Ed Quick testimony
(transcriber may have made spelling and punctuation changes)
Ed. Quick.
A witness of lawful age, being first duly sworn -
Q. (Mr. Belcher) Where do you live?
A. At Clothier, in Logan county, W. Va.
Q. Where were you living in the latter part of August, 1921?
A. I was living there.
Q. What do you do?
A. I am yard superintendent for the Boone Timber Co.
Q. Where is your company located? Where is your operation?
A. In Logan and Boone counties.
Q. On the line of what railroad?
Q. State to the jury whether or not you observed a number of armed men going toward Logan County in the latter part of August 1921?
A. I did.
A. About how many did you see go by approximately?
A. I would say possibly from two or three thousand.
Q. How were they going when you saw them?
A. I saw some going on foot; some in auto trucks and I seen some going by train.
Q. What train do you have reference to - the train that rubs between what points?
A. I don't know what points it was going between, but I saw the men on it when it passed.
Q. Do you know anything about the commandeering of railroad trains by this army of men?
Objection.
Objection sustained.
Objection withdrawn.
Q. What, if anything, do you know about the operation of these trains at the time all of these men were on it?
A. I don't exactly get your meaning.
Q. Do you know any of the railroad men that operate these trains?
A. I do.
Q. What, if anything, do you know about these men operating these trains, and if so, under what circumstances?
A. I know that one railroad man who operated a train, Charles Madley. He is engineer on a passenger train that runs through there. He and I were playing pool. Three men came in and asked him if he was an engineer on a certain passenger train and he said he was, and they said they wanted him to run the engine.
Q. What was said there on this occasion when this man was playing pool with you?
A. He told them they would have to have a crew.
Question by Mr. Townsend. You say three men came into the pool room where were you?
A. Yes.
Objection.
Objection overruled.
Exception taken.
Q. What were these three men carrying?
A. They had guns.
Q. Did you know them?
A. No, not by name.
Q. At the time they came in had you seen armed men going by?
A. I had prior to that time.
Q. What did this engineer say in reply to these men?
A. He said they would have to get a train crew.
Q. What reply, if any, did they make to that?
A. They said they had a crew and wanted him to run the engine.
Q. What did he do?
A. He went with them.
Q. What kind of guns did they have?
A. I guess they were rifles - they were long guns.
Q. Do you know whether or not the train of which he was engineer went out after the armed men came after him?
A. I could not say. I did not see it.
Q. You saw it on the siding, did you not?
A. Yes.
Q. Did it remain on the siding that night?
A. It was not where it had been when I went home.
Q. How long after these men came to the pool room for the engineer was it until you went home?
A. About an hour and a half.
Q. Was the train there then?
A. No.
Q. Had the train, previous to that been on the side track at night?
A. Yes.
Q. Where did the engineer live?
A. At St. Albans.
Q. Did you after that observe any trains carry armed men going into Logan County from toward Madison?
A. I did.
Q. When?
A. I could not tell you the date.
Q. Was there any sort of a placard on the front of the train to designate what kind of a train it was?
A. I seen one on the engine.
Q. What was on it?
A. "Mingo bound."
Q. What kind of a train was it - what kind of coaches?
A. It did not have any coaches.
Q. What kind of equipment did it have?
A. It was a flat or open car.
Q. How were these freight cars loaded?
A. With men.
Q. Anything else?
A. Supplies were on the cars.
Q. What kind of supplies.
A. Food stuff it looked like, sacks of flour and things of that kind.
Q. About how many men were on this train? That they had placarded "Mingo bound"?
A. I could not say, but quite a bunch.
Q. In what direction was it going?
A. Going on through into Logan.
Q. Was it going toward Blair?
A. Yes.
Q. Were the men on it armed?
A. Yes.
Q. What were they armed with to the best of your judgement?
A. It looked to me like long guns, but I could not say what kind.
Q. Do you know where Marmet is located?
A. Yes.
Q. How far from the mouth of Lens creek is it?
A. I could not answer that.
Q. Have you walked from Marmet up Lens creek to Racine?
A. Yes.
Q. What is the distance from Lens creek to Racine?
A. I would judge it to be somewhere between 10 and 12 miles.
Q. Do you know the distance from Racine to Sprowl by railroad?
A. No.
Q. Do you know the distance to Sproul from Clothier, via the C. & O. railroad?
A. It is thirty two miles.
Q. How far is Clothier from Blair?
A. Ten miles.
Q. What, if anything, do you know about this army of men taking guns from the stores while on their way?
A. I never saw anything like that.
Q. Do you know whether or not any guns were taken from the stores at Clothier to your own personal knowledge?
Objection.
Objection sustained.
Q. About how many train loads of men did you say go by toward Logan county?
A. One.
Q. Were there any trains operated at night during that time?
A. I could not answer that.
Q. I will ask you whether or not that passenger train made regular runs during the trouble Logan in county?
A. I could not say for sure.
Q. Do you know of passenger trains being operated at this time between Madison, and Sprowl and Clothier?
Q. Do you mean regular passenger trains?
Q. Yes, that is what I mean?
Q. I think for a day or two the passenger trains did not go any farther than Clothier.
Q. About what time was it that this engineer was told to go by these armed men-was it day or night?
A. It was about eight thirty.
Q. In the morning, or at night?
A. At night.
Cross Examination By Mr. Townsend.
Q. Clothier is in Boone County, is it not?
A. No.
Q. Is it in Logan county?
A. Part of it is.
Q. How far is it from the line?
A. The line crosses through where we call it the lower end of the town.
Q. At this point where you had the conversation in the pool room, is that in Logan or Boone County?
A. In Logan county.
Q. And there you heard these men say" We want an engineer. We have a train crew?
A. Yes.
Q. And then they went out and the engineer went with them?
A. Yes.
Q. You don't know what happened after that?
A. No.
Q. Did you see the engineer any more?
A. No.
Q. You don't know whether he moved the engine or not, do you?
A. No, I don't know whether he moved the train or not.
Q. You don't know whether anyone moved it or not, do you?
A. I know it was moved.
Q. It might have been moved by the railroad Company for all you know, might it not?
A. Yes.
Q. You say you saw some men go by-how many were there?
A. I could not say exactly, but something like two or three thousand I would suppose.
Q. How do you estimate this two or three thousand?
A. Just from the squads that went through.
Q. And you say they went by on the trains, by trucks and walking-were they traveling any other way?
A. Not to notice I did not any other way.
Q. Were they armed?
A. I could not see all of them.
Q. What percentage of them were armed?
A. I could not say.
Q. Have you no idea how many were armed?
A. No, because so many were armed that I could not see.
Q. Were they marching in military formation?
A. No.
Q. It did not present the appearance of a regular military army did it?
A. It looked very much like it to me.
Q. Did you ever see any army marching without uniforms?
A. No.
Q. These people did not have on uniforms, did they?
A. No.
Q. Did you ever see any army marching without a flag?
A. No.
Q. These people did not have a flag, did they?
A. No.
Q. Did you ever see any army marching without a brassband? Does not the regular army always have music?
A. Sometimes they do.
Q. Did you ever see one without it?
Q. We had some U.S. Troops and they did not have any band.
Q. You mean you did not see any?
A. No.
Q. Did you see any flag?
A. No.
Q. They did not raise a flag, did they?
A. No.
Q. They were disorganized in their movements, were they not? When you saw them walking, you would see three or four together in a bunch, would you not?
A. There were more than that.
Q. Then you would see then in different numbers in different bunches?
A. I seen quite a bunch of them. One fellow had a bugle and blew it to assemble them together.
Q. Did you see any other bunch besides that bunch?
A. Just at times you would see a bunch do by.
Q. How many would be in a bunch?
A. I could not say.
Q. You said two or three thousand went by - tell the jury how many were in the different bunches?
A. I don't think I could tell that, or anyone else.
Q. What date was this?
A. I don't know.
Q. Do you know whether it was August or September?
A. I could not say whether it was the last of August or the first of September. It was either the very last of August or the first of September.
Q. You did not see Mr. Blizzard there, did you?
A. No.
Q. Do you know him?
A. I never seen him until I seen him in the court room.
witness dismissed.