Welch, West Virginia: From Coal to John F. Kennedy's Rise to Presidency, a History of Importance

hey guys shane simmons here and the next video here took me forever to edit had all kinds of problems with it had to chop out a whole section in fact where i talk about the book and movie called the glass castle by jeanette walls and uh so i wanted to mention acknowledged that book and movie here i haven't read the book so i have to talk about the movie but it was uh ah it's hard to describe that it's kind of dark but it certainly wasn't um feel good necessarily it was but it was a good uh movie about overcoming obstacles and perseverance and challenges in life but i do recommend checking that out i thought it was entertaining and part of it was cast in welch west virginia so i didn't want to mention that part and then there's a couple other choppy parts in here but for the most part it'd come out about as good as it can so hope enjoy it welch is a great town you need to check it out if you know any if you're interested at all in coal history it doesn't get any bigger than well trust virginia so without further ado here we go okay friends of neighbor shane simmons appalachian project coming at you coming into welch from the gary side and unfortunately there that long john silver's is out of business and it's sad last time i was here it was open it's been a few years but it's pretty bad shape then but i'm not hoping to still be around it's not your problem but anyway welch man there's tons of history here tons and tons and i will not in any way shape form or fashion do this place justice i want to say that up front before people attack me in the comments because good lord i'm going to miss half the story here um i just welch is just a gold mine of history from the mine wars president kennedy you name it all the coal history that comes through here but this was my original destination today so i'm glad i finally hit town and as you can see welch has been hammered uh population wise i'm anxious to see the developments because i know they've been working to clean the town up so to speak or the city i should say so i'm gonna pull up here this freedom i think it's got a very interesting history but there you can see the sign the welch sign welcome son i'll tell you a little bit more that story here when i got a call so as promised here's the french gratitude train and i will put the story to this in the comments because i will i don't remember it off the top of my head perfectly so and i don't want to do it that injustice of watching the whole story but long story short is the french government sent a few of these into the united states to different cities and not a whole lot of them and i don't know how many exist anymore not many i don't think at all again hopefully in the comments i'll know more specifics about it but i want to give you a shot of that and you can go check that out in our comments here on youtube or i will try to put a link to the welch story on our website at appalachiantalk.org that way i have more of the welch story but i just wanted to show you this it's such a cool thing to see um it's right here with this other war memorial pieces so then a little story i didn't read to pulled in here i didn't even know it so kind of a cool one too about some bushwackers and mcdowell and now i'll read this to you in 18 in june 1862 lieutenant colonel william russell fourth west virginia ordered company d to mcdowell county after learning that evie harmon and 100 rebels were terrorizing area unionists union troops arrived to find that the guerrillas had left the area in order to join a larger confederate force near tazewell virginia russell's men burned harmon's headquarters and destroyed 40 bushels of corn so some of the civil war history i'll get back on the road here and go to more the downton town area all righty so i'm coming in back into welch from a different angle in that intersection we were just at where the french gratitude train was and uh kind of something interesting caught my eye here hopefully there's a story behind it i don't know but i saw that there was an advertisement for a little motel down here it's called the count like kailu motel welch's finest and i don't know if that's something new or old or if there's any story there at all somebody let me know if you catch this video and know the story but i just got behind a bunch of atvs and motorcycles just having about 100 it looked like so hopefully i'll avoid them again but we shall see okay so um please do a tom stan i don't know nine out of ten of these buildings maybe even less than that so people that know the history of these buildings and locations please comment and put a timestamp of what's where because i promise you i won't do this place justice i promise you that right now guarantee it anyway welch was actually became the county seat of mcdowell county in 1892 which is actually before it was even incorporated into a city but it is named after isaiah welch who was a con had been a captain in the confederate army he surveyed the town and planned it out at the confluence of uh tug fork and elkhorn creek so the population in 2010 was about 2 400 people here and that's way down from what it's from its heyday and which is why when i drive around here it looks like a much bigger city than it really is as far as population the infrastructure is just massive for that type of population but at one time it was a major major player in the coal business and there's a sheriff's office now a lot of violent history here too which comes with the territory anytime you talk about mining a lot of violent history i'll get into some of that here in a few minutes let's let you guys see this is a little bit more residential mixed with some of the municipal buildings that type of thing and this is more heading into the downtown area and there's the welch municipal building speaking of which you see some of these older buildings welch has done better than most of these cities and recouping and it's downtown it's uh it was a lot of flooding has happened through here and why i came right after one and you talk about depressing it was heartbreaking to see it's a movie theater there's the renaissance village kind of cool dental care this is much improved since even the last time i was here so they've definitely spent a lot of money on rehab in this town or city i should say there's the mcnb bank structure and there's the courthouse and i got a story about that here in a second we'll park and go over there and talk um and there's the courthouse in now nx commission court street and there's welch daily news so we're going to circle around through here and there's some famous pictures about how crowded this place was i think there's one near christmas time or something we're just jam-packed with people and it's obviously not like that at all anymore here's the old 76 station last time i was here that was open there's an elderly gentleman that worked there it's pretty well known through here but i don't i don't see him today i hope he's still with us let me turn this thing around and go down to where well actually let me go down here for just a second show you a little bit more of the residential area some people that are originally from here like to see that kind of stuff which maybe steve harvey will watch this someday steve harvey if you ever watch it let me know that'd be great he was original native from here a lot of famous people came through this area they moved on and primarily went to auto industry and that type of thing went to detroit in ohio working in different types of auto industry i'll get this thing turned around go back down to the downtown area again a lot of local historians know this place very well unfortunately you're stuck with me but i actually interviewed a guy named jay chapman from down here and i need to post that video because it's fascinating he is probably to me one of if not the most foremost knowledgeable people about script and that type of thing i just love talking to him he's a font of information and i know he's still active out here he does some uh presentations about coal mining and he just does a fantastic job he's a smart guy man just a very knowledgeable dude and i hate when i have to admit somebody's a lot smarter than i am but j chapman i got to give it up brother you got me beat all the pieces i love these murals too these are great now look at that station old service station again all these murals are wonderful it captures the history very well and like i said the one time i came down here and it just flooded man you talk about depressing i mean it was the area was just completely gutted buildings pushed into each other and it's just a it was a disaster but they fixed all that up and they they've continued to spend money on it now i can tell and here is this b-roll as well i'll give you a shot of that this one's just absolutely fascinating to me at least captures the old history of it and it made that old building look brand new again get my little vessel turned around and get back on the road in a second if you look in the opposite direction of that street back on the road see all these older buildings mostly vacant these days but at least they've been cleaned up and you can see that there's a potential for a rebound at some point and this is a very famous park it's the municipal parking building and that is where john f kennedy came and gave his speech a very famous speech you'll see pictures of him standing up and given that and obviously west virginia was largely instrumental in him winning the presidency so the john f kennedy history is deep in this state and but particularly in welch mcdowell county because he really came and put the time in and treated people with respect and that really went a long way and was sincere or at least he seems here so for me um and that really what goes a long way with people even now just like that people very understanding and patient and everything else with you if they feel like you're legit you're telling them being straight with them so find a place to park here and then i'll jump out here and tell a little bit more of the story about the courthouse getting back to my president kennedy's story he came in 1960 as part of his push to become president and what he saw was that mechanization had already started taking over it really took over probably in the 50s where machines were starting to replace a lot of the jobs that men were doing so mines would operate with far less manpower than they had previously which left a lot of people displaced and all those folks you know they're first generation immigrants and everything else um so you know they didn't know what to do you know there was just this panic situation and so there's a lot of unemployment a lot of people on government assistance and it was just this was before food stamps and all that kind of stuff came around and actually led to that um a lot of people think directly where lyndon johnson and matter of fact that someone in i think it was jaeger was the first family in their jaeger's first people to receive food stamps in the entire united states but it was caused by the loss of jobs and and as you can see this city you know their people at one time it was a boomtown there's houses on every hillside and everywhere they could cram one because there's such a demand and it was just like a set of boomtown and people were finding jobs and this is like a gold rush and then when that ended the people and the city and nothing was prepared to deal with that and uh so that's where when president kennedy comes along and sees this poverty and obviously it's gotten a lot worse since then um but you know you see these people struggling living hand to mouth and you know it affects you i don't care you as a human being looking around and seeing people struggle like that made an impact and i think that that really was why he always kept west virginia close to his heart and truly did try to make changes um for the bottom of the area and i'm no um that is the middle of the road politically guide you'll ever meet so if i'm saying that it's because i believe it to be the truth so go down through here and looks like another abandoned school of some sorts or maybe it's not it's maybe it's a factory it looks like more of a factory take that well i don't know maybe maybe just a school smart i am that's a really cool tunnel right there i love seeing that kind of stuff those are really pretty photographs i'll head back down to the downtown area talk a little bit more about this and um the truth of the matter is is that the democrat party had a stranglehold on west virginia for decades and i mean decades that's why you still have some holders like joe manchin and some of those people who part of that i don't know that they would vote for a guy like mansion now so much he just established and the incumbent but he's obviously very moderate compared to what he used to be and certainly what the democrat party used to be uh because this is i mean this is truly trump i've not seen the first joe biden um yard sign or anything else my whole trip up through here because this is cool country and you know it's kind of sad too this is the first election that i don't certain certainly personally i've not heard a single person even acknowledge cole one way or the other um on either party just not it's almost irrelevant and it's kind of sad because it used to always be a talking point of some sort and just makes you feel like it's for lack of better words you don't matter and you know west virginia of course has very few electoral votes but it was a prominent player for years and years and years politically and the fact that it voted for kennedy in the primaries really sent a message too that a catholic could become president and really launched him so he always had a lot of loyalty to the place so i've got loyalty to him even though i don't necessarily vote that way or not i don't really get all passionate about it but i'll get out here in the courthouse a little bit more as you can see this courthouse is as steep as a horse's face it's one of the most famous structures in welch and you're about to find out why it's a great view of downtown area too and i'll read it off the sign uh and this is the story of said hatfield so you might can read that there yourself but morning kentucky said hatfield worked as a blacksmith and coal miner before being named chief of police and mate one of mingo county which is nearby sympathetic to unionization efforts in that county he joined striking minors may 19 1920 in a shootout known as mate 1 massacre with baldwin felt agents his murder in 1921 led to minor's march on logan and battle of blair mountain well along these courthouse steps he was assassinated by some baldwin phelps detective they got the heads up that he was going to be in court and they shot him dead here and really this guy i mean hatfield the name you think of hatfield mccoy and he is a part of that family but also a big part of those what they call the mine wars and it's part of the mate one massacre where some baldwin felt agents and um who ran their own they're basically their own police agency for the coal companies so they had a shootout with the local police force which included sid hatfield and actually led to the mayor of mate one being shot dead in the street in mate one and if you watch my mate one video i show you some of the bullet holes still in that building they just reopened the mine wars museum and they've actually added and expanded it and it's fantastic friend of mine ken mccoy runs it so rob works there and tells the story wonderfully but anyway this right here is a big part of the history and it's where said hatfield was shot dead coming to court the sign tells us a bit more about it too on august 1st 1921 former mate 1 chief of police said hatfield and ed chambers were murdered on the courthouse steps by baldwin phelps agents three men were charged in the murders but were acquitted because those mine companies had a lot of stroke back in the day and uh is just really if you haven't read about the mine wars and um you know it's the battle blair mountain and all that stuff man it is you talk about it's hard to believe it happened in this country uh just amazing really and it was really just a you talk about uh labor strife this area is notorious for strikes and uh violence and uh but it's just kind of weird to think that somewhere along here someone was assassinated shot dead coming to court and hatfield said how it felt even they call him smile and see it even to this day it's just an absolute local legend especially in mate one bingo county he was just a local hero so and you can read more about him at the mine wars museum there's a lot because information there it'll be good to show a street view too and get out my tyson towns flat iron drugstore and another look at the parking garage and again this is where president kennedy or soon to be president kennedy gave his speech and there's pictures of that he came standing right under this thing and really helped to launch his presidential bid i thought it was nice to get out of the car and give you a little bit of a view from ground level and there's a new theater which is pretty neat and i'm for such a small town that's pretty good this is first national bank building but this street was just so hopping back in its day just amazing to think um what its populations dropped down to even back i worked at a bank probably 20 years ago maybe longer than that and um nice to come down here for some business and i mean it's hard to get parking and everything then it was a lot busier than it is now and so it's just so sad to see the population continue to drop it looks like that sign that old worn out sun says i think raymond's somebody might be able to tell me more about that but there's just a look at the downtown area i thought you might want me to get out and jump out and look at that and this is a water tower or water tank whatever put the mirror on it looks like it needs to be spruced back up it's very impressive at one time and still is but to a degree of what's left of it if you can see down through there or not occasionally i've got some great pictures from up here but i i don't think it's cleared enough no not today i'll tell another story about welch though while i'm thinking about it is that they uh about the same year in 1921 when said hatfield was gunned down the mayor a guy by the name of j.h witt had uh the town council was looking to remove him from office and there was a bunch of commotion about that so he came in and interrupted a a meeting at a town council meeting the town council had the mcdowell county sheriff's department start to investigate uh wit and apparently that didn't set very well with him he ended up killing a deputy a guy by the name of i do believe his william johnson tabor was the name and so he killed him they arrested him he was taken to trial and he was acquitted because some of the per the testimony was perjury was perjured testimony and uh so once he got acquitted he skipped town we've never seen again so yet another just odd facet to the welch story i'm gonna take a view of this especially these beautiful colors out so i'll wrap up this little video tour of welch west virginia and please in the comments tell me what all i did miss uh we'll be back so i hope to pick up on some of the things that i missed as first go around i love learning about this little city it's just a fascinating place to me so much history so much importance and uh just way too much to not know more about i hope you guys enjoyed this look at welch and thanks for liking subscribing you're sponsoring our videos with your donations and everything else you do to help support us and i don't remember what that does i think it's senior citizens maybe elkhorn towers so somebody tell me what that does too that would be greatly appreciated and i'll make another little sweep through town here just to give you another view as much as possible because i know like i said there's a lot of interest in towns like this a lot of interest and like i said earlier i expect this to be eventually maybe not off the jump but it'll eventually be the most one of the more popular videos i've done i'm sure of that so many people came from this area you know the mcdowell county population at one time was over a hundred thousand or right out in that vicinity and i think it's not like twenty thousand so all these people migrated away and their family wants to know more about their origins and they come and i hear i mean it's probably i won't say daily but at least weekly and uh that i hear from somebody from the area want to know more about it so i was lucky to get an opportunity to come down here today to do this video for you i hope you enjoyed it and like i said folks that know more about it please fill me in in the comments that's what they're there for and i'll be happy to revisit this place some point in the future and hopefully fill in some of the blanks that i left today but i hope that at least give you a good base and realize why welch and mcdowell county are important players in american history justice maybe not but i did the best i could do a little talent god gave me

Channel: Real Appalachia

Views: 38,804

Rating: 4.9565215 out of 5

Keywords: appalachia, appalachian project, shane simmons, welch, welch wv, west virginia, coal, coal mining, jfk, john kennedy, president kennedy, gary wv, war wv, matewan, sid hatfield, umwa, steve harvey, jeanette walls, glass castle

Id: 0HMQ039NVlA

Length: 26min 23sec (1583 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021