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Brandon Ray Kirk

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Brandon Ray Kirk

Tag Archives: Sam McCoy

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.

Image

Killing of Bill Staten (1880)

21 Thursday Apr 2022

Tags

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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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.

Dils and Smith v. William McCoy (1865)

14 Tuesday Jan 2020

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

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

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

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Page 1 (1865)

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Page 1 (1865)

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Page 1 (1865)

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Page 1 (1865)

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Page 1 (1865)

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

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

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

Nancy Hatfield, Widow of Cap, Identifies the Cause of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud (1937)

31 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Tags

Appalachia, Bill Staten, Bob Hatfield, Cap Hatfield, crime, Devil Anse Hatfield, Ellison Hatfield, feuds, genealogy, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Howard Alley, Island Creek, Kentucky, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Mingo County, Nancy Hatfield, Paris McCoy, Pike County, Randolph McCoy, Sam McCoy, Tolbert McCoy, true crime, West Virginia

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this story by Howard Alley titled “The Hatfield-McCoy Feud” and dated May 10, 1937:

The Hatfield-McCoy Feud…

“Aunt Nancy” Hatfield, Widow of “Cap” Hatfield, Relates That Historic Feud Actually Started Over An Election Argument When “Uncle” Ellison Was Killed Following Argument With a McCoy

Much has been said and many volumes have been written about the historic Hatfield-McCoy feud which took place in Logan and Mingo counties in the latter part of the last century. Lecturers have said the feud started over a razor-backed hog, and novelists have written that it began when a McCoy married a Hatfield lass and deserted her after he learned that she was to bear him a child. Both theories have their foundation in tradition, but neither Hatfield nor McCoy close to the feud has been quoted as saying either was right. Yesterday the mystery was cleared up. Because it seemed so utterly preposterous that two solid, level-headed mountain families with the solidity of the English for a background could wage a ten-year killing spree over a razor-backed sow when the woods were full of the animals, and because it was equally as improbable that the feud started over unhappy marital relationships when it is an established fact that mountaineers let their offspring take care of their own home life, we decided yesterday afternoon to find out what event was the spark which actually set off the powder magazine of mountain passion which rocked the hills of this section for nearly a decade.

And in the warm sunshine of a late spring Sunday afternoon we sat on the porch of the late William A. (Cap) Hatfield’s rambling frame home on the upper stretches of Main Island Creek and talked to “Cap’s” wife, the last survivor of those who were closest to the Hatfield clan in the feud.

“Aunt Nancy”, who has survived seventy winters and admits that she is “young and has the ‘hang’ of it,” but “don’t think I can do it again”, gazed reminiscently out over the newly-turned acres of her husband’s creek bottom estate, and her eyes grew misty as she told us of the closing years of the last century when Hatfield and McCoy alike expected death at every bend of the creek.

“That feud didn’t start over no ‘hog lawsuit’ and it didn’t start over a Hatfield-McCoy marriage,” Mrs. Hatfield said in a tone that showed plainly her disgust for those writers who had written of the feud and by twisting the facts had capitalized on it. “I’ve got a red-backed book two inches thick here that one of my sons brought to me and said: “Read this, Ma, and you’ll find out why we fought the McCoys.’ I read it–two pages of it–and it’s layin’ in there now with dust on its backs. Not a word o’ truth in it.”

She grew repentant.

“But they have to make their livin’, I guess. You want to know how it started? I’ll tell you. The Hatfields was always a political family, and it was their politics which got ’em into this fight. If they hadn’t gone to that election in Pike county in August of 1882, ‘Uncle’ Ellison would never have been killed and Ellison’s brother, ‘Devil’ Anse would never have been drawn into it. But I’m gettin’ ahead of my story. The way it was, ‘Uncle’ Ellison Hatfield was an officer in Logan county in 1882 and was sent out to arrest Sam and Paris McCoy who was supposed to have killed Bill Staten, ‘Uncle’ Ellison’s brother-in-law. These boys warn’t sons of Randall McCoy, ringleader of the McCoys. They were just cousins. He got the two boys and brought them to Logan county jail in Logan and afterwards testified agin’ them in a trial. The McCoys were ‘sent up’ for the killin’. Then in August ‘Uncle’ Ellison went to Pike county to ‘work’ at the polls, and it was so ordered that he was working for a man that the McCoys were agin’. Well, the only thing that could happen did happen. One of Randall McCoy’s sons, just a little twenty-one-year-old shaver, started a argument with ‘Uncle’ Ellison, and Ellison, who was always too high tempered for his own good, slapped him down. The little feller bounced up, and Ellison slapped him down agin’. But this time he jumped on top of him, and ’bout the time he drawed back his fist, aimin’ to end the fight, a shot rung out and ‘Uncle’ Ellison toppled over. He weren’t dead though. He told his friends to call ‘Devil’ Anse, who come a runnin’, and the McCoys ‘cleared out.’ ‘Devil’ Anse took his brother home and he lived from that Saturday until the next Wednesday. Just before he died, he said to Anse: ‘Anse, I want you to give the McCoys the ‘law’.’ And that’s what ‘Devil’ Anse did. He gave ’em the ‘law’ as he knowed it–and that was just about the only law in them days–and lived to see the justice handed out. And, well, you know as much about what happened after ‘Uncle’ Ellison died as I do. I don’t want to add any more tales to the list.”

We took the hint, and willingly began to talk about the celebration of “Aunt Nancy’s” birthday last September when she fell off her back porch and was told by one of her sons that “she shouldn’t have been trying to turn handsprings at her age.”

“I wasn’t hurt bad enough to keep me from cuttin’ my birthday cake. And I gave Bob the smallest piece because he was so smart about me fallin’.”

Dils Cemetery in Pikeville, KY (2018)

29 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in African American History, Cemeteries, Civil War, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Pikeville

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Tags

39th Kentucky Infantry, African-Americans, Ann Dils, Appalachia, Basil Hatfield, cemeteries, civil war, Dils Cemetery, genealogy, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, John Dils Jr., Kentucky, Martha Hatfield, Martha McCoy, National Register off Historic Places, photos, Pike County, Pikeville, Randolph McCoy, Roseanna McCoy, Sam McCoy, Sarah McCoy, slavery, Union Army

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The Dils Cemetery Sign, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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McCoy Family wreath, Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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Randolph and Sarah McCoy graves, Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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Randolph McCoy grave, Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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Roseanna McCoy grave, Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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Col. John Dils grave, Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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History Marker, Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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Basil Hatfield grave sign, Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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Basil Hatfield grave, Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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Sam and Martha McCoy grave, Dils Cemetery, Pikeville, KY. 27 April 2018.

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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Feud Poll 2

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

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Feud Poll 3

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

Recent Posts

  • Aracoma Hotel in Logan, WV (1933)
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Ed Haley Poll 1

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

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

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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
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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.

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Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond

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

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