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Brandon Ray Kirk

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Brandon Ray Kirk

Tag Archives: Green McCoy

Ben Walker Deed to Hezekiah “Kiah” Adkins (1887)

15 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in African American History, Green Shoal, Guyandotte River, Lincoln County Feud

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Appalachia, Ben Walker, Burbus C. Toney, Cain Adkins, Canoe Tree Fork, Eliza Adkins, Ellen Ferguson, genealogy, George Dickinson, Green McCoy, Green Shoal Creek, Guyandotte River, Harts Creek District, Hezekiah Adkins, history, justice of the peace, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, timber, timbering, West Virginia

Ben Walker Deed to Hezekiah “Kiah” Adkins, 175 acres, Green Shoal Creek, 1887, Lincoln County Clerk’s Office, Hamlin, WV. Note: Cain Adkins, who notarized this deed, was a key figure in the Lincoln County Feud, which was underway in 1887. In October of 1889, Ben Walker buried Mr. Adkins’ son-in-law, Green McCoy. Note: Ellen Ferguson and George Dickinson were African-American residents of Harts Creek District.

Hatfield-McCoy Reunion Festival at Matewan, WV (2018)

22 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Coal, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Lincoln County Feud, Matewan

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Appalachia, art, Blood in West Virginia, Bob Hatfield, Brandon Kirk, Buskirk and Hamilton, Devil Anse Hatfield, Green McCoy, Hatfield-McCoy Reunion Festival, history, Kentucky, Lincoln County Feud, Lisha Breeding, Louisa Mullins, Matewan, Matewan Depot, Mine Wars, Mingo County, Norfolk and Southern Railroad, Phyllis Kirk, Pike County, Randy Marcum, Sid Hatfield, Thacker, West Virginia, West Virginia Division of Culture and History

On June 15-16, 2018, the town of Matewan, WV, hosted the Hatfield-McCoy Reunion Festival. Matewan Depot hosted us for a book event. THANK YOU, Matewan Depot!

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Matewan Depot is a must-see destination! NOTE: For more information about the town and depot, please follow this link: http://www.historicmatewan.com/

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Here is a photo of our revamped Lincoln County Feud display at the Hatfield-McCoy Reunion Festival. Green McCoy, a Pike County (Ky.) McCoy, participated in the Lincoln feud; Bob Hatfield, son of Anse, married Louisa Mullins, a Lincoln feudist. 15 June 2018.

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Green McCoy’s great-niece Lisha Breeding made my day when she visited the Lincoln County Feud exhibit. 16 June 2018. Photo by Mom.

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We met nice people and sold copies of the book at the Hatfield-McCoy Reunion Festival. All proceeds were donated to the depot, which I greatly SUPPORT — it’s a significant asset that promotes regional history and tourism. 16 June 2018. Photo by Randy Marcum.

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The Matewan Depot features a free museum. The museum offers historical items related to town history, the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, the Norfolk & Southern Railroad, and the Mine Wars. 15 June 2018.

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Sid Hatfield gun with accompanying documentation. 15 June 2018.

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The West Virginia Division of Culture and History showcased a Hatfield-McCoy exhibit at the Hatfield-McCoy Reunion Festival. 16 June 2018.

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Some of the many artifacts located inside of the Matewan Depot. 16 June 2018.

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The depot features a worthy selection of books and other items related to regional history and culture. This photo shows a sample of books: t-shirts, stickers, videos, art, and many other items can also be found here. If you visit, be sure to take a peak at my book, “Blood in West Virginia: Brumfield v. McCoy.” May 2018.

Douglas Branch (2017)

26 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Boone County, Cemeteries, Ferrellsburg, Giles County, Green Shoal, Lincoln County Feud, Women's History

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Adkins-Davis Family Cemetery, Al Brumfield, Albert Adkins, Appalachia, Boone County, Brandon Kirk, Douglas Branch, Elizabeth Jane Hager, Emery Mullins, Emma Jane Adkins, Ferrellsburg, genealogy, Giles County, Gilmer County, Green McCoy, Green Shoal, history, Jacob Douglas, Jake Adkins, Lettie Adkins, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Logan County, Milt Haley, Philip Hager, photos, Phyllis Kirk, Sallie Fry, Virginia, West Virginia

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Douglas Branch, located in present-day Ferrellsburg, Lincoln County, WV, was named for Jacob Douglas, husband of Sallie Fry, who settled in the area by 1829-30 from Giles County, Virginia. Mr. Douglas, born about 1804, appears in the 1830 Logan County Census. In 1850, he lived in Boone County. He died in 1855 in Gilmer County.

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Enos “Jake” and Leticia “Lettie” McKibbon (Toney) Adkins were early residents of Douglas Branch. Following the Haley-McCoy murders at the mouth of Green Shoal in 1889, Al Brumfield rode up this hollow and spent the night under a beech tree. In the early 1920s, my great-great-grandfather Emery Mullins just up this hollow and to the left.

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Emma Jane (Hager) Adkins was the daughter of Philip and Elizabeth Jane (Dalton) Hager. On July 14, 1888, she married Albert G. Adkins, a son of Jake and Lettie Adkins. Adkins-Davis Family Cemetery, Douglas Branch, Lincoln County, WV. 21 October 2017. Photo by Mom.

Walker Branch (2016)

09 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ferrellsburg, Guyandotte River, Lincoln County Feud

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Allen Adkins Branch, Appalachia, Ben Walker, Blood in West Virginia, Brandon Kirk, Ferrellsburg, Green McCoy, Green Shoal, Guyandotte River, history, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Melvin Kirk, Milt Haley, photos, Walker Branch, West Fork, West Virginia

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Walker Branch is a tributary of the Guyandotte River located in Ferrellsburg, Lincoln County, WV. Photo taken 27 November 2016.

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Walker Branch is named for Benjamin Wade Walker (1851-1917), a United Baptist preacher who once lived along the stream. Photo taken 27 November 2016.

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Walker Branch appears in early deeds as Allen Adkins Branch. Photo taken 27 November 2016.

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In October of 1889, Ben Walker and Melvin Kirk brought the corpses of Haley and McCoy from Green Shoal to West Fork via Walker Branch and through Low Gap. Photo taken 27 November 2016.

Faye Smith (2015)

20 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Lincoln County Feud, Women's History

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Appalachia, Blood in West Virginia, books, Brandon Ray Kirk, Cain Adkins, Catlettsburg, Chadwick's Creek Missionary Baptist Church, Faye Smith, Green McCoy, history, Kentucky, life, Lincoln County Feud, photos, Spicie Fry, U.S. South, writers

Here I am during a recent visit with my friend Faye Smith, the granddaughter of Spicie (Adkins) McCoy-Fry

Here I am during a recent visit with my friend Faye Smith, the granddaughter of Spicie (Adkins) McCoy-Fry

Sherman B. McCoy grave (2014)

06 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Cemeteries, East Lynn, Lincoln County Feud

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Appalachia, Armilda, Blood in West Virginia, cemeteries, Community Memorial Gardens, East Lynn, genealogy, Green McCoy, history, Lincoln County Feud, Sherman McCoy, Spicie McCoy, Stiltner, Wayne County, West Virginia

Sherman Boyd McCoy grave, located at Community Memorial Gardens, Armilda, Wayne County, WV, 26 October 2014

Sherman Boyd McCoy grave, located at Community Memorial Gardens, Armilda, Wayne County, WV, 26 October 2014

Haley-McCoy grave (2015)

29 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud

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Appalachia, Blood in West Virginia, Brandon Ray Kirk, cemeteries, Edwards Park, genealogy, Green McCoy, Haley-McCoy grave, Harts Creek, history, Lincoln County, Milt Haley, photos, Smithsonian magazine, U.S. South, West Fork, West Virginia

Haley-McCoy grave, located on West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV. In 2000, Smithsonian magazine featured the grave (and myself) in a story written by Edwards Park.

Haley-McCoy grave, located on West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV. In 2000, Smithsonian magazine featured the grave (and myself) in a story written by Edwards Park. Photo taken 27 March 2015

Haley-McCoy grave, located on West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV. In 2000, Smithsonian magazine featured the grave (and myself) in a story written by Edwards Park.

Haley-McCoy grave, located on West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV. In 2000, Smithsonian magazine featured the grave (and myself) in a story written by Edwards Park. Photo taken 27 March 2015

Haley-McCoy grave (2015)

29 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Harts, Lincoln County Feud

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Appalachia, Blood in West Virginia, Brandon Ray Kirk, genealogy, Green McCoy, Haley-McCoy grave, Harts Creek, history, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Milt Haley, photos, U.S. South, West Fork, West Virginia

Here I stand at the Haley-McCoy grave on West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV. I first saw the grave in 1995.

Here I stand on 27 March 2015 at the Haley-McCoy grave on West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV. I first saw the grave in 1995.

John’s epilogue 2

31 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, John Hartford, Music

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Arthur Smith, banjo, Ben Walker, Benny Martin, Bernie Adams, Billy Adkins, blind, Brandon Kirk, Buddy Emmons, Clayton McMichen, Doug Owsley, Durham, Ed Haley, fiddlers, fiddling, Green McCoy, Haley-McCoy grave, Harts, history, Imogene Haley, Indiana, Jeffersonville, John Hartford, Johnny Hager, Lawrence Haley, Mark O'Connor, Matt Combs, Melvin Kirk, Michael Cleveland, Milt Haley, Mona Haley, music, Nashville, North Carolina, Smithsonian, Snake Chapman, Tennessee, Texas Shorty, Ugee Postalwait, Webster Springs, West Virginia, Wilson Douglas, writing

When Ed first went out into the neighborhood with his dad’s fiddle and armed with his melodies (as interpreted by his mother) I think he probably caused not a small sensation amongst family and neighbors and his ear being as great as it was I think he picked up an incredible amount of other music really fast. I think he played with a lot of ornaments when he was a teenager and up into maybe even his thirties. Snake Chapman and Ugee Postalwait have alluded to this. Snake said the dining room recordings just didn’t sound as old-timey as he remembered Ed playing and Ugee said she remembered him and her dad talking about the little melodies between the notes. Of course Ed had to have been through a lot of subtle changes in style since that time. I think in later years he stripped a lot of the ornaments out of his fiddling in order to appeal to the Arthur Smith-Clayton McMitchen crowd who loved the radio style that was so much in vogue at that time. This might have helped make a little more money on the street. People have always liked to hear someone play and sound just like what they hear on the radio or a record. But I think if someone had asked Ed if he had done that consciously that he would have denied it and if he was in a bad mood they might have even had a fight on their hands.

I keep having this idea of Ed imitating other instruments on the fiddle because I’ve tried it myself and wouldn’t it be something that some of these great parts was really an imitation of John Hager’s banjo playing. I’d love to know where that passage is or whether it even exists.

It’s obvious that when Ed had good firm second that wouldn’t slow down for anything, he really leaned back on the beat and got in that little pocket where so many great musicians like to be. Ella and Mona really held up a good solid beat, but I’ll bet Ed was hard on them — a real taskmaster. It’s all in that rhythm section. Wilson Douglas told me one time that Ed always told him to play it real lazy. Texas Shorty, Benny Martin, and Buddy Emmons refer to it as holding on to the note as long as you can before you start the next one. This is an important part of Ed’s feel and sound and it really comes through on the dining room recordings. I get it by playing as slow as I can against a beat I hope is not gonna move, and then I swing the notes with a dotted note feel — a real lilt if I can get it — and just drag on the beat as hard as I can ’cause I know it’s not gonna slow down. I’d love to know just when Ed figured that out or if it was always there. I always think of Ed in his younger years playing on top of the beat or even ahead of it like I did when I was young and full of piss and vinegar. Actually when you’re playing alone you do hafta pretty well stay on top of the beat to hold the time or at least set it, cause you are the beat but you have to keep from rushing which we will tend do when we get to hard passages in order to get them over with. We’ll not do that no more. Mark O’Connor told me one time that while he is playing a tune he’ll play on top of and behind the beat on purpose. He described playing behind it as letting the beat drag you along…almost like water skiing. Oh, to have known what Ed and John Hager or Bernie Adams sounded like together.

I think Ed worked on his fiddling probably daily most of his life so it is fair to say that it was changing all the time. This would explain the varying descriptions of his playing that have come down. I’m sure they’re probably all accurate. Lawrence, Ugee, and Mona always said Ed played with great smooth long bow strokes and Snake Chapman always was adamant about him playing with short single strokes and Slim Clere said the same thing — that he bowed out everything — no bow slurs. Of course, in the dining room sessions you can hear both ways. It’s amazing how well Ed did without the feedback of working with a tape recorder. What an incredible ear he had. As far as I know, the only time he probably heard himself played back was the recordings we have. I hope there are others out there but I’ve come to doubt it.

Brandon and I have always had a gut feeling that if we’d dug down into the hillside a little further at Milt and Green’s grave we might have found something. We only went down five feet and then we were defeated by the rain. What if we had gone down the requisite six feet? What if, like the probe, Owsley had misjudged the bottom of the grave shaft due to the mud and water? What if it hadn’t rained and muddied up the work area? If Melvin Kirk and Ben Walker went so far as to bury the men in a deep grave, why not assume they would have gone for the standard six feet grave traditionally dug? In the following weeks, old timers around Harts kept telling Brandon and Billy, “If they didn’t dig at least six feet, it’s no wonder they didn’t find anything.” We didn’t want to question the professionalism of experts like the Smithsonian forensic team or seem like we wanted to find Milt and Green so badly that we couldn’t accept the concept that they were gone…but what if? The explanation that Doug Owsley gave us about the coal seam and underground stream made a lot of sense. Needless to say we were really disappointed. I had started to rationalize that not finding anything might indicate that they were buried in the nude and just thrown in the hole with no box or winding sheet or anything.

I was in Durham, North Carolina, the other day and I saw a fiddler on the street and I automatically found myself thinking of Ed. I didn’t have to fill in or rearrange much in my imagination to see him there playing on the street — even though this man was standing up, and played nothing like him. Of course when Ed was younger he probably stood up to play all the time like in the Webster Springs picture…dapper and wearing his derby. I always seem to picture Ed sitting down. Another great thrill for me is a young blind fiddler from Jeffersonville, Indiana, named Michael Cleveland who when he plays I can see Ed at nineteen. He stands up so straight he almost looks like he’s gonna fall over backward the way Lawrence said his dad did. When he plays I can’t take my eyes off of him thinking of Ed. Now my friend Matt Combs, who has done a lot of the transcriptions for this book, sits with me and plays Ed’s notes off of the paper, and I play off the top of my head, so in that sense it’s like playing with him.

I guess it’s time to just leave this alone and get back to my study of the fiddle. Maybe get geared up for “Volume Two.” I spend long hours here at the dining room table with my tape recorder and I can hear Lawrence and feel Ed as I try and play my way back into the past. I find that the study of Ed’s music leads me to the study of all music and the way it’s played.

Haley-McCoy grave exhumation (1998)

25 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Cemeteries, Culture of Honor, John Hartford, Lincoln County Feud

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archaeology, Bill Bryant, Bill Mccoy, Billy Adkins, Brandon Kirk, Brownlow's Dream, Cheryl Bryant, Chip Clark, Dale Brown, David Haley, Doug Owsley, Green McCoy, Haley-McCoy grave, Harts Fas Chek, Jimmy McCoy, Joanna Wilson, John Hartford, John Imlay, Lara Lamarre, Lawrence Kirk, Malcolm Richardson, Milt Haley, New York City, Rebecca Redmond, Smithsonian, State Historic Preservation Office, Steve Haley, Ted Park, Ted Timreck

Sometime during the next few months, we decided that the grave exhumation would take place on May 6, 1998. I rolled into the Harts Fas Chek parking lot on the 4th and hung out with Brandon and Billy until after midnight. Steve and David Haley showed up the next day, as did Jimmy and Bill McCoy and their families. It wasn’t long until Doug Owsley arrived with his crew. His team consisted of four people: Malcolm Richardson, (his former boss and) the field supervisor; John Imlay and Dale Brown, chief excavators; and Rebecca Redmond, recorder. Along to chronicle the event was Chip Clark, a professional photographer; Ted Timreck, a video documentary specialist from New York City; and Ted Park, a writer for Smithsonian magazine.

I knew right away that these guys meant business.

We all went up to the grave that evening, but “the dig” didn’t start until early the next morning.

The weather was perfect and the hillside became alive with people. In addition to myself, the Haleys, the McCoys, Brandon, and Owsley’s crew, there was Billy Adkins, Lawrence Kirk, Bill and Cheryl Bryant (the property owners), and Lara Lamarre and Joanna Wilson of the State Historic Preservation Office.

Most of the day was filled with probing, scraping, talking and then — well — more probing, scraping and talking. Within an hour, the diggers verified that it was a single-shaft grave. As the day progressed, it became obvious that the grave was deeper than the estimated two feet.

Actually, it seemed to just keep “going,” causing us realize that the probes had been a bit deceiving.

At some point, Owsley’s diggers bumped into a coal seam, which had a small underground stream beneath it. Rich said the stream was a bad find because it had probably deteriorated Milt and Green’s bodies in its seasonal cycle of drying up and trickling over the last hundred or so years. He still felt, however, that teeth and certain larger bones might be preserved.

Just before nightfall, Rich said it would be best to stop working and cover the hole because it was supposed to rain sometime in the next few hours. Owsley mentioned that we were only inches away from the shaft floor…only inches — and he was sure of it this time. We were all too excited to go to bed, so we gathered around a big fire up by the grave. The Smithsonian folks requested that I play some fiddle tunes. I played “Brownlow’s Dream” and joked to Brandon that it might help “raise” Milt out of the ground. All jokes aside: it was a little spooky up there, in spite of the twenty or so people clustered around the fire. I remember shining my flashlight up the hill toward the grave every now and then just to make sure…

After about a half an hour, rain began to sprinkle on our gathering. We filed off of the hill and settled in to bed in Harts. Brandon and three of his buddies pitched a tent near the grave and spent the night as “guards.” All were descendants of major participants in the 1889 feud: either mobsters or members of the burial party. The rain soon dissipated, creating a starry night, and left them gathered around a fire and talking about the feud that claimed the lives of Milt and Green. It was an incredible night of stories. So many things had come full circle. For Brandon, it was overwhelming to just think about how he had earlier stood at Milt’s and Green’s grave surrounded by many descendants of the feudists. Expectations and anticipation was at a high water mark. Such was the excitement that Brandon and his friends didn’t go to sleep until around 5 a.m. when a heavy rain forced them into their tent.

Unfortunately, the rain came down in buckets during the early hours of the morning and created horrible working conditions for the forensic team. Their crude covering over the grave was no match for the rain, which whipped in from all angles. Most horribly, the rain caused the underground stream to gush forth and fill the bottom of the grave shaft completely.

After only a few frustrating hours of digging through clay, mud, and several inches of water, Owsley concluded that the crew had reached the bottom of the grave. They had not located a single bone, tooth, belt buckle or bullet fragment.

Even when Brandon fetched a cheap metal detector, the diggers couldn’t come up with anything.

Milt and Green were gone.

Martin County (Ky.) jail

23 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Inez, Lincoln County Feud

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Blood in West Virginia, Green McCoy, history, Inez, Kentucky, Lincoln County Feud, Martin County, Milt Haley, photos, U.S. South

Martin County jail, located in Inez, KY

In October of 1889, Milt Haley and Green McCoy were briefly incarcerated at the Martin County jail in Inez, KY

In Search of Ed Haley 356

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Ed Haley, Harts, Lincoln County Feud

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Brandon Kirk, Ed Haley, feud, Green McCoy, Haley-McCoy grave, John Hartford, John Imlay, Lawrence Kirk, Lincoln County Feud, Low Gap, Malcolm Richardson, Melvin Kirk, Milt Haley, Smithsonian, Steve Haley, Walker Family Cemetery, writing

The following morning, Brandon and I met Steve Haley at the bus. Not long afterwards, two men drove up in a white SUV and eased out toward us. The Smithsonian forensic crew had arrived. They were dressed ordinary and casually, except for very “official-looking” black caps adorned with golden seals. The driver, a large man with a rough voice and commanding presence, introduced himself as Malcolm Richardson – or “Rich,” as he preferred to be called. The other fellow, younger than Rich, tall and seemingly jolly, was John Imlay. We almost immediately piled into their vehicle and headed for the grave.

Upon reaching the logging road at Low Gap, Rich decided not to use it to drive up to the grave. Instead, we parked just off the hill near the Walker Family Cemetery and headed up the hill on foot. We were barely there when Lawrence Kirk, who’d shown me the gravesite back in 1993, popped out of the bushes. He’d preferred to “rough it” up the hill, somehow making it up the slope and through the brush in a pair of dress shoes, offering his assistance with any questions Richardson and Imlay might have about the site. It was neat having Lawrence there since his grandfather Melvin Kirk had helped bury Milt and Green in 1889. Steve Haley’s presence also was noteworthy in that it marked the first time, so far as we knew, that any of Ed’s family had ever been to the site. (We don’t know if Ed went there.)

As we watched Rich and Imlay probe their metal rods into the grave, we clung to their every word — every theory, question and comment. I guess it would be fair to say that we were hoping for some kind of “breakthrough revelation” from their probing…but the whole thing was over in about thirty minutes. Still, we were all electrified with excitement. For the rest of the day, we talked about every minute detail of our “probing experience:” the rods, how they worked, what they revealed and so forth. Then came all of the wild theories about what was actually down in the grave. We could hardly wait until spring.

Interview with James Davis of Harts, WV (1997)

17 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Harts, Lincoln County Feud

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Ben Adams, Ben Walker, Bill Fowler, Billy Adkins, Brandon Kirk, Cat Fry, Chapmanville High School, Charley Davis, Ed Haley, French Bryant, Fry, Green McCoy, Harts Creek, Henderson Dingess, history, Iris Williams, James Davis, John Brumfield, John Hartford, John W Runyon, Kentucky, Lincoln County, miller, Milt Haley, Spring Branch, West Fork, West Virginia, writing

That evening, Brandon and I met up with Billy Adkins and went to see James Davis on West Fork. James lived on Spring Branch of West Fork, a little hollow just across the creek from Iris Williams. A few years back, his older brother Charlie had told Brandon about seeing Ed win a twenty dollar gold piece in a contest at the old Chapmanville High School.

We found the eighty-something-year-old James laying on the couch with a little fuzzy dog crawling all over him like a monkey. He said he didn’t remember Ed, so I mentioned how he was Milt Haley’s son, which got an immediate reaction. He had heard the story of Milt’s death from Cat Fry, although he didn’t immediately offer up any details. Actually, James was hesitant to talk about the 1889 murders — almost as if the participants were still around and living next door. His answers to our questions were very evasive.

We learned from James that it was Bill Fowler (not John Runyon or Ben Adams) who hired Milt and Green to ambush Al. It was all over competition between businesses. Fowler was a saloon operator and a gristmill operator, while Brumfield ran a log boom.

“They was all there making money,” he said. “You know how that stirs up trouble. Some a making a little more money than others. They was bucking one another, like money men does.”

Milt and Green ambushed Al and Hollena one Sunday as they rode down the creek on a single horse after a visit with Henderson Dingess. In the attack, Mr. Brumfield was shot through the arm, while his wife was shot in the face. Milt and Green were soon captured in Kentucky by the Adkinses and Brumfields, who held them them at Fry. Neither man would admit to anything so John Brumfield shot one of them in the head. He reputedly put his toe at the hole and said, “I put a bullet right there.”

Brumfield was himself shot in the head a few years later.

French Bryant, “who was pretty hard to handle,” was also involved in the killings.

Afterwards, people were afraid to touch Milt’s and Green’s bodies until Ben Walker allowed them to be buried on his property. The whole event “shook people up pretty bad.” Fowler sold out at the mouth of Harts and moved away.

Jimmy McCoy and Scott Haley (1997)

06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Lincoln County Feud

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Ashland, Brandon Kirk, Green McCoy, history, Jimmy McCoy, Kentucky, Lincoln County Feud, Milt Haley, photos, Scott Haley

Jimmy McCoy and Scott Haley 1997

Jimmy McCoy and Scott Haley in the “Haley-McCoy pose,” Ashland, Kentucky, 1997

In Search of Ed Haley 350

06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, John Hartford, Lincoln County Feud, Music

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Ashland, Brandon Kirk, Clyde Haley, Doug Owsley, Ed Haley, fiddle, Green McCoy, Haley-McCoy grave, Harts, Harts Fas Chek, Jimmy Johnson Bring Your Jug Around the Hill, Jimmy McCoy, John Hartford, Kentucky, mandolin, Milt Haley, Mona Haley, Noah Haley, Pat Haley, Salt River, Shove That Hog's Foot, Ugee Postalwait, West Virginia, writing

After the contest, we all gathered at Pat Haley’s. The dining room table was crammed with food and the refrigerator was stuffed with every conceivable drink. People filled the downstairs rooms, many even spilling out onto the front and back porches. Once the kitchen was cleared, I got my fiddle and planted myself in a hard-back chair near Clyde and Noah. I immediately gave Mona a mandolin I’d brought so she could second me with those haunting “Ella chords.” Ugee perched nearby us in a chair where she hollered out the names of tunes and lyrics and even danced when she got too excited. We kept the music going, while Pat served up the food.

There were some new musical developments, little comments here and there that were important to know. When I played “Salt River”, for instance, Mona said it was the same tune as “Shove That Hog’s Foot”. She sang:

Shove that hog’s foot further in the bed,

Further in the bed, further in the bed.

Shove that hog’s foot further in the bed,

Katy, won’t you listen to me now?

Ugee said Ed had a way of making his fiddle sound like moonshine pouring from a jug when he played “Jimmy Johnson Bring Your Jug Around the Hill”. It took me a while to figure out what she meant by that.

As music filled the kitchen, Brandon was busy with Jimmy McCoy in the TV room. Jimmy knew very little about Green’s death, although he’d heard that the Brumfields killed him because they were jealous of his music. At some point, we got Jimmy to sit for pictures with all of Ed’s grandsons, mimicking the Milt and Green picture. Everyone did it, even those who weren’t really sure why they were sitting with a stranger crossing their legs and gripping invisible jacket cuffs.

I headed back to Nasvhille the next day but Brandon went to Harts with Jimmy, where he and Billy Adkins showed him the local sites…including the Haley-McCoy grave. Brandon figured it was the first time any of the McCoys had been to the grave in at least 45 years.

A month or so later, Brandon received a letter from Doug Owsley regarding the exhumation of the Haley-McCoy grave.

“Thanks for the McCoy family permissions for the excavations at the Haley/McCoy Burial Site,” it partly read. “I think that it will be advisable for me to make a short trip to West Virginia in advance of the arrival of the field crew to meet you and Mr. Hartford and to make a quick survey of the site area.”

A few letters and telephone calls later, we learned from Owsley that he wouldn’t be able to make the preliminary trip to Harts. However, he was sending two associates, who we were to meet at the Harts Fas Chek.

In Search of Ed Haley 349

05 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, John Hartford, Music

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Ashland, Bobby Taylor, Brandon Kirk, Ed Haley, Ed Haley Fiddle Contest, fiddling, Good Old Country Town Where I Was Born, Green McCoy, Harold Postalwait, history, J P Fraley, Jimmy McCoy, John Hartford, Kentucky, Mona Haley, music, Ugee Postalwait, writing

In September, Brandon and I met in Ashland for the “Second Annual Ed Haley Memorial Fiddle Festival.” Before the contest, we talked with Mona, who’d written down the words to three of Ed’s old songs on yellow notebook paper. It was the first time I’d seen any lyrics for “Good Old Country Town Where I Was Born”:

Oh, the days are sad and the nights are long

And the whole wide world is going wrong

And it’s all because I’m far away from home.

When I bow my head and close my eyes

It’s then I stop and realize:

Oh, what a fool I was to ever roam.

There’s a long, long trail a winding

To a land that’s fair and bright.

It’s a trail I’m always finding

When I go to sleep at night.

I dream of climbing up the hills

Where I used to hear those whippoorwills

In the good old country town where I was born.

I tried to figure out just what it’s all about,

Why I ever left home.

I got a notion in my head

The old hometown was most too dead.

I learned a thing or two

As you’re a bound to do

When you’re a roaming around.

I made up my mind right now

I’d soon be homeward bound.

Oh the sun shines brighter every day

And the breezes blow your blues away

In the good old country town I’m longing for.

It’s a place where clothes don’t make the man

And they mean it when they shake your hand

And a stranger won’t be turned from any door.

It’s a land of milk and honey

Where the folks are on the square.

Though they don’t have lots of money

You’re always welcome there.

I know I’m just a small town guy

But I’m going back to live and die

In the good old country town where I was born.

When I get off at the station

And I see those happy smiles,

I can tell the whole creation

I would walk a thousand miles

Just to be back there where the skies are blue

And to know my friends are always true

In that good old country town where I was born.

That afternoon, everyone headed to the contest, which was held in a downtown auditorium. There were a lot of familiar faces. J.P. Fraley and Bobby Taylor were judges. Contest organizers seated the Haley family at the front of the crowd. Mixed among the family were Brandon, Ugee Postalwait, Harold Postalwait, and Jimmy McCoy, a great-grandson of Green McCoy.

In Search of Ed Haley 348

02 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley

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Ben Walker, Blood in West Virginia, Chapmanville, Ed Haley, Green McCoy, Green Shoal, Grimes Music Store, Harts Creek, history, John Hartford, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Logan, Logan County, Low Gap, Milt Haley, music, Nashville, Robert Ellis, Walker Family Cemetery, West Virginia, writing

That night, I left Harts and headed toward Nashville, where I soon called Robert Ellis, a Logan County man who supposedly had some Haley records.

“Ed used to play some music with my oldest brother that passed away in January,” Robert said. “He’d been to our house a lot of times, where we lived here in Chapmanville, and I’d heard him play a lot on the streets in Logan and around through the county here in different places. He was a good fiddler. One of the best.”

I asked Robert if he was a musician and he said he used to be but gave it up after a hand injury during World War II. He was pretty sure he had some of Ed’s records.

“I believe I do,” he said. “One or two of his records. My grandmother used to buy them here in Logan at the old Grimes Music Store in Logan.”

I never heard anything about Ed selling records like that…but who knows?

Robert surprised me when he started talking about Milt Haley’s murder.

“About where Milt and Green McCoy were buried down there at Harts Creek, a feller told me some time ago that it was there at Low Gap,” he said. “How come me to know about that, we used to do military funerals a lot and we had a flag-raising at that Walker Cemetery there. I asked this feller if we were close to where those men were buried. He said, ‘Yeah, right back up yonder those fellers are buried.’ And this Carver that was with us that day, his grandfather was in with the ones that buried these people.”

Robert heard about the Haley-McCoy murders from his grandmother.

“These Brumfields, they killed these fellers and left them in a big two-story house there at the mouth of Green Shoal,” Robert said. “That two-story house is torn down now. Somebody was supposed to be left to guard them and they all got drunk and carousing around, so someone slipped in — so my grandmother told me — and chopped the boys up with an axe. Some of them found out about it and they said, ‘These men’s gotta be buried.’ So some of the Brumfields — at that time they was a lot of them down in there and they were tough — and they said, ‘Leave them where they’re at.’ This Carver, his grandfather said, ‘We’re gonna bury them. That’s all I’m gonna say and I’ve told you we’re gonna bury them.’ So them Brumfields evidently knew him and wouldn’t bother him and they went up there and buried those boys.”

In Search of Ed Haley 346

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud, Shively

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Alton Conley, Big Creek, blind, Blood in West Virginia, Brown's Run, Burl Farley, Charles Conley Jr., Charlie Conley, Clifford Belcher, Conley Branch, crime, Ed Belcher, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, fiddler, fiddling, Green McCoy, Green Shoal, Guyandotte River, Harts Creek, history, John Brumfield, Lincoln County Feud, Logan, Logan County, Milt Haley, Mona Haley, music, Robert Martin, Smokehouse Fork, Warfield, West Virginia, Wirt Adams, writing

From Clifton’s, we went to see Charlie Conley, Jr., a fiddler who lived on the Conley Branch of Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek. Wirt Adams had mentioned his name to us the previous summer. We found Charlie sitting on his porch and quickly surrounded him with a fiddle, tape recorder, and camera.

When I told him about my interest in Ed Haley’s life, he said Ed played so easy it was “like a fox trotting through dry leaves.”

Charlie said Ed was a regular at Clifford Belcher’s tavern.

“Right there, that’s where we played at on the weekends,” he said. “He used to play there a lot, the old man Ed Haley did. Me and another boy, Alton Conley — he’s my brother-in-law, just a kid… I bought him a guitar and he learned how to play pretty good. He could second pretty good to me, but he couldn’t keep up with that old man. He knowed too many notes and everything for him. The old man realized he was just a kid.”

Charlie told us an interesting story about how Ed came to be blind.

“Milt and Burl Farley, they was drinking where Burl lived down at the mouth of Browns Run. And Ed was just a little baby — been born about a week. Old man Burl said to Milt, ‘Take him out here and baptize him in this creek. It’ll make him tough.’ And it was ice water. He just went out and put him in that creek and baptized the kid and the kid took the measles and he lost his eyes. That’s how come him to be blind.”

That was an interesting picture: Milt and Burl hanging out on Browns Run. We had never really thought about it, but there was a great chance that all the men connected up in the 1889 troubles knew each other pretty well and maybe even drank and played cards together on occasion. For all we knew, Milt may have worked timber for Farley.

Brandon asked Charlie if he knew what happened to Milt Haley.

“They said the Brumfields killed him,” Charlie said. “Him and his uncle was killed over at a place called Green Shoal over on the river somewhere around Big Creek. They were together when they got killed. That was way back. I never knew much about it.”

Obviously Green McCoy wasn’t Ed’s uncle, but I had to ask Charlie more about him.

“All I can tell you is he was old man Ed’s uncle,” he said. “They lived over there on the river, around Green Shoal.”

So Ed was raised on the river?

“No, he lived down here on the creek, right where that old man baptized him in that cold water at the mouth of Browns Run,” Charlie said. “That’s where he was born and raised at, the old man was.”

I guess Charlie meant that Green lived “over there on the river,” which was sorta true.

He didn’t know why Milt Haley was killed, but said, “Back then, you didn’t have much of a reason to kill a man. People’d get mad at you and they wouldn’t argue — they’d start shooting. Somebody’d die. I know the Conleys and the Brumfields had a run in over there on the river way back. Oh, it’s been, I guess, ninety year ago. Man, they had a shoot-out over there and right to this day they got grudges against the Conley people. I’ve had run-ins with them several times. I say, ‘Look man, this happened before my time. Why you wanna fool with me for?’ But they just had a grudge and they wouldn’t let go of it.”

When we asked Charlie about local fiddlers, he spoke firstly about Robert Martin.

“They said Robert was a wonderful fiddler,” he said. “I had a half-brother that used to play a guitar with him when he played the fiddle named Mason Conley. I used to play with his brothers over there on Trace and with Wirt and Joe Adams. Bernie Adams — he was my first cousin. They said Robert was a wonderful fiddler.”

What about Ed Belcher?

“Yeah, Ed was pretty good, but he couldn’t hold old man Ed Haley a light to fiddle by. Belcher was more of a classical fiddler. Now, he could make a piano talk, that old guy could. I knowed him a long time ago. I noticed he’d go up around old man Ed and every oncest in a while he’d call out a tune for him to play. Ed’d look around and say, ‘Is that you, Belcher?’ Said, ‘Yeah,’ and he’d set in a fiddling for him. Maybe he’d throw a half a dollar in his cup and walk on down the street.”

Brandon said to Charlie, “Ed Belcher lived up at Logan, didn’t he?” and Charlie blew us away with answer: “Well now, old man Ed Haley lived up there then at that time. They lived out there in an apartment somewhere. The little girl was about that high the last time I seen her.”

Well, that was the first I heard of Ed living in Logan — maybe it was during his separation from Ella, or maybe there was an earlier separation, when Mona was a little girl.

I asked about a tune called “Warfield” and Charlie said, “That ‘Warfield’ is out of my vocabulary, buddy. I’ve done forgot them old tunes, now.”

Stella Abbott

28 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ferrellsburg, Lincoln County Feud, Women's History

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Tags

Abbotts Branch, Blood in West Virginia, culture, George Fry, Green McCoy, history, life, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Milt Haley, photos, Stella Abbott, West Virginia

Stella Abbott, who helped to cook Haley and McCoy's meal at the Fry home

Stella Abbott, my great-great-grandmother, who helped to cook Haley’s and McCoy’s meal at the Fry home

Ed Haley plays on WLW (1924)

28 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Culture of Honor, Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud, Music

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Tags

Ashland, blind, Cincinnati, Crosley Radio Weekly, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, feud, fiddler, fiddling, Green McCoy, Hamlin, history, Kentucky, Lincoln County Feud, Lincoln Republican, Milt Haley, music, Ohio, West Virginia, WLW

About that time, Brandon found this teeth-rattling article while scanning through microfilm of the Lincoln Republican at the public library in Hamlin, West Virginia. It was titled “Ed Haley and Wife Play for the Radio” and dated Thursday, August 28, 1924.

The Crosley Radio Weekly, published at Cincinnati, Ohio, contains a good picture of Ed Haley and wife, the blind musicians so well known in Hamlin, with an interesting story of Mr. Haley, which we reproduce as follows:

The picture above is that of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Haley, of Ashland, Ky., blind fiddlers, who soon will entertain WLW listeners with a most interesting concert. They have the reputation of being the best old-time music makers of the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky, making a living for themselves and their three children by playing at dances and county fairs. Mr. Haley is shown playing a fiddle connected with which there is a very interesting story of the old mountain feud days. His father was involved in the famous Brumfield-McCoy feud and was captured by the Brumfields. He was told he was to be shot to death in five minutes, during which time he calmly played his fiddle, the same one his son plays for radio listeners and which he was holding when the above picture was taken. The feudist and a friend was shot to death when the five minutes expired and both their bodies were buried in a wooden box. The fiddle, however, was kept by the Brumfields for some years and later returned to the son of the murdered man.

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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?

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Ed Haley Poll 1

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