Cabin Creek

Mother Jones Union Organizer

Cabin Creek

Cabin Creek is located in Kanawha County on the south bank of the Kanawha River. Through the first half of the 20th century, Cabin Creek held as man a 150,000 people, however today the U.S. census places the population at 903.  Located in the Kanawha Coal River coalfield  at one time four companies owned major coal mines in Cabin Creek Hollow.  The largest of these was Carbon Fuel Co.  The other companies included Truex-Trayer Coal Co., Republic Steel, and Bethlehem Steel.  In 1912 miners in Cabin Creek and nearby Paint Creek joined forces for one of the most violent strikes in the nation’s history. This pitted the Baldwin-Felts mine guards against the striking miner. 

The intention of the companies was to make the life of the miners so miserable that they would settle the strike on the Companies terms.

A mchine gun bunker used by Baldwin-Felts mine guards.



            On February 7, 1913 an armored train, nicknamed the “Bull Moose Special rolled through Paint Creek, mine guards opened fire from the train, killing one of the strikers This event sparked an investigation by the U.S. Senate in which one mine guard who was on the train gave testimony that Quinn Morton one of the mine operators on the train had stated “Back up the train and we will give them another rounded.”  The strike was eventually settled in July of 1913.
Links and Sources
http://www.coalcampusa.com/sowv/kanawha/cabinck/cabinck.htm
http://www.wvculture.org/history/minewars.html
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50E15F73F5B13738DDDAC0994DE405B838DF1D3
http://www.wvrhep.org/cchc/comm_area.html