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Tag Archives: Hatfield-McCoy Feud

Gov. E. Willis Wilson

04 Sunday Dec 2022

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Appalachia, Devil Anse Hatfield, E. Willis Wilson, governor, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, West Virginia, Willis Hatfield

Gov. E. Willis Wilson of West Virginia. Mr. Wilson played a part in the Hatfield-McCoy Feud. Devil Anse Hatfield named one of his sons for him: Willis Hatfield.

Hatfield Pioneers by Coleman A. Hatfield (1952)

14 Monday Nov 2022

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

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Anna Musick, Appalachia, Big Sandy River, Blackberry Creek, Clinch River, Coleman A. Hatfield, David Musick, Devil Anse Hatfield, Ephraim Hatfield, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Honaker, Joseph Hatfield, Kentucky, Logan County, Mary Smith Hatfield, Mate Creek, Mingo County, Mud Lick Branch, Native American History, New Garden District, Pike County, Red Jacket, River Wall Hatfield, Russell County, Shawnee, Sprigg, Thompson's Creek, Tug Fork, Valentine Hatfield, Virginia, West Virginia

Here is an excerpt of Hatfield Pioneers composed by Coleman A. Hatfield, grandson of Devil Anse Hatfield. It was published in 1952.

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 Hatfield-McCoy Feud.

Orville McCoy Recalls “Squirrel Huntin'” Sam McCoy (1990)

22 Friday Apr 2022

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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America Goff, Appalachia, California, Collins Cemetery, Frozen Creek, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Kansas, Kentucky, Leonard Roberts, Missouri, Orville McCoy, Pikeville College, Raccoon Creek, Rebecca Bailey, Sam McCoy, St. Louis

On July 24, 1990, scholar Rebecca Bailey interviewed Orville McCoy (b.1922) of Raccoon Creek, Kentucky. What follows here is an excerpt of Mr. McCoy’s memories of his grandfather “Squirrel Huntin'” Sam McCoy and his book.

RB: Okay. What kind of stories did you hear about the feud when you were growing up?

OM: Well, about such materials you’ll find in my book. I recorded just about everything I knew about it.

RB: Do you know how your grandfather came to write his manuscript?

OM: Yes, he wrote in the year, I believe it was, 1931 while he was in St. Louis, Missouri. We all also got that information recorded in the book.

RB: How come him to be in St. Louis? Do you know?

OM: Well, he went west in the year about nineteen and ten and I think he first went to California and then back to Kansas and…and then to St. Louis.

RB: Did he take his wife and children with him?

OM: Yes. He took his whole family except my dad. He was the only one stayed here at Racoon.

RB: Was he the oldest? Is that why he stayed?

OM: No, he wasn’t the oldest. Yeah. I guess he was the oldest. He was the only child by him and his first wife, America Goff.

RB: Did she die or did they divorce?

OM: Well, yeah. She died young.

RB: How old was your father when his father left to go out west?

OM: That would be pretty hard for me to figure, I don’t bet. You could go to my book and deduct and subtract a little there and come up with an answer.

RB: He was probably a young man, though, because he had twelve children by the time you were born so he was probably a young man and married.

OM: Yeah. I’d say he should have been around thirty, something like that.

RB: Did your father remember any of the events of the feud or hear about them?

OM: No, he couldn’t remember any of the incidents, I don’t think except what was told to him.

RB: Alright. Do you have much contact with any of your McCoy cousins?

OM: Oh, yeah. I correspond with them. I got some in Kansas. Joshua Tree, California, and Tacoma, Washington, Remington, Washington, Pennsylvania.

RB: We were talking off tape. You said that a lot of McCoys didn’t stay in this area.

OM: No, they was quite a few of them went out west.

RB: Did they go looking for work or…?

OM: I guess they was seeking adventure.

RB: How did you come to have the manuscript that “Squirrel Huntin'” Sam wrote?

OM: Well, I obtained it from Sam when he was out here to pay us a visit in 1937.

RB: What kind of person was he?

OM: Oh, he was quite a tall man. About six foot or better.

RB: What do you remember about him?

OM: Well, when he visited us, he came out here to visit us about three times in the thirties. First come in ’36. ’38. Maybe ’39. He died in ’40. They shipped him back here.

RB: Do you know where he’s buried?

OM: Yeah.

RB: Where’s he buried?

OM: He’s buried in Collins Cemetery in the head of Frozen Creek.

RB: Okay. Were you always interested as a child in in your family history?

OM: Well, not in the early years. I always held on to that book though and preserved it. I guess I was around fifty-eight years when I let them publish it.

RB: Would you tell me on tape again who published it for you?

OM: Dr. Leonard Roberts of Pikeville College.

RB: Why was he interested in it? Do you know?

OM: Dr. Roberts?

RB: Un-huh.

OM: Well, he was working for the college and that’s how he… Well, it benefited the college, you know, doing Appalachian study centers, they called it. He published books and so on for them.

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Killing of Bill Staten (1880)

21 Thursday Apr 2022

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Appalachia, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, justice of the peace, Kentucky, Logan County, Pike County, Sam McCoy, Tolbert Hatfield, Wall Hatfield, West Virginia

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk | Filed under Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Tom Chafin Recalls Story of Ellison Hatfield’s Killing (1989)

21 Thursday Apr 2022

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

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Allen Hatfield, Anse Ferrell, Beech Creek, Cap Hatfield, Devil Anse Hatfield, Double Camp Hollow, Elias Hatfield, Ellison Hatfield, Estil Hatfield, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Island Creek, John Hennen, Kentucky, Mate Creek, Matewan, Mingo County, North Matewan, Pigeon Creek, Pike County, Rutherford Hollow, Tom Chafin, Truman Chafin, Vicy Hatfield, Wall Hatfield, Warm Hollow, West Virginia, Williamson, Willis Hatfield

On June 21, 1989, scholar John Hennen interviewed Tom Chafin (1911-1997) of Williamson, West Virginia. What follows here is an excerpt of Mr. Chafin’s story about the death of his grandfather Ellison Hatfield in 1882 and other general memories of the Hatfield family.

JH: Okay, let’s go ahead and just follow that line. Tell me about Ellison Hatfield. And of course Ellison Hatfield was one of the participants in the early days of the so called Hatfield and McCoy feud.

TC: He’s the one that the McCoys killed. Uh, he lived up Mate Creek at the mouth of a hollow they call Double Camp Holler. He came down to Matewan here and got with some of his friends and they had a saloon here. It was called a saloon then, not the liquor store like we call it.

JH: Do you have any idea where that saloon was?

TC: Uh…the saloon was close to where the liquor store is now.

JH: Okay.

TC: I’m…I’m sure it was in the same building. That’s the Buskirk building. And he got with some of his friends and they got to drinking and was a having an election across the river in Pike County, Kentucky. Just across the river here. And he said to them said, some of his friends said, “Let’s go over and see how the elections goin’,” and when they got over there, they got into it with them and he was cut all to pieces with knives. He didn’t die in Kentucky. They loaded him up and hauled him back in a wagon. They hauled him back through the river up here at the upper end of Matewan and took him to Warm Holler. Now this is Warm Holler straight across from the bank on the right goin’ down there. You go across the railroad tracks. Uncle Anse Ferrell lived there. That was Ellison’s uncle. Uncle Anse Ferrell lived there in a big old log house. And they took Ellison there to his house that evening and he stayed there all that evening, all that night, and all day the next day and died the next evening. Just about dark. But in the mean time now, the Hatfields captured the three McCoy boys that they said did the killin’ of Ellison. Cuttin’ him up with knives. They captured them and took them up to a place they call North Matewan just out of Matewan here. They had and old school house there at the mouth of Rutherford Hollow. And they had an old school house there at the mouth of Rutherford Holler and that’s where they kept the three McCoy boys. All this evening, all night tonight, all day tomorrow, until tomorrow evening. And they brought him back down here, took him across the river and then a little drain, I call it, instead of a holler. It’s not a holler, it’s just a drain where water runs out where you go up to the radio station. That’s where they tied them to three papaw bushes. Now, we don’t have any papaw bushes around like we used to. We used to have whole orchards of them but they all disappeared. Why, they was papaws everywhere You could pick up a bushel of papaws anywhere when I was a boy. But you don’t even see a papaw tree any more. They said they tied them to three papaw bushes and killed all three of them.

JH: And this was after Ellison died?

TC: They waited until Ellison died. Say he died this evening and they went up there and got them and took them over there I believe the next morning.

JH: Who were some of the Hatfields involved in this?

TC: Well, to be exact, I’d say Cap… Cap was the head man. He was Devil Anse’s oldest son. 

JH: I’d like you to tell me a little bit more about Cap Hatfield and well, do you have a personal memory of Devil Anse? I know you have been to his house when you were a boy.

TC: No.

JH: You can’t remember anything directly about him?

TC: I’ve been to his house. I know where his house is. I knew what kind of house it was. It was a log house and it had a window in that end of it and a window in this end of it and it was across the creek. I could show you right where it is on Island Creek over there and I can remember goin’ over there with my grandfather Mose Chafin. Now, he was a brother to Devil Anse’s wife, Aunt Vicy. We’d go over and see Aunt Vicy after Uncle Anse had died. I believe he died in 1921 and I was ten years old when he died. And when I would go over there with him, probably I was twelve or thirteen or something like that, after Uncle Anse had died. And we’d ride a horse. I’d ride on the hind and my grandfather Mose Chafin. And I could tell you exactly how to go. We’d go up Mate Creek across the hill into Beech Creek and from Beech Creek into Pigeon Creek and Pigeon Creek into Island Creek.

JH: And Vicy was still living at that time?

TC: Yeah.

JH: So you knew her then?

TC: Yeah. She was a pretty big fat woman. She wasn’t too big and fat. She was about, say, hundred and sixty, something like that, I’m guessin’. I’m gonna guess it. About a hundred and sixty pound. Anyhow, she was a big fat woman.

JH: Now, Cap lived on up into…to be an old man?

TC: Yeah. Willis is the last man that…last one to die.

JH: He was the son of Devil Anse also?

TC: Yeah. I was with him at a birthday party for Allen Hatfield on Beech Creek. That was his cousin. Allen was Elias’ boy* and he was Ellison’s boy**. Willis was. That made them first cousins and Willis was the only Hatfield left on Island Creek so we got him to come to that… Allen’s boy Estil Hatfield got him to come over to the birthday party, and I believe Truman went with me. He died in seventy-eight. I can tell you when he died.

JH: Willis?

TC: Willis died. Last child that Devil Anse had died in seventy-eight. 1978.

*Should read as “Wall’s boy”

**Should read as “Anse’s boy”

Magnolia District: Justices of the Peace (1824-1895)

21 Thursday Apr 2022

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

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A.W. Ferrell, Asa McCoy, David Mounts, Ephraim Hatfield, genealogy, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, John Ferrell, Joseph Simpkins, justice of the peace, Logan County, Magnolia District, Michael A. Ferrell, Mingo County, Samuel F. Varney, Wall Hatfield, West Virginia, William Tiller

The following list of justices of the peace for Magnolia District in present-day Mingo County, West Virginia, is based on historical documents available at the Logan County Courthouse in Logan. Several things to consider: (1) The list will be expanded over time based on new research; (2) the targeted area for this research is the Hatfield-McCoy feud region; (3) some justices included in this list may have in fact been located outside of the feud region; (4) dates for justices are primarily derived from deeds and county court/commissioner records; and (5) Mingo County was formed from Logan County in 1895.

John Ferrell (1838)

April 26, 1838

David Mounts (1838-1840)

April 26, 1838

January 31, 1840

March 23, 1840

August 22, 1840

Samuel F. Varney (1861)

March 14, 1861

Ephraim Hatfield (1861)

March 14, 1861

William Tiller (1867)

October 1867

Valentine “Wall” Hatfield (1870-1885)

February 11, 1873

April 8-9, 1873

August 12-16, 1873

February 10-12, 1874

October 13-14, 1874

December 8-12, 1874

December 29, 1874

August 10, 1875

October 12-16, 1875

August 8-9, 1876

elected October 10, 1876

July 1, 1878

October 1879

July 1880

December 10, 1880

December 14, 1880

appointed June 13, 1881

January 28, 1882

July 22, 1885

Asa McCoy (1873-1876)

February 11-12, 1873

August 12-16, 1873

December 9-12, 1873

June 16, 1874

October 22, 1874

December 9, 1874

February 11, 1875

June 9, 1875

June 13-17, 1876

August 8-9, 1876

Ephraim Hatfield (1876-1878)

elected October 10, 1876

February 11, 1878

A.W. Ferrell (1880)

April 1880

referenced on February 8, 1881 as a former justice

Joseph Simpkins (1882)

appointed to fill unexpired term, October 17, 1882

Michael A. Ferrell (1888)

elected November 6, 1888

New Year’s Raid (1888): Daniel Whitt’s Testimony

23 Tuesday Nov 2021

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

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Appalachia, Bob Hatfield, Cap Hatfield, Charles Gillespie, Christmas, Court of Appeals, crime, Daniel Whitt, Devil Anse Hatfield, Elias Hatfield, Elliot Hatfield, feuds, Frankfort, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Henry Mitchell, history, Jim McCoy, Jim Vance, Johnse Hatfield, Kentucky, Pike County, Pocahontas, Randolph McCoy, Tom Chambers, Tom Mitchell, true crime

Daniel Whitt’s testimony in the Johnse Hatfield murder trial provides one version of the Hatfield raid upon Randolph McCoy’s home on January 1, 1888:

Q. “Do you know Randolph McCoy?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “Do you know Cap Hatfield?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “Do you know Robert Hatfield, Ellison Mounts, Elliot Hatfield, Charles Gillespie, Thomas Mitchell, and Anderson Hatfield?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “Do you remember of the old man McCoy’s house being burned?”

A. “Yes sir, I heard of it.”

Q. “Where were you a short time before that occurred?”

A. “Three days before Christmas I was in the neighborhood of the Hatfield’s.”

Q. “Who was with you?”

A. “Ance Hatfield, Jim Vance, Johnson Hatfield, Cap Hatfield, Charles Gillespie, and Tom Mitchell, I believe about all of the bunch.”

Q. “What were you doing together and how long had you been together?”

A. “About three days and nights.”

Q. “Were all of you armed?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “What were you doing armed and together?”

A. “Just traveling in the woods most of the time.”

Q. “What did you sleep on?”

A. “We carried our quilts with us.”

Q. “Who was your captain?”

A. “Jim Vance.”

Q. “What was the purpose of your getting together?”

A. “They claimed the purpose was to get out of the way of the Kentucky authorities.”

Q. “What else did they claim?”

A. “When I left them we came to Henry Mitchell’s to get dinner. They wouldn’t let me hear what they had to talk about. Cap asked me if I was going to Kentucky with them. Said they were going to Kentucky to kill Randolph and Jim McCoy and settle the racket. He asked me if I was going with them and I said that I was not. He said that I would go or I would go to hell. I said that I would go to hell. Elias came and took me off. We slept in a shuck pen. When he got to sleep I ran away and went to Pocahontas and was there when this occurred.”

Q. “Was Johnson present when Cap was talking?”

A. “He was in the yard close enough to hear, and he came up to me when Cap was talking and took Cap out and had a talk with him.”

Source: Bill of exceptions at the office of the Clerk of the Court of Appeals in Kentucky, Frankfort, KY.

Nancy E. Hatfield Memories, Part 4 (1974)

30 Saturday Oct 2021

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

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Appalachia, attorney, attorney general, Big Sandy River, Bill Smith, Cap Hatfield, Catlettsburg, Devil Anse Hatfield, feuds, genealogy, Georgia, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Howard B. Lee, Huntington, Jim Comstock, Joe Glenn, Kentucky, Logan, Logan County, logging, Mate Creek, Matewan, Mingo County, Nancy E. Hatfield, Ohio, Ohio River, Portsmouth, Tennessee, timbering, Tug Fork, University Law School, Wayne County, West Virginia, Wyoming County

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

“Mrs. Hatfield, we have talked much about an era that is gone. Feuds are ended, railroads and paved highways have come, the huge coal industry has developed, churches and schools are everywhere, and people are educated. Now, I would like to know something about you.”

This is the brief life-story of the remarkable and unforgettable Nancy Elizabeth Hatfield, as she related it to me.

She was Nancy Elizabeth Smith, called “Nan” by her family and friends, born in Wayne County, West Virginia, September 10, 1866. (She died August 24, 1942). In her early years, she lived “close enough to the Ohio River,” she said, “to see the big boats that brought people and goods up from below.” She attended a country school three months out of the year, and acquired the rudiments of a common school education, plus a yearning for wider knowledge.

While she was still a young girl her parents moved by push-boat up the Big Sandy and Tug rivers into what is now Mingo County, then Logan County. They settled in the wilderness on Mate Creek, near the site of the present town of Matewan.

“Why they made that move,” said Nancy Elizabeth, “I have never understood.”

In her new environment, in the summer of 1880, when she was 14 years old, Nancy Elizabeth married Joseph M. Glenn, an enterprising young adventurer from Georgia, who had established a store in the mountains, and floated rafts of black walnut logs, and other timber, down the Tug and Big Sandy rivers to the lumber mills of Catlettsburg, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio.

Two years after their marriage Glenn was waylaid and murdered by a former business associate, named Bill Smith–no relation to Nancy Elizabeth. Smith escaped into the wilderness and was never apprehended. The 16-year-old widow was left with a three-weeks old infant son, who grew into manhood and for years, that son, the late Joseph M. Glenn, was a leading lawyer in the city of Logan.

On October 11, 1883, a year after her husband’s death, at the age of 17, Nancy Elizabeth married the 19-year-old Cap Hatfield, second son of Devil Anse.

“He was the best looking young man in the settlement,” she proudly told me.

But at that time Cap had little to recommend him, except his good looks. He was born Feb. 6, 1864, during the Civil War, and grew up in a wild and lawless wilderness, where people were torn and divided by political and sectional hatreds and family feuds–a rugged, mountain land, without roads, schools, or churches.

When he married, Cap could neither read nor write, but he possessed the qualities necessary for survival in that turbulent time and place–he was “quick on the draw, and a dead shot.”

“When we were married, Cap was not a very good risk as a husband,” said Nancy Elizabeth. “The feud had been going on for a year, and he was already its most deadly killer. Kentucky had set a price on his head. But we were young, he was handsome, and I was deeply in love with him. Besides, he was the best shot on the border, and I was confident that he could take care of himself–and he did.”

Nancy Elizabeth taught her handsome husband to read and write, and imparted to him the meager learning she had acquired in the country school in Wayne County. But, more important, the she instilled into him her own hunger for knowledge.

Cap had a brilliant mind, and he set about to improve it. He and Nancy Elizabeth bought and read many books on history and biography, and they also subscribed for and read a number of the leading magazines of their day. In time they built up a small library or good books, which they read and studied along with their children.

At the urging of Nancy Elizabeth, Cap decided to study law, and enrolled at the University Law School at Huntington, Tennessee. But six months later, a renewal of the feud brought him back to the mountains. He never returned to law school, but continued his legal studies at home, and was admitted to the bar in Wyoming and Mingo counties. However, he never practiced the profession.

Nancy Elizabeth and Cap raised seven of their nine children, and Nancy’ss eyes grew moist as she talked of the sacrifices she and Cap had made that their children might obtain the education fate had denied to their parents. But her face glowed with a mother’s pride as she said:

“All our children are reasonably well educated. Three are college graduates, and the others attended college from one to three years. But, above everything else, they are all good and useful citizens.”

As I left the home of the remarkable and unforgettable Nancy Hatfield, I knew that I had been in the presence of a queenly woman–a real “Mountain Queen.”

Source: West Virginia Women (Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock, 1974), p. 153-154.

Painting: Hatfield-McCoy Feud (2021)

11 Friday Jun 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Appalachia, art, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, West Virginia, Williamson

Original painting located in Williamson, WV. 30 March 2021

New Year’s Raid (1888): Randolph McCoy’s Testimony

11 Friday Jun 2021

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

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Alifair McCoy, Appalachia, Calvin McCoy, Court of Appeals, Frankfort, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Hence Chambers, history, Johnse Hatfield, Kentucky, Melvin McCoy, Pike County, Randolph McCoy, Sarah McCoy

Randolph McCoy’s testimony in the Johnse Hatfield murder trial provides one version of the Hatfield raid upon McCoy’s home on January 1, 1888:

Q. “How old are you?”

A. “I was born in 1825.”

Q. “Begin in your own way, and tell all about the case that you know.”

A. “The first thing I knew about it the dogs woke me up. My boy came to the bed and said, ‘Pa, they are coming. Get up.’ And by that time I was up on the floor, and they had surrounded the house and 1 heard one of them say, ‘God damn ye, come out and surrender yourselves, prisoners of war.’ We never spoke. By that time, they had come past the upper house as we called it. We got behind that door that broke. They fired a volley each way in the house and I moved for I saw that I could not stay there. Next, I went to the fireplace. Calvin went to the back of the house. They shot cross shots from each side of the door, through the doors. I stayed there a good while. They kept shooting and, finally, I went into the loft. The firing kept up a long time. I thought it a long time. Finally, they fired the house, the room that I was in, me and my wife, Calvin, and Melvin was in the same room. I took a cup and when the blaze would come through the house I would throw water on it and it out. Finally, the water gave out. The boy had gone up in the loft and I went up where he was. We stayed in the house until three of the joists had burned and the end of the joists had fell down before we had attempted to leave the house. The boy then came to me and said, ‘Pa, ye stay here, I can out-run you and I will go to the barn and try to attract their attention in that direction and maybe I can save you.’ He started and got past the corner of the house when they began firing again. He never got to the barn. The little boy hung onto me but I shoved him loose at the door and went out among them. I stepped out of the house and saw Johnson Hatfield standing eight or ten steps from the rest of them, and just as I stepped out of the house and looked up his gun fired in the direction of Calvin. I discovered that his gun had caught fowl and he was humped down working on it. I fired into the crowd then turned and fired at Johnson. I aimed to shoot him in the neck, but I aimed too low and shot him in the shoulder. The burning house made it as light as day and I know that it was Johnson.”

Q. “What did you do when you shot Johnson, the defendant?”

A. “I ran down the creek.”

Q. “Where did you go then?”

A. “I crawled into the shuck pen.”

Q. “Did you have on your night clothes?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “Where was Alafair McCoy?”

A. “She was in the upper part of the house. They did not fire that until the shots were fired at the other—the room we were in.”

Q. “What did you hear at that time?”

A. “I heard Alafair say, ‘Cap Hatfield and Hence Chambers, you would not shoot a poor innocent woman, would you?’ Then they said, ‘Shoot her, God damit, shoot her down. Spare neither men nor woman,’ and they shot her in the left breast. I heard her fall and struggle near the door. This was all before I came out of the house.”

Q. “Where did you stay that night?”

A. “In the shuck pen, I went back at daylight.”

Q. “What did you find?”

A. “I found my son lying there dead. My daughter dead with her hair froze in her blood to her heart.”

Q. “Was the house there?”

A. “No sir, it was burned up. The little girl had dragged her sister off from the house.”

Q. “How far from the house?”

A. “About thirty yards.”

Q. “How many shots did they fire?”

A. “No man could count them. They came in volleys and platoons.”

Q. “Did you have a gun too?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “Was your wife in her night clothes?”

A. “Yes sir, they thought they had killed her, no doubt, or I think they would have done so.”

Source: Bill of exceptions at the office of the Clerk of the Court of Appeals in Kentucky, Frankfort, KY.

Nancy E. Hatfield Memories, Part 3 (1974)

11 Friday Jun 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Civil War, Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Appalachia, Cap Hatfield, civil war, Devil Anse Hatfield, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Howard B. Lee, Island Creek, Kentucky, Logan, Logan County, Nancy E. Hatfield, Pikeville, Randolph McCoy, Tennis Hatfield, West Virginia

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

“Mrs. Hatfield, your husband and his father bore the same given names: ‘William Anderson’. How did they get the nicknames of ‘Cap’ and ‘Devil Anse’?”

“It is very simple,” she replied. “Early in life Devil Anse’s name was shortened to ‘Anse.’ During and after the Civil War he was called ‘Captain Anse’. The son, because he had the same name as his father, was called ‘Little Cap’. As the boy grew larger, the word ‘Little’ was dropped. Also, because of their fierceness in feud combats, the McCoys called the father ‘Devil Anse’ and the son ‘Bad Cap’. The newspapers took up the names and they stuck. Devil Anse liked and cultivated the title; but eventually the word ‘Bad’ was dropped from Cap’s nickname.

“Was I afraid? For years, day and night, I lived in fear. Afraid for my own safety, and for the safety of my loved ones. Constant fear is a terrible emotion. It takes a heavy toll, mentally and physically.

“I now think that my most anxious moments, as well as my greatest thrill, came years after the feud was over. In 1922, Tennis Hatfield and another deputy sheriff went over to Pikeville, Kentucky, to return a prisoner wanted in Logan County. While there, Tennis visited the aged Randolph McCoy1, surviving leader of his clan during the feud. (Tennis was born long after the feud was over.) The old man was delighted to see Devil Anse’s youngest son’, and Tennis spent the night with him.

“The next morning, Randolph told Tennis that he was going home with him. ‘I want to see Cap,’ he said, ‘and tell him how glad I am that I didn’t kill him. I am sorry Devil Anse is gone. I would like to see him, too.’ Tennis was worried. He didn’t know how Cap would receive his old enemy. So he left Randolph in Logan while he acme up to our place to consult Cap.

“Cap listened to Tennis’ story, and said: ‘Does he come in peace?’ ‘Yes,’ said Tennis. ‘He comes in peace.’ ‘Does he come unarmed?’ ‘Yes, he comes unarmed.’ ‘Then I shall be happy to greet him in the same way. Bring him up for supper and he shall spend the night with us.

“My anxious moments were just before these two strong-willed men met. I knew how they had hated each other, that each had tried to kill the other, more than once, that each had killed relatives and friends of the other, and I was afraid of what they might do when they stood face to face.

“My thrill came when I saw them clasp hands, and heard each one tell the other how happy he was to see him. They talked far into the night, and bother were up early the next morning, eager to continue their talks. Tennis came about one o’clock to drive Randolph back to his Kentucky home. Cap watched them until they passed out of sight up the creek, and then remarked, ‘You know, I always did like that cantankerous old cuss.’

“Cap and Randolph never saw each other again.”

1Should be Jim McCoy, son of Randolph.

Source: West Virginia Women (Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock, 1974), p. 152-153

Elias Hatfield (1888)

12 Wednesday May 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Appalachia, Elias Hatfield, feuds, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Logan County, West Virginia

From T.C. Crawford’s “An American Vendetta” (1889).

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.

Elias Hatfield Indictment for Unlawful Retailing (1889)

22 Monday Feb 2021

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

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Alexander Cabell, Appalachia, Elias Hatfield, genealogy, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Logan, Logan County, moonshining, West Virginia

Not long after his election to the Aracoma town council, Elias Hatfield was indicted for unlawful retailing.

Elias Hatfield Oath of Office as Aracoma Councilman (1889)

19 Friday Feb 2021

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

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Appalachia, Aracoma, Elias Hatfield, genealogy, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Logan, Logan County, notary public, S.P. Kelly, West Virginia

Oath of Office (1889), Aracoma Town Council.
Oath of Office (1889), Aracoma Town Council.

Cap Hatfield Property in Logan County, WV (1886-1894)

18 Thursday Feb 2021

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

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Appalachia, Big Sandy River, Cap Hatfield, feuds, Grapevine Creek, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, J.D. Sergeant, Logan County, Nancy E. Hatfield, Philadelphia, Reece Browning, Tug Fork, West Virginia

The following land information is derived from Land Book 1880-1886, Land Book 1887-1892, and Land Book 1893-1899 at the Logan County Clerk’s Office in Logan, WV:

Anderson Hatfield, Jr.

No property listed in 1865-1885.

1886: Magnolia District

400 acres Grapevine Creek $1.25 per acre no building $[blank]

300 acres Grapevine Creek $1.25 per acre $30 building $315 total

[The 300-acre tract contained this additional note: “redeemed for 1884.”]

1887: Magnolia District

400 acres Grape Vine $1.25 per acre no building $500 total

300 acres Grape Vine $1.25 per acre no building $375 total

1888-1890: Magnolia District

No property listed for Cap.

[Note: In 1888, he transferred with others two tracts on Grapevine Creek, Sandy River worth $1.25 per acre with total value of $875 to J.D. Sergeant of Philadelphia, PA.]

1891: Logan District

Nancy E. Hatfield

75 acres Island Creek $2 per acre no building $150 total

[Note: This property was “transferred from Reece Browning.”]

1892-1893: Logan District

Nancy E. Hatfield

75 acres Island Creek $2.50 per acre no building $187.50 total

1894: Logan District

Nancy E. Hatfield

75 acres Island Creek, $2.50 per acre no building $188 total

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.

Johnson Hatfield Property in Logan County, WV (1884-1892)

18 Thursday Feb 2021

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

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Appalachia, Ben Creek, Big Sandy River, Devil Anse Hatfield, genealogy, Grapevine Creek, H.R. Phillips, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, J.D. Sergeant, Johnse Hatfield, Johnson Hatfield, justice of the peace, Left Hand Fork, Levicy Hatfield, Lick Branch, Lick Fork, Logan County, Magnolia District, Mingo County, Nancy Hatfield, Philadelphia, Thacker Creek, Valentine Wall Hatfield, West Virginia

The following land information is derived from Land Book 1880-1886 and Land Book 1887-1892, as well as deed books, at the Logan County Clerk’s Office in Logan, WV:

Johnson Hatfield

No property listed in land books for 1865-1881.

On January 28, 1882, Anderson and Vicy Hatfield deeded 200 acres at Lick Fork of Grapevine Creek to Johnson Hatfield (all of Logan County) for $250. Began at a large rock near the creek bank just above the garden field at the mouth of Lick Fork, thence running out to the center of the point above Lick Fork…to the head of Lick Fork and down the top of the ridge between Grapevine and Thacker Creek… Anderson and Vicy Hatfield signed the deed. Justice Valentine Hatfield witnessed the deed on January 28, 1882.

No property listed in land books for 1883.

1884-1885: Magnolia District

Johnson Hatfield, Jr.

200 acres Lick Branch, Grape Vine $1.25 per acre no building $250 total

Johnson Hatfield, Sr.

200 acres Lick Branch, Grape Vine $1.25 per acre no building $250 total

[Note: Two entries exist in the land book for a Johnson Hatfield (Sr. and Jr.) in 1884-1885; this is likely the same person and the same property.]

1886: Magnolia District

No entry for him.

1887: Magnolia District

Nancy Hatfield

300 acres Grapevine, Sandy River $1.25 per acre no building $375 total

[Note: This property was transferred from Johnson Hatfield. Presumably, “Nancy Hatfield” is Johnse’s wife, the former Nancy McCoy.]

1888: Magnolia District

No entry for Johnson or Nancy Hatfield.

[Note: In 1888, Johnson Hatfield, Jr. transferred 500 acres on Grapevine, Sandy River (two tracts) worth $1.25 and total value of $625 to J.D. Sergeant of Philadelphia, PA.]

1889: Magnolia District

No property listed.

1890: Magnolia District

Nancy Hatfield

147 acres H.R. Fk Mates Creek $1 per acre no building $147 total

[Note: This may be Johnse’s wife, Nancy.]

1891: Magnolia District

No property listed.

[In 1891, “Jo Hatfield & wife” transferred 258 acres on Left Hand Fork Ben Creek worth $1 per acre and with total value of $258 to H.R. Phillips, trustee. This may or may not be Johnse Hatfield.]

Elias Hatfield, Jailer of Logan County (1892)

18 Thursday Feb 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Huntington, Logan, Wayne

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Appalachia, attorney, C.W. Campbell, Elias Hatfield, genealogy, H.K. Shumate, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Huntington, J.R. Shields, John H. Holt, judge, Logan County, Thomas H. Harvey, Wayne County, West Virginia

Elias Hatfield was the brother of Anderson Hatfield and father to Henry D. Hatfield. This item is unrelated to the Hatfield-McCoy Feud.
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