Sid Hatfield, sheriff of Matewan on May 19, 1920.
On this day one hundred years ago Sid Hatfield was arrested in Williamson, West Virginia, charged with assaulting P. J. Smith, superintendent of the Stone Mountain Coal Corporation.
Hatfield came to Williamson voluntarily after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
This wouldn’t be the last time Sid Hatfield would be arrested that year. On July 28, 1921, he and his former deputy, Ed Chambers, were arrested in Williamson and charged with conspiracy over allegedly inciting striking miners to join them in shooting up the non-union coal tipple in the Mohawk mining camp in 1920.
It was at an appearance at the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch concerning the Mohawk case on August 1, 1921 that Hatfield and Chambers were shot and killed by agents of the Baldwin-Felts detective agency in retaliation for the deaths of members of that organization in the gun battle at Matewan the year before.
