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Tag Archives: Nancy Vance

Interview of Jean Hatfield at Sarah Ann, WV (2001), Part 4

01 Saturday Jun 2019

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

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Allen Hatfield, Altina Waller, Appalachia, Beckley, Beech Creek, Brandon Kirk, Cap Hatfield, Coleman Hatfield, Delorme, Devil Anse Hatfield, Dutch Hatfield, Ellison Mounts, Ephraim Hatfield, feuds, genealogy, Hatfield Cemetery, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Henry Hatfield, history, History Channel, Jean Hatfield, Jim Vance, Johnson Hatfield, Levisa Hatfield, Logan Banner, Logan County, Matewan, Mingo County, Nancy Vance, Otis Rice, Randolph McCoy, Red Jacket, Route 44, Sarah Ann, Stirrat, Tennis Hatfield, The Hatfield and McCoy Feud After Kevin Costner, The McCoys: Their Story, The Tale of the Devil, Thomas Dotson, tourism, Truda Williams McCoy, Valentine Wall Hatfield, West Virginia

In 2001-2002, I wrote a series of popular stories for the Logan Banner that merged aspects of well-known Hatfield-McCoy books written by Otis Rice and Altina Waller in the 1980s. I had previously enjoyed Rice’s narrative and Waller’s analysis; I did not conduct any new research. Even though I believed the definitive Hatfield-McCoy Feud book remained unwritten, my purpose in writing these stories was not a step toward writing a book; my purpose in writing these stories was to revisit the narrative with some analysis for Banner readers. My hope was that readers would see what I saw: first, fascinating history (or folk story) for its own sake; second, the power of history to create a popular type of tourism.

I was fortunate during this time to meet Jean Hatfield. Jean, born in 1936, operated a Hatfield family museum at Sarah Ann, WV. Jean was not a native of West Virginia but had lived her entire adult life locally and had personally known several of Anderson Hatfield’s children. I really appreciated her desire to promote regional history. She “got it.” She inspired me. Anytime that I drove up Route 44, I stopped to visit Jean at the museum. She was always welcoming. Knowing her reminded me that every Hatfield (and McCoy) descendant is a source of information–-and that for the most part they have yet to tell the story in their own words. Three notable exceptions include The McCoys: Their Story by Truda Williams McCoy (1976), The Tale of the Devil (2003) by Coleman Hatfield and Bob Spence, and The Hatfield and McCoy Feud After Kevin Costner: Rescuing History (2013) by Thomas Dotson.

What follows is Part 4 of my interview with Jean, which occurred on August 7, 2001:

What kind of house did Johnse have?

Probably just a frame house.

I don’t know much about what he did for a living.

I really don’t know either. There’s not that much on him. Maybe he just spent his time chasing ladies. I don’t even know what type of work he did. But he had to work. He worked for his father, for one thing. But now there’s some of his grandchildren still living. But I’m like you, he’s not as good looking as most of the other boys were. But then when you’re like eighteen years old, everybody’s good looking at eighteen.

I wonder what Devil Anse thought about people taking his photo?

There was just always somebody wanting to take his picture. Now this is by Life magazine. They done a story.

I love the one in his hat.

That’s a very rare one. And the one with the long rifle. Because most of the time in the pictures you see him with his little shotgun. But that has the long rifle. I think that’s the muzzle-loading type.

Not nearly as many photos of Randolph McCoy.

This one here, when we did the McCoy monument, they didn’t have any pictures. We had gathered up quite a few of the McCoys and we made a collage picture and that one was in it. That’s the one mostly you see of him is that one. But I have a couple here somewhere when he was younger but it’s not a very clear copy. But he looks very sad and very old and very sick in that one. But he was like thirteen years older than Grandpa, though.

Did your husband hold any grudges?

No.

Was he raised to?

Oh no. He says on the History Channel tape that he went to school with McCoys and he never did have any animosity towards any of them. In fact, our postmaster down here, she was a McCoy before she married. And she and I get along real good.

So not all of Devil Anse’s brothers were involved in the feud…

Well now, like Wall Hatfield, he wasn’t concerned in it nowhere and they took him before a jury and found him guilty of murder, which he didn’t do. And he died in the pen just not long after he got in because he just couldn’t handle penitentiary life. And he’s buried down under that highway. The highway went over the graves of the prisoners that were buried there. Isn’t that terrible? That’s what the family said. Uncle Allen Hatfield from Beech Creek was one of his children. That’s where that come from.

Where did they bury Ellison Mounts?

I think he’s buried over at Hatfield Cemetery at Matewan. That’s where Grandma and Grandpa’s mother and father is buried. Ephraim. He was buried there.

Are they marked?

Yeah. I think they have a small marker is all. Devil Anse’s father was Big Eph Hatfield and she was Nancy Vance. That’s where Uncle Jim come in at. That was her brother. So that would have been Grandpa’s uncle. He loved Grandpa so well, he would kill for him, that was all there was to it. And Grandpa didn’t have to tell him. He went out on his own and done it. I think that had a lot to do with it. In all that I read, Grandpa’s personality just didn’t seem like he was that type of a person.

Did they ever talk about him doing things like singing or whittling?

He was a joker. Like my mother-in-law said, Tennis had give her a new diamond ring. And she was out helping Grandpa milk the cow and she was showing him her pretty ring and he said, “I’d just soon have a pewter button.” He was always joking with people and things like that. Now my mother-in-law was a very scary person. And if he’d a been a mean person she wouldn’t have stayed around him. But her and Tennis lived with them until they had two children. He couldn’t have been very threatening.

Who had the home when it burned?

Tennis. He inherited it from his momma. It burned after she passed. That was on the land that he inherited. All of the children got a certain amount of land.

Did Devil Anse sell out in Mingo County?

Yeah. Cline got it. He just let him have it all and he moved over here.

Who owned the old property where the cemetery is in Mingo County?

That’s part of the other estate, I’d say, Ephraim. That would be part of his. Delorme and up in that area was where they were all at mostly. Delorme, Red Jacket. I don’t know a whole lot about Mingo County. And we lost one of our good little relatives over there: Dutch Hatfield. He used to be chief of police of Matewan and he knew everybody. And him and Henry was really close together and they passed within a year of each other. But he was pretty well up on all of the relatives and who was whose child and all of that.

Why was Cap’s family not buried with the other Hatfields?

Cap and Grandpa and the boys, seems like there was a rift there all the time. He was at Grandpa’s funeral but they hadn’t had much dealings from what I can understand. So when he died he just wanted to be buried on his own land. They started their own little cemetery down there. They may have had some people die before that and buried them there.

Where is Johnse buried?

Johnse is buried up here.

Any of his wives buried with him?

No.

That’s sad that he had so many wives and none are buried with him.

Yeah. That’s a lesson to those men. Better find one and be loyal to them.

I hope someone can figure out how to make this tourism work here.

If you happen to see them down at the Chamber of Commerce, you ask ‘em about a road up here. See if we can get it changed some way. Because if they’re going to use this for tourism they’re going to need to be able to locate it. This is 44. 18 miles from the boulevard to the top of the mountain—that’s as far as 44 goes. And they’re advertising it through the rest stop areas. And Sarah Ann’s not even on the map. Stirrat is.

They don’t have it together in the county seat either.

No. I think it’s one group pulling against another group and if they don’t get together nothing gets done.

Have you ever seen that play in Beckley?

No. I’ve had people say it’s good. I don’t like to stay overnight away from home. I’m a home body.

***

Jean died in 2011. I miss seeing her when I drive up Route 44.

Nester-Wiley Cemetery (2002)

11 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Atenville, Cemeteries

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Tags

Albert Adkins, Ardanie Caldwell, Ardith Lee Sias, Bethel J. Vance, cemeteries, Columbus Vance, David M. Wiley, Edith Wiley, Essie Wiley, Florence Vance, genealogy, Glen Allen Vance, history, Inez Sias, James R. Vance, James Ruel Vance, John Lee Caldwell, John Wiley, Lenore Randolph Vance, Lincoln County, Lizzie Wiley, Malinda Nester, Mallie Vance, Mary A. Vance, Melvin Sias, Michael Wiley, Nancy Vance, Nester-Wiley Cemetery, Paris S. Wiley, Paris Smith Vance, Paul Vance, Rachel Watts, Stuart Sias, Walter Caldwell, West Virginia, William Henderson Nester, Willie E. Wiley, Willie Watts

The Nester-Wiley Cemetery, which I visited on 18 September 2002, is located in the head of Short Bend of Little Harts Creek in Lincoln County, West Virginia.

Row 1

Ardith Lee Sias (24 Sep 1939-4 March 1995); d/o Melvin and Inez (Wiley) Sias

Stuart Sias (3 Jun 1937- Nov 1957); s/o Melvin and Inez (Wiley) Sias

Melvin Sias (8 Feb 1907-10 Feb 1987); s/o Filbert A. and Lettie Sias

Inez Sias (15 Jul 1910-31 Jul 1952); d/o John E. and Elizabeth “Lizzie” (Nelson) Wiley; m. Melvin Sias

Baby Caldwell

Baby Caldwell

Baby Caldwell

Row 2

John Lee Caldwells (7 Nov 1920-still alive)

Ardanie Caldwells (20 May 1922-19 Aug 1988); d/o John E. and Elizabeth “Lizzie” (Nelson) Wiley; m. John Lee Caldwell

Walter Caldwell (28 Jan 1956-28 Jan 1956); s/o John L. and Ardanie (Wiley) Caldwell

W.H. Nester (23 Nov 1877-10 Jan 1908); William Henderson “Willie” Nester; s/o John S. and Malinda (Dalton) Nester

Baby Caldwell

Baby Caldwell

Row 3 

Molinda Nester (3 Jul 1854-5 Sep 1901); d/o James W. and Virginia Jane (Workman) Dalton; m. John S. Nester

Row 4 

Mallie Vance (9 Feb 1937-11 Nov 2001); m. William A. Vance

Albert Adkins (1883-11 Mar 1963); s/o Elizabeth Adkins and Sam Dawson

Cinderblock

granite square

James R. Vance (27 Jun 1898-30 Apr 1963); s/o Lewis Green and Matilda (Lowe) Vance; middle name “Ruel”

Rachel Watts (20 May 1912-still alive); d/o Lewis Green and Matilda (Lowe) Vance; m. Willie Watts 12/31/1929

Willie Watts (24 Jan 1898-30 May 1977)

Row 5

Florence Vance (3 Mar 1924-15 Dec 1994); d/o Paris S. and Mary Ann (Vance) Vance

Paul Vance (27 Aug 1926-26 Mar 1992); s/o Paris S. and Mary Ann (Vance) Vance

Mary A. Vance (12 Oct 1889-4 Nov 1976); d/o Lewis Green and Matilda (Lowe) Vance; m. Paris Smith Vance

Paris S. Vance (7 Mar 1885-1 Jan 1967); s/o Absolum “App” and Helen (Spence) Vance

Lenore R. Vance (15 Aug 1921-29 Mar 1926); s/o Paris S. and Mary Ann (Vance) Vance; middle name Randolph

Paris S. Wiley (21 Mar 1938-29 Oct 1939); s/o Willie and Ruby Z. (Vance) Wiley

John Wiley (2 Aug 1883-March 1942); s/o Francis M. and Nancy E. (Lucas) Wiley

Essie Wiley (5 Oct 1928-30 Sep 1996); d/o John E. and Elizabeth “Lizzie” (Nelson) Wiley

Lizzie Wiley (3 Nov 1885-12 Nov 1964); d/o Lewis and Matilda (Vance) Nelson; m. John E. Wiley

Nancy Vance (31 Mar 1920-still alive)

Columbus Vance (8 Jun 1913-4 Mar 1997); s/o Paris S. and Mary Ann (Vance) Vance; PFC US ARMY WWII

Row 6

Glen Allen Vance (1971-1971)

Bethel J. Wiley (20 Jul 1953-20 Jul 1953); c/o Willie and Ruby Z. (Vance) Wiley

David M. Wiley (18 Mar 1945-1 Mar 1948); s/o Willie and Ruby Z. (Vance) Wiley

Willie E. Wiley (4 Jul 1940-25 Mar 1966)

Row 7

Michael Wiley (8 Jan 1947-27 Aug 1997)

Edith Wiley (24 Dec 1947-still alive)

Feud Poll 1

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

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

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

Recent Posts

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

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Tags

Appalachia Ashland Big Creek Big Ugly Creek Blood in West Virginia Brandon Kirk Cabell County cemeteries Chapmanville Charleston civil war coal Confederate Army crime culture Ed Haley Ella Haley Ferrellsburg feud fiddler fiddling genealogy Green McCoy Guyandotte River Harts Harts Creek Hatfield-McCoy Feud history Huntington John Hartford Kentucky Lawrence Haley life Lincoln County Lincoln County Feud Logan Logan Banner Logan County Milt Haley Mingo County music Ohio photos timbering U.S. South Virginia Wayne County West Virginia Whirlwind writing

Blogs I Follow

  • OtterTales
  • Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC
  • Piedmont Trails
  • Truman Capote
  • Appalachian Diaspora

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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

Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC

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

Piedmont Trails

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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