A LOOK BACK — Former Brooke County sheriff Richard Ferguson reflected the role of a predecessor in the Cliftonville mine riot of 1922 at a program Sunday at the Brooke County Historical Museum and Culture Center. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — Four speakers at the Brooke County Historical Museum and Culture Center offered perspectives, Sunday, on the Cliftonville mine riot of 1922 and life in coal mining communities of that time.

Former Brooke County sheriff Richard Ferguson said the question of who shot Harding Duvall, a local sheriff killed while responding to the fray, has never been answered.

The mine was the center of a small community that once existed in Brooke County, about four miles west of Avella, Pa.

Ferguson noted that following a four-month strike and the mine’s sale to another company, hundreds of miners were fired. Evicted from homes that were built and owned by the mining company, many were living in tents provided by the United Mineworkers union, he said.

Ferguson said there are reports that prisoners had been brought in to work the mine when its former employees set out on an angry march from Avella to Cliftonville on July 17, 1922.

Comprised of up to 400 men, including union members from other mines, the group made its way through two railroad tunnels to the mine, where armed guards awaited them, he said.

Ferguson said there were reports that Duvall arrived at the scene with 20 deputies. He said it seems unlikely the county employed that number at the time, so Duvall probably deputized volunteers to assist him.

While the group of miners greatly outnumbered the deputies and guards, only a small number carried firearms while those protecting the mine had the advantage of being on higher ground, he said.

“I would say they (the guards) opened fire a lot in this,” said Ferguson.

It’s a position supported by author Joseph Bogo — whose novel, “Holes in the Hills,” is centered around the riot.

Bogo said while the miners were able to set fire to the tipple used to load coal from the mine into train cars, it proved a hollow victory when a guard used explosives to sever the conveyor belt between it and the mine, thus preventing the blaze from spreading.

He said about an hour later, only Duvall and a deputy, Erwin Mozingo, had been shot in the skirmish, while at least four miners were found dead near the mine and many others perished while fleeing the scene.

Ferguson said the sheriff, who may have been attempting to corner the miners, was found dead from a bullet wound on a large rock near the mine.

He noted that In the days that followed, the newly formed West Virginia State Police arrested many in their investigation of the incident but none of the 78 indicted for his murder were found guilty of the crime.

The former sheriff said years later, some residents would say they were told an ancestor had been responsible. He said Mozingo was killed in the line of duty years later, while responding to a domestic dispute in Beech Bottom.

Both Ferguson and Bogo said Duvall’s actions on that day greatly altered the public’s perception of him.

They said in those days of Prohibition, the sheriff had been accused, prior to the riot, of accepting bribes if he agreed not to prosecute those who illegally manufactured or sold alcohol.

Charged with corruption in the spring of 1922, he became a hero, albeit through his death, that summer, said Bogo.

“He died doing his job in the line of duty and he did it to the best of his abilities,” said Bogo.

Ferguson said the former location of Cliftonville has since been stripmined and even if it weren’t currently private property, it’s not easy to reach because it’s become overgrown with bugs and vegetation.

But having been there, he said, “It feels real heavy, almost like death. I can’t wait to leave.”

Ferguson brought a display box containing several items he said someone found at the scene using a metal detector.

He said among them is a metal tag use by a miner to mark the cart he’d filled with coal, which determined his pay; a small medallion in which a cross was stamped, an indicator of its owner’s Christian faith; a token that may have provided a fortunate miner a ride to town for a show; a coupon for a free cigar and a .44 caliber bullet.

On display at the museum were several items related to the life of a coal miner in the early 20th century, including a metal miner’s lunch pail.

Bogo noted the handled tin pail consisted of separate sections fitting tightly together, with food or water in each.

Those attending Sunday’s program also learned aspects of a coal miner’s life from Terry Wiegmann and Mark Wiegmann, cousins with ties to Cliftonville; and Candice Nelson, author of “The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll.”

A graduate of Brooke High School and West Virginia University and former reporter, Nelson revealed the popular entree was first commercially sold by Guisseppe Argiro, a Fairmont bakery owner who was inspired by the loaves of bread and sticks of pepperoni eaten by many of the Italian immigrant coal miners with whom he once worked.

The Wiegmanns’ ancestors operated various businesses in Avella, including a funeral home that handled funeral arrangements for many who died in the riot.

The Wiegmanns noted many of the miners were immigrants coal mining companies lured to America with the promise of high paying jobs. But the newly hired workers paid rent to live in houses owned by their employer and were paid in currency that could only be used at the company’s general store, said Terry.

As a result, about 65 percent of such workers owed the company an average of $213 before they even started work, she said.

“There were 14 grocery stores in Avella but they couldn’t serve Cliftonville because the company wanted the company store to serve them exclusively,” said Mark.

Terry added safety conditions in mines were so poor that it wasn’t unusual for a woman to have had two or three husbands because her previous spouses were killed while on the job and she was forced to remarry to provide for her family.

Mark said it’s been estimated that as many as 14,000 people in the Wellsburg-Avella area were employed by coal mines around 1908.

He noted his hometown of Colliers was another community that arose from the coal mining industry, noting it once was occupied by a railroad that carried Abraham Lincoln to Steubenville for a campaign stop.

Noting his ancestors hailed from Germany and the United Kingdom, Mark said most Americans can trace their ancestry to immigrants.

He told attendees, “If we don’t know who we are or what our ancestors did, we don’t know where we’re going.”

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

Copyright © The Herald Star | https://www.heraldstaronline.com | 401 Herald Square , Steubenville, OH 43952 | 740-283-4711