Hatfield–McCoy feud

The Hatfield–McCoy feud (1878–1891) involved two families of the West Virginia–Kentucky back country along the Tug Fork, off the Big Sandy River. The Hatfields of West Virginia were led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield while the McCoys of Kentucky under the leadership of Randolph "Ole Ran'l" McCoy. Those involved in the feud descended from Ephraim Hatfield (born c. 1765) and William McCoy (born c. 1750). The feud has entered the American folklore lexicon as a metaphor for any bitterly feuding rival parties. More than a century later, the story of the feud has become a modern allegory on the perils of family honor, justice and vengeance.

Contents

Family origins

William McCoy, the patriarch of the McCoys, was born in Scotland around 1750 and emigrated to Doe Hill, Virginia.[1][2] The McCoys led by Randolph "Ole Ran'l" McCoy (grandson of William), lived mostly on the Kentucky side of Tug Fork (a tributary of the Big Sandy River), and the Hatfields, led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield (son of Ephraim Hatfield and Nancy Vance), lived mostly on the West Virginia side. Both families were part of the first wave of pioneers to settle the Tug Valley (also called the Grand Horse Valley). The majority of the Hatfields living in Mingo County (in what would eventually become West Virginia), fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. The majority of the McCoys living in Pike County, Kentucky fought for the Union Army. The first real violence in the feud was the murder of a returning Union soldier Asa Harmon McCoy. He was killed by a group of ex-Confederates Homeguard called the "Logan Wildcats." Devil Anse Hatfield was a suspect at first, but was later confirmed to have been at home, sick, at the time of the murder. However, it was widely believed that his uncle, Jim Vance, a member of the Wildcats, committed the murder.[3]

The Hatfields were more affluent than the McCoys and were well-connected politically. Devil Anse Hatfield's timbering operation was a source of wealth for his family, but he employed many non-Hatfields, and even hired Albert McCoy, Lorenzo Dow McCoy, and Selkirk McCoy.

Many also question how much effort was really put forth to find the killers, considering that the Tug valley was almost entirely pro-south, and the victim was widely considered an outcast in the valley by the time of his murder.

The feud

Asa Harmon McCoy was murdered on January 7, 1865. Jim Vance, the uncle of Devil Anse Hatfield, despised Harmon because he had joined the Union Army during the American Civil War. Harmon was discharged from the Army early because of a broken leg. He returned home to a warning from Vance that Harmon could expect a visit from Devil Anse's Wildcats. Frightened by gunshots as he drew water from his well, Harmon hid in a nearby cave, supplied with food and necessities each day by his slave, Pete; but the Wildcats followed Pete's tracks in the snow, discovered Harmon and shot him fatally.

At first, Devil Anse Hatfield was the prime suspect. Later, after finding the Wildcats' leader had been confined to his bed, the guilt turned squarely on Vance; but in an area where Harmon's military service was an act of disloyalty, even Harmon's own family believed he had brought his murder on himself. Eventually the case withered and no suspect was brought to trial.

The second recorded instance of violence in the feud occurred thirteen years later, in 1878, after a dispute about the ownership of a hog: Floyd Hatfield had it and Randolph McCoy said it was his.[4] The pig was only in the fight because some of the Hatfields believed that since the pig was on their land, it was theirs. Some of the McCoys objected, saying the "notches" (markings) on the pig's ears were McCoy marks, not Hatfield marks. The matter was taken to the local Justice of the Peace, and the McCoys lost because of the testimony of Bill Staton, a relative of both families. Presiding over the case was Anderson "Preacher Anse" Hatfield. In June 1880, Staton was killed by two McCoy brothers, Sam and Paris, who were later acquitted on the grounds of self-defense.

The feud escalated after Roseanna McCoy began a relationship (courtship) with Johnson "Johnse" Hatfield (Devil Anse's son), leaving her family to live with the Hatfields in West Virginia. Roseanna eventually returned to the McCoys, but when the couple tried to resume their relationship, Johnse Hatfield was arrested by the McCoys on outstanding Kentucky bootlegging warrants. He was freed from McCoy custody only when Roseanna made a desperate midnight ride to alert Devil Anse Hatfield, who organized a rescue party. The Hatfield party surrounded the McCoys and took Johnse back to West Virginia before he could be transported to the county seat, Pikeville, Kentucky, for justice the next day.

Despite what was seen as a betrayal of her family on his behalf, Johnse thereafter abandoned the pregnant Roseanna, marrying instead her cousin, Nancy McCoy, in 1881.

The escalation continued in 1882 when Ellison Hatfield, brother of Devil Anse Hatfield, was killed by three of Roseanna McCoy's young brothers: Tolbert, Pharmer, and Bud. Ellison was stabbed 26 times and finished off with a shot during an election day fight that took place in Kentucky. The McCoy brothers were initially arrested by Hatfield constables and were being taken to Pikeville for trial. Devil Anse Hatfield organized a large group of followers and cut off the constables with McCoy prisoners in tow before they reached Pikeville. The brothers were taken by force to West Virginia to await the fate of mortally wounded Ellison Hatfield. When Ellison finally died from his injuries, the McCoy brothers were themselves murdered in turn as the vendetta escalated. They were tied to pawpaw bushes, where each was shot numerous times. Their bodies were described as "bullet-riddled".[5]

The feud reached its peak during the 1888 New Years Night Massacre. Several of the Hatfield gang surrounded the McCoy cabin and opened fire on the sleeping family. The cabin was set on fire in an effort to drive Randolph McCoy into the open. He escaped by making a break but two of his children were murdered and his wife was beaten and left for dead. The remaining McCoy family moved to Pikeville to escape the West Virginia raiding parties.

Between 1880 and 1891, the feud claimed more than a dozen members of the two families, becoming headline news around the country, and compelling the governors of both Kentucky and West Virginia to call up their state militias to restore order The Governor of West Virginia once even threatened to have his militia invade Kentucky. Kentucky Governor S.B. Buckner in response sent his Adjutant General to Pike County to investigate the situation. Besides nearly a dozen who died, at least 10 persons were wounded[6]

In 1888, Wall Hatfield and eight others were arrested by a posse led by Frank Phillips and brought to Kentucky to stand trial for the murder of Alifair McCoy, who was killed during the New Years Massacre.[7] She had been shot after exiting the burning house. Because of issues of due process and illegal extradition, the United States Supreme Court became involved (Mahon v. Justice, 127 U.S. 700 (1888)). The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Kentucky, holding that even if a fugitive is returned from the asylum state illegally instead of through lawful extradition procedure, no federal law prevents trying him. Eventually the men were tried in Kentucky and all were found guilty. Seven received life imprisonment, while the eighth, Ellison "Cottontop" Mounts, was executed by hanging.[8] Thousands attended the hanging in Pikeville, Kentucky.

Fighting between the families eased following the hanging of Mounts. Trials continued for years; the trial of Johnse Hatfield was the last of the feud trials in 1901.

Deaths

Numbers in square brackets are cross references to names on the family trees below.

Hatfields and McCoys in the modern era

In 1979, the two families united for a special week's taping of the popular game show Family Feud, in which they played for a cash prize and a pig which was kept on stage during the games. [18] The two families tied 1-1. [19]

Great-great-great grandsons of feud patriarch, Randolph McCoy, Bo McCoy of Waycross, Ga. and his cousin, Ron McCoy of Durham, NC organized a historic joint family reunion of the Hatfield and McCoy families in 2000 which attained national attention. More than 5000 persons attended the reunion dubbed "The Reunion of the Millennium".[20]

On June 14, 2003, the McCoy cousins partnered with Reo Hatfield of Waynesboro, Va to author an official truce between the families. The idea was symbolic: to show that Americans could bury their differences and unite in times of crisis, most notably following the September 11 attacks.[21]

In 2002, Bo and Ron McCoy were plaintiffs in a legal case to acquire access to the McCoy Cemetery, which holds the graves of six family members, including five that were slain during the feud. The McCoys took on a private property owner, John Vance, who was restricting the only access to the cemetery. While the McCoys claimed victory in the suit, as of 2003 the cemetery was still not open to the general public.[22]

In recent years, a 500 mile (800 km) Hatfield–McCoy Trails RTV trails system, has been created around the theme of the Hatfield–McCoy Feud.[23]

Many tourists each year travel to parts of West Virginia and Kentucky to see the areas and historic relics which remain from the days of the feud. In 1999 a large project known as the "Hatfield and McCoy historic site restoration" was completed. This project was funded by a federal grant from the SBA. Many improvements to various feud sites were completed. A committee of local historians spent months researching reams of information to find the factual history of the events surrounding the feud. This research was compiled in an audio CD called the "Hatfield–McCoy Feud Driving Tour". The CD is a self guided driving tour of the restored feud sites. It includes maps and pictures as well as the audio CD. (see external link below)

The Hillbilly Days festival in Pikeville, Kentucky, is a Shriners fundraiser that, according to rumor, was founded by one member from each of the two families.[24]

Media

The 1923 Buster Keaton comedy Our Hospitality centers around the "Canfield–McKay feud," a thinly disguised fictional version of the Hatfield–McCoy feud.

The 1946 Disney cartoon short, The Martins and the Coys, was another very thinly disguised caricature of the Hatfield–McCoy feud.

In 1949, the feature film Roseanna McCoy tells the story of the romance between the title character, played by Joan Evans, and Johnse Hatfield, played by Farley Granger.[25] In 1975, a television movie titled The Hatfields and the McCoys retells the feud.[26]

In 1950, Warner Bros. released a Merrie Melodies spoof of the Hatfield–McCoy feud entitled Hillbilly Hare featuring Bugs Bunny. Bugs interacts with members of the "Martin family" who had been feuding with the "Coy family". When Bugs Bunny is asked "Be y'all a Martin or be y'all a Coy rabbit?", Bugs answers, "Well, my friends say I'm very coy" and laughs. The Martin brothers chase Bugs for the rest of the short, being of course outwitted by Bugs at every turn.

The 1951 Abbot and Costello feature Coming Round the Mountain features a feud between the Winfield and McCoy families.

Huckleberry Hound in "Hillbilly Huck" (broadcast October 30, 1960) in which the Huckleberrys and the Doodleberrys do a take on the Hatfield–McCoy feud.

Episode S4-E18 of The Flintstones called "The Bedrock Hillbillies aka The Hatrocks" was loosely based upon the Hatfield–McCoy feud.

The character Dr. Leonard McCoy from Star Trek was allegedly descended from the McCoys of the famous feud.

The 1977 song, "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" by Waylon Jennings on the album Ol' Waylon mentions the feud, "...This successful life we're living's got us feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys..."

The two feuding families on Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud are called Hatfield and McCoy.[27]

The West Virginia native Heavy Metal band Byzantine feature a song titled "Hatfield" on their debut album The Fundamental Component. The theme of the song is forgetting your family's past so you can move forward.

The Hatfield–McCoy feud is also said to be the inspiration for a long-running game show, Family Feud, and the Hatfields and McCoys actually appeared on the show in 1979, as mentioned above.

Ann Rinaldi authored a book, The Coffin Quilt, on the subject of this famed American feud.

There was a Scooby-Doo episode involving the Hatfields and McCoys, in which the Hatfields have ended up living in the McCoys' cabin after their own cabin was washed away in a storm. They are haunted by the ghost of Old Witch McCoy, a woman executed for witchcraft years before, until the gang unmasks her as one of a pair of bank robbers who have come to the area to find their loot.

The short-lived Cartoon Network show Time Squad featured the feud in the last episode of its first season, called "Feud for Thought", which deals with the feud itself. The episode involves the main characters, Otto, Buck, and Larry, being transported in the middle of the feud, which seems to go perfect with history unlike their other adventures, but Larry, the sophisticated pacifist of the group, teaches the two families to be peaceful. Otto and Buck, knowing that the peace will change the future, try, and succeed, in sabotaging the two families' properties and making it look like the other family did it, which leads to the rekindling of the feud, regardless of Larry's constant advising to not fight.

Another, more recent Disney short features the Coyfields and the McHats, feuding over the rights to the local outdoor privy. This short takes place after the feud has ended, while the two families go off on vacation to celebrate the end of the hostilities; the feud is then inadvertently rekindled by the housesitters respectively hired by the two families, forming the plot of the short.

Medical researchers have discovered that many McCoys suffer from the autosomal dominant Von Hippel–Lindau disease, with approximately 75% of them having tumors on their adrenal glands. This has led to speculation that symptoms of this disease caused some of the violent tendencies manifested by McCoys during the feud.[28]

The Hatfield–McCoy feud was featured in an episode of the History Channel's How the States Got Their Shapes

Descendants

Assassinated police chief Sid Hatfield famously credited himself as a member of the Hatfield clan, while West Virginia Governor Henry D. Hatfield, Washington State Senator Brian Hatfield and singer-songwriter Juliana Hatfield[29] are actual descendants of the Hatfield family. New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni is also reputedly a descendent of the Hatfields.[30]

Clyde McCoy, a famous jazz trumpet player from the 1930s and 1940s was a descendant of the McCoy family. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship is also a McCoy descendant, through his mother.[31]

McCoy family tree

Names in red indicate those who were killed as a direct result of the feud.
Names in blue highlight intermarriages between Hatfield and McCoy. Numbers in square brackets are cross references to the timeline in the "Deaths" section above.[32]

See Also

List of feuds in the United States

References

  1. ^ Morton, Orec Frederic (1910), A history of Pendleton County, West Virginia, Franklin, W.V.: Genealogical Publishing, p. 257, http://books.google.com/books/about/A_history_of_Pendleton_County_West_Virgi.html?id=JzcTAAAAYAAJ 
  2. ^ History of West Virginia, old and new, Vol. II: Biographical, American Historical Society, 1923, pp. 390–391, http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofwestvir02call#page/390/mode/2up 
  3. ^ Pearce p. 59–60.
  4. ^ Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Beckley Post-Herald August 7, 1957.
  5. ^ Rice, p. 26.
  6. ^ Current Opinion.p.417 list of killed/wounded
  7. ^ Rice p. 70.
  8. ^ a b Rice p. 111.
  9. ^ Rice p. 13.
  10. ^ Rice p. 17.
  11. ^ a b c Munsey Magazine.p.508
  12. ^ Rice pp. 24, 27.
  13. ^ Rice p. 28.
  14. ^ Rice pp. 33–35.
  15. ^ Rice pp. 62–63.
  16. ^ Munsey Magazine.p.508-509
  17. ^ The Evening Bulletin, Maysville Ky, February 19, 1890.p.4
  18. ^ Game Show Network airs milestone episodes, including Hatfield-McCoy battle.[1]
  19. ^ [2]
  20. ^ The Hatfield–McCoy reunion on About:genealogy.
  21. ^ CBS news report on the treaty between the families.[3]
  22. ^ [4], Chicago Tribune, January 29, 2003.
  23. ^ Hatfield–McCoy Regional Recreation Area on AmericanTrails.org.
  24. ^ http://hillbillydays.com/)
  25. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041824/
  26. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073093/
  27. ^ http://swedish.imdb.com/title/tt0790816/
  28. ^ "Hatfield–McCoy feud blamed on ‘rage’ disease". MSNBC.com. 2007-04-05. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17967965/. Retrieved 2007-04-05. 
  29. ^ In My Room: Juliana Hatfield, SPIN August 2008.
  30. ^ [5]
  31. ^ Goodell, Jeff (December 9, 2010), "The Dark Lord of Coal Country", Rolling Stone (1119): p. 85, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-dark-lord-of-coal-country-20101129?print=true 
  32. ^ Rice (inside rear cover).

Further reading

External links