Beckett and Walker Lots in Logan, WV (1921)
28 Monday Dec 2020
Posted Cemeteries, Logan
in28 Monday Dec 2020
Posted Cemeteries, Logan
in28 Monday Dec 2020
Posted Cemeteries, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Logan, Women's History
inTags
Appalachia, attorney general, Betty Caldwell, Cap Hatfield, cemeteries, Devil Anse Hatfield, feuds, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Howard B. Lee, Jim Comstock, Logan, Logan County, Nancy Hatfield, politics, Republican Party, Robert Elliott Hatfield, Sarah Ann, Tennis Hatfield, West Virginia, West Virginia Women, Willis Hatfield
Howard B. Lee, former Attorney General of West Virginia, provided this account of Nancy Hatfield (widow of Cap) in the early 1970s:
HATFIELD WOMEN.
Over the years, much has been written about the male members of the Hatfield clan who took part in that early orgy of blood-letting–the Hatfield-McCoy feud. But nothing has been said concerning the indomitable wives of that stalwart breed of men.
My purpose is to pay a richly deserved tribute to one of those pioneer women–the late Nancy Elizabeth, wife of William Anderson Hatfield, common known “Cap,” second son of Devil Anse, and the most deadly killer of the feud.
More than 30 years have passed since I last talked with her; but I still regard Nancy Elizabeth Hatfield as the most remarkable and unforgettable woman of the mountains.
In the spring of 1924, I was a candidate in the primary election for the Republican nomination for attorney general, and I wanted the Hatfield influence. Devil Anse had died in 1921, and his mantle of leadership of the clan had fallen to his oldest living son, Cap–a power in Logan County politics.
I had met Cap, casually, in 1912, but I had not seen him since that meeting. But his sister, Mrs. Betty Caldwell, and her husband, lived in my county of Mercer, and were among my political supporters. To pave the way for my later meeting with Cap, I had Mrs. Caldwell write and ask him to support me.
Later, when campaigning in the City of Logan, I engaged a taxi to take me the few miles up Island Creek to Cap’s home. The car stopped suddenly and the driver pointed to a comfortable-looking farm house on the other side of the creek and said:
“That’s Cap’s home, and that’s Cap out there by the barn.”
I told him to return for me in two hours.
Cap saw me get out of the car, and, as I crossed the creek on an old-fashioned footlog. I saw him fold his arms across his chest and slip his right hand under his coat. Later, I noticed a large pistol holstered under his left arm. Even in that late day, Cap took no chances with strangers. When I got within speaking distance, I told him my name, and that I had come to solicit his support in my campaign for attorney general. He gave me a hearty handclasp, and said:
“My sister, Mrs. Caldwell, wrote us about you. But, let’s go to the house, my wife is the politician in our family.”
Cap was reluctant to commit himself “so early.” But Nancy Elizabeth thought otherwise. Finally, Cap agreed to support me; and, with that point settled, we visited until my taxi returned.
Meanwhile, with Cap’s approval, Nancy Elizabeth gave me the accompanying, heretofore unpublished photograph of the Devil Anse Clan. In 1963 I rephotographed it and sent a print to Willis Hatfield (number 22 in picture), only survivor of Devil Anse, who made the identification. Nancy Elizabeth is number 16, and the baby in her lap is her son, Robert Elliott, born April 29, 1897. Therefore, the photograph must have been made late in 1897, or early in 1898.
A few months after Cap’s death (August 22, 1930), the West Virginia newspaper publishers and editors held their annual convention in Logan. I was invited to address the group at a morning session. That same day, Sheriff Joe Hatfield and his brother, Tennis, younger brothers of Cap, gave an ox-roast dinner for the visiting newsmen and their guests. The picnic was held on a narrow strip of bottom land, on Island Creek, a half-mile below the old home of Devil Anse.
I ate lunch with Nancy Elizabeth and her sister-in-law, Betty Caldwell. After lunch, at the suggestion of Mrs. Caldwell, we three drove up the creek to the old home of her father–Devil Anse. It was a large, two-story, frame structure (since destroyed by fire, then occupied by Tennis Hatfield, youngest son of Devil Anse).
The most interesting feature in the old home was Devil Anse’s gun-room. Hanging along its walls were a dozen, or more, high-powered rifles, and a number of large caliber pistols, ranging from teh earliest to the latest models. “The older guns,” said Nancy Elizabeth, “were used in the feud.”
As we returned, we stopped at the family cemetery that clings uncertainly to the steep mountainside, overlooking the picnic grounds. There, among the mountains he loved and ruled, old Devil Anse found peace. A life-size statue of the old man, carved in Italy (from a photograph) of the finest Carrara marble, stands in majestic solitude above his grave. On its four-foot high granite base are carved the names of his wife and their thirteen children.
Source: West Virginia Women (Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock, 1974), p. 149-151
25 Friday Dec 2020
Tags
Appalachia, Carrie Thacker, cemeteries, genealogy, Hamlin, history, L.M. Thacker, Lincoln County, Maude May, R. Dennis Steed, West Virginia
Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk | Filed under Cemeteries, Hamlin
29 Friday May 2020
Posted Cemeteries, Coal
inTags
Appalachia, Brandon Ray Kirk, cemeteries, coal, Elk Creek Community Cemetery, Emmett, genealogy, history, Logan County, photos, Phyllis Kirk, Ramaco Resources, Walter Sias, West Virginia
Up this way to Elk Creek Community Cemetery… 5 February 2020
Coal is not dead! For more information, go here: https://www.ramacoresources.com/mining-complexes/elk-creek/ 5 February 2020
My parking spot. Miners helped me to find the cemetery, which was concealed by the mining operation. 5 February 2020
Up this way to the (mostly neglected) cemetery! 5 February 2020
Someone left this pretty cardinal painting here. 5 February 2020
View from the cemetery. 5 February 2020
The Sias graves. 5 February 2020
My great-great-uncle is buried here. 5 February 2020
Sias graves. 5 February 2020
Sias graves. 5 February 2020
Sias graves. 5 February 2020
This little guy found me. Made a buddy. 5 February 2020
Here goes Mom to decorate the graves. 5 February 2020
Walter F. Sias (1896-1933) was a brother to my great-grandmother, Gertie (Sias) Frye. He is buried here with two of his children. 5 February 2020
08 Sunday Mar 2020
Posted Cemeteries, Tom Dula, Women's History
inTags
Ann Melton, Appalachia, cemeteries, crime, Elkville, genealogy, history, James Melton, Laura Foster, Melton Cemetery, North Carolina, photos, Tom Dula, true crime, Wilkes County
Ann Melton, a married woman, was involved in a love triangle with Tom Dula and her cousin, Laura Foster. Up this way to Melton Cemetery, Elkville, Wilkes County, NC. 7 January 2020
Anne Melton was charged with the Laura Foster murder, but was cleared by Tom Dula’s note shortly before his execution. Melton Cemetery, Elkville, Wilkes County, NC. 7 January 2020
Ann Melton died a few years after Tom Dula. A Foster descendant suggested that I not put flowers at Ann Melton’s grave, but I did anyway. 7 January 2020
Sources disagree as to Ann Melton’s cause of death. Family members recently placed this headstone. 7 January 2020
03 Tuesday Mar 2020
Posted Cemeteries, Civil War, Tom Dula
inTags
42nd North Carolina Regiment, Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, cemeteries, civil war, Confederate Army, Dula Cemetery, Elkville, history, Iredell County, Laura Foster, North Carolina, photos, Tom Dooley, Tom Dula, Whippoorwill Academy and Village, Wilkes County
Looking for Tom Dula’s grave in Elkville, Wilkes County, NC. 7 January 2020
Up this way to the Tom Dula grave! 7 January 2020
The Dula family cemetery is located here, but only Tom Dula’s grave is marked by a headstone. 7 January 2020
Tom Dula was a Confederate veteran. 7 January 2020
Sadly, visitors have chipped away part of Tom Dula’s headstone. Note: His death date is erroneously recorded as 1866. 7 January 2020
This was the highlight of my trip. Tom Dula’s original headstone is housed at nearby Whippoorwill Academy and Village. 7 January 2020
Tom Dula’s correct year of death is noted on his footstone. 7 January 2020
Here is a glimpse of the landscape near Tom Dula’s grave. 7 January 2020
16 Sunday Feb 2020
Posted Cemeteries, Logan
inTags
Aldridge Coal Company, Amanda Avis, Anna Crovjack, Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, C&O Railroad, cemeteries, Charles Quinn, crime, Dwight Williamson, Ed Burgess, Elzie Burgess, Fintown, genealogy, history, Hugh C. Avis, immigrants, Ireland, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Logan Memorial Park, Mamie Thurman, Maude Steele, McConnell, Noah E. Steele, Q.L. Stewart, West Virginia, Woodmen of the World, Works Progress Administration
Logan Memorial Park was a “perpetual care” cemetery established in the late 1920s in McConnell, Logan County, WV. The cemetery contains the final remains of many noteworthy Loganites, including Mamie Thurman, whose 1932 murder continues to tantalize regional residents. The Logan Banner reported on the cemetery’s beginnings on September 7, 1928:
Work Rapidly In Developing Burial Park
With Brush Cut and Loose Rock Being Hauled for Surface, Road Work Starts Soon
BEAUTIFYING COMES SOON
Plans Call for Use of Skilled Landscape Gardeners to Aid in Placing Shrubbery
Conclusive proof that Logan is soon to have a modern burial part embodying all the improvements found in the highest type institutions of this kind anywhere was afforded a reporter of The Logan Banner in an inspection of the work being done near McConnell by the Logan Memorial Park company.
Much work was found to have been done already. Brush and undergrowth has been cleaned off the entire 20 acre tract. This will finally include the grubbing of stumps and raking up the trash until the entire tract can be mowed with a lawnmower. Several hundred sled loads of loose rock have already been hauled to the banks of the small stream that flows through the central part of the tract, where a rubble stone embankment will be built near the water course to be covered with vines and shrubbery.
All surface rocks will be removed, blasting being resorted to loosen the larger ones. Several hundred holes were drilled in the surface of the entire plot of ground before it was decided that it would be a suitable place for burial purposes. It was found that there was no ledge rock on the entire tract except at one small spot.
Work is now in progress in preparation for the concrete road to be built from the state road into the park. A ditch suitable for the placing of 26-inch tile to carry the small stream out of the park is being dug. The C. & O. had two steam shovels at work Wednesday cleaning off a sidetrack, unused for several years and submerged by silt from the roadside, preparatory to setting out a carload of tile. It will be laid at once and then the making of a grade for the concrete will follow.
This entrance is between the residence of Burgess and Aldridge. Options have already been secured on property adjacent so that a large stone and iron entrance can be built just off the state road. From that point the hard surfaced road passes up the hollow to where a natural amphitheater provides several acres of smooth land where the first section of the park will be developed. The improved road will entirely encircle this plot so that easy access will be afforded and each lot will be reached by either the roadway or paths.
At the lower end of the natural amphitheater stand several houses that were formerly the property of the Aldridge Coal Company. The present tenants have been ordered to vacate these and they will be torn down.
Water will be supplied to the entire section now being developed and in the spring the entire tract will be plowed and seeded to the best grass obtainable. At that time much shrubbery, from the best nursery stock, will be planted under the direction of competent landscape gardeners.
The Bannerman was in doubt as to the closeness of this tract to the Courthouse, so it was metered and clocked. It proved to be 2 1/2 miles in distance and it was driven easily in traffic in six minutes. Thus there will be the dual advantages of the great natural and enhanced beauty of the Logan Memorial Park site and proximity to the town.
The earnest desire of the company to get this memorial park ready for those desiring to use it is shown in the rush that characterizes the work of cleaning it of brush and rock and in getting in a permanent road. More than a dozen men have been at work ever since the charter was granted and others will be added as more projects get under way simultaneously. The permanent road is to be laid immediately. The rubble stone wall along the stream will come later, but every bit of the work is to be pushed as rapidly as men can do it.
The perpetual care which the charter confirms to the lot owner will no doubt be a great inducement. Already interested parties are inquiring about when it will be open for inspection. Q.L. Stewart, the manager, assures them that no avoidable delay will be allowed to intervene.
***
Here’s a WPA map of the cemetery dating from the 1930s:
***
This 1938 map of the cemetery is located in the Logan County Clerk’s office:
***
Here are photographs of the cemetery in 2020:
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
Charles Quinn, Irish immigrant… 14 February 2020
Many immigrants are buried in the cemetery… 14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
Woodmen of the World! 14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
14 February 2020
Mamie Thurman is buried below the Steele Mausoleum… 14 February 2020
Elzie Burgess helped dig Mamie Thurman’s grave. Here is an interview with Mr. Burgess by Dwight Williamson, dating from about 1985…
09 Saturday Nov 2019
Posted Cemeteries, Civil War
inTags
50th Virginia Infantry, Appalachia, Battle of Charleston, Camp Garnett, Charleston, civil war, Confederate Army, Confederate Cemetery, genealogy, history, Joseph H. Conley, Kanawha County, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Spring Hill Cemetery, Stonewall Jackson Camp, Terry Lowry, United Confederate Veterans, West Virginia
Terry Lowry is THE authority on the Civil War in the Kanawha Valley. Stop 4 on his tour: Spring Hill Cemetery in Charleston, WV. 29 September 2019. Here is a link to Terry’s latest book, The Battle of Charleston (2016): https://wvcivilwar.com/now-available-the-battle-of-charleston/
Confederate Cemetery at Spring Hill Cemetery in Charleston, WV. 29 September 2019. For more information about the cemetery, go here: https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/539
Confederate Cemetery at Spring Hill Cemetery in Charleston, WV. 29 September 2019. For more information about the cemetery, go here: https://wvtourism.com/company/spring-hill-cemetery/
Confederate Cemetery at Spring Hill Cemetery in Charleston, WV. 29 September 2019
29 Tuesday Oct 2019
Tags
22nd Virginia Infantry, Appalachia, Charleston, Confederate Army, Daniel Ruffner, French and Indian War, gas, George S. Patton, George Washington, Henry D. Ruffner, history, Holly Mansion, John McCausland, Joseph Ruffner, Kanawha County, Kanawha Riflemen, Kanawha River, Kanawha Street, oil, Revolutionary War, Richard Laidley, salt, Thomas Bullitt, United Daughters of the Confederacy, West Virginia
Terry Lowry is THE authority on the Civil War in the Kanawha Valley. Stop 2 on his tour: Ruffner Memorial Park in Charleston, WV. 29 September 2019. Here is a link to Terry’s latest book, The Battle of Charleston (2016): https://wvcivilwar.com/now-available-the-battle-of-charleston/
Kanawha Riflemen: “Hometown Boys in Gray.” 29 September 2019
Kanawha Riflemen Memorial at Ruffner Memorial Park. In 1831, Joseph Ruffner deeded this cemetery to the city. In 1920, the site became a city park. Some graves were relocated but many are still here with their headstones buried beneath the surface. The UDC memorial was placed in 1922. 29 September 2019
Thomas Bullitt grave. Ruffner Memorial Park. In 1776, George Washington wrote of him: “Bullet (sic) is no favourite of mine, & therefore I shall say nothing more of him, than that his own opinion of himself always kept pace with what others pleas’d to think of him—if any thing, rather run a head of it.” 29 September 2019
10 Saturday Aug 2019
Posted Cemeteries, Logan, Music
inTags
Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, cemeteries, Coney Isle, Ed Belcher, Elbert Garrett Family Cemetery, fiddler, Fort Branch, Frank Hutchison, genealogy, guitar, harp-organ, history, Lake, Logan Banner, Logan County, music, New York, Okeh Company, Omar Theatre, Peach Creek Theatre, piano, Sheila Brumfield Coleman, Stirrat Theatre, Stollings, West Virginia, West Virginia Rag, William Hatcher Garrett
Logan (WV) Banner, 1 February 1927.
Logan (WV) Banner, 8 March 1927.
Logan (WV) Banner, 25 March 1927.
Here we are visiting the Frank Hutchison grave at the Elbert Garrett Family Cemetery at Lake, Logan County, WV. Photo by Sheila Brumfield Coleman. 10 August 2019
17 Wednesday Jul 2019
Posted Cemeteries, Hatfield-McCoy Feud
inTags
Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, Ellison Hatfield, Floyd Hatfield, genealogy, Hatfield Cemetery, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Mate Creek, Mingo County, Newtown, Phyllis Kirk, Sarah Hatfield, West Virginia
Up this way to the old Hatfield cemetery. Newtown, Mingo County, WV. Photo by Mom. 6 July 2019.
Entering the old Hatfield cemetery. It was a bit weedy! Photo by Mom. 6 July 2019.
I mowed some of the graves and made sure to place flowers at the grave of Ellison Hatfield. Photo by Mom. 6 July 2019
Leaving the cemetery, you can return to the paved road by going left over the bridge or right through Mate Creek. 6 July 2019
01 Saturday Jun 2019
Posted Cemeteries, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Matewan
inTags
Allen Hatfield, Altina Waller, Appalachia, Beckley, Beech Creek, Brandon Kirk, Cap Hatfield, Coleman Hatfield, Delorme, Devil Anse Hatfield, Dutch Hatfield, Ellison Mounts, Ephraim Hatfield, feuds, genealogy, Hatfield Cemetery, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Henry Hatfield, history, History Channel, Jean Hatfield, Jim Vance, Johnson Hatfield, Levisa Hatfield, Logan Banner, Logan County, Matewan, Mingo County, Nancy Vance, Otis Rice, Randolph McCoy, Red Jacket, Route 44, Sarah Ann, Stirrat, Tennis Hatfield, The Hatfield and McCoy Feud After Kevin Costner, The McCoys: Their Story, The Tale of the Devil, Thomas Dotson, tourism, Truda Williams McCoy, Valentine Wall Hatfield, West Virginia
In 2001-2002, I wrote a series of popular stories for the Logan Banner that merged aspects of well-known Hatfield-McCoy books written by Otis Rice and Altina Waller in the 1980s. I had previously enjoyed Rice’s narrative and Waller’s analysis; I did not conduct any new research. Even though I believed the definitive Hatfield-McCoy Feud book remained unwritten, my purpose in writing these stories was not a step toward writing a book; my purpose in writing these stories was to revisit the narrative with some analysis for Banner readers. My hope was that readers would see what I saw: first, fascinating history (or folk story) for its own sake; second, the power of history to create a popular type of tourism.
I was fortunate during this time to meet Jean Hatfield. Jean, born in 1936, operated a Hatfield family museum at Sarah Ann, WV. Jean was not a native of West Virginia but had lived her entire adult life locally and had personally known several of Anderson Hatfield’s children. I really appreciated her desire to promote regional history. She “got it.” She inspired me. Anytime that I drove up Route 44, I stopped to visit Jean at the museum. She was always welcoming. Knowing her reminded me that every Hatfield (and McCoy) descendant is a source of information–-and that for the most part they have yet to tell the story in their own words. Three notable exceptions include The McCoys: Their Story by Truda Williams McCoy (1976), The Tale of the Devil (2003) by Coleman Hatfield and Bob Spence, and The Hatfield and McCoy Feud After Kevin Costner: Rescuing History (2013) by Thomas Dotson.
What follows is Part 4 of my interview with Jean, which occurred on August 7, 2001:
What kind of house did Johnse have?
Probably just a frame house.
I don’t know much about what he did for a living.
I really don’t know either. There’s not that much on him. Maybe he just spent his time chasing ladies. I don’t even know what type of work he did. But he had to work. He worked for his father, for one thing. But now there’s some of his grandchildren still living. But I’m like you, he’s not as good looking as most of the other boys were. But then when you’re like eighteen years old, everybody’s good looking at eighteen.
I wonder what Devil Anse thought about people taking his photo?
There was just always somebody wanting to take his picture. Now this is by Life magazine. They done a story.
I love the one in his hat.
That’s a very rare one. And the one with the long rifle. Because most of the time in the pictures you see him with his little shotgun. But that has the long rifle. I think that’s the muzzle-loading type.
Not nearly as many photos of Randolph McCoy.
This one here, when we did the McCoy monument, they didn’t have any pictures. We had gathered up quite a few of the McCoys and we made a collage picture and that one was in it. That’s the one mostly you see of him is that one. But I have a couple here somewhere when he was younger but it’s not a very clear copy. But he looks very sad and very old and very sick in that one. But he was like thirteen years older than Grandpa, though.
Did your husband hold any grudges?
No.
Was he raised to?
Oh no. He says on the History Channel tape that he went to school with McCoys and he never did have any animosity towards any of them. In fact, our postmaster down here, she was a McCoy before she married. And she and I get along real good.
So not all of Devil Anse’s brothers were involved in the feud…
Well now, like Wall Hatfield, he wasn’t concerned in it nowhere and they took him before a jury and found him guilty of murder, which he didn’t do. And he died in the pen just not long after he got in because he just couldn’t handle penitentiary life. And he’s buried down under that highway. The highway went over the graves of the prisoners that were buried there. Isn’t that terrible? That’s what the family said. Uncle Allen Hatfield from Beech Creek was one of his children. That’s where that come from.
Where did they bury Ellison Mounts?
I think he’s buried over at Hatfield Cemetery at Matewan. That’s where Grandma and Grandpa’s mother and father is buried. Ephraim. He was buried there.
Are they marked?
Yeah. I think they have a small marker is all. Devil Anse’s father was Big Eph Hatfield and she was Nancy Vance. That’s where Uncle Jim come in at. That was her brother. So that would have been Grandpa’s uncle. He loved Grandpa so well, he would kill for him, that was all there was to it. And Grandpa didn’t have to tell him. He went out on his own and done it. I think that had a lot to do with it. In all that I read, Grandpa’s personality just didn’t seem like he was that type of a person.
Did they ever talk about him doing things like singing or whittling?
He was a joker. Like my mother-in-law said, Tennis had give her a new diamond ring. And she was out helping Grandpa milk the cow and she was showing him her pretty ring and he said, “I’d just soon have a pewter button.” He was always joking with people and things like that. Now my mother-in-law was a very scary person. And if he’d a been a mean person she wouldn’t have stayed around him. But her and Tennis lived with them until they had two children. He couldn’t have been very threatening.
Who had the home when it burned?
Tennis. He inherited it from his momma. It burned after she passed. That was on the land that he inherited. All of the children got a certain amount of land.
Did Devil Anse sell out in Mingo County?
Yeah. Cline got it. He just let him have it all and he moved over here.
Who owned the old property where the cemetery is in Mingo County?
That’s part of the other estate, I’d say, Ephraim. That would be part of his. Delorme and up in that area was where they were all at mostly. Delorme, Red Jacket. I don’t know a whole lot about Mingo County. And we lost one of our good little relatives over there: Dutch Hatfield. He used to be chief of police of Matewan and he knew everybody. And him and Henry was really close together and they passed within a year of each other. But he was pretty well up on all of the relatives and who was whose child and all of that.
Why was Cap’s family not buried with the other Hatfields?
Cap and Grandpa and the boys, seems like there was a rift there all the time. He was at Grandpa’s funeral but they hadn’t had much dealings from what I can understand. So when he died he just wanted to be buried on his own land. They started their own little cemetery down there. They may have had some people die before that and buried them there.
Where is Johnse buried?
Johnse is buried up here.
Any of his wives buried with him?
No.
That’s sad that he had so many wives and none are buried with him.
Yeah. That’s a lesson to those men. Better find one and be loyal to them.
I hope someone can figure out how to make this tourism work here.
If you happen to see them down at the Chamber of Commerce, you ask ‘em about a road up here. See if we can get it changed some way. Because if they’re going to use this for tourism they’re going to need to be able to locate it. This is 44. 18 miles from the boulevard to the top of the mountain—that’s as far as 44 goes. And they’re advertising it through the rest stop areas. And Sarah Ann’s not even on the map. Stirrat is.
They don’t have it together in the county seat either.
No. I think it’s one group pulling against another group and if they don’t get together nothing gets done.
Have you ever seen that play in Beckley?
No. I’ve had people say it’s good. I don’t like to stay overnight away from home. I’m a home body.
***
Jean died in 2011. I miss seeing her when I drive up Route 44.
29 Wednesday May 2019
Posted Cemeteries, Rowan County Feud
inTags
Appalachia, Craig Tolliver, D.B. Logan, Daniel Boone Tolliver, feuds, Floyd Tolliver, Hiram Pigman, John Martin, Kentucky, Lee Cemetery, Martin-Tolliver Feud, Morehead, Rowan County, Rowan County Feud, Tolliver-Martin Feud
Historical marker providing some details of the Rowan County Feud, Morehead, KY. 24 June 2017. For a little more history about the feud, go here: https://brandonraykirk.com/2013/07/06/in-search-of-ed-haley-140/
Historical marker providing some details of the Rowan County Feud, Morehead, KY. 20 May 2019
Memorial to the casualties of the Rowan County Feud, Morehead, KY. 20 May 2019
Lee Cemetery, Morehead, KY. Feudists are buried here! 20 May 2019
Daniel Boone Tolliver was father to Craig Tolliver. Lee Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 20 May 2019
29 Wednesday May 2019
Posted Cemeteries, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Pikeville
inTags
Altina Waller, Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, Cap Hatfield, Coleman Hatfield, Democratic Party, Devil Anse Hatfield, Dyke Garrett, feuds, Frank Phillips, genealogy, Hatfield Cemetery, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Henry Hatfield, history, Jean Hatfield, Jim Vance, Joe Hatfield, John Ed Pearce, Johnson Hatfield, Kentucky, Levisa Hatfield, Logan Banner, Logan County, Otis Rice, Pikeville, Republican Party, Rosa Browning, Roseanne McCoy, Sarah Ann, Tennis Hatfield, The Hatfield and McCoy Feud After Kevin Costner, The McCoys: Their Story, The Tale of the Devil, Thomas Dotson, Truda Williams McCoy, West Virginia
In 2001-2002, I wrote a series of popular stories for the Logan Banner that merged aspects of well-known Hatfield-McCoy books written by Otis Rice and Altina Waller in the 1980s. I had previously enjoyed Rice’s narrative and Waller’s analysis; I did not conduct any new research. Even though I believed the definitive Hatfield-McCoy Feud book remained unwritten, my purpose in writing these stories was not a step toward writing a book; my purpose in writing these stories was to revisit the narrative with some analysis for Banner readers. My hope was that readers would see what I saw: first, fascinating history (or folk story) for its own sake; second, the power of history to create a popular type of tourism.
I was fortunate during this time to meet Jean Hatfield. Jean, born in 1936, operated a Hatfield family museum at Sarah Ann, WV. Jean was not a native of West Virginia but had lived her entire adult life locally and had personally known several of Anderson Hatfield’s children. I really appreciated her desire to promote regional history. She “got it.” She inspired me. Anytime that I drove up Route 44, I stopped to visit Jean at the museum. She was always welcoming. Knowing her reminded me that every Hatfield (and McCoy) descendant is a source of information–-and that for the most part they have yet to tell the story in their own words. Three notable exceptions include The McCoys: Their Story by Truda Williams McCoy (1976), The Tale of the Devil (2003) by Coleman Hatfield and Bob Spence, and The Hatfield and McCoy Feud After Kevin Costner: Rescuing History (2013) by Thomas Dotson.
What follows is Part 3 of my interview with Jean, which occurred on August 7, 2001:
What kind of shape is the [Hatfield] cemetery in?
Pretty rough right now because Henry’s been gone two years and he was sick two years before so he didn’t get to take care of it the way he normally did. It’s pretty well growed up. The main part of the cemetery, the family part, is pretty good. It’s just where the hill’s growed up.
There are unmarked graves in there.
There’s a bunch in there. Well, the main part of the cemetery is just the Hatfield people. And there’s a lot of graves up there, neighborhood people that couldn’t afford to buy grave plots and things like that. They just let them be buried up in there. So they’re not all Hatfields. I think all of the Hatfields now are marked up there, because we put Aunt Rosie’s up last fall and she was the last one in the family not to be marked. And we got that done. But there’s a lot of neighborhood people up in there and a lot of friends that Tennis and Joe made and they died off and they wanted to be buried close to the family.
What about Devil Anse’s politics?
Well, Henry’s father [Tennis] changed. Grandpa [Devil Anse] was a Democrat. The way I can understand it, the Democrat Party was so closed they wouldn’t let Tennis in when he wanted to run for sheriff so he ran for sheriff on the Republican ticket and won. Surprised the heck out of them, I imagine. And then Joe carried on as a Republican. But my husband was a Republican until he died. Me, I vote for both sides. Depends on the person that’s running. You know how politics is. Once you’re out of favor then you live a pretty rough life. And that happened in the family, too. Kind of wild back in those days. Even back 30-40 years ago, it was wild. I think we’re about to get civilized.
There’s hope.
I don’t know. If they don’t get a handle on these drugs there’s not going to be much hope. We’ve got problems here with the drugs. I just wish they could get them settled so people could get back to normal. When we built our house up there… We went on vacation we left the house wide open. Nobody bothered anything. Neighbor went in and let my little dogs run for a while, fed ‘em, put ‘em back in the house. Never even thought of locking the door. But you wouldn’t do that now. I think there’s been like five break-ins up here in the last couple of weeks. I think you can probably trace it right back to drugs. People trying to get stuff to sell for drugs. Which is pitiful.
What about Dyke Garrett?
Uncle Dyke? He was with the family most of the time, off and on. He done the burying and the marrying. Of course, the picture back there shows him baptizing Grandpa. He was a circuit preacher. He traveled everywhere.
Do you have a favorite character in the story? Anyone you feel attached to?
Well, all of them.
Even on the McCoy side?
Well, I think Roseanne is my favorite on the McCoy side, of course. And I think Grandma. Because think of what she went through. How many nights did she set up worrying about those reckless boys of hers? And every picture you see of them together, they look like love. Their body language shows it. They care for each other. And I think he took a lot of her advice and things like that. And if he was half the man that the people he helped and things like that, I think he must have been a pretty great person, too. There’s one of the pictures there… There was a Chafins boy that they just took in and raised. He didn’t have no family. Evidently his mother and father died when he was young and they took him in and raised him. They done several people that way. If they didn’t have a job, he’d work them, timbering and things like that so they could have a little bit of money along. That’s another thing about Altina Waller’s book I liked because she told the people who worked for him. There was a lot of McCoys who worked for him, too.
Have you read John Ed Pearce’s book about feuds in eastern Kentucky? I think he was unfair to Devil Anse.
Well, maybe he had ties to the McCoys or something.
I think Cap and Uncle Jim Vance are the two who…
They were the instigators.
Devil Anse, he really didn’t…
He wasn’t in the major things. If you notice, all the incidents that happen, he wasn’t there. But Uncle Jim and Cap were. So I think they kind of pushed it and Frank Phillips pushed it on the other side. Frank Phillips was the type of man who would kill you for fifty cents bounty. He was a bounty hunter. Back at that time, five dollars was a big bounty. They had a five-hundred-dollar bounty on Grandpa and Johnse’s head back in 1887. Usually like Jesse James and them, theirs didn’t go over one hundred dollars.
Was that in Kentucky?
Uh huh, right.
I’m hoping someone will link all of these historical sites together…
Well, that’s what they’re trying to do out in Pikeville but Logan County is not interested in it. There’s no driving force behind it, more or less. I was reading in the paper where the county commission was talking about taking over the cemetery, but it won’t do no good unless they clean it up and fix it so people can get up there. There’s a lot of people who can’t walk up the hill. And we need a road and a bridge up through there so people can get up there.
I was told the Cap Hatfield cemetery is not supposed to be visited. Is that true?
I don’t know. Neighborhood people go up in there so I really don’t know.
How would you describe his ‘set’ of the family?
They were more private people. They didn’t mix with the public like… Well now, Henry’s father [Tennis] was always in the public so I think it just come naturally for his children to be that way, too.
26 Sunday May 2019
Posted Cemeteries, Civil War, Hatfield-McCoy Feud
inTags
Brandon Kirk, cemeteries, civil war, Confederacy, Confederate Army, Frankfort, Frankfort Cemetery, genealogy, governor, history, Kentucky, Phyllis Kirk, Simon B. Buckner, U.S. Military Academy
Simon Bolivar Buckner grave at Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, KY. Governor Buckner, a veteran of the Confederate Army, played a role in the Hatfield-McCoy Feud. Located in Section I of the cemetery. Photo by Mom. 21 May 2019
18 Monday Mar 2019
Posted Big Harts Creek, Cemeteries, Halcyon
inTags
Albert Mullins, Albert Richards, Appalachia, Evelyn Workman, genealogy, Halcyon, Harts Creek, Hensley Cemetery, history, Ida McCloud, Logan Banner, Logan County, Mandy Mullins, Mattie Carter, Nora Brown, Pearl McCloud, Roxie Mullins, Tom Baisden, Vergie Mullins, West Virginia
A correspondent named “Smiles and Cheers” from Halcyon on Harts Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on March 2, 1923:
(Too late for publication last week.)
Sunday School here is progressing nicely.
Mattie Carter, Evelyn Workman, and Nora Brown were calling on Miss Mandy and Roxie Mullins Thursday.
Roxie Mullins was calling on Mrs. Vergie Mullins Monday evening.
Tom Baisden has started a big job. I think he calls it making sugar. Hustle in, boys, those who want a position.
Albert Richards and his intended were out for a stroll Sunday.
Albert Mullins’ big job is progressing nicely.
Everyone sure does miss Jerona.
Roxie Mullins and her new beau were out for a walk Saturday evening.
Roxie and Mandy Mullins, Ida and Pearl McCloud, Mattie Carter, and a number of others, attended a funeral Friday morning at the Hensley cemetery.
Good luck to the Banner.
03 Sunday Mar 2019
Tags
Appalachia, Bad Tom Smith, Battle of Hazard, Bill McGraw, Bobby Davis Museum and Park, Brandon Kirk, Charles Hayes, Combs-Eversole Cemetery, crime, feud, feuds, French-Eversole Feud, genealogy, Hazard, history, Kentucky, Martha Quigley, Perry County, photos
I visited Hazard to learn more about the French-Eversole Feud. To my surprise, even though most of the feud’s key events (and murders) occurred in Hazard, and even though the feud featured a Battle of Hazard, not ONE sign exists in the town to document the feud. 28 February 2019
Researching the French-Eversole Feud at the Bobby Davis Museum and Park in Hazard, KY. Martha Quigley, director of the museum, was very helpful in my learning more about the feud. 1 March 2019
Reading about Bad Tom Smith at the Bobby Davis Museum and Park in Hazard, KY. 1 March 2019
Here’s an old Eversole family heirloom, perhaps dating to the feud era. Bobby Davis Museum and Park, Hazard, Perry County, KY. 1 March 2019
Here’s an old Eversole family heirloom, perhaps dating to the feud era. Bobby Davis Museum and Park, Hazard, Perry County, KY. Photo by Martha Quigley. 1 March 2019
Partial map of French-Eversole Feud sites, drawn by Eversole descendant Bill McGraw. 1 March 2019
The Combs-Eversole Cemetery is partly located in the back yard of this residence. 28 February 2019
Joe Eversole’s grave. Mr. Eversole, a merchant and lawyer, was murdered in the feud. 28 February 2019
Joe Eversole’s grave. 28 February 2019
I placed flowers at Joe Eversole’s grave at the Combs-Eversole Cemetery in Hazard, KY. Photo by Martha Quigley. 28 February 2019
23 Saturday Feb 2019
Posted Barboursville, Cemeteries, Lincoln County Feud
inTags
Anthony Shelton, Appalachia, Barboursville, Barboursville Cemetery, Brandon Kirk, Cabell County, genealogy, history, Hollena Brumfield, Lincoln County Feud, Margaret Shelton, photos, Phyllis Kirk, Randolph Moss, West Virginia, William S. Kelley
Anthony and Margaret Shelton headstone, Barboursville Cemetery, Barboursville, Cabell County, WV. 14 February 2015
Dr. V. Randolph Moss grave, Barboursville Cemetery, Barboursville, Cabell County, WV. Dr. Moss was an attending physician to Hollena Brumfield after her gunshot wound to the face in September of 1889. Photo by Mom. 5 May 2017
Dr. V. Randolph Moss grave, Barboursville Cemetery, Barboursville, Cabell County, WV. Photo by Mom. 5 May 2017
Dr. V. Randolph Moss grave, Barboursville Cemetery, Barboursville, Cabell County, WV. 5 May 2017
William S. Kelley grave, Barboursville Cemetery, Barboursville, Cabell County, WV. 15 February 2015
29 Tuesday Jan 2019
Posted Big Ugly Creek, Cemeteries, Hamlin, Rector
inTags
Alomony Ferrell, Appalachia, Big Ugly Creek, cemeteries, genealogy, Hamlin, history, James P. Ferrell, James P. Ferrell Cemetery, Lincoln County, Mayme Ferrell, Philip Hager, Rector, Sarah Ann Hager, West Virginia
Up this way across the old James P. Ferrell homeplace on Big Ugly Creek, Lincoln County, WV. 26 January 2019
The James P. Ferrell Cemetery contains over 45 graves, most of them identified with a marker. 26 January 2019
Up this way, behind the old log cabin… 26 January 2019
James P. Ferrell’s headstone. The death date should read December 5, 1913. 26 January 2019
Sarah Ann (Ferrell) Hager was the daughter of James and Alomony (Toney) Ferrell and the wife of Sen. Philip Hager of Hamlin, WV. 26 January 2019
Here’s the grave of my late friend Mayme Ferrell, the last occupant of the old Ferrell cabin. 26 January 2019
View from the cemetery to the old cabin site. This is the location of the old Rector Post Office. 26 January 2019
23 Wednesday Jan 2019
Posted Cemeteries, Chapmanville, Civil War
inTags
129th Regiment Virginia Militia, Barney Carter, Battle of Kanawha Gap, Chapmanville, civil war, Confederate Army, Emmazella Conley, genealogy, Henry Conley, history, John Dejernatte, Logan County, Maston Conley, Polly Conley, West Virginia, William H. Farley, William Patton Thompson
Maston Conley, son of Henry and Mary “Polly” (Thompson) Conley, is buried here. I descend from his uncles William H. Farley and William Patton Thompson. 11 January 2019
Maston Conley, “Confederate Soldier.” The cemetery is located in Chapmanville, Logan County, WV. Visitors must have permission from property owners in order to visit this location. 19 January 2019
Maston Conley, private in the 129th Virginia Militia, was a likely participant in the Battle of Kanawha Gap. The battle site is almost visible from the cemetery.
Writings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain
This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in Appalachia.
Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond
A site about one of the most beautiful, interesting, tallented, outrageous and colorful personalities of the 20th Century