Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Old Pic

Was watching an old documentary on PBS the other night, thought I'd post this pic for all you 99 junkies who might have never seen the special.
This guy was brought in as a strike breaker in West Virginia coal miners strike in the early 20's

Narrator said they all came with their Winchester 30-30's, but this guy obviously had a better idea.

Cool picture.

What's the uniform?

Is that barrel round or octagon? I can't tell. Rifle looks brand new.


Anybody want to take a shot at the pistol in his belt? Some sort of Colt 38 I presume?

If I remember right these were Federal Soldiers brought in to quash the strike.
It was a very good documentary.

The look on that guy’s face, leads me to believe he wouldn’t have a problem putting that Savage to work on his fellow Americans.

My thought was octagon too. The almost non-existent shadow line on the barrel was a clue to me. But, we all interpret illusions differently.

Not enough definition to be sure, but my guess about the pistol is it's a S&W .38 Spl. or .32-20 Hand Ejector, round butt?

Uniform: Not WV National Guard. After WWI National Guard units were pretty uniformly clothed in standard U.S. Army khaki's. Another guess on my part: private police force (goons) clothed in stylized uniforms, probably dreamed up by some self-styled fat cat sitting in an office. The sole reason for those company cops' existence was to crack skulls and intimidate miners who had the temerity to speak out against horrible unsafe working conditions and low wages. Uniforms provided, good wages, room and board - but you supplied your own weapons and horse. Intelligence not required.

Great pic. The dummy who wrote it probably doesn't know the difference between a Winchester and a Savage. If they were Federal soldiers they were probably all armed the same with issue firearms.

I'd guess this picture is of a man employed by a private detective agency. If he were a US soldier he would be sporting a 1903 Springfield.

Aah.. found the picture on the innernetz.

The Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency

https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/333

Another picture supposedly of the agency, and this looks like it also has an 1899?. Guy all the way to the left? Different source.

Thanks for posting. That is a great photo!

What's hanging from his waist, behind his leg? Is that a picket-pin?

Good ol' billy club, I believe.

Handgun in his belt behind the 1899.

Definately a skull cracker...

The heck with what rifles they're waving around. For Gawd's Sake's that's a Colt Potato Digger machine gun mounted on that homemade looking armored car! The miners didn't stand a chance.

My great-grandfather mined for a while in PA (the Glen Burn Mine in Shamokin), and remembered the days of the Molly Maguires, as related in later years to anybody who'd sit still long enough to listen.

Interesting, so that picture was taken 1909, but the coal strikes were in the 20's I believe, sounds like they used a picture out of sequence.

https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/media/227

For five days from late August to early September 1921, some 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers (called the Logan Defenders) who were backed by coal mine operators during the miners' attempt to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields when tensions rose between workers and mine management.

The agency was founded in the 1890's and continued to the 1930's. I'm not sure that exact picture is from that strike. It could be earlier - or they could be wrong on the picture and it could be from later. That's not uncommon.

They actually have that picture labelled as being from 1902 - but that sure looks like a perchbelly stock to me which would be later.

Were there not also coal strikes in W Va. in the early teens and later in the 20's?

There were several periods of strife, tension and conflicts if my history memory recalls.

I think we are getting them all jumbled up