The life of John Worth KernBowers, Claude G. (Claude Gernade)
History
The life of John Worth Kern
Bowers, Claude G. (Claude Gernade)
Kern, John Worth, 1849-1917; Politicians -- United States -- Biography
The miners’ tented camp at Holly Grove had become an eyesore to the
representatives of feudalism. They determined to wipe it out and thus
terrorize the strikers into submission. Their plan was diabolical,
medieval in its brutality. An armored train was equipped at Huntington,
W. Va., for the purpose. On the night of February 7, 1913, the special
crew went aboard.
The miners were peacefully in their tents or houses that night, many
asleep, when between ten and eleven o’clock the armored train moved
slowly at a speed of about seven miles an hour through Holly Grove
pouring a fusillade of bullets upon the unsuspecting and unprepared
inhabitants. Cesco Estep, who was sitting with his family by the fire
when the shooting began, called upon his family to take refuge in the
cellar and led the way. He fell dead a few feet from the cellar door.
His wife, who was about to become a mother, fled for her life. One woman
was shot in the feet. About fifteen shots passed through the Estep
house, which sheltered women and children that night. The woman was shot
in her own home. Bullets passed through many houses and tents, setting
fire to a store, and the marvel was that many were not murdered. The
miners, as quickly as they could recover from their surprise, in a few
instances returned the fire, and this was the occasion for much
indignation in the capital, where it was understood that the miners had
brutally attacked an armored train. The train passed on and was
dismounted in the C. & O. shops in Richmond. This incident was something
novel in the history of industrial warfare in America.
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