Appalachian History Series
A Strike That Shook the Kanawha
In April 1912, union miners along Paint Creek asked for the same wage scale paid in nearby union mines. Operators said no. The walkout spread to Cabin Creek, and by summer the fight had grown into a valley-wide struggle over organizing, company guards, and life in company towns. Reliable overviews place the strike from April 18, 1912 to July 1913 and emphasize its central role in the West Virginia Mine Wars.
Families evicted from company houses threw up canvas tents along the tracks at places like Holly Grove. Contemporary images show rows of white tents within a stone’s throw of the C&O main line, a daily reminder that the fight was about homes as much as wages.
“An uprising of the oppressed”: Mother Jones in the Valley
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones reached Charleston in mid-August 1912 and spoke on the Capitol steps. Her remarks were taken down by a stenographer and survive in the George Wallace Papers at West Virginia University. The authenticated transcript preserves her call for miners and their families to stand together and confront the guard system that, in her words, “ruled with a club.”
Tent Colonies, Mine Guards, and the Bull Moose Special
Through the winter, violence spiked. On the night of February 7, 1913, an armored train nicknamed the Bull Moose Special rolled past Holly Grove and gunfire ripped through the tents. State and institutional summaries identify Sheriff Bonner Hill and operator Quin Morton among those aboard, and record striker Cesco Estep killed while trying to protect his family. The episode became the strike’s most infamous moment.
Martial Law at Pratt
Order broke down. The governor imposed martial law in stages, and a military commission sat at Pratt in early 1913. West Virginia University’s archival finding aid lists typescript copies of the commission’s orders and proceedings, along with names of those examined. Trying civilians before a military court while civil courts were open stirred national outrage.
Newspapers carried the news that Mother Jones and other leaders would face the military commission. On March 1, 1913, the Wheeling Intelligencer front page announced that the Supreme Court had refused to release Jones and others, who “must appear before” the commission.
Washington Steps In
The uproar reached the U.S. Senate. On May 26, 1913, the chamber ordered an inquiry and printing of a formal report under S. Res. 37. Hearings titled Conditions in the Paint Creek District, West Virginia gathered sworn testimony from miners, operators, guards, clergy, and local officials from June through October 1913. Scans and catalogs confirm the scope and timing of the investigation.
What the Testimony Shows
Across many witnesses, several themes recur: company police and evictions, blacklisting, and the power of company towns over housing and stores. Operators filed their own statements for the record. A contemporaneous pamphlet from the Printed Ephemera Collection presents the Paint and Cabin Creek coal operators’ case to the Senate subcommittee, a useful counterpoint when weighing bias.
Aftermath and Legacy
Governor Henry D. Hatfield brokered a settlement in 1913. Some gains were won, but the guard system did not disappear overnight, and the anger and organizing experience carried forward. Later mine-war flashpoints at Matewan and Blair Mountain were forged in the same fire that burned along Paint and Cabin Creeks. Recent National Park Service narratives and the West Virginia Encyclopedia both place the strike as the opening act of the Mine Wars era.
Why It Still Matters
Paint Creek and Cabin Creek tested constitutional rights on American industrial soil. The case raised national questions about private armed police, martial law over civilians, and the federal role in labor conflict. The record it left behind—stenographic speeches, photographs, and thousands of pages of testimony—remains one of the richest archives for understanding Appalachian coalfield life in the early twentieth century.
Sources & Further Reading
U.S. Senate, 63rd Congress. Investigation of conditions in Paint Creek District, West Virginia. Senate Report 63-52, ordered printed May 26, 1913. GovInfo record; hearings volumes digitized via Google Books and HathiTrust. HathiTrust+3GovInfo+3Google Books+3
Mother Jones, August–September 1912 speeches. Edited transcript and textual authentication tied to WVU’s George Wallace Papers; OCR edition hosted by University of Pittsburgh. Voices of Democracy+1
Military rule at Pratt, 1913. WVU Archives finding aid listing typescripts of orders and proceedings of the military commission. West Virginia University Archives
Contemporary press. Wheeling Intelligencer front page, March 1, 1913, on Jones and others appearing before the military commission. Virginia Chronicle
Photographs. West Virginia History OnView image set for Paint Creek tent colonies and militia encampments. OnView
West Virginia Encyclopedia. “Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike” and “Bull Moose Special.” West Virginia Encyclopedia+1
National Park Service (2024). “Paint Creek and Cabin Creek Strikes” and “Introduction to the West Virginia Mine Wars.” National Park Service+1
West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Overview of the Bull Moose Special attack and its context.