Lively grew up in Davis Creek, West Virginia. He joined the United Mine Workers of America in 1902, and kept his union card even after he went to work for Baldwin-Felts. He left West Virginia and moved from one coalfield to another, working as a spy for the agency. He served as vice-president of one UMWA local, and attended UMWA conventions as a delegate, while reporting on union activities to his employer. While in Colorado, he killed a man, allegedly in self-defense, and was jailed for 16 months on charges of involuntary manslaughter.
At the time of the Battle of Matewan, which pitted local Mingo County coal miners against Baldwin-Felts agents, Lively was in Charleston, WV, at UMWA headquarters. After the battle, Lively was sent by the agency to join the miners in Mingo County as an infiltrator. He hired on as a miner, was subsequently fired for being too friendly with a union supporter, and then opened a restaurant. His restaurant, which was downstairs in the same building where union meetings were held, and which became a favorite haunt of local miners, was used as his cover. He cultivated a friendship with the localpolice chief, Sid Hatfield, in an effort to gather incriminating evidence about him; he later testified that Hatfield, rather than one of the Baldwin-Felts men, had shot Mayor Testerman during the fighting.
Police Chief Hatfield was indicted on murder charges for his role in the Battle of Matawan, but was acquitted. Shortly after, though, he and his deputy, Edward Chambers, were called to Welch, WV to stand trial on conspiracy charges. The two men, both of them unarmed, were shot dead on the steps of the McDowell County courthouse by Baldwin-Felts agents, Lively among them. According to later testimony by Chambers' widow, Lively administered the coup-de-grace to Chambers, shooting the wounded man in the head. The Baldwin-Felts men claimed self-defense. Lively and two other Baldwin-Felts employees, George Pence and William Salters, were charged with murder but were acquitted.
Later life
Lively was later called to testify before the United States Senate, where he was sternly questioned by Sen. Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee regarding the practice of agencies infiltrating union organizers. He died in 1962 in Huntington, WV, at the age of 75.
