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Brandon Ray Kirk

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Brandon Ray Kirk

Category Archives: Pikeville

J. Lee Ferguson: Pike County Attorney

28 Thursday Apr 2022

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Pikeville

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Appalachia, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, J. Lee Ferguson, Kentucky, Pike County, prosecuting attorney

Prosecuting attorney for Pike County, Kentucky, during the latter years of the feud.

Brig. Gen. James A. Garfield (1862)

26 Saturday Jun 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Civil War, Pikeville

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Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, civil war, history, James A. Garfield, Kentucky, Pike County, Pikeville, Union Army

Pikeville, Pike County, KY. 2021.

Anse Hatfield Letter to Perry Cline (1886)

06 Saturday Mar 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Pikeville

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Appalachia, Cap Hatfield, Coleman Hatfield, Devil Anse Hatfield, genealogy, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Jeff McCoy, Kentucky, Logan County, Mingo County, Nancy E. Hatfield, Perry Cline, Pike County, Pikeville, Preacher Anse Hatfield, Ron Blackburn, Tom Dotson, Tom Wallace, West Virginia, William S. Ferrell

Logan County, W.Va.

December 26, 1886

Mr. P.A. Cline

Pikeville, Ky.

Dear Sir:

I had to answer your Letter in regard to the Late Trouble. We are all very sorry that the Trouble occurred but under Somewhat aggravated circumstances it hapened. but I know and solemnly affirm that if such could have been prevented by me I would have stoped the Trouble. but it has gone by & cannot be ___. Cap was away from Home and Jeff went there to his house in the presents of his wife lying on her sick bed and had been under Treatment of the Doctor for three or four weeks and in undertaking to arrest Wallace shot into the House and when Cap came home he went and arrested Jeff to hand him over to a peace officer. & he met with Tom Wallace, and Wallace went with him and at William S. Ferrell’s he Broke loose in the presents of Wallace, and swam the river and Wallace followed shooting at him. I hope that if their is any question Relative to this affair that it will be ___ by a fair statement of the case.

Your friend

Ans. Hatfield

William S. Ferrell statement

At the time Jeff started Cap was of conversing with me some 40 or 50 yds and I never seen Cap Hatfield fire a single shot. You can write to Wm S. Ferrell for now in conclusion I will say to all the relatives of Jeff McCoy that neither one of the Hatfields has any animosity against them and very sorry that such has occurred and sincerely Trust that there will be no more Trouble in regard to the matter. Perry the very Bottom of this crime is nothing more nor less than Mary Daniels and her girls. Now Bill is gone and says he won’t come back. No person is going to Trouble him let him come back.

Very Respectfully,

Anderson Hatfield

NOTE: Ron G. Blackburn owns the original letter. A copy can be seen in Thomas Dotson’s The Hatfield & McCoy Feud After Kevin Costner: Rescuing History (2013), p. 232-233. Coleman Hatfield said that Nancy E. Hatfield, wife of Cap, wrote the letter, while Tom Dotson feels that Preacher Anse Hatfield wrote the letter.

Dils and Smith v. William McCoy (1865)

14 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Pikeville

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Appalachia, county clerk, crime, genealogy, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Jacob Smith, James H. McCoy, John Dils, Kentucky, merchant, Pike County, Pleasant McCoy, Randolph McCoy, S.K. Damron, Sallie McCoy, Sam McCoy, sheriff, William McCoy, William P. Johnson

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Promissory note between William McCoy and Dils and Smith (1861). Pike County, KY.

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Page 1 (1865)

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Page 1 (1865)

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Page 1 (1865)

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Page 1 (1865)

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Page 1 (1865)

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Summons for William McCoy (1865). Pike County, KY.

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Summons for William McCoy (1865). Pike County, KY.

NOTE: This case is most definitely unrelated to the Hatfield-McCoy Feud. I included it here because of the involvement of John Dils. The William McCoy involved in the case is likely the brother to Sallie (McCoy) McCoy, wife of Randal McCoy.

Interview of Jean Hatfield at Sarah Ann, WV (2001), Part 3

29 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Cemeteries, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Pikeville

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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.

Pikeville, KY (2019)

28 Tuesday May 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Pikeville

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Tags

architecture, history, Johnson Hatfield, Kentucky, photos, Pike County, Pikeville, Roseanna McCoy, University of Pikeville

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View of Pikeville, KY, from the University of Pikeville campus. 8 May 2019

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Pikeville, KY. 10 May 2019

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Johnse Hatfield and Roseanna McCoy. Pikeville, KY. 10 May 2019

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Pikeville, KY. 10 May 2019

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Pikeville, KY. 10 May 2019

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Pikeville, KY. 10 May 2019

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Pikeville, KY. 10 May 2019

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Pikeville, KY. 10 May 2019

Cotton Production in Antebellum Pike County, KY

28 Tuesday May 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Civil War, Pikeville

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Tags

Appalachia, civil war, cotton, farming, history, Kentucky, Magoffin County, Pike County

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Cotton in Eastern Kentucky, Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum, Pikeville, KY. 11 May 2019

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Cotton in Eastern Kentucky, Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum, Pikeville, KY. 11 May 2019

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Cotton in Eastern Kentucky, Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum, Pikeville, KY. 11 May 2019

Logging Items at Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum (2019)

26 Sunday May 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Pikeville, Timber

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Appalachia, Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum, branding hammer, history, Kentucky, logging, photos, Pikeville, timber, timbering

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Branding stamping hammer, Pikeville, KY. 11 May 2019

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Branding stamping hammer, Pikeville, KY. 11 May 2019

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Timberman’s caliper, Pikeville, KY. 11 May 2019

Civil War Items at the Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum (2019)

25 Saturday May 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Civil War, Pikeville

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

15th Kentucky Cavalry, Appalachia, Battle of Middle Creek, Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum, civil war, E. Everett McMurray, Floyd County, history, Kentucky, Pike County, Pikeville, Samuel Duncan

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Captain Samuel Duncan, Company A, 15th Kentucky Cavalry. On loan by E. Everett McMurray of Duquoin, IL. 15 May 2019

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Pikeville, KY. 15 May 2019

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Civil War buttons, Pikeville, KY. 15 May 2019

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Pikeville, KY. 15 May 2019

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Pikeville, KY. 15 May 2019

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.58 caliber 3-ring bullet minie ball from the Middle Creek Battlefield in Floyd County, KY. 15 May 2019

Coal Items in the Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum (2019)

25 Saturday May 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Coal, Pikeville

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Appalachia, Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum, coal, history, Kentucky, photos, Pike County, Pikeville

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Coal miner’s lamp, Pikeville, KY. 15 May 2019

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Checking tag, Pikeville, KY. 15 May 2019

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Miner’s cap with light, Pikeville, KY. 15 May 2019

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Feud Poll 1

If you had lived in the Harts Creek community during the 1880s, to which faction of feudists might you have given your loyalty?

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Do you think Milt Haley and Green McCoy committed the ambush on Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

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Who do you think organized the ambush of Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

Recent Posts

  • Aracoma Hotel in Logan, WV (1933)
  • James Butcher Survey (1857)
  • Don Chafin’s Deputies (1912-1913)

Ed Haley Poll 1

What do you think caused Ed Haley to lose his sight when he was three years old?

Top Posts & Pages

  • Johnson Hatfield v. Nancy L. Hatfield (1890)
  • Josiah Marcum v. Anderson Hatfield (1878)
  • Baisden Family Troubles
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  • John Gore grave (2015)

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© Brandon Ray Kirk and brandonraykirk.wordpress.com, 1987-2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brandon Ray Kirk and brandonraykirk.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Writings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain

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