The Paint Creek Mine War 1912 – 1913
In April 1912 the UMW initiated a strike against coal operators in Kanawha County, West Virginia. There were more than 7500 miners in the region working in more than sixty mines. As the strike spread in the spring of 1912, the national UMW promised full financial support and living assistance to those miners evicted from company towns. The coal operators responded to the UMW by hiring the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, which dispatched more than 300 agents to serve as mine security guards.
UMW activists encouraged support from other miners in the state and when a group of nearly five thousand miners arrived from north of the region in support of the strikers, the Governor of West Virginia declared martial law in the area. Twelve hundred state troops were sent to police the area. They confiscated firearms from both sides. Evicted mining families residing in a tent city named Holly Grove were relatively comfortable during the summer months, but as autumn set in they began to suffer from the cold.
Violence occurred in the summer months when armed miners attacked Mucklow (now Gallagher) West Virginia, with 16 miners and guards killed. Further violence occurred in Holly Grove in February when a second riot in Mucklow by miners led to a retaliatory attack led by the Kanawha County Sheriff. One miner was killed and numerous homes and tents were riddled with rifle and machine gun fire.
In March 1913 a new Governor was sworn into office – Henry D. Hatfield – and immediately his office proceeded to arrange a settlement of the strike. Hatfield used his authority under martial law to impose a settlement in which the miners could either accept its terms or face deportment from the state. Hatfield’s solution did not give the miners a complete victory, but did provide them with somewhat better working conditions and better wages. Some miners continued to hold out until summer, but by the end of July the strike was over.
The Paint Creek Mine War is estimated to have been the direct cause of more than fifty deaths through strike related violence, and dozens more from exposure, disease, or malnutrition. It’s economic cost has been debated for decades, with $100 million believed to have been spent just to alleviate its effects on the region alone.