January 2016. Main Street in Matewan, West Virginia. A mural, painted by Vera Kay Hankins, Elan Hatfield, and Wilma Lee Steele, details the rich mining and labor history of the town of Matewan. Behind the mural and across the tracks, stands Matewan United Methodist Church, which was founded in 1933. Roughly 100 yards northwest of this location is where the infamous Matewan Massacre occurred on 19 May 1920, during which local police chief Sid Hatfield emerged as a local hero after he stood up to coal company agents attempting to remove Union workers from coal company housing. Hatfield was later assassinated in Welch, West Virginia in McDowell County because of his role in the battle. The conflict was precipitated by a strike in 1920 by coal miners who demanded the company recognize the legitimacy of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The coal companies retaliated by bringing in armed guards to evict miners from several of the local mines and their families from company housing. Police chief Sid Hatfield threatened detectives with arrest, on the grounds that they had no warrant for eviction of the miners. Word of Hatfield’s threat spread and tension in the town increased. When the detectives returned to Matewan, Hatfield informed them he had a warrant for their arrest. The mayor of Matewan, C.C. Testerman, appeared on the scene in support of Hatfield, and a shot was fired. The ensuing conflict left seven detectives, two miners, and Mayor Testerman dead.
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