (upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court) under which miners pledged not to join a union or risked forfeiting their jobs as well as the right to live in company housing. In exchange they were paid next to nothing, had no freedom of speech or assembly, and were killed with impunity by mine guards and local politicos in an atmosphere akin to a third-world dictatorship.

By the summer of 1921 the "Red Neck Army" was outraged over the years of brutality and lawless exploitation. And so the miners picked up their Winchesters and gathered at Marmet (near Charleston) that summer morning, and from there began marching on Logan and Mingo counties -- the last two non-union counties in West Virginia.

Blair Mountain, a 1,600-acre ridge located to the southwest, stood between the Armed March and their destination. About three hundred deputies and mine guards, under Sheriff Don Chafin, waited for the marchers in fortified positions in a fifteen-mile-long battle line along the crest, commanding the high passes. The coal companies paid Chafin some $32,000 per year to keep the UMW out of Logan County.

Frank Keeney, president of UMW District 17, met with Governor John J. Cornwell and General J. H. Bandholtz, and Federal troops were promised to the region. Keeney set out on the road to try and head off this violent confrontation.

"I've told you men God knows how many times that any time you want to do battle against Don Chafin and his thugs I'll be right there in the front lines with you. I’ve been there before and you know it. But this time you've got more than Don Chafin against you. You’ve got more than the governor of West Virginia against you [boos]. You’ve got the government of the United States against you!

"Now I'm telling you for your own good and for the good of the cause, you've got to do it. Break up this march. Go home. Get back to your jobs. You've got Uncle Sam on your side now, and he won't let you down. You can fight the government of West Virginia, but by God you can’t fight the government of the United States."

The appeal worked. The men grumbled but began to head home. Trains began arriving to take the miners home. It looked like a showdown wouldn't happen after all.

Then a rumor spread among the miners: They are shooting women and children at Sharples!

What had happened was that heedless of the truce between General Bandholtz and the governor, Chapin and his men had crept down from Blair Mountain intent on arresting the ringleaders of the miners. A shootout erupted and several miners were killed before Chapin and his men were driven off.

The miners returned to their march and the battle was on.

The following day the miners made a major push on the front line.

"Logan County deputies were driven down the hillside in a skirmish with an armed force from the other side of Spruce Fork Ridge, Captain I. G. Hollingsworth reported at 7 o’clock. Heavy fighting continued on two other sectors of the line during the afternoon and evening.

"'We intend to hold our lines with all the power at our command,' Colonel W. E. Eubanks [commanding officer of the militia] said. 'We have 1,200 men in the line and fighting is continuing in the Blair sector and along Crooked Creek.'"

The battle raged for nearly a week. Chafin called in reinforcements from other counties, and even offered prisoners freedom if they fought for the non-union defenders.

By August 30 the defenders had massed themselves at Craddock Fork of Hewett Creek and felt they were about to break through. At that point Chafin began contracting private airplane pilots at $100 a day to fly over the miners and drop homemade bombs on them.

The bombing was largely ineffective, but it made the event interesting enough that newspapers from around the country began sending war correspondents.

Several times the miners nearly broke through the defenses, but were driven back each time. Eventually President Harding intervened with a declaration of martial law, and sent 2,000 U.S. Army troops armed with poison gas. He also sent a fleet of bombers commanded by General Billy Mitchell, but they were never used except to drop a couple bombs in a demonstration of military potential.

The federal troops met with Bill Blizzard and gave the presidential order to desist. Blizzard spread the word and then high-tailed it out of there. The rest of the miners hid their guns on the side of the mountain and headed for home. It was no longer an army, just a bunch of tired and dirty men trying to get home. The undeclared civil war was over.

The union had suffered a crushing defeat. Between 20 and 50 people had been killed in the battle on both sides. An unknown number had been wounded, probably in the hundreds.

Blizzard and some of his colleagues were indicted for treason, but later acquitted during a trial in a Harper's Ferry courtroom. UMW organizing efforts in southern WV were halted until 1933.


Sources: The Battle of Blair Mountain, by Robert Shogan, Westview Press, 2004
www.wvculture.org/history/labor/blairmountain01.html
www.friendsofblairmountain.org/history/index.html
www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/6074/
www.glendale.edu/chaparral/apr05/blair.htm



Bill+Blizzard Battle+of+Blair+Mountain Logan+County+WV Mingo+County+WV Red+Neck+Army appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

On June 22, 1932, her lifeless body was found where it had been dumped on 22 Mountain, which was then called Trace Mountain. She had been savagely murdered: shot in the head twice, neck fractured, face disfigured and powder-burned, throat cut from ear to ear. Garland Davis, a young deaf-mute, stumbled upon the gruesome scene while picking blackberries. Little did he know that his discovery would lead to sensational headlines, and still have people wondering to this day who killed Mamie Thurman.

Mamie was a housewife in Logan, WV. She and her husband, Jack Thurman, had moved to Logan, from their hometown of Louisville, KY in 1924. Jack and Mamie rented a small two-room apartment over a garage, located in the backyard of the Harry and Louise Robertson home. Robertson worked for the National Bank of Logan, and served as treasurer of the Logan Public Library. His wife was the treasurer of the Logan Women's Club, and both were said to be active church members.

Jack Thurman had worked as a Logan city patrolman for fifteen months prior to his wife's death. He landed his job due to the efforts of Robertson, who was president of the city commission.

Some folks said Mamie had been a good wife, a saintly woman, and a faithful church worker at Nighbert Memorial, a prestigious church near the train tracks at the intersection of Cole and White Street in downtown Logan. Others surely smirked as they murmured across the picket fence that this same lady was a married woman living fast and loose in a small town that could keep few secrets.

Mrs. Thurman allegedly had an ongoing relationship with Harry Robertson and more than a dozen other powerful men in the county.

At about 8:30 on the evening of June 22, Harry Robertson and his black handyman Clarence Stephenson were both arrested and taken to the Logan County jail for questioning. Stephenson had never been married and lived in the attic of the Robertson home. He did many odd-jobs for the Robertson family, but his main duty was to feed and care for Mr. Robertson's dogs. Robertson was a prominent sportsman.

Robertson admitted to police that he had been having an intimate relationship with the deceased woman, and told how he arranged dates with Mrs. Thurman with the help of Stephenson. He would tell his wife he was going fox-hunting, and they would take their guns and drive off in Robertson's Ford. Stephenson would drive him to one of the rendezvous points that Mrs. Thurman knew well.

On July 29 throngs of people started gathering around the Logan court house at six o'clock in the morning. Many Logan County prominent citizens, some who were associated with suspect Harry Robertson, served on the Grand Jury. Robertson said Mamie gave him a list of sixteen men with whom she had illicit affairs. He claimed the list was given to him about a year before the murder, when they both worked at the Guyan Valley Bank.

"One of the men is dead, all except three live in the city of Logan, and all are married but one," he testified. The list of sixteen men who were said to have had sexual relations with Mamie was never made public. Many claimed some of these men were later named to the Grand Jury. Robertson said he continued seeing Mamie even though she refused to stop seeing the other men.

Robertson said the last time he saw Mamie was the day she was killed. He left his house shortly after that to take his children to a swimming pool at Stollings. Later that evening he said he went to the Smoke House to listen to a prize fight with his son, and was home about nine o'clock. His wife later confirmed his statement.

Magistrate Elba Hatfield told the Grand Jury that all the evidence was circumstantial, but claimed it very damaging against both defendants. For that reason he ruled that Robertson and Stephenson should be held to answer any indictments returned by the Grand Jury. The jury ended a four-day inquiry on September 15, and the following day the Logan Banner headlines cried out, "HARRY ROBERTSON NOT INDICTED."

Clarence Stephenson was indicted by the Grand Jury, and stood trial for the murder of Mamie Thurman. According to the Banner, witnesses at the trial accounted for every minute of Clarence Stephenson's time up until eleven o'clock on June 22, when Mrs. Robertson said he went up to his attic bedroom. However, the jury was only out for fifty-minutes before returning with a guilty verdict with the recommendation of mercy, which carried a life sentence. Stephenson’s attorney immediately entered a motion for a new trial.

On November 15, pleas from the Logan County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) went across the county to raise the six-hundred-dollars needed for the appeal. Fifty-six churches in Logan began taking donations. More than three thousand people attended a mass meeting held at Aracoma High School with both whites and blacks attending. Despite all the efforts, the Supreme Court turned down Stephenson's appeal in 1933.

Stephenson was sent to Moundsville Prison on August 22, 1934. On June 11, 1939, he was transferred to Huttonsville Prison Farm where he died of stomachic carcinoma (stomach cancer) on April 24, 1942. He was buried on the prison farm May 2, 1942 almost ten years after the death of Mamie Thurman.

Norman Sloan, a Logan County resident who spent time in jail and prison with Stephenson, said "He told me he was hired to take the body to 22 Mountain, and that he didn't do anything to Mamie Thurman. He never did say who killed her, but he said that he didn't do it. Stephenson told me it was all politics."

sources: www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/4478/trial.htm
www.ferrum.edu/applit/articles/secretlife.htm


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