'Stand Your Ground Law'

[lew1]

Originally Posted by zormpas

My father spent part of his childhood in Harlan county - during the coal wars of the early 1930s. He had some stories to tell!

I know what you refer to. Your father was not telling stories, but relating facts. We were from Breathitt. We moved elsewhere in Kentucky, but we would always visit. In the 70s, two of my brother-in-laws had coal trucks. They would go down to Perry County (Hazard) to pick up coal. When there I would ride with one of hm.

To get the coal, we had to cross UMW picket lines. I finally stopped doing that as my wife was ready to divorce me.

Eastern Kentucky is an unusual place. Many think the stories coming out of there are puffed up. Such is not the case.

[Zorba]

Originally Posted by lew1

I know what you refer to. Your father was not telling stories, but relating facts.

Yep. His father (my Grandfather) came and picked him up at school one day. He didn't go back for a "loooooong time". He remembered hearing the gunfire in the hills at nite. He would have been about 7 years old (1931). When he did finally return to school, there were bullet holes/chips on the building! My Grandfather was originally a coal miner in the area, but by this time he was a Methodist minister.

[NoncomRetired]

Originally Posted by zormpas

Yep. His father (my Grandfather) came and picked him up at school one day. He didn't go back for a "loooooong time". He remembered hearing the gunfire in the hills at nite. He would have been about 7 years old (1931). When he did finally return to school, there were bullet holes/chips on the building! My Grandfather was originally a coal miner in the area, but by this time he was a Methodist minister.

For a minute there, I thought you were talking about:

The Battle of Matewan (also known as the Matewan Massacre) was a shootout in the town of Matewan, West Virginia in Mingo County on May 19, 1920 between local miners and the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency.

There was a movie made about that coal mining town and the massacre.

And too, there was the Molly Maguires but they came earlier.