The article, which begins on page 18 of the linked magazine, says that, for many years, no one in the area would talk about “the feud.” That is one of the most outrageous claims in the feud yarns. I grew up talking to more than a dozen people who remembered the 1880’s. I delivered papers to two of the sons of Preacher Anse Hatfield, and a son of Floyd Hatfield for three years, 1952-55. My Granny, who lived about 50 feet from us all the time I was growing up, attended the funerals of Ran’l McCoy’s murdered children. Granny’s parents were BOTH Hatfields by birth.
Uncle Jeff Hatfield, a son of Preacher Anse who was there on August 7, 1882, took me to the spot where Ellison Hatfield fell. It was a few steps behind the house where Jeff lived with his daughter, Katherine, and her husband, Dovil Scott. Jeff and his brother Ransom also told me about attending the funerals of Ran’l McCoy’s children.
I never asked a question of anyone who refused to tell me what they knew about the subject. Of course no one talked about most of the “events” in the feud books, simply because they never happened. All the old people knew that the McCoy brothers butchered Ellison Hatfield on Election Day, 1882, and that the Hatfields lynched them two days later. They all knew that a gang–mostly from Peter Creek and Johns Creek–invaded Logan County in December, 1887 and January, 1888, and killed “Old Man” Vance and Deputy Dempsey.
All of them knew that a gang which probably included members of the family of Devil Anse burned the McCoy home and killed two of Ran’l’s adult children on New Years, 1888. None of them believed that Devil Anse was personally involved in that raid.
They all knew that Wall Hatfield and his sons-in-law were sent to prison in 1889, and Ellison Mounts was hanged in 1890. They ALL talked freely about what actually happened. But, the claims of the writer are true about most of the feud story. The old folks had nothing to report on most of the events we see in the feud books, simply because they are fiction!
There were a few old people in the area when I was growing up who did not like to discuss “the feud.” They were the McCoys, who were descended from Samuel McCoy. Those McCoys, the wealthiest and most influential of the clan, had absolutely nothing to do with Ran’l McCoy or his”feud.”
Those McCoys had good reason to be reluctant to discuss what they called “Ran’l’s feud.” My book, “The Missing McCoys” tells the story. It is the only place where anyone can get the real facts about the McCoys of the feud era. Ran’l McCoy was an outcast, shunned by most of the McCoy clan, and he never led anyone anywhere at any time.
My GG Grandfather, Uriah McCoy, a son of Samuel McCoy, was a first cousin to Ranl and a brother to his wife, Sally. Uriah was the wealthiest McCoy of his time. In 1876, he forfeited most of his fortune. He walked into the Pikeville Courthouse and plunked down $20,000, in cash, to satisfy a judgment. That is three times what Devil Anse got for his 5,000 acres a decade later.
Uriah McCoy was stripped of a fortune, mainly on the testimony of his cousin and brother-in-law, Randolph McCoy, and his nephew, Tolbert McCoy. Here is the witness list for the plaintiff who sued Uriah McCoy.
Everyone knows that Ran’l McCoy was involved in a court case about a pig, but no one who has not read “The Missing McCoys” knows that he was involved in a case that was worth a couple of thousand pigs. Of course one of those trials never happened, and the other is in the records
Like most feud tales, this one slanders a pure warrior, Asa Harmon McCoy, as a coward. It says (p.24), that the Hatfiels were “evil” for murdering Asa Harmon while he hid out in a cave after leaving the Union Army. No one ever accused anyone connected with the Hatfields of murdering Asa Harmon McCoy for decades after the event. His widow swore that he was discharged, and immediately re-enlisted. Sent home on a holiday furlough, Patsy swore that he “Was killed by Rebels while returning to his regiment.” Martha “Patsy” McCoy’s affidavit was witnessed by Basil Hatfield.
Anyone who has seen the real history, as laid out in “The Missing McCoys,” knows that it would have been more likely that the Hatfields were hiding out from Asa Harmon McCoy than that he was so scared that he crawled into a hole in the ground. Asa Harmon McCoy was a warrior to the bone, and the record proves it!
For those who think the Hatfields and McCoys were enemies who were reconciled only in 2003, consider my first cousin, J.P Hatfield.
James Phillip Hatfield, who was in my class at Belfry High, was one of the best atheltes of my time, equalled only by his brothers, Ernest and Floyd. His brother Floyd, was named for his father and his great grandfather. Their great grandfather was Floyd Hatfield, who was the Constable who took custody of the three McCoys who killed Ellison Hatfield on Election Day, 1882.
His brother, Ernie, was a four-sports star at Belfry High school. His brother, Floyd, who set a record for touchdown passes at Belfry, was probably the best all-around athlete who ever attended Belfry.
James Phillip is named for his two grandfathers, Landon James Hatfield and Phillip McCoy. Yep, his father, Floyd Hatfield, married his mother, Daryl McCoy in about 1935.
His father, Floyd Hatfield, was the son of Landon James Hatfield and Annie McCoy. Yep, Landon Hafield, son of Constable Floyd Hatfield, married Annie McCoy about 1905.
His grandfather, Phillip McCoy, was the son of Asa McCoy and Nancy Hatfield, who married in 1875.
J.P. Hatfield is living proof that the Hatfields and McCoys were “reconciled” long before 2003.
Also in 1875, Thompson Hatfield married Mary McCoy on Blackberry Creek. Thompse was killed in a shootout in his living room in 1902. Thompse and his son, Ephraim, shot it out with two Baldwin-Felts detectives, and all four of them were killed. That’s the biggest shootout in the history of Blackberry Creek, but only a handful of people even know about it.
We rented a house and general store from their son, Tolbert, just after World War II. Tolbert lived until I was in my twenties. He told me about the shootout many times.
I am directly descended from Valentine “River Wall” Hatfield. The only connection the descendants of River Wall have with the feud is that one of them hauled the three McCoy corpses home after they were lynched in the paw paw grove. River Wall was Grandma Dotson’s grandfather. Her other grandfather was Preacher Anse Hatfield. Granny took great pride in being a “Pure Hatfield.” Three of my eight great grandfathers were Hatfields, and my mother was a McCoy. We have been at peace for a very long time