Sheriff Don Chafin
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Handsomely paid by Logan County’s coal companies,
Sheriff Don Chafin used his many deputies to keep
labor organizers out of the county.
The West Virginia Encyclopedia
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As the sheriff of Logan County, Don Chafin was a hero to
West Virginia’s coal operators and the sworn enemy
of the state’s union miners.
Born at Kermit in Logan County in 1887, Chafin was educated
in the Logan public schools, at Marshall College (now
University) and at the Mountain State Business
College in Parkersburg. His career included
service as a teacher, a store clerk, a storeowner
and a mine operator, but he’s best known as
a politician and controversial lawman.
The son of a Logan County sheriff, he succeeded his
father when he won election as sheriff in 1912.
Barred by state law from two consecutive
terms as sheriff, he served as county
clerk from 1916 to 1919, before
again being elected
sheriff in 1920.
During the first two decades of the 1900s, West Virginia
miners
struggled to unionize the state’s southern coalfields. Many
mine operators hired private guards, like those of the
hated Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, to use intimidation
and violence to keep the United Mine Workers (UMW)
from unionizing their workers. In Logan County, the
operators relied on Sheriff Don Chafin and his many
deputies to do that job — and paid him handsomely
to do so, making Chafin a very rich man.
In the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, Chafin’s
deputies blocked an armed band of marching
miners until federal troops arrived and
forced the miners to disperse.
In 1924, Chafin was convicted on an illegal liquor charge.
Released from prison, he moved to Huntington, bought
the 10-story Robson-Prichard Building, renamed it
the Chafin Building and built himself a rooftop
penthouse. He became a familiar figure in
Huntington and established a reputation
as a generous supporter of a number
of local charities. He died in 1954.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on June 11, 2024.
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