J. C. Blair testimony
(transcriber may have made spelling and punctuation changes)
J. C. BLAIR.
A witness of lawful age, being first duly sworn-
Questions by Mr. Belcher.
Q. Where do you live?
A. In Charleston, W. Va.
Q. Were you living in Charleston during the time of the armed march of the miners up Lens creek?
A. Yes.
Q. At any time did you see any of these men assembled there under arms?
A. Yes.
Q. What were you doing at the time you saw the men assembled there?
A. I had left Charleston in an automobile to go to Patona [Peytona]?
Q. How were you going?
A. I was going up Lens creek and across to Racine.
Q. Where were the armed men at that time?
A. The first armed men were on the porch of a store as we were going through Marmet.
Q. How were you going?
A. By automobile.
Q. Who was with you?
A. P. D. Koontz.
Q. Did you get to your destination-Paytona?
A. We did not get beyond the mouth of Lens creek.
Q. Why?
A. We were stopped when we turned off over the bridge. We were stopped just before we crossed the bridge by three or four men with rifles. They said to us to stop and we stopped. Then they asked us where we were going and we said to "Paytona." Then they asked us why, and I said I had business interest over there, and was interested in a mine over there, and they said you cannot go over there. Then Mr. Koontz and I turned to each other, and they said "wait a minute" and one of the men walked over to the crowd of men about a telephone pole about fifty feet from us and talked the thing over, and then one of the three men who stopped us came back and he said "Is it important you go up to Paytona" and we said it was and they said "Let us search you and your car and you can take two armed men with you to guard you and you can go on through." We talked it over between us, Pat and myself, and we decided we did not want to go that way, he thought they might take us out on one of those creeks and then take our car away from us.
Objection.
Objection sustained.
Q. About how many men were assembled around the telephone pole you mentioned just now?
A. I suppose forty or fifty.
Q. Were they armed?
A. Yes, all we saw were armed.
Q. What sort of guns did they have?
A. A miscellaneous bunch of arms, six shooters, rifles and shot guns. I don't think I notices any particular make.
Q. Where did they have the pistols?
A. belted around their waists.
Q. How many armed men did you notice at the store in Marmet?
A. Not over three or four.
Q. Were you in the public road on that occasion.
A. Yes.
Q. What were you in?
A. I was in a Buick roadster. One seat-two passengers.
Q. Did they search your car?
A. No they did not attempt to when we said we could go back.
Q. What date was this?
A. I could not fix the date. I don't remember the date. Shortly after that I made a statement and I could find the date from that, but I do not remember it now.
Q. Was it in the month of August?
A. I am pretty sure it was about that time when they were assembled there. I understood that this was the tail end of the march starting that day. That was what they said around there.
Q. You say you are interest in a coal mine on Coal River and you wanted to get out to it?
A. Yes.
Q. And in going to your mine you attempted to drive up Lens creek and were stopped?
A. Yes.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. TOWNSEND.
Q. What is the mine you say you are interested in?
A. The Stonecastle coal Company.
Q. Where is it located?
A. At Paytona, just below the station.
Q. Do you operate that mine or were you only interested in it?
A. No, Mr. Snyder operates it. I just have an interest in it.
Q. You are employed by Mr. Snyder?
A. No, I have stock in the Company.
Q. These men you speak of did not take you automobile, did they?
A. No.
Q. There were enough of them to take it, were there not?
A. Yes, a plenty.
Q. They did not try to take it, did they?
A. No.
Q. All they said was that you should not go up the creek without some of their men went with you, was it not?
A. They said we would have to be searched and the car would have to be searched and that we would have to take an armed guard with us.
Q. They offered to take you up the creek where you wanted to go, did they not, and put you at your destination?
A. They offered to let us go with a guard.
Q. You were not afraid of them were you?
A. Well, I did not want to go up the creek.
Q. You were not afraid of them, were you? They did not do anything to you, did they?
A. No.
Q. Well, you were not afraid of them, were you?
A. I did not want to take any chances on going up the creek with them.
Q. How many men did you see altogether?
A. They were strung along up there as far as you could see up Lens creek. It would be hard to estimate.
Q. You cannot see very far of the creek, can you?
A. There is quite a stretch by the railroad that you can see up the creek, and they were all walking up that way.
Q. You cannot see far up that road, or any road around there, can you?
A. You could see them straggling up the creek.
Q. How many were there?
A. I should say between two and three hundred as nearly as you could see.
Q. What kind of pistols did they have?
A. I could not tell you the make of them.
Q. Did you not say they were six shooters?
A. Yes.
Q. Well, how do you know they were six shooters?
A. When I said six shooters, it was just a term I use for all kinds of pistols.
Q. You just called them that but did not mean to designate the kinds they were, did you?
A. Yes, I call anything a six shooter that is carried in the pocket to differentiate it from a gun or rifle.
Q. As a matter of fact you don't know whether they shot six times or ten times, do you?
A. No, I did not examine any of them.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. BELCHER.
Q. You did not want to be shot, no matter how many times they could shoot them, did you?
A. No.
Q. Were you afraid of them? How did they stop you at first on the public road?
A. We saw a crowd around in the road where the road makes a branch to go up the creek. You could not run over them. We were going very slowly. When we came up the men stopped us and we saw they had guns though they did not draw them on us. They just stood in front of the car and held up their hands and said stop. They did not pull out their guns on us, and we stopped right there.
Witness dismissed.