Tennis Hatfield and the Blue Goose Saloon

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By Dwight Williams

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part two of a column on Tennis Hatfield of the famous feuding family of Logan and Mingo County and the Blue Goose saloon.

Location of the Blue Goose Saloon, Logan County, WV.
Photo by Dwight Williams. Location of the Blue Goose Saloon Saloon. Now owned by Richard Dehart shown with his brother, Michael.

The Hatfield-McCoy Feud is world renowned, but few people know about what could be termed the “Hatfield-Chafin Feud;” a bitter political feud between former business partners who, for reasons only the dead could tell, hated each other. The two former Logan County sheriffs who went to prison at different times for being partners in the selling of illegal alcohol at a place near Omar called “The Blue Goose” were Don Chafin and his third cousin, Tennis Chafin, also a former deputy sheriff for Chafin when he became known as the “King” of Logan County.

The Barnabus location at varying times in written accounts was referred to as an Inn, a Pub, or a Bar and was located on one of eight lots that belonged to Tennis Hatfield. Among other structures located on the property was a boarding house. During the early days of coal mining and for about 30 more years boarding houses were common among the many coal camps of southern West Virginia. Although coal camp houses were springing up nearly everywhere, boarding houses, especially for single men, were economically popular for housing. A boarding house near a place that distributed liquor was even more sought-after. “Speak Easy” women near a boarding house usually resulted in some sort of wickedness and even stabbings and shootings; of which there were many during that era.

The boarding house at Barnabus became quiet an attraction for visitors to Logan County and for many union organizers who came to the coal fields in hopes of organizing miners into the United Mine Workers Association (UMWA). Chafin, who had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from coal mine operators by violently suppressing the UMWA in the county; his most notable measures being during the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921. Reports of his deputies meeting suspected union organizers at the Logan train depot are many, and rumors of some of them being killed and then thrown into the huge burning smokestacks that then existed at the Appalachian Power plant at Deskins Addition were more than just rumor.

Tennis and Joe Hatfield, both former deputies for Chafin, succeeded him as sheriff: Tennis, from 1924-28, and then Joe, who served from ’28 until 1932. Tennis sought the office again in 1932, but was narrowly defeated when all county Republicans were left out in the nationwide Democratic landslide that saw Franklin Roosevelt defeat Herbert Hoover amidst the Great Depression. Neither Tennis, nor his nephew, Justice of the Peace Elba Hatfield, a son of Cap Hatfield, appealed their election losses; Tennis because he had no money to do so. He had previously spent $60,000 in appealing his first election.

The Hatfield political reign officially ended with Tennis losing in 1932, but for most of the 1920’s, Tennis, who went to prison for his part in the illegal dispensing of alcohol at the Blue Goose during Prohibition, made considerable money by operating over 200 slot machines in Logan County, 75 of which were in the city of Logan. These illegal machines existed from the time Tennis took office in 1926 following a long Supreme Court battle to win the sheriff’s job that he had contested during the 1924 election contest. When his brother, Joe, was elected sheriff in 1928 Tennis continued the illegal activities to the point that the Logan City police chief quit when it was announced that he and his department were being ordered to enforce the law and confiscate the machines, stop any prostitution that was being allowed, and to enforce the Prohibition law. Chief Lon Browning resigned immediately and told a Logan Banner reporter, “Gentleman, I am not yet ready to die.”

Former state trooper Roy Knotts was then hired and was shot five times on his first day on the job when he entered the popular Smokehouse restaurant and billiards hall on Stratton Street in Logan.

Enoch Scaggs, a former deputy sheriff, was later convicted of murder when the State Attorney General’s office intervened and a special jury from Monroe County jury heard the evidence. During trial testimony it was acknowledged that the machines belonged to Tennis Hatfield, and that Scaggs collected the monies from them.

When Sheriff Joe Hatfield, who had been a part of the illegal shenanigans, was threatened with jail and impeachment by Attorney General Lee and Governor William Conley, Hatfield fired 14 deputies who were being paid for by coal operators and he then ceased all other illegal activities; all of which enormously affected his brother’s financial well-being. Tennis, who was known to love both alcohol and women, was being sued by companies and individuals. He also had previously been indicted in Boone County in 1931 for getting two Logan deputies to burn the Coal Valley News, a Boone County newspaper owned by Don Chafin. Henry Napier, who a few years later would be murdered, and Amos Sullivan pleaded guilty and testified that Tennis had hired them to burn the business down.

Among the many actions that transpired during both Hatfield’s administrations included deputies in 1931 raiding the Democratic headquarters and arresting Chafin at his office in the former Guyan Valley Bank for possessing a bottle of liquor. Later, testimony in Charleston by a former Chief Deputy showed that on the night of Chafin’s arrest was made the Hatfields’, assistant prosecutor Ira Hager, several state troopers and others were drunk a party at Tennis’ house. Previously, both Joe and Tennis Hatfield, along with assistant prosecuting attorney Hager and others, had been accused in Charleston of paying off the state police in Logan to allow for illegal actions, which included operating gambling parlors and speak-easy’s. The Hatfields’ said that Don Chafin was behind the cause of the state investigation.

In 1930, two Logan deputies in plain clothing arrested and jailed Boone Count y Prosecuting Attorney A.W. Garnett and L.C. Vickers (a town Sargent at Danville) on the charge of speeding. Garnett, who had been attempting to prosecute the deputies who set fire to the Coal Valley News, was at Stollings for a Boy Scout banquet. That course of action by the deputies was bitterly denounced by many, forcing Sheriff Joe Hatfield to announce: “I never thought it advisable to arrest strangers for speeding.” Joe Hatfield, who had never held any office prior to becoming sheriff, would later become a coal miner and graciously end his political career. His significance is great in that it was he and his wife, Grace, who purchased the property where the Hatfield Cemetery remains at Sarah Ann. His heirs today continue to control the property.

However, originally Tennis Hatfield and his then wife, Margaret, owned the property, which she probably obtained through a divorce. 1937 records show that Margaret and Tennis also operated a business close by called the Mountain View Inn prior to their divorce. In 1949, deed records show that Margaret (described as single in the deed) sold the property to Joe and Grace Hatfield.

Through various lawsuits in which he owed many debts, Tennis lost numerous properties, much of which was given to him by his famous parents. Some of the real estate losses included about 10 lots at Mt. Gay; 225 and 1/2 acres on Main Island Creek; and the eights lots at Barnabus, which contained the Blue Goose, a boarding house, and several other structures. A mysterious fire in January of 1929 destroyed all of the properties at Barnabus, including the Blue Goose: the site of the reported cause of hatred between Hatfield and Chafin. By January of 1933, while Tennis, who was the only child of Devil Anse actually born at the home place, was living there it too burned to the ground. It was reported that the former sheriff had a $10,000 insurance policy on the property, which today sets empty.

While there is much more to be written about the lives of Don Chafin and Tennis Hatfield, it should be known that there are “Halloweenish” secrets at the site of the former Blue Goose property, now owned by Richard DeHart. In an interview with him and his brother, Michael, the DeHart’s explained that their father, Gaston DeHart, bought the eight lots in 1970 from Noah Browning. Not realizing that Browning had purchased the lots because of a lawsuit that forced the sale, they noted that there still exists two wells on the property; one in which their father had dug and the other being the original well that served the Blue Goose and the boarding house.

Both DeHart’s were friends with Jack Hatfield, one of nine children Tennis and Sadie Hatfield produced, though their marriage ended in a bitter divorce in which Sadie said she had been made to forge Don Chafin’s name to documents that helped send Chafin to an Atlanta prison.

“Jack said his dad told him that there had been at least eight men killed that stayed at the boarding house,” Richard said. “He said they were union organizers and that they all killed by his brother-in-law, a man named Henry.” It should be noted that Tennis also had a son named Henry.

Jack’s son, Stephen, once told this writer that, “Daddy always said Grandpa burned the house (home place) down because he owed so much money. “Liquor and women was his downfall. That’s what daddy always said.”

The DeHart brothers said that they had always heard that some dead men were tossed into the 100 foot deep well, but the well had not been used for many years before his father purchased the property and then dug his own well. Though both wells still exist, DeHart said he obtained city water when he moved there in the mid ’90’s.

The well that supplied water to the Blue Goose is of particular interest because it is supposed to contain many slot machines that were thrown into the depths when Hatfield was tipped off that the state police were coming from Williamson to raid the place. Attempts to dig the well deeper many years ago were ceased because of what was believed to be slot machines that rusted and caused what is called “iron” water, which led to the digging of another well.

The slot machine story probably is true since the late J.T. Caldwell, a son of Elizabeth and a grandson to Devil Anse, tried to purchase from DeHart the lot where the well exists. “He just wanted that one lot. He said he was going to dig a tunnel from the creek bank to the well to get those machines,” DeHart explained. “I know Jack always said they were still down there.”

Once when a man named Buddy Russell with a load of coal in the bed of his truck fell through an undisclosed cellar, two barrels of whiskey were found, according to the DeHart’s, who are proud to show off the name of T.S. Hatfield that is engraved into what used to be a sidewalk at the Blue Goose property.

As kids, both Michael and Richard said they found numerous silver coins beneath a cherry tree where the Blue Goose once stood. “Every time it rained hard, we would find more coins,” said Michael. Richard added that he sold some of his silver for $2,100.

“Jack said the men would get drunk and throw silver dollars into the air and shoot at it,” Richard laughed. “I talked to Jack a whole lot over the years.”

Tennis Hatfield and Don Chafin left many stories behind that should and must be told for history’s sake.

In a 1932 political advertisement for sheriff, Hatfield asked, “Do You Want Another Democratic King in the Sheriff’s Office, or a Friend, Whom Everyone Can Trust?”

Hatfield died in 1953 and Don Chafin followed him the following year. It is not known whether Don Chafin attended Hatfield’s funeral service. However, one can be fairly certain that if he did, it was only to make certain that the man was really dead.

Dwight Williamson is a former writer for the Logan Banner and a retired magistrate for Logan County.

*Published with the author’s permission.

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