W. M. Price testimony
(transcriber may have made spelling and punctuation changes)
W. M. Price
Direct Examination
By Mr. Ossenton.
Q. Have you been sworn as a witness in this case?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Tell the jury your name?
A. W. M. Price.
Q. How old are you?
A. 41 years.
Q. Where do you live?
A. 6 Kanawha County, my post office is Hernshaw.
Q. What creek is Hernshaw on?
A. On Lens creek.
Q. How far up from the mouth of Lens Creek do you live?
A. About 3-1/2 miles.
Q. Were you living there in August and September of last year?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How long have you been living there?
A. About 10 years.
Q. What business do you follow?
A. Mining.
Q. Coal mining?
A. Yes, sir, I have been mine foreman for about four years.
Q. How long have you been working in and about coal mines?
A. 22 years.
Q. Were you working at anything in August and September of last year?
A. No, I was not working.
Q. Do you have a local union at that place?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Were you a member of that local union in Aug. and Sept. of last year?
A. No, sir.
Q. Do you recall the occasion when there was a meeting at which Mother Jones spoke?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you hear her speak or any part of it?
A. Yes, sir, I heard part of it.
Q. Did you observe the crowd there with her?
A. I knew a good many of them, but a good many more I did not know.
Q. About how many people were in the crowd when she spoke?
A. About 3 or 4 hundred, maybe more or maybe less.
Q. Was there any people along Lens Creek before she spoke that day?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. About how many people were there on the creek that day?
A. Probably there were to the best of my estimation and what lots of people said some five, six or seven thousand.
Q. How far up Lens Creek did these men extend?
A. From the head to the mouth.
Q. How long had they been assembling there prior to the time Mother Jones spoke?
A. I think it must have been close on to a week.
Q. Were these men armed or not?
A. There were a good many of them armed.
Q. Were any of the men that attended Mother Jones' meeting armed?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What were you doing on that day?
A. Nothing particular in the morning. In the evening I had a trip to go to Racine.
Q. Is there a public road leading across the mountain to Racine?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What is the distance from the mouth of Lens Creek to Racine?
A. Something like eleven miles.
Q. Did you go to Racine that evening.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What did you carry in your car?
A. Well, I carried a good many.
Q. Good many what?
A. Men.
Q. How many trips did you make?
A. One that evening.
Q. How many men did you take in the car that evening?
A. I can't say. There was a bunch and part of them would get in and ride a piece then they would get out and others would get in.
Q. How did you happen to go to Racine?
A. To get two women and a man.
Q. Did you have an opportunity to see the men as you passed along the road?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Were these men that rode in your car armed?
A. Yes, sir, most of them were.
Q. What time did you leave for Racine?
A. I don't recollect, it was some time in the afternoon, I believe it was close to one o'clock or between 1 and 2 o'clock.
Q. What time did you get to Racine?
A. I believe I got there about three something or something after three.
Q. What time did you start home?
A. In a few minutes, I just stayed there a few minutes.
Q. On your road back did you meet any of these armed men?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What were they doing?
A. Going towards Coal River, marching.
Q. Marching toward Racine?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where did you go when you came back?
A. I went up home.
Q. During the time these men were marching did you make any more trips to Racine?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What were you hauling, if anything?
A. Two outside myself.
Q. Two what?
A. Men.
Q. How many trips did you make to Racine with your car during that march?
A. Well, I don't just exactly know.
Q. Have you any idea?
A. Oh, probably, 4, 5 or 6 trips.
Q. Did you haul any persons on any of these trips?
A. Yes, sir
Q. How many of them?
A. Anywhere from six, seven or five along there.
Q. Were they armed or not?
A. Most of them were.
Q. What were the men doing along the road as you hauled these men?
A. Those that were not marching were in camp.
Q. During the time you were hauling men along the road did you hear them say anything about where they were going?
A. It was generally talked that they were going to Logan.
Q. Anywhere else?
A. Well, if was generally spoke that they were going to Logan and from there to Mingo.
Q. Did you hear any of them sat what they were going for?
A. To organize.
Q. Tell all you heard them say?
A. Well, I don't know just what they said.
Q. Well, did they say anything else?
A. Well, from the way they talked they were going to Logan to organize the men and from Logan into Mingo to organize, and I think about that time they were trying to scrimmage over there a little.
Q. Did you hear any talk among these men about martial law?
A. I heard them say something about martial law in Mingo.
Q. What did they say?
A. There would be conversation and people would stop and talk about the martial law. They said they did not care for the martial law. They said there were enough to organize if the martial law was in Mingo.
Q. Did you see any women along with this crowd?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you know what they were doing?
A. They said they were nurses.
Q. What kind of nurses, Red Cross?
A. They resembled the Red Cross nurses.
Q. They had Red Crosses on their capes.
Q. How many of them were there?
A. Some 5 or 6.
Q. Were did you first see these nurses after you left the mouth of the creek?
A. The first two I saw at the mouth of the creek.
Q. Where did you see them?
A. At Hernshaw and above.
Q. Did you see any between Hernshaw and Racine?
A. No, I don't believe I saw them any further than where the speaking was that day.
Q. How were they traveling?
A. They were in a machine most of the time, two or three of them.
Q. Did you hear any part of Mother Jones' speech.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What did you hear there at that time?
A. She came there and made a speech to the miners, called them her boys and wanted them to go home and not go over there. That it was wrong and that she was a good friend of Uncle Sam and that if they would go back home that she had a promise from Harding that everything would be made right over in that part.
Q. Do you know Frank Keeney?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you know him at that time?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you know Fred Mooney?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you know Bill Blizzard?
A. I am not personally acquainted with him, I knew him when I saw him.
Q. At the time you heard Mother Jones make this speech did you see these men?
A. I saw Keeney and Mooney, but I am not positive as to Blizzard.
Q. Where were they?
A. As I turned to leave the speaking they were there a few steps away.
Q. Did you hear anything said by Mr. Keeney and or Mr. Mooney?
A. I did not.
Q. Where did you go to?
A. I went back home to Hernshaw.
Q. Did anything else occur there about the time you left?
A. Well, just after I left there might have been something occurred.
Q. Did you see or hear anything?
A. I did when I come back up.
Q. What did you see or hear?
A. There was a skirmish line thrown out?
Q. Where was it thrown out?
A. Probably 100 yards below where they were making the speech?
Q. How many men were in that line?
A. I suppose about one or two hundred.
Q. Were they armed or not?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How did you get through the lines?
A. Well, I got caught in the lines as I was going to make the trip to Racine, and they told me what it was there for.
Q. What did they say it was for?
A. Some of the men wanted to go home, I think, wanted to go back according to Mother Jones' advice and they put this line out to keep any one from returning home.
Q. Was this line permitting any one to pass?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you see any automobiles or other vehicles on your road to Racine at any time during the march?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What kind did you see?
A. Why there were all kinds, trucks and wagons.
Q. What did they have in them?
A. I don't know, they claimed provisions and things.
Q. What was the wagons hauling?
A. The same.
Q. Do you remember how many trucks you saw?
A. I couldn't remember all the total because different times there would be quite a bunch in the evening late.
Q. How did you get through the skirmish line?
A. I went over and got some women and children in my automobile and they sent two men with me for about a half a mile to help me through.
Q. Who sent them?
A. I don't recollect. I got two men and told them what my business was and they went to someone and got some information and came back and said to me “we will guard you through.”
Q. Where do you live with reference to where this meeting at which Mother Jones spoke was held?
A. About a half a mile below the meeting.
Q. You have said you hauled some men to Racine. Why did you haul them over there?
A. The last trip I made over there was for the people of the creek. Two men hired me to go over there to meet the boys before they left for the train.
Q. Who were these two men?
A. One was Mr. Nip Clark and the other was Everett Toney. They hired me to go over there.
Q. Where did you live at that time?
A. At Hernshaw.
Q. How did you happen to be hauling all of these armed men?
A. Well, they generally went where they wanted to go. They were armed and they went whether you wanted to take them or not.
Q. Did they pay you anything for it?
A. No, sir.
Q. How far did you drive your car during that march that you have been telling about?
A. I run my car quite a distance during that time for different purposes, and to the best of my recollection I must have run it about 12 or 13 hundred miles.
Q. Were you paid for these trips by any one?
A. No, I never got anything.
Q. Was any offer made to pay you?
A. There was one man one night offered to pay me.
Q. Any others offered to pay you?
A. Some promised to pay me.
Q. Have you ever gotten it?
A. No, sir.
CROSS EXAMINATION, questions by MR. HOUSTON
Q. How long did you say you lived at or near Hernshaw?
A. About 10 years.
Q. Who was you employed by during that time?
A. Well, most of the time with the Marmet Coal Co.
Q. They have their operations near Hernshaw, do they not?
A. Yes sir.
Q. You were around there during most of the time of the gathering on Lens Creek in the latter part of August, were you not?
A. Yes sir.
Q. When did they have the first meeting on Lens Creek? About what date?
A. I couldn't just recollect the date. I wouldn't stat the date.
Q. There was a considerable number of people there covering a period of days, wasn't there?
A. Yes sir.
Q. I believe you said the meeting Mother Jones attended was held above Hernshaw.
A. Yes sir.
Q. And three or four hundred people attended it.
A. Yes sir.
Q. They were not all armed, were they?
A. No, they wasn't all armed, not all of them.
Q. Hernshaw is about 4 or 5 miles from the corporate limits of Marmet, is it not?
A. I think 3 1/2 miles.
Q. Do you know where the corporate limits of Marmet extend to relative to where the county road goes under the bridge?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Where abouts?
A. About three hundred yards above the bridge up the creek is the corporation line.
Q. This road that passes under the bridge within the corporate limits of Marmet.
A. The main county road, that goes over the C. and O. railroad, the main county road does.
Q. At Marmet?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Does go under, the road doesn't?
A. No sir.
Q. Where it crosses the main line of the railroad above Lens Creek is that within the corporate limits of Marmet?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Coming back to this meeting at Hernshaw, did I understand you to say there was a skirmish line or guard line thrown out about 100 yards below where the meeting was held?
A. Something like that.
Q. Did you notice any other guard lines across the creek?
A. No.
Q. That was the only one?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Could you estimate approximately about the number of men that composed that guard line?
A. I couldn't possibly state.
Q. That guard line must have been somewhere in the neighborhood of three or four miles from the town of Marmet, wasn't it?
A. It was just close to four miles from Marmet.
Q. During these various meetings or the presence of these bodies of men on Lens Creek, you went up and down the creek, down to Marmet and back home?
A. Yes sir.
Q. At any time during these trips did you pass through any guard lines other that the one you have mentioned?
A. Sure.
Q. Where did they have any other guard lines?
A. At different camps.
Q. Where was the first one located going up the creek from the bridge?
A. At the mouth of the creek, after crossing the C. and O. line.
Q. About how close to the bridge, would you say?
A. Seventy five yards, I judge, above the bridge.
Q. From the C. and O. crossing up the creek, can you tell us about how many men composed that guard line?
A. There wasn't a great many men there at the time, stationed there.
Q. Would you estimate a half a dozen?
A. Along about that.
Q. From the point where you saw this guard line up the creek about how far was it to the next guard line, if you noticed?
A. The next guard line was up the creek where the Governor came that time and made a speech to them.
Q. The Governor?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Was Governor Morgan up there at any time?
A. Not that date, but he was back from that time.
Q. You mean-
A. Something like a year or two back from that.
Q. In 1919?
A. I think so.
Q. About how far would you estimate that point was from where they had the first guard line going up the creek?
A. How's that?
Q. About how far, to the best of your judgement, was that from the first guard line that you met after that, starting up the creek?
A. I won't be positive, something over a mile.
Q. Were there any other guard lines on the creek besides these two?
A. Yes sir.
Q. About how far was it up to the third guard line?
A. There was several camps on the creek, I just don't know the exact distance, I wouldn't want to say positively.
Q. Can you tell the jury, approximately, exactly if you can, how many persons composing any of those guard lines were within the corporate limits of Marmet?
A. No, I wouldn't say.
Q. Would you say that any of them were within the corporate limits of Marmet?
A. Yes sir.
Q. The first one going up the creek?
A. The first one.
Q. The second one was not within the corporate limits of the town of Marmet?
A. No.
Q. To the best of your judgement there was about a half a dozen men in that guard line?
A. As I said a while ago, maybe today you would pass there, there would be a half a dozen maybe tomorrow there would be more, maybe this evening there would be two or three; maybe in the morning there would be a great bunch, a good many. Just according to how they felt like stopping, I reckon.
RE DIRECT EXAMINATION, question by MR. OSSINGTON
Q. On your examination, you said that Governor had made a speech on Lens Creek couple of years ago, what Governor was that?
Objection
Sustained
The testimony by this witness in regard to the Governor making a speech on Lens Creek in 1919 is withdrawn from the record by counsel for the defence.