Bluefield Daily Telegraph, McDowell Co. WV 1902 January 4, 1899 Huntingtonnews.net/100, compiled by Cyndi McReynolds Excerpt Submitted by June White Norfolk and Western came into posssession of about 300,000 acres of the extensive West Virginia coal fields of the Pocahotas Coal and Coke Company. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company guaranteed the N & W against any deficiency in the fixed charges caused by the acquisition of the coal property. There was to be a $20,000,000 issue of four percent bonds jointly by the N & W and the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company. An important part of the deal involved the United States Steel Corporation's ex-Judge E. H. Gary , vice president of the steel company, said that fifty thousand acres of the coal lands owned by Pocahontas had been leased to US Steel and subsidiary companies on a royalty basis for the purpose of building coke ovens in the area. N & W said that the lease was "incidental to larger transactions." ************************************************* Bluefield Daily Telegraph February 20, 1902 LARGEST NUMBER OF CONDEMNED The six prisoners recenly taken from McDowell County to the state penitentiary had among them Onion, colored, and Wm. McFadden, white, who had been sentenced to death, but on a new trial got penitentiary sentences, and Lewis Young, who will be hung. Wm. Onion will serve eighteen years at hard labor. He was received at Moundsville some time ago as a condemned murderer, sentenced to be hanged, but his attorneys took an appeal in his case to the supreme court and Onion was granted a new trial on a writ of error. He was taken back to McDowell County and stood trial a second time, with the result as before stated. William McFadden enters upon a life sentence. He is a large man with long, straight blck hair, and in both hair and features resembles an Indian. He was convicted of murder in the first degree at the October term of court, but was awarded a new trial, and on being tried again in January, he was found guilty of murder in the first degree, with a recommendation of mercy, and received a life sentence. ************************************************* Bluefield Daily Telegraph March 13, 1902 NEWLYWEDS ASSAULTED NEAR ECKMANN STATION Miss Dudley and Mr. Fink married, and on Wednesday were to leave for a trip to Cincinnati and other western cities. As No. 3 does not stop at Keystone, where they were married, they would have to go to Eckmann, about one and a half miles from Keystone, to take the train. As the evening was spring-like, they decided to walk and when they were about half way to Eckmann, Mr. Fink was struckfrom behind and fell o the ground. His wife snatched his pistol to shoot his assailant. The robber then fired at her and missed, the shot taking effect in the abdomen of Pomp White, the Negro who was carrying Mr. Fink's grip and who was a short distance in advance. Mrs. Fink then ran and gave the alarm, but when aid came Mr. Fink's pockets had been riffled and $90 in cash, a number of checks and his watch taken. He was taken back to Keystone, and it was found that he is not seriously injured. Pomp White's injuries are serious and he is expected to live. Suspicions pointed to Pump White, the wounded man, as being an accessory and Bill Hardy, another Negro, has been arrested and lodged in jail at Welch, accused of the crime. It is that that White, being engaged to carry the baggage and thinking that Mr. Fink had considerable money, was he instigator of the attack. ********************************************************* Bluefield Daily Telegraph April 30, 1902 BIG COAL MINE CHANGES HANDS It is officially announced that the entire $1, 200,000 capital stock of the Pocahontas Colleries Company has just been sold to Kean, van Cortlandt & Co., bankers of New York, who will turn the property over to a new $4,000,000 Pocahontas Colleries Company, oranized under the New Jersey Laws. The Company, whose head office is in Philadelphia and whose stock is largely owned there also, much of it by E W. Clark & Co., has a leasehold on 8,000 acres of the finest Pocahontas coal and owns 800 coke ovens and the town lots in Pocahontas. Soon after the Norfolk and Western secured the Flat-Top lands, negotiations were opened to get the Pocahontas Collieries Company. The new corporation will be controlled by the railroad, which proposes to hold firmly in its grasp the Pocahontas Coal Field. William H. Campbell, formerly a director of the Norfolk and Western, now president of the colleries company, will continue in that capacity, as will Charles S. Thorne as treasurer. The offices will be removed to the same building in which the executive departments of he N & W will be located after May 1. Submitted by June White ***************************************************** Bluefield Daily Telegraph April 30, 1902 SPRING TERM OF FEDERAL COUNT WILL MEET IN BLUEFIELD ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1903. LISTS OF GRAND JURORS (AND PETIT JURORS) DRAWN; EXTENDED SESSION EXPECTED Counties included in Southern West Virginia's Federal Court: McDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Raleigh, Summers, Wyoming Grand Jurors drawn from McDowell County: L? Asbury, Panther; D. R. Payne, Perryville; T. C. Blankenship, Panther; Valentine Hatfield, Devon (in Mingo, but right on mouth of Knox Creek); C. L. Moses, Welch; A. H. Patton, Welch; Louis Belcher, Norwood Petit Jurors drawn from McDowell County: Harvey Hagerman, Bradshaw; George Altizer, Peeryville; Samuel Crockett, Ritter; H. W. Hutson, Welch It is thought that this will be quite an extended term. ************************************************** COMMUNITIES' NEWS, McDOWELL COUNTY, WV BLUEFIELD DAILY TELEGRAPH May 20, 1902 A post office has been established at Wilmore, in McDowell County with Cornelius F. Millinder as postmaster. Col. T. H. Houston of Elkhorn was in the city (Bluefield) yesterday. He reports that Hon. W. W Whyte, who was so dangerously ill with typhoid fever there, is rapidly recovering. Submitted by June White ************************************************* CONTEMPT CASES IN FEDERAL COURT MAYBEURY MINERS ARE SET FREE AFTER AN EXPLANATION BY JUDGE KELLER Federal court convened in special session in this city (Bluefield) yesterday. At the morning session the cases were called and the pleadings made up. In the afternoon the case of the Elkhorn Coal and Coke Company against E. H. Jones and several others for trespassing and posting United Mine Workers circulars on the ground of the company, in violation of the restraining order, was heard. Jimmie, a little boy in knee pants did the billposting. District Attorney Atkinson reviewed the case and recommended that it be nullied, which the court did, after telling the defendants what they could and could not do about a coal mine working under the protection of an injunction. ******************************************************** BLUEFIELD DAILY TELEGRAPH May 20, 1902 FIVE BIG RAILROADS SAID TO CONTROL ENTIRE OUTPUT (COAL) OF WEST VIRGINIA AND PENNSYLVANIA; OPERATORS FROM THIS STATE TO BE SUBPOENAED AS WITNESSES Washington; May 19.---The mining and railroad magnates who operate in the coal regions of West Virginia and Pennsylvania are shortly to feel the effect of the move which is to be shortly instituted against them by the department of justice. The question was discussed fully at a recent cabinet meeting, and it is stated on high authority that the President (Theodore Roosevelt) has directed Attorney General Knox to proceed with an investigation against the big combine. While the Attorney General has not been instructed to draw a bill in the above regions, it is understood that this method will be pursued. The President is said to have reached a point in his investigation of the subject that assures him that the combination which controls the output of coal is in opposition to the Sherman anti-trust law. From the United States Attorneys in the coal regions Attorney General Knox has received, as is stated,evidence tending to show that the combination is fully as much in restraint of trade as the beef trust or any other combination in this country. The complaints which have been received by the President and the attorney general have increased in intensity as the situation in the coal fields has become more critical. There is no central organization to be struck, as was the case in the merger. The capitalists of the five largest railroads which penetrate the coal regions are alleged t ocontrol t greater portion of the coal fields. Their methods are declared to be most autocratic. According to complaints received in Washinton, the magnates at the head of the trust, who will probably, when proceedings are instituted, figure as the "Big Five" just as the "Big Six" figured against the beef trust, contol practically all the railroad trackage in the coal fields. They determine each month what the output for the ensuing month shall be. It is declared just how muxh much each operator shall produce. Such an agreement, of course, proves satisfactory to the parties to the trust. It does not to individual operators. But it is on this point that the enemies of the trust hope to make their point. They claim that evidence can be produced to show that the railroad owners dictate to the individual operators just how much they shall produce and that individual operators dare not make a greater output because they will not be provided with the cars to place the coal on the market. This, if it can be proven, is said to be an obvious violation of the Sherman anti-trust law. The indications are that the department of justice will subpoena a number of coal operators from the West Virginia coal regions and have them give their views before any judicial proceedings are commenced against the coal combine. Submitted by June White ****************************************************** Bluefield Daily Telegraph August 6, 1902 N & W Trespassing Arrests John Calloway, Henry Page, Frank McDonald, and Ike Ritter walked on the Norfolk and Western tracks and were arrested for trespassing. They were fined $2.80 each. *********************************************************88 Bluefield Daily Telegraph August 6, 1902 Submitted by June White PISTOL DUEL ENLIVENS PRINCETON AVENUE (Bluefield), BALDWIN VS MENEFEE Probably Fifteen Shots Were Fired and Thomas Menefee Was Wounded in the Hip It is doubtful that at any time hereto, carnival week not excepted, that the part of Princeton Avenue lying between the Patton House and Stuart Street has presented as lively an appearance as it did between 9:00 and 9:30 last night. Passenger train No. 3 had just arrived and the usual large crowd had flocked to the station to meet it. When a number of pistol shots in rapid succession rang out upon the stillness of the night, the entire crowd flocked to the scene to see the cause of the disturbance. When the fusillade was resumed, however, they quickly fell back to a respectful distance and deferred their inquiries to a later date. It was then found that a pistol duel had been in progress and that W. G. Baldwin (Baldwin-Felts), A. H. Baldwin, T. L. Felts, and Thomas Menefee were the principals. As is always the case, there were two sides to the affair, and it is the aim of the Telegraph to present them both with as much fidelity as possible under the circumstances. The stories of Messrs. Baldwin and Mr. Felts coincide. They state that Mr. Menefee had been employed by the Baldwin Detective Agency until a few weeks ago, when he was discharged. Since then, they allege, he has been circulating derogatory and untrue reports in regard to W. G. Baldwin and has questioned that gentleman's veracity. Mr. Baldwin approached Mr. Menefee in regard to the matter last night, while the latter was sitting in front of Crockett's restaurant and asserts that Mr. Menefee, in the course of conversation, called him a liar and other harsh names, whereupon he knocked Menefee down. He says Menefee attempted to draw a pistol, and on getting up ran into a vacant space between Crockett's restaurant and the Patton House, where it was very dark and proceeded to villify him from there. Just then, Mr. Felts started to cross in front of the vacant lot when he claims Mr. Menefee fired on him. As soon as he could draw his pistol, he returned the fire and Menefee did likewise. The shooting then became general, W. G. and A. H. Baldwin taking a hand. Mr. Menefee states that Mr. Baldwin accosted him and asked if he (Menefee) had called him a liar. and adds that before he had time to make an explanation Baldwin struck him with his pistol, knocking him down. He ran into the vacant space mentioned. Menefee was wounded in the left hip, and it is possible that two bullets struck him . He claims that Mr. Felts fired the first shot and that the first shot took effect. Menefee was arrested shortly afterward by Officers Houchins and Liinkenhoker and locked up. He was informed by the officer in charge that he had orders to lock him up until this morning when the whole affair will be investigated. No other arrests were made. When Menefee was arrested, a 38 calibre Smith & Weston was taken from him. It was loaded all around, but it was evident that every chamber had been fired a short while before. He made no resistance. A warrant was sworn out last night charging Menefee with attempting to kill Felts. Later, he was taken to the office of Drs. Fox and St. Clair, where his wound was dressed. There are two bullet holes in his right hip, but it is thought one bullet made them both. ************************************************** BLUEFIELD DAILY TELEGRAPH August 6, 1902 NOTE : This article clearly shows an important Baldwin-Felts tactic--entrenchment within local law offices. Baldwin's agency, as the PA organizations did, cultivated connections to local offices to facilitate emerging developments that required local legal facilitation and maneuvering . In most instances, whatever local backup was needed was already in place to cover problems that arose--such as the Menefee Duel. Legal actions against Mr. Menefee, a probable victim in this instance, were swift and certain and left Mr. Menefee with little room for legal maneuvering. In short, Baldwin had local legal offices set up and ready to move in his favor. Such positioning gave him and his agents enormous advantages and power in the coalfields. ************************************************************* Bluefield Daily Telegraph August 6, 1902 STRIKING MINERS ACCUSED OF CONSPIRACY ACQUITTED In Squire Brown's court Arthur Pendergraph, Thos. Nowlin, Chas. Smith, Peter Cunningham, Wm. King, Geo. Smith, Oscar Miller, Richard Anderson, Thos. Ratliff, Jas. Herald, and Sam Jones, charged with conspiracy to prevent non-union men from working at Simmons Creek, were acquitted. ********************************************** August 23, 1902 SUICIDE FOLLOWS ATTEMPTED MURDER IN DAVY News reached Bluefield last night of an attempted murder at Davy, followed immediately by the self- destructin of the would-be murderer. The details, while meager, are revolting in the extreme. From the best information obtainable, it appears that a man named Golden had not been on the best of terms with his wife for some time. On Saturday they engaged in a violent quarrel, and the woman soon worked herself into a frenzy. Losing all control of herself in the heat of her passion, she snatched up a gun lying nearby and fired pointblank at her helpmate. He reeled and fell heavily to the ground. Scarcely had the echoes of the sharp report died away, when Mrs. Golden fired a bullet into her own heart and fell stone dead. Coroner J. R. Greenawalt of Welch was summoned and after an inquest the jury returned a verdict in the use of the woman of suicide. Golden is probably fatally wounded. He was alive yesterday afteroon, but it was not thought he could possibly recover. **************************************************** Bluefield Daily Telegraph, August 23, 1902 RICH STRIKE OF NATURAL GAS ON BRADSHAW CREEK, McDOWELL COUNTY; SCHEME TO PIPE IT TO BLUEFIELD AND OTHER NEIGHBORING TOWNS There is great excitement in McDowell over the discovery of natural gas. While drilling a test well to find the thickness of the various veins of coal on the John D. Payne farm, on Bradshaw Creek, natural gas was struck and poured forth in a vast volume, making a roaring noise that could be heard at some distance. It was ignited by the fire in the engine and blazed high in the air. Prominent local capitalists have gone to see it with a view to getting control and furnishing it for lighting and fuel purposes to Bluefield, Pocahontas, Bramwell, and other coal field towns. This strike means so much to this section. With natural gas small industries will flourish. This also indicates that there is oil in that section and will probably be the beginning of great development in the neighborhood. ******************************************* Bluefield Daily Telegraph August 23, 1902 NEW AND STRONG ORGANIATION: THE GREAT EASTERN OIL AND GAS COMPANY OF SOUTH DAKOTA This company has just been organized and has a branch office in Bluefield, where a number of its largest stockholders live. It owns leases in the Knox County oil fields of KY and has a machine at work drilling a well on one of its most promising farms. In order to prosecute vigorously th work of development already begun they have decided to put 50,000 shares of the treasury stock on the market at a low price per share. Special inducements will be offered to parties wanting large lots. The par valueof this stock is $1.00, fully paid and non-assessible. No stock except this stock can be purchased. The company is composed of some of the very best business men of the city (Bluefield), among them W. P. Hawley, J. T. Thornton, Edwin Mann, D. G. Lilly, J. L. Corvin, R. E. Thornton, R. L. Shelton, D. L. Talbert, E. E. Carter and others. The price to be charged for the stock is one that has to be named to show that if oil is struck there will be large returns for all, and no favored stockholders. The company guarantees to spend every dollar from the sale of this stock in the development of the company's property. No salaries are paid and all money is used for the advancement of all interests. The company, of course, reserves the right to withdraw its stock from the market at any time. Parrties desiring further information and wanting to secure stock should appy to W. P. Hawley, secretary and treasurer, or J. T. Thornton, assistant, Bluefield, W. Va ********************************************************** Bluefield Daily Telegraph Sept. 6, 1902 DISSATISFIED SORE HEADS STONED COALDALE TIPPLE THURSDAY NIGHT At the Coaldale operation it is reported a mob composed , presumably of sore-heads dissatisfied with the action taken at the Keystone conference, stoned the tipple and other buildings from both sides. It is also reported that probably 75 men, all armed, surrounded the operation, and for a while serious trouble was feared. There was no shooting, however, and no one was hurt by the fusilade of stones. This occurred Thursday night. Yesterday, all was quiet throughout the field and no violence was reported. The strike being delcared off is not causing the men to go back to work. In this county large numbers of the old men are applying for work and in a short while the mines will again be manned by forces used prior to the strike. ********************************************************** Bluefield Daily Telegraph Sep't. 6, 1902 BRAKEMAN SPENCER'S UNTIMELY END AT HEMPHILL THURSDAY NIGHT R. B. Spencer was instantly killed at Hemphill Thursday night. He was riding on the pilot of the pusher engine which was moving up o couple to a train. In the dark the engineer mmisjudged the distance and ran into the train with such force that the engine went through several cars. Mr. Spencer was mashed and mangled horribly. He was a native of Nelson County, Va, and his remains will be aken to his old home for interment by No. 4 this morning. He was 22 years old and leaves a brother B. H. Spencer and other relatives residing in this (Bluefield) city. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen and Calumet Tribe of Red Men and was popular and held in high esteem by all who knew him. Funeral services were held at 7:30 last evening at the Baptist Church. The following young men acted as pallbearers: Geo. Hickman, Sidney Patton, S. M. Bolton, W. B. Calfee, Marvin Douthat, W. T. McCullough, Calvin Houchins, and S. M. McGlone. ***************************************************************** Bluefield Daily Telegraph September 17, 1902, page 1 Submitted by June White There was at North Fork Junction yesterday morning a most unusual scene. Sixteen coffins were lying on the platform and contained the remains of the men who died in the awful catastrophe at Algoma Mine Number 7 on Monday morning. They were shipped by No. 4 to their old homes in Virginia and North Carolina, with the exception of one, the Hungarian, who was taken to Pocahontas. The victims of the explosion number sixtten, as follows: JESSE WADE ED GRALEY CLEM JONES CHARLES MULLINS FOUNTAIN SANDERS ENNIS STOVALL HENRY WOODY PHIL JONES HENRY WARREN TOM WALTERS HENRY CLARK ALEX CRYDER PEYTON CRYDER JIM LUSTER JOHN ROCKIE The last two are white, the others colored. All of them are said to be new men. The work of rescue was not completed until an early hour yesterday morning. Some of the corpses were badly burned, but the majority of them died from suffocation. That part of the mine in which the explosion occurred was about a mile and a quarter from the drift mouth. The vein of coal makes a dip and there is a stream of water, Buzzard Creek, directly over the dip. The foul air accumulated in this dip between Saturday night and Monday morning. The explosion did not effect (sic) other portions of the mine, being local to this dip in the coal. There is no fire in the mine, and the damage is not great. Four dead mules have been found. ************************************************************************* Bluefield Daily Telegraph October 25, 1901 NOTICE AND WARNING Issued by the Norfolk and Western Railway Company All persons not being passengers or employees of, or having business with the Railway Company are forbid and will not be permitted to assemble or congregate at or loaf about the stations of the Norfolk nd Western Railway Company or the approaches thereto, and persons (not being employees of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company, are forbid and will not be permitted to assemble, congregate, or otherwise go or trespass upon or use the yards, tracks, and right of way of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company. L. E. JOHNSON General Manager ************************************************** BLUEFIELD DAILY TELEGRAPH COALFIELD DEPARTMENT November 8, 1902 NOTICE: THE TUG RIVER LAND COMPANIY A special meeting of the Stockholders of the Tug River Land Company, called by the board of directors of the company at Bramwell, Mercer County, W. Va., on Wednesday, the 29th day of November, 1902, at 8:00 p.m.,for the purposes of considering and taking such actions as may be deemed advisable to make a sale and to transfer all the property and assets of the company or to continue the business of the Company, and of transacting such other business as may properly come before the meeting. BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS M. J. Caples, President H. W. Shields, Secretary ********************************************** Bluefield Daily Telegraph November 8, 1902 MISS ROSE COGHLAN DEDICATORY PERFORMANCE OF ELKS' OPERA HOUSE NOVEMBER 22 The dedication performance at the Elks' opera house Nov. 22nd promises to be the event in the history of the section. Already a large number of seats have been resered and indications are that a week before the opening every seat will be taken. Trains will run from Welch to Bluefield and return after the performance. This train will leave Welch about 5 o'clock and connect at North Fork and stop at Bramwell and Pocahontas returning after the performance. The attraction will be Miss Rose Coghlan in "Forget Me Not."