My Great-Uncle. Law Enforcement Legend. The son of a pioneering Tazewell County physician, "Squire" Hufford, who went by "AC", was a long time McDowell County, West Virginia, judge and was for many years a power in Republican politics (Republican despite the fact that the Huffords were Confederate). Also a private detective and a leader of the famed Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, he was a key part of the West Virginia coalmine wars of the 1920's and was reputed to have helped rig the jury that acquitted Buster Pence, Bill Salter, and Everett Lively for killing Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers on the Welch Courthouse steps on August 1, 1921 in retaliation for the Matewan Massacre, with some even asserting that he directed the killings themselves. Though the story, at least as to the jury tampering, is almost certainly true there was no absolute proof then or since and any who could have verified it are long deceased and would have had to incriminate themselves to do in any case. Mr. Hufford was a Thirty Second Degree Mason and a Shriner, as well as a member of First Presbyterian Church, Welch, and a charter member of the Welch Kiwanis Club.
There is an interesting internet piece entitled "The Laurel Creek Murders" concerning a case Mr. Hufford solved in Buchanan County in 1909. It is based on an article he wrote for the July 1935 issue of "The Master Detective" entitled "Capturing the Killer of the Cumberlands".
I have been told by those who knew him that he is the ancestor I most resemble.
There is an interesting internet piece entitled "The Laurel Creek Murders" concerning a case Mr. Hufford solved in Buchanan County in 1909. It is based on an article he wrote for the July 1935 issue of "The Master Detective" entitled "Capturing the Killer of the Cumberlands".
I have been told by those who knew him that he is the ancestor I most resemble.
My Great-Uncle. Law Enforcement Legend. The son of a pioneering Tazewell County physician, "Squire" Hufford, who went by "AC", was a long time McDowell County, West Virginia, judge and was for many years a power in Republican politics (Republican despite the fact that the Huffords were Confederate). Also a private detective and a leader of the famed Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, he was a key part of the West Virginia coalmine wars of the 1920's and was reputed to have helped rig the jury that acquitted Buster Pence, Bill Salter, and Everett Lively for killing Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers on the Welch Courthouse steps on August 1, 1921 in retaliation for the Matewan Massacre, with some even asserting that he directed the killings themselves. Though the story, at least as to the jury tampering, is almost certainly true there was no absolute proof then or since and any who could have verified it are long deceased and would have had to incriminate themselves to do in any case. Mr. Hufford was a Thirty Second Degree Mason and a Shriner, as well as a member of First Presbyterian Church, Welch, and a charter member of the Welch Kiwanis Club.
There is an interesting internet piece entitled "The Laurel Creek Murders" concerning a case Mr. Hufford solved in Buchanan County in 1909. It is based on an article he wrote for the July 1935 issue of "The Master Detective" entitled "Capturing the Killer of the Cumberlands".
I have been told by those who knew him that he is the ancestor I most resemble.
There is an interesting internet piece entitled "The Laurel Creek Murders" concerning a case Mr. Hufford solved in Buchanan County in 1909. It is based on an article he wrote for the July 1935 issue of "The Master Detective" entitled "Capturing the Killer of the Cumberlands".
I have been told by those who knew him that he is the ancestor I most resemble.
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