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Brandon Ray Kirk

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Brandon Ray Kirk

Tag Archives: crime

Subpoena for Sam McCoy (1882)

18 Thursday Feb 2021

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

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Amos Acord, Appalachia, Bill Staton, county clerk, crime, feuds, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, John Chafin, Logan County, Mingo County, murder, Sam McCoy, true crime, West Virginia

Amos Acord subpoena (1882). Sam McCoy was accused of murdering Bill Staton in 1880.

Bird Nelson (1927)

15 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Fourteen

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Bird Nelson, crime, Fourteen, Fourteen Mile Creek, genealogy, history, Lincoln County, Lizzie Tipton, Logan County, Nancy Ellen Nelson, Sherman Nelson, true crime, West Virginia

Bird Nelson (b.1897), son of Sherman and Nancy (Webb) Nelson, husband of Lizzie Tipton, Logan (WV) Banner, 30 August 1927

Nancy E. Hatfield Memories, Part 2 (1974)

02 Saturday Jan 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Civil War, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Women's History

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attorney general, Battle of Gravepine, Battle of Scary Creek, Cap Hatfield, Charleston, civil war, Confederate Army, crime, Dan Cunningham, detective, Devil Anse Hatfield, Ellison Mounts, feuds, Frank Phillips, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Howard B. Lee, Jim Comstock, Johnse Hatfeild, Kentucky, Logan Wildcats, Nancy Hatfield, Roseanna McCoy, Tug Fork, Union Army, West Virginia, West Virginia Women

Howard B. Lee, former Attorney General of West Virginia, provided this account of Nancy Hatfield (widow of Cap) in the early 1970s:

Our next stop was at the home of Nancy Elizabeth, the same home where I visited with her and Cap during my campaign. For nearly three hours I asked questions and listened to that remarkable woman recount many of her experiences as the wife of America’s most celebrated feudist.

Nancy Elizabeth’s home also held a number of guns, pistols, and other relics of the feud days. But the most interesting item was Cap’s bullet-proof, steel breastplate, designed to cover the entire front half of his body from his beck to his lower abdomen.

“Mrs. Hatfield,” I said, “judging from the three bullet marks on it, this breastplate was a great protection to Cap; but what was to prevent an enemy from shooting him in the back?” Her eyes flashed as she replied: “Mr. Lee, Cap Hatfield never turned his back on an enemy or a friend.”

“I have read two stories, Mrs. Hatfield, each purporting to give the true cause of the feud: One book stated that it was the result of a dispute between a McCoy and a Hatfield over the ownership of a hog. Another book said that it grew out of the seduction of a McCoy girl by Johnson Hatfield, oldest son of Devil Anse. Is either one of these stories true?”

“No, neither story is true,” she replied. “The McCoys lived on the Kentucky side of Tug River, and the Hatfields lived on the West Virginia side. Hogs don’t swim rivers. I never heard the girl story until I read it in a book, written long after the feud was over. Both stories are pure fiction.”

“The truth is,” she continued, “in the fall of 1882, in an election-day fight between Ellison Hatfield, a younger brother of Devil Anse, and three McCoy brothers, Ellison was shot and knifed. He died two days later. In retaliation, Devil Anse and his clan captured and shot the three McCoy brothers. It was these four senseless killings that started the feud.”

In answer to my inquiry, Nancy Elizabeth said: “Yes, there had been ‘bad blood’ between the two families since the Civil War. In that struggle the Hatfields were ‘rebels’,–loyal to their State, Virginia. Devil Anse organized and was the captain of a company of Confederate sympathizers called the ‘Logan Wildcats’. They were recruited for local defense; but they left the county long enough to take part in the battle of Scary, fought along the banks of the Kanawha River, a few miles below Charleston.

“The McCoys, and their mountain neighbors, were pro-Union; and to protect their region against invasion by ‘Virginia rebels’, they organized a military company called ‘Home Guards’. There were occasional border clashes between the two forces, with casualties on both sides. The war ended only seventeen years before the feud began, and the bitterness still existed in the minds of the older generation, and they passed it on to their children. It was the old sectional and political hatreds that sparked the fight between Ellison Hatfield and the McCoy brothers.”

Nancy Elizabeth declined to estimate the number killed on either side of the feud.

“It was a horrible nightmare to me,” she said. “Sometimes, for months, Cap never spent a night in our house. He and Devil Anse, with others, slept in the nearby woods to guard our homes against surprise attacks. At times, too, we women and our children slept in hidden shelters in the forests.

“But these assaults were not one-sided affairs. The Hatfields crossed the Tug and killed McCoys. It was a savage war of extermination, regardless of age or sex. Finally, to get our children to a safer locality, we Hatfields left Tug River, crossed the mountains, and settled here on Island Creek, a tributary of the Guyandotte River.

“No, there was no formal truce ending hostilities. After a decade or more of fighting and killing, both sides grew tired and quit. The McCoys stayed in Kentucky and the Hatfields kept to West Virginia. The feud was really over a long time before either side realized it.

“Yes, Kentucky offered a large reward for the capture of Devil Anse and Cap. The governor of West Virginia refused to extradite them because, said he, ‘their trials in Kentucky would be nothing more than legalized lynchings’. It was then that Kentucky’s governor offered the reward for their capture–‘dead or alive’. Three attempts were made by reward seekers to capture them.

“Dan Cunningham, a Charleston detective, with two Cincinnati detectives, made the first attempt. They came through Kentucky, and crossed Tug River in the night; but the Hatfields soon captured them. A justice of the peace sentenced them to 90 days in Logan County jail for disturbing hte peace. When released, they were told to follow the Guyandotte River to Huntington, a distance of 60 miles, and ‘not to come back’.

“Next, a man named Phillips led two raids from Kentucky into Hatfield territory. In the first, he captured ‘Cottontop’ Mounts, a relative and supporter of the Hatfields, and took him to Pikeville, Kentucky, where he was hanged. But the second foray met with disaster at the ‘Battle of the Grapevine’. Phillips, and some of his followers escaped into Kentucky, but some where buried where they fell.

“This was the last attempt of the reward seekers. However, Kentucky never withdrew the reward offer, and that is why Devil Anse and Cap were always alarmed and on the alert.”

Source: West Virginia Women (Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock, 1974), p. 151-152

A Poem (1897)

22 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley

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A.M. Lunsford, Abner Vance, Appalachia, Big Sandy River, crime, Daniel Horton, history, Logan, Logan County Banner, poems, poetry, West Virginia

This song was composed and sung by Elder Abner Vance, under the gallows, about 80 years ago. Given by Rev. A.M. Lunsford, October 14, 1897.

A POEM.

[Published by Request.]

Green are the woods where Sandy flows.

And peace it dwelleth there;

In the valley the bear they lie secure

The red buck roves the knobs.

But Vance no more shall Sandy behold,

Nor drink its crystal waves,

The partial judge pronounced his doom,

The hunter has found his grave.

The judge he said he was my friend

Though Elliott’s life he had saved.

A juryman did I become

That Elliott he might live.

That friendship I have shown to others,

Has never been shown to me;

Humanity it belongs to the brave,

And I hope it remains to me.

‘Twas by the advice of McFarlin

Judge Johnson did the call,

I was taken from my native home

Confined in a stone wall.

My persecutors have gained their request,

Their promise to make good,

For they ofttimes swore they would never rest,

Till they had gained my heart’s blood.

Daniel Horton, Bob and Bill,

A lie against me swore,

In order to take my life away,

That I might be no more.

But I and them together must meet

Where all things are unknown.

And if I’ve shed the innocent blood

I hope there’s mercy shown.

Bright shines the sun on Clinche’s hill,

And soft the west wind blows,

The valleys are covered all over with bloom,

Perfumed with the red rose.

But Vance no more shall Sandy behold,

This day his eyes are closed in death,

His body’s confined in the tomb.

Farewell my friends, my children dear,

To you I bid farewell,

The love I have for your precious souls

No mortal tongue can tell.

Farewell to you my loving wife,

To you I bid adieu,

And if I reach fair Caanan’s shore

I hope to meet with you.

Source: Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 13 November 1897.

State v. Edgar Combs (1923): Statement of W.H. Moss, No. 28

15 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Battle of Blair Mountain, Coal

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Appalachia, Battle of Blair Mountain, Bevill Hardware Company, crime, genealogy, history, Logan, Logan County, Lola Herald, United Mine Workers of America, W.H. Moss, West Virginia

State v. Edgar Combs (1923): Statement of Ed Cook and Others, No. 22

02 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Battle of Blair Mountain, Coal, Logan

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A.M. Dial, Appalachia, Battle of Blair Mountain, Charles L. Estep, Claude Gore, coal, Coal River, crime, Ed Cook, Edgar Combs, Elmer Gore, Everett Wellman, George Chafin, H.E. Keadle, history, Isaac Brewer, Joe Blair, John Browning, John C. Gore, John Cafelgo, Lawrence Adkins, Lee Belcher, Logan County, Simp Thompson, United Mine Workers of America, W.F. Butcher, West Virginia

Armed March: Federation of Labor Seeks Pardon for Killer (1925)

13 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Battle of Blair Mountain

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Appalachia, Battle of Blair Mountain, Blair Mountain, Charleston, crime, deputy sheriff, Edgar Combs, Ephraim Morgan, genealogy, governor, Harold Houston, history, Howard Gore, Huntington, J.E. Wilburn, John Gore, John Wilburn, labor, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Moundsville, prosecuting attorney, United Mine Workers of America, West Virginia, West Virginia Federation of Labor, Wheeling Metal and Manufacturing Company

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, in a story dated August 14, 1925, comes this bit of history relating to the “armed march” on Logan and Mingo counties in 1921:

FEDERATION ASKS PARDON FOR MAN WHO KILLED GORE

The West Virginia Federation of Labor has been holding its annual convention in Huntington during the past week.

On Tuesday morning the convention unanimously passed a resolution calling upon Governor Howard M. Gore to pardon or parole Edgar Combs who is serving a sentence imposed in connection with the murder of John Gore who was killed on Blair mountain when the “Red Necks” made their famous “armed march” in an attempt to invade Logan and unionize this field.

The resolution was presented Monday by Attorney Harold Houston, of Charleston, counsel for the United Mine Workers in District 17.

The resolution was as follows:

“Whereas Edgar Combs is now confined in the state penitentiary at Moundsville serving a life sentence imposed by the circuit court of Logan county for the alleged murder of John Gore, killed on Blair mountain during a clash between members of the ‘armed march’ of 1921 and a posse of Logan county; and

“Whereas he is now the only person serving in the penitentiary for an offence connected with said uprising, the Rev. J.E. Wilburn and John Wilburn, his son, having turned so-called ‘state’s evidence’ and been pardoned by Governor Ephraim H. Morgan, the said pardon to take effect early in the year 1926; and

“Whereas all of the many hundreds of prosecutions growing out of said trouble have been dismissed and abandoned by the prosecuting attorney of Logan county; and

“Whereas Edgar Combs has a wife and five infant children dependent upon him for maintenance and support, his wife at the present time working for the Wheeling Metal and Manufacturing company in an effort to keep her family together.

“Therefore, be it resolved by the eighteenth annual convention of the West Virginia Federation of Labor assembled at the city of Huntington W.Va. that we earnestly petition the Honorable Howard M. Gore, Governor of West Virginia, to grant and extend executive clemency to Edgar Combs, and either pardon or parole him for said alleged offense.

“And be it further resolved, that a copy of this resolution be immediately forwarded to Governor Gore for its consideration.”

Italian Killer in Ethel (1914)

13 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Italian American History

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Appalachia, crime, Ethel, genealogy, history, Logan Banner, Logan County, murder, photos, true crime, West Virginia

Italian Killer in Ethel, Logan (WV) Banner, 1914.

James Nighbert v. Ephraim Hatfield (1870)

10 Tuesday Nov 2020

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

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Appalachia, county clerk, crime, Ephraim Hatfield, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Isom Romans, J.M. Jackson, James Nighbert, Logan County, sheriff, West Virginia, William Straton

C.E. Lively Arrested in Stirrat (1925)

06 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Huntington, Logan, Matewan

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Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, C.E. Lively, Charles Lester, crime, Ed Chambers, Huntington, Ira P. Hager, Logan Banner, Logan County, McDowell County, Mine Wars, Mingo County, Sid Hatfield, Stirrat, Welch, West Virginia, YMCA

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, in a story printed on January 30, 1925, comes this bit of history for C.E. Lively:

CENTRAL FIGURE OF FAMOUS CASES ARRESTED HERE

C.E. Lively, Prominent In Mingo and McDowell County Murder Cases, Arrested By Local Officers and Held for Federal Court

PLACED UNDER $10,000 BAIL

C.E. Lively, who has attained considerable notoriety in this section of West Virginia, was arraigned before U.S. Commissioner Ira P. Hager Tuesday on a charge of possession of liquor and held under bonds in the amount of $10,000 for appearance in the federal court in Huntington.

Officials had been aware that Lively was making headquarters in the Y.M.C.A. at Stirrat, posing under the name of Charles Lester and were very curious as to his activities. It was said, upon what appeared authentic authority, that he was making a number of inquiries of various citizens and those who were acquainted with his previous history were curious and apprehensive as to his objects.

Monday deputy marshals descended upon him in his room in the Y.M.C.A. at Stirratt and confiscated a bottle said to contain a quantity of corn liquor. The room was occupied by another man, who was working in the mines. It developed that this man had left the room early in the morning and had not returned. That when the maid gave attention to the room and made the beds, no liquor was in evidence, but about ten o’clock when the officers paid their visit, the liquor was found in the bed occupied by the other man, but Lively was the only occupant of the room and he was placed under arrest. The baggage in the room was thoroughly searched and a number of letters, alleged to be the property of Lively, were taken charge of by the officers.

Lively gave the name of Charles Lester when arrested, but admitted his identity as Lively when confronted by citizens who knew him well. At the hearing he closely examined the witnesses who appeared against him and objected strenuously to the heavy bail under which he was placed, claiming it was out of reason for the charge on which he had been arraigned.

Commissioner Hager questioned the prisoner closely and frankly informed him that suspicions had been around concerning him and his activities in this section, and officers admitted that a determined effort would be made to uncover the purpose of his activities and the interests back thereof.

Lively was connected with the famous Baldwin-Felts detective agency for a number of years and was decidedly active in this part of the state. He was considered the star witness in the famous murder trials in Mingo county some time ago, and was arrested in connection with the killing of Sid Hatfield and Chambers at the court house in Welch. He gained considerable notoriety as the result of his activities in these and cases, and suspicions seem to be aroused wherever he makes his appearance.

He told Commissioner Hager that the reason he had came to Logan county and was staying at Stirrat was a desire on his part to avoid trouble in that section of the state where he made his home and had acquired considerable of his notoriety.

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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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Feud Poll 2

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

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Feud Poll 3

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

Recent Posts

  • Anse Hatfield Letter to Perry Cline (1886)
  • Bridge Completed in Logan, WV (1915)
  • McCoy Property in Magnolia District (1866-1870)

Ed Haley Poll 1

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

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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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  • OtterTales
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OtterTales

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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This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in Appalachia.

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Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond

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A site about one of the most beautiful, interesting, tallented, outrageous and colorful personalities of the 20th Century

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