The Feud: The Hatfields and McCoys: The True Story

by Dean King

  Chapter 20: The Trial

  1. Weston Democrat, “Hatfield-McCoy Vendetta.”

  2. “Confession of Ellison Mounts.” I found a reproduction of this previously lost confession in Matewan. An envelope reproduction attached to it is addressed to Governor Buckner and postmarked Sept. 4, 1889.

  3. Hatfield and Spence, 178–79. The town of Brownstown is now called Marmet.

  4. This incident is recorded in Cantley (24) and G. Elliott Hatfield (89–92).

  5. Jones, 155–56 ; G. Elliott Hatfield, 138, based on Jones; and Velke, 107. Possibly confusing an encounter with Cap Hatfield, Cantley (26) says that Cunningham and Gibson found Messer sitting on a log with a Winchester across his lap in the woods near the homes of the Hatfields. He put up no fight, perhaps figuring that they could not make it out of the woods with him. He had reason to believe that. In a handwritten memoir (now lost), Cunningham gave an alternative version, saying that Gibson found Messer on Big Ugly Creek in Lincoln County. However, the owner and editor of that memoir, the former William and Mary history professor Ludwell H. Johnson III, noted that “Cunningham and Treve Gibson were equally responsible for Messer’s capture” (Cunningham, “Horrible Butcheries,” 38, n. 21).

  6. Jones, 157–58. “They flashed their badges from courthouse to blacksmith shop,” according to Jones, “and let it be known that they were planning an early raid on the Hatfield domain.” This sounds out of character for the well-trained, disciplined Eureka detectives, especially Cunningham, who was known to be introspective and sly.

  7. Ibid. The Logan merchant U. B. Buskirk, who carried the news of the capture of the three detectives to Charleston, believed they got caught because they talked too much.

  8. James C. Klotter, “A Hatfield-McCoy Feudist Pleads for Mercy in 1889,” West Virginia History, 327, and Jones, 157.

  9. Logan County Banner, “We Want Peace and Not Destruction of Property by Fire.” Jones (158) mistimed this event, which did not occur in Jan. but in Mar. of 1889. In July, Devil Anse and Vicey would sell more land, 239 acres on Mate Creek (owned in partnership with Asa McCoy, the son of Uriah and Aunty Betty, and Asa’s wife, Nancy, the daughter of Preacher Anse), to Cotiga Development Company of Pennsylvania for eight hundred dollars.

  10. Jones (159–63) and Mutzenberg (45–46) provided detailed descriptions of the trials; so did L. D. Hatfield (35). These accounts were based on a story in the Cincinnati Enquirer (“Hatfield-M’Coy”) and on the testimony in Case No. 19594, Valentine Hatfield v. Commonwealth, Kentucky Court of Appeals, Nov. 9, 1889.

  11. Mutzenberg, 45–46 ; Cunningham, “Horrible Butcheries,” 38; and G. Elliott Hatfield, 139.

  12. Anderson, 130. Mose Christian would later be hanged for killing a salesman on Barrenshea Creek. Christian beat the man to death with rocks and then hid the bloody rocks in a tree trunk near a church. Decades later, the tree would be cut down to reveal the bloodstained rocks.

  13. Jones, 162, from Case No. 19594, Valentine Hatfield v. Commonwealth, Kentucky Court of Appeals.

  14. Southwestern Reporter, 309–10.

  15. Wheeling Intelligencer, “The Hatfield Feud”; Jones, 162, 166; Mutzenberg, 89–90 ; L. D. Hatfield, 36–38 ; and Ely, 332–33.

  16. Southwestern Reporter, 311–12.

  17. Wheeling Intelligencer, “Hatfield Feud.”

  18. Southwestern Reporter, 310, and Mutzenberg, 89–90.

  19. Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail, “Feud’s Lore, Gore Aimed at Tourists.”

  20. Southwestern Reporter, 310–12.

  21. The Wheeling Intelligencer identified him as “Dan” Stratton, “a bitter enemy of old Anse.” Dave Stratton was a political rival of the Hatfields and part of Frank Phillips’s posse.

  22. Wheeling Intelligencer, “ ‘Devil Anse’ Hatfield: Arraigned in the United States Court at Charleston” and “Devil Anse Tells”; Bourland, “Biography of Henry Solomon White”; Jones, 172, 184; G. Elliott Hatfield, 147–50 ; Donnelly, 31–34 ; and David Turk, “History—How Much Did It Cost to Find Billy the Kid?” John Jay Jackson was the brother of Judge James Monroe Jackson and Jacob B. Jackson, the governor of West Virginia from 1881 to 1885. For expenses for the escort, White claimed $103.20 (at ten cents a mile plus incidentals). The attorney general disputed the need for so many guards and ruled that $93.20 was denied because Devil Anse was acquitted.

  23. Wheeling Intelligencer, “ ‘Devil Anse’ Hatfield.” Devil Anse said that they were all good friends after the war until Floyd Hatfield and Randall McCoy—who he said were married to sisters but who were not—got into an argument over “a sow and pigs.” The account was filled with other errors, including his naming the man killed as a result of the trial Stratten (later Stratton) instead of Staton. He also confused Roseanna McCoy and Nancy McCoy.

  Chapter 21: The Bitter End

  1. Detroit Free Press, “Surprised in Camp.”

  2. Wheeling Intelligencer, “That Lincoln County War.”

  3. No one knows if the original photograph still exists. The best reproduction I have seen is at the Big Sandy Cultural Center in Pikeville. Also, Jones, 175–76, 182–83, and Louisville Courier-Journal, Feb. 18 and Feb. 20, 1890. Mounts made no mention of a wife, but on Christmas Day in 1882 in Logan County, one Ellison Hatfield, a nineteen-year-old son of Harriet Hatfield, married a thirty-six-year-old neighbor named Rebecca Justice. Cotton Top and his younger brother George were the sons of the unmarried Harriet Hatfield and her cousin Ellison Hatfield. Later, their mother married a man named Daniel Mounts, and the boys usually went by that surname. Rebecca Justice died while Cotton Top was in jail. U.S. Census, 1870 and 1880, and West Virginia, Marriages, 1853–1970 ; also, Wheeling Intelligencer, “Hatfield Feud.”

  4. Truda McCoy, 232, n. 23, and Mutzenberg, 93.

  5. Matewan.com, “Matewan, West Virginia.” Matteawan, New York, is now known as Beacon.

  6. Jones, 181; Swain, 193–94 ; and Donnelly, 28. Some say the package, addressed to “Devil” Anse Hatfield, was what gave him his nickname. Others say he already had it.

  Chapter 22: After the Hanging

  1. Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail, “Feud’s Lore”; Sanders, “Beautiful Beech Creek Valley”; and L. D. Hatfield, 35.

  2. Jones, 185–89.

  3. Ibid., 189–91, and Howard, “Descendants of Rebecca Browning.”

  4. Thomas, 264–65. Thomas heard this story from Lark’s son Bud. She said he said it was “Vicey or Nancy” who was sick; however, Vicey was thirteen years older than Lark, so he could not have witnessed such a scenario when Vicey was small, and Lark did not have a daughter named Nancy. Vicey was briefly married to James Wolford and had a daughter named Nancy. She and Nancy might conceivably have moved back home with Lark.

  5. Jones, 191–93, and Howard, “Descendants of Perry A. Cline.” Prichard (76) said that the letter followed the death of Perry Cline, but, in fact, it preceded it. Hatfield did not hold out hope for peace until the death of Cline.

  6. Hatfield and Spence, 237–38.

  7. Andrew Chafin interview transcript, 1, 15–16, 21, and Waller, 79, 253.

  8. Andrew Chafin interview transcript, 5, 7, 10; Huntington Advertiser, “Story of the Hatfields and McCoys”; Waller, 253; and Crawford, American Vendetta, 121.

  9. Andrew Chafin interview transcript, 1–4, 8–9 ; Brad Chafin interview with author; and Montgomery News, “Hatfield Brothers Killed in Shootout.”

  10. Andrew Chafin interview transcript, 4, 8–10, and Huntington Advertiser, “Story of the Hatfields and McCoys.” While Lee was at work, Anse would borrow his shotgun to go hunting. “It was the first pump gun in Logan County,” Lee said. “I paid twenty-two dollars for it from Sears Roebuck in Chicago. That was twenty-two days of work.”

  11. Andrew Chafin interview transcript, 4–5.

  12. G. Elliott Hatfield, 197–98 ; Sanders, “Emma Hatfield Reminisces”; and Ada Hatfield journal.

  13. Andrew Chafin interview transcript, 2. Andy Chafin did not like to talk about the feud,
but in the fall of 1972, when he was eighty-six, his family finally persuaded him to tell the story. They recorded the conversation on a tape recorder under the table. The tape was misplaced and not transcribed until 2002. Also, interview with Chafin’s grandson Andy Chafin, Sept. 12, 2012. While Dan Cunningham would say that more men died after the hanging of Cotton Top Mounts than before (most of them simply murdered and disappearing in the woods), Chafin’s account is the only eyewitness evidence to support this claim.

  14. Hatfield and Spence (237–38) mistakenly called Treve Gibson “Treve Brown.”

  15. Coleman A. Hatfield, as quoted in Hatfield and Spence, 238–39.

  Chapter 23: The Last Murders and Manhunt

  1. Hatfield and Spence, 239; G. Elliott Hatfield, 211, 224–25 ; Howard, “Descendants of Valentine Hatfield”; West Virginia Marriages Index, 1785–1971 ; and Register of Marriages Within the County of Logan, 64–65. His previous wife was Rebecca Browning. It is unclear how Johnse’s marriage to Rebecca Browning ended or whether his new wife, Roxie Browning, was related to his previous wife. There were many Browning families in the area.

  2. Truda McCoy, 173; C. Coleman Hatfield in Hatfield and Spence, 230–31 ; Waller, 41; and Howard, “Descendants of Nathaniel Chafin.”

  3. Hatfield and Spence, 230–31 ; G. Elliott Hatfield, 159; and John G. Morgan, West Virginia Governors: 1863–1980, 88–89.

  4. Hatfield and Spence, 228–32. Mutzenberg and G. Elliott Hatfield (based on Mutzenberg) said that these wounds were inflicted not by John Rutherford but by Elliott Rutherford, who was also shooting at Cap. As they told it, Joe Glenn then shot and killed Elliott. Coleman A. and Coleman C. Hatfield gave a different account—one that’s been passed down within the family—and greater detail. I have relied primarily on their version of this clash. Jones (205–6) and Hatfield and Spence (231) correctly located this incident in Matewan, as per the Cincinnati Enquirer article “Bad ‘Cap’ Is Grimly Awaiting…. ” Mutzenberg and G. Elliott Hatfield placed it in Thacker, as was mistakenly reported in the Cincinnati Enquirer article “In Cold Blood.” Waller (Feud, 242) referred to it incorrectly as the “1896 Williamson incident.”

  5. Mutzenberg, 94–98; G. Elliott Hatfield, 159; and Howard, “Descendants of Elliott ‘Doc’ Rutherford.” Mutzenberg, who said Cap claimed that he walked into an ambush, called Cap’s version a “total contradiction of the statements made by all the eye-witnesses” (96). Coleman A. Hatfield (in Hatfield and Spence, 232) said that five men were shooting at his father: Reece Halsey, Ed Hopson, Elliott Rutherford, Lewis Rutherford, and John Rutherford. The New York Times (“Pardon for a Feudist”) confused matters by reporting, “On election day, 1896, Johnson Hatfield, after drinking too much moonshine, killed Rutherford McCoy, Jr. He was captured and sentenced to serve three months for this last killing.” Not only was Johnse not involved, but there was no Rutherford McCoy Jr.

  6. Hatfield and Spence, 231–33 ; Howard, “Descendants of Elliott ‘Doc’ Rutherford”; Coleman A. Hatfield in Hatfield and Spence (233). Coleman A. Hatfield’s written and recorded commentary was passed on to his son Coleman C., who died in 2008. This fast-paced getaway is in contrast with the accounts of Mutzenberg and G. Elliott Hatfield. “Every man upon the voting ground appeared dazed, dumbfounded, paralyzed with astonishment and fear,” wrote Mutzenberg (95). “No one dared attempt the arrest of the fugitives.” “Cap coolly turned to them and said it was ‘too bad,’ ” wrote G. Elliott Hatfield (159), and then he “took the boy’s hand and strolled leisurely out of town unmolested.”

  7. Cincinnati Enquirer, “Bad ‘Cap’ ” and “Scot Free Is ‘Devil Anse’ Hatfield,” and G. Elliott Hatfield, 158.

  8. Cincinnati Enquirer, “Barkers Beside Their Pillows Couldn’t Guard the Mountain Terrors” and “Scot Free.”

  9. Cincinnati Enquirer, “Barkers” and “In Cold Blood”; Mutzenberg, 96; Charlotte Sanders, “Sheriff Keadle Had a Prize Prisoner in 1897,” Williamson Daily News; Waller, Feud, 79, 253; Henry Clay Ragland, History of Logan County, W. Va., Chapter 21; and Robert Y. Spence, “Henry Clay Ragland.” G. Elliott Hatfield, who adhered to Mutzenberg, wrote, “Dusk fell over the hills, a harvest moon hung in the sky like a huge lantern to light the way” (160). In fact, the last full moon was on Oct. 29, and the next would not be until Nov. 20. Hatfield and Spence (233–34) told a different version of the story. In theirs, Cap decided to make for the home of family friend Dan Christian. After sleeping out in the woods overnight, he and Little Joe ate their first meal in two days at Christian’s and hid in the attic. Meanwhile, a posse raided Cap’s home but learned nothing from Nan, who had not even heard about the gunfight. Although Cap believed he had acted in self-defense, he knew that the Rutherfords would be out for revenge and that he needed to get out of the area fast. He had Christian hide him and Little Joe in his wagon and take them down to Thacker, where they jumped a train at night. When it reached Huntington, Cap found the town’s sheriff and surrendered.

  10. Cincinnati Enquirer, “Scot Free.”

  11. Sanders, “Sheriff Keadle”; Hatfield and Spence, 234; G. Elliott Hatfield, 160–61 ; and Mutzenberg, 98. According to Mutzenberg, Cap was tried on only one of the charges, fined, and sentenced to jail for a year. Two other indictments, both for murder, were pending in court for the following term, and Cap did not like his chances. He preferred to be killed by a Winchester than made an example of on the scaffold.

  12. Andrew Chafin interview transcript, 10–14. While Chafin mentioned Uncle Melvin Browning, Coleman C. Hatfield said he stayed the night with George F. Browning, his cousin.

  13. Mutzenberg, 99–101.

  14. G. Elliott Hatfield, 163, 182. It was believed that Cap’s brothers Johnse, Elias, and Troy, and his allies, all heavily armed, were rallying around him and prepared to fight. It was even said that Randall McCoy, looking like Davy Crockett in homespuns and a wide-brimmed hat with a dangling squirrel’s tail and bearing an old-fashioned, muzzle-loading rifle, had come from Kentucky to join in the hunt, and Keadle had welcomed him. But McCoy had retired from the fighting and remained in Pikeville.

  15. Mutzenberg (100–102) claimed that Randall McCoy was leading the group up the path. Some say that the Devil’s Backbone was over on Beech Creek.

  16. Ibid., 103–6.

  17. Ibid., 103–8, and Hatfield and Spence, 234. According to Mutzenberg (107), after the first blast, “it was seen that more than half of the ‘Devil’s Backbone’ was torn up and blown down the mountain-side into a small arm of the Tug River, changing the course of the stream.” Mate Creek, which empties into the Tug at Matewan, runs near the Devil’s Backbone, but its course does not seem to have been altered.

  Chapter 24: The Last Dance: Cunningham Gets His Hatfield

  1. G. Elliott Hatfield, 156.

  2. Jones, 204; Sellards, 274; and G. Elliott Hatfield, 156. Becoming a better man was not something that came easily to Bad Frank. In 1894, he had a daughter, Pearlie, by his wife, Mary. He divorced Mary and married Nancy McCoy Hatfield in Sept. of 1895. In Oct. of 1896, he had another child by Mary, Roy. The last of his nine known children, Goldie, was born in Sept. of 1897 to Nancy.

  3. G. Elliott Hatfield, 157: “Data on Frank Phillips’s death from unpublished manuscript by Henry P. Scalf.”

  4. Sellards, 274, and G. Elliott Hatfield, 157–58, based on an unpublished manuscript by Henry P. Scalf.

  5. Hatfield and Spence, 221, and G. Elliott Hatfield, 225.

  6. Atlanta Constitution, “Cunningham’s Historic Hunt”; Cantley, 26; Hatfield and Spence, 251; and Howard, “Descendants of French Ellis.”

  7. Hatfield and Spence, 251.

  8. Cantley, 27. Not surprisingly, Coleman Hatfield (in Hatfield and Spence, 250–51) gave an alternative version of events. Johnse was “kidnapped by six men,” he claimed. As Johnse and Auk Damron passed through a railroad cut beside the Tug River, three armed men blocked their way, and three more blocked their retreat. No shots were fired, as only Damron was armed. Three days later, S
quirrel Huntin’ Sam (Sam McCoy, 80) visited Johnse in jail. He refused to help Johnse escape but told him he would do anything he could to prevent a mob from forming and harming him. Sam conferred with Big Jim McCoy, who said there was some “strong talk” in town and would not commit to being against it.

  9. Hatfield and Spence, 235–37. Mutzenberg (101) says Cap and two others killed “Charles McKenney, a cousin of the McCoys, a lad of only eighteen,” whom they “riddled with buckshot.”

  10. Hatfield and Spence, 251–52, drawing on writings by and interviews of Cap’s son Coleman; Andrew Chafin interview transcript, 6; and Charlotte Sanders, “Feud Was Revived in 1899 After the Killing of ‘Doc’ Ellis,” Williamson Daily News, based on the Bluefield Daily Telegraph of July 4, 1899. In both the Hatfield and Spence and Daily Telegraph versions, Elias Hatfield was boarding the train as a passenger, heading to Wharncliffe, according to the latter. Though Elias was Devil Anse’s son, the Daily Telegraph referred to him as Elias Hatfield Jr., presumably to differentiate him from Devil Anse’s brother Elias. In Hatfield and Spence (252), Coleman A. Hatfield said the gun was a “new Winchester.” In Sanders’s and Chafin’s accounts, it was a pistol. In Hatfield and Spence (251), the bullet ricocheted off Ellis’s gold cuff link.