War, WV

McDowell County Courthouse

Side BarFacts

largest coal producing county in the world for 22 years

80 percent of the land is on a 60 degree incline

90 percent of the land is owned by outside interests

largest number of persons dying from lung cancer due to black lung and smoking in West Virginia

labeled "free" county for 3 reasons:

During the Civil War men headed to McDowell County to avoid taking sides

African-Americans coming to McDowell County out of the south to work in the coal mines considered themselves free

you could "kill" someone and get off free

US Senator Robert C. Byrd
After leaving Mercer County, where Byrd's foster father
drove a wagon and team for a brewery, moved to McDowell County. His foster father worked in the coal mines on the banks of the Elkhorn Branch of the Tug Fork and the family lived in a West Virginia coal camp.

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When Bartley blew - 91 miners dead

January 10, 1940 - 2:30 pm, the McDowell County, West Virginia, shaft mine #1 of the Pond Creek Coal Company's Bartley operation blew with sudden and tragic ferocity killing 91 coal miners in a fiery blast, leaving behind widows, fathers, mothers and children.

Hangings in McDowell County - 3 Black Men

All three men hanged were black and all three happened before the turn of the 20th Century.

None of the hangings were lynchings, the three men, charged with murder were convicted by a jury and legally sentenced.

Henry Christian was the first. He was known as a bootlegger and convicted of murdering U.S. Deputy Marshall, Crowe. He was hanged July 17, 1891, near Susanna, now Yukon.

John McFarland convicted of murdering another man while gambling, hanged July 20, 1894.

John Hardy convicted of killing another black man in 1893, in Shawnee Camp, now Eckman. The killing was reported as a mixture of women, cards and liquor. He was hanged in Welch, WV.

1920 "Shooting Up" of the Mohawk Coal Tipple & Baldwin-Felts (Union Busters) Agency -- Matewan killings had connections

Eyewitnesses reported between 25 and 50 shots were fired on the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch, WV on the morning of August 1, 1921. When the smoke cleared, 26 year old Matewan Police Chief, W. J. "Smiling Sid" Hatfield and 22 year old Ed Chambers, police officer, lay dead in a blanket of blood on the steps leading to the courthouse.

The two men had been charged with "shooting up" the Mohawk coal tipple during this controversial union organizational period with the United Miners Workers of America against big coal operators.

The two had reported to court to answer charges when they were gunned down in cold blood on the steps.

A US Senate Committee began an investigation into the shootings and tied the untimely deaths back to a prior shooting spree in Matewan, WV which occurred on May 19, 1920.

Albert C. Felts and Lee C. Felts, brothers of Thomas L. Felts, a partner in the Baldwin-Felts (union busters) Agency were all killed. Also shot down were J. W. Ferguson, a detective for the agency, Matewan Mayor, C. C. Testerman, town residents Bob Mullins and Tod Pinsley. According to reports ten people, maybe more, died in the gunfire, 7 of them Baldwin-Felts employees. Sid Hatfield, along with 18 additional men, charged with the shootings, were acquitted of all charges.

Thomas Felts, owner of the Baldwin-Felts Agency, admitted to furnishing men to coal operators to intercede in matters against possible union organizational efforts by the United Miner Workers. However, Felts denied charges of ordering the men to carry out of violence.

Mayor of War	War Barber	Immigrant	Memories of Welch
Dr. Tom Hatcher	Rush Justice	Giulia Ferrante Zando	Sammie Wade
W. D. MIck, teacher			Welch photo gallery