History saved

[peternap]

The Jefferson County WV jail has been saved.
http://www.herald-mail.com/?story_id=197978&cmd=displaystory

While there is a lot of history there, this jail held the accused in the battle of Blair Mountain. Glenn would like reading up on that. Even though the good guys lost, they put up a fight.

It's also when the term Redneck became popular in this country. The meaning is far different now, but that's when Americans started using it. The union miners wore red neckerchiefs. Prior to that, the term was used mostly in Scotland and  described a farmer.

[glenn kangiser]

Right Peter. Fascinating.

Here is the story to listen to here -

http://cdn2.libsyn.com/historypodcast/HP71_Battle_of_Blair_Mountain.mp3?nvb=20080707025347&nva=20080708025347&t=0160585423dbf9ca34cd6

(You can right click - save link as -- to listen to it later or put it on your Ipod, Blackberry or other Mobile phone or PDA to listen to)

or read about here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain

or get the book through John's Amazon link and support this site.

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=The%20Battle%20Of%20Blair%20Mountain%3A%20The%20Story%20Of%20America%27s%20Largest%20Labor%20Uprising%20&tag=countryplanscom&index=books&Search=Search&link_code=qs

[ScottA]

That's a great story. I never heard of that before.

[Redoverfarm]

Thanks Peter I knew that.  In fact the 15 years I worked there I thought many times  I was putting people in the same jail as him. Also drove past the place that John Brown was hung and sit many a hours in court at the same court room they tried him in. Of course it was the first floor courtroom then which is now the county commission room which is attached to the jail.

In fact I was hung in that same court room. Family law judge used it when i got my divorce.

Just on the light side. If you look at the court house bell tower adjacent that is where the police got ther calls from before radios were used.  The telephone operator would answer the calls and if someone wanted the police she would switch a lightbulb on at the bell tower.  When they drove by and saw the light they would call the operator to get the details and answer the call.  Thank god for technology.

[peternap]

That's a great story. I never heard of that before.

There's a tremendous amount of history in West Virginia Scott. The coal miners still make themselves known. There was a strike in Virginia, in the late 70's or 80's (memory's getting bad) where the State Police were called in to keep the peace. The miners just gave them a fit. One of the funniest things was that they would use cordless drills to make holes in the road and put pole barn spikes in the holes. The troopers were spending over 30,000.00 a month in tires alone.

Va is divided into a number of states. Northern Va doesn't count. It;s part of DC. Tidewater and flatland Va...and the mountains and Shenandoah Valley.
Back when.....The mountain areas on the fringes of Va felt like they weren't getting a fair shake from the Va Government. It was true. The only reasons ny area got a lotter better deal was because of the agriculture in the Valley.....

Anyway when the BIG war came along, they decided it was a good time to form their own state. Mountain people didn't own slaves and it wasn't their war. The only problem was that in order to succeed, Virginia had to sign off on it. Well, Va had an unconstitutional government so they couldn't even if they would.

To make the story short, West Virginia to be, reformed the Virginia Government just long enough to sign their walking papers....and formed West Virginia.

[Redoverfarm]

Peter I worked the strikes in the southern part of the state bordering Kentucky & Virginia.  The weapon of choice was "jack rocks" same principle as the kids used except about 4-5" in size.  Two timber nails bent in V's and welded at the intersection and all four points sharpened.  Their real enemy was the scab trucker and miners.  They just throw a couple in the mine roads when dark, sit the the woods w/camo on and watch.

[ScottA]

And I thought okies where ornery.

[peternap]

Peter I worked the strikes in the southern part of the state bordering Kentucky & Virginia.  The weapon of choice was "jack rocks" same principle as the kids used except about 4-5" in size.  Two timber nails bent in V's and welded at the intersection and all four points sharpened.  Their real enemy was the scab trucker and miners.  They just throw a couple in the mine roads when dark, sit the the woods w/camo on and watch.

I was with the SCC when that happened John. I always had a morbid curiosity about dissident tactics but couldn't ever get anyone, Police, Strikers or anyone else, to talk to me about exactly what was happening.

One day I was inspecting something at Appalachian power and ran into one of the strikers. He at least talked a little and I asked about the jack rocks Vs spikes in the road. He just said "Takes a lot of time to make the damn things".

[glenn kangiser]

I finally got to listen to the whole story whild driving today -- loaded it on my Blackberry.  It was a great story and vit of history.