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□er or yean is not recorded, but he was back in West Virginia in 1920. He had knotm Frank Keeney and Fred Mooney, president and secretary-trcajjurcf of District 17, and had easy entree to UMW cIrcJcs. He visited the UAIW headquarters in Charleston frequently, and even helped organhe local unions at War Eagle, Glen Alum and Mohawk.All the while, of caurse, he was employed by the Baldwin men, who were employed by the coal operators, and sending in whatever information on UMW affairs he could get to T. L. Felts. Ithouse.• • •ACCORDING TO LATER testimony, both Hatfield and Chambers, the latter a young man of 22. left their guns in their hotel room, and proceeded unarmed to the Welch courthouse, accompanied by Iheir wives and Kirkpatrick, the deputy sheriff. At the first landing of the courthouse steps, the Hatifeld group paused and Sid threw up one hand, saying, Hello, boys.” These were his last words. There was a fusillade of shots and he rolled down thesteps, dead.Mrs. Hatfield ran into the officehappened that Lively was in the’ of Sheriff Bill llatfietd, then back UMW headquarters at Charleston out on the lawn, where she waswhen the news came in of the May 19, 1920, killings of the Baldwin men at Matewan (detailed elsewhere in this edition).The. UMW men shed few tears over the deaths of the Baldivin guards—a man named Charley Batley is supposed to have danced for joy — and Lively was obliged to sit and pretend that he. too, was happy over that carnage.The Baldwin - Felts agency then assigned Lively to Matewan, to investigate the May 19 shool-ings. He had posed so well as a UMW sympathizer that the union rented to him space for a small restaurant just beneath their local headquarters. The little restaurant' was perfect for Lively’s purpose. Tt gave him a reason for being in Matewan, and often UMW men dropped in and told of their plans with great freedom. At this time, his salary vjzs supposed to be S225 a month.WHEN a’gRAND jury indicted Sid Hatfield ai^d others for the killing of the guards on May 19, Lively had to tip his handgrabbed by a detective. She did not again see her dead husband until her return to Matewan.Ed Chambers was killed at (he seme lime, with periiaps a dozen bullets in his body. Wien asked how many times be was shot in the back, his widow, Sally Chambers, replied: “All Ihe shots, excepting these two; he was shot one time in the neck and the last shot that was fired, C. E. Lively shot him right behind the car.”Lively was later tried for the murder of Chambers, pleaded self defense, and was acquitted. The Baldwin men, including Lively, may have been merely nervous and trigger happy, but it is more probable that Chambers and Hatfield were killed in revenge for the May 19 killings at Matewan. C. E. Lively no doubt continued his work for the coal operators for a niunber of years. The writer has heard that he lived to a ripe old age, and may yet be living, around Logh-gelly, in Fayette County.ITie Sid Hatfield-Ed Chambersin order to give testimony againsti™'^^*^®'’^' has been noted, ledHatfield and others involved. He' was promptly expelled from the UMW lt;he had been a dues-pay-ing member all this time) for .19 years.Although Anse Hatfield, not to be confused with Devi! Anse” but a cousin of Sid’s, also testified against his cousin and was later shot dead, C. E. Lively continued in good health. He seemed to have a personal grudge against Sid Hatfield, and was also anxious to prove his contention that Matewan Mayor Testerman had been killed by Hatfield, not thedirectly to tlie Armed March of I92L Martial law in Mingo had been invoked by Gov. Ephraim Morgan twice, once on May 19, 1921, the first anniversary of the ’’Matewan Massacre,” and again, when legally contested, on June 27lt; The June 27 proclamation, however, was n.crely an extension of the May 19 edict, and the military was in control con-Unuously. The June 27 ruling, simply stated, drafted enough men to police Mingo County,SOME OF* THE *RULINGS ofMorgan’s martial law were: No
Newspaper Details
Gazette Mail
Charleston, West Virginia, US
Sun, Jun 16, 1963
Page 48
Full Page
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Anonymous
OH, USA 15 Jul 2018
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