Matewan Before the Massacre
Matewan Before the Massacre on Google Books, or view the local copy is about West Virginia coal mines and mining, and labor relations leading up the bloody conflicts that culminated in the 'Massacre'. And this is the academic paper on which the popular book is based, which is similar but different.
Publication date: 1885
Topics: genealogy
Publisher: Louisville, Ky., Chicago, Ill., F.A. Battey publishing company
Collection: allen_county; americana
Digitizing sponsor: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Contributor: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Language: English
People Referenced
F.A.F. Ferrell
Added to Person Page Yet? NO
Anderson was the father, who owned the land that became Mateway, and was later sued "Ferrell v. Ferrell", which went to the West Virginia Supreme Court after his son Floyd filed suit.
Floyd Ferrell
Added to Person Page Yet? NO
Floyd was the son, who sued his father Anderson after he changed his will to include his new wife Mary Chambers, which was appealed in "Ferrell v. Ferrell" to the West Virginia Supreme Court.
Pages
Page 31 S. A. Ferrell
Page 31 - S. A. Ferrell - This reference appears missing the WVU thesis version.
"From 1900 until 1906, every addition of an Old Liner to an executive position in the county party was matched by one from the Regular Faction. Names of the Regulars reveal the primary source of their influence: S. A. Ferrell, A. G. Rutherford, and John A. Sheppard. Ferrell, Rutherford, and and Greenway Hatfield, who joined them on the Executive Committee in 1906, were scions of pioneering Tug Valley Families.” (Note 23)
Note 23: Confirmation of the assertion that Ferrell, Rutherford, and Hatfield were from pioneering families can bet found in the discussion of those families I Waller, Ely, and Jillson; Sheppard’s biographical facts can be found in 1905 Progressive West Virginians, 101; For explanation of the King case, see Chapter 7 of Cubby, “Transformation of the Tug and Guyandot Valleys.”
- Ely - William Ely, The Big Sandy Valley: A History of the People and Country from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time
- Jillson - Willard Rouse Jillson, The Big Sandy Valley
- Waller - Altina L. Waller, Feud: Hatfields, McCoys and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900
Page 61-62 S. A. Ferrell
Page 61-62 - Floyd Ferrell and F. A. J. Ferrell (“Anderson”) “As an example of what this kind of economic stress can do, consider the tale that haunts Matewan of a family torn asunder by a son’s greed. Through marriage to Phoebe, the sister of Devil Anse Hatfield, Anderson Ferrell acquired ownership of the farm that became Gateway. After Phoebe’s death, Ferrell married Mary Chambers and started a second family. Seeking to provide financial stability for all of his children by capitalizing on the railroad’s proximity, Ferrell divided his land. To his children by Phoebe Hatfield, Ferrell deeded small farms, and he sold the remaining land in lots, thus founding the town of Gateway. Among the entrepreneurs who purchased property from Ferrell was his nephew boy marriage E. B. Chambers. Years after the Hatfield-Ferrell farm had grown into a thriving village, one of Anderson Ferrell’s sons from this first marriage challenged his father’s dispensation of the land. (Note 89).
Note 89: Smith, Early History of Mingo County, 6; Hatfield correspondence latter no. 6. The marriage connections between the Hatfields, Ferrells, and Chambers families can be confirmed in: Donna L. Brown, Logan County Marriages, Book 1: 1872-1892 (Logan, West Virginia: Logan County Genealogical Society, n. d.); E. b. Chamber’s purchase of the first lot in Matewan noted in “E. B. Chambers,” Williamson Enterprise, June 4, 1908; Anderson Ferrell’s wives are sometimes identified as Birdie or Bridget (Phoebe Hatfield) and Sarah or Sally Chambers; “Ferrell v. Ferrell”, Reports of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, 53 (March 28, 1903 - November 21, 1903): 515-524, 516.
Aided by Henry Clay Ragland, the attorney who had originally served his illiterate father, Floyd Ferrell brought suit to gain a larger portion of the family property, which now encompassed the town of Gateway. When the local circuit court judge granted the son’s claim, Anderson Ferrell appealed to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. The court chastised the younger Ferrell by asking, “What right had this son to the property?” When it would lead to the bankruptcy of the father. The court also questioned Floyd Ferrell’s motives in pursuing the suit, which at one point he had withdrawn in order to “let the second wife and little children of his aged father have something for home and bread.” The court extended its reprimand to include lawyer Ragland for encouraging Floyd Ferrell to take action against his father. The acrimony generated by Ferrell v. Ferrell survived for decades and may have contributed to a rivalry between the Hatfields and the Chambers, who struggled against each other for decades for control of Matewan. (Note 90)
Note 90: “Ferrell v. Ferrell”, 518-524; Hatfield correspondence, letter no. 6. According to Margaret Hatfield, some Hatfields believed that Matewan had been “stolen” by the Chambers.