3. Louisville Courier-Journal, February 17, 1888; Big Sandy News (Louisa, Ky.), January 12, 19, 1888; Pittsburgh Times, February 1, 1888.
4. Cincinnati Enquirer, January 24, 30, 1888; Wheeling Intelligencer, January 25, 1888; Louisville Courier-Journal, January 25, 1888; Pittsburgh Times, February 1, 1888; Hatfield, The Hatfields, pp. 119–29.
5. Wheeling Intelligencer, January 25, 1888; Cincinnati Enquirer, January 30, 1888; extracts of letter of John A. Sheppard in Wilson to Buckner, January 21, 1888, Kentucky Legislative Document No. 2, pp. 7–8.
6. Big Sandy News, January 19, 1888; Louisville Courier-Journal, January 28, 1888; Cincinnati Enquirer, February 1, 1888; Pittsburgh Times, February 1, 1888.
7. McCoy, The McCoys, pp. 157–65, 229.
8. Ibid., pp. 166–71, 230.
9. Cincinnati Enquirer, January 24, 1888; Louisville Courier-Journal, January 25, 1888; Wheeling Intelligencer, January 25, 1888; Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 111.
10. Wheeling Intelligencer, January 30, 1888; New York Times, January 29, 1888; Wilson to Buckner, January 26, 1888, Kentucky Legislative Document No. 2, pp. 9–10.
11. Charleston Daily Star (St. Albans, W.Va.), January 26, 1888, quoted in Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 112.
12. Wheeling Intelligencer, January 27, 1888.
13. Ibid.
Chapter 9
1. Buckner to Wilson, January 9, 1888, Kentucky Legislative Document No. 2, pp. 2–3.
2. Wilson to Buckner, January 21, 1888, ibid., pp. 3–4.
3. Wilson to Buckner, January 26, 1888, ibid., pp. 9–10.
4. Buckner to Wilson, January 30, 1888, ibid., p. 10; Cincinnati Enquirer, January 31, 1888.
5. Wheeling Intelligencer, January 30, 31, 1888; Louisville Courier-Journal, January 29, 30, 1888. In West Virginia, the Kanawha Riflemen, as well as the Auburn and Goff Guards, volunteered for action. Kentucky placed the Lexington Guards on the alert. See also Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 118.
6. Cincinnati Enquirer, January 31, February 1, 1888.
7. Louisville Courier-Journal, February 7, 1888; Cincinnati Enquirer, February 7, 1888.
8. Buckner to Wilson, January 30, 1888, Kentucky Legislative Document No. 2, pp. 11–17.
9. Louisville Courier-Journal, February 2, 3, 1888; Wheeling Intelligencer, February 6, 1888.
10. For Caldwell’s alleged advice to Wilson, see Wheeling Intelligencer, April 17, 1888. Gibson’s presentation to Judge Barr and Kentucky’s response appear in ibid., February 9, 1888; Louisville Courier-Journal, February 9, 10, 1888.
11. Cincinnati Enquirer, February 11, 1888; Huntington (W.Va.) Advertiser, February 18, 1888.
Chapter 10
1. Louisville Courier-Journal, February 17, 1888.
2. Ibid.
3. Wheeling Intelligencer, February 18, 1888.
4. Louisville Courier-Journal, February 28, 29, 1888.
5. Ibid., March 3, 4, 1888.
6. Ibid., March 6, 1888; Cincinnati Enquirer, March 6, 1888.
7. Louisville Courier-Journal, March 15, 17, 1888.
8. Ibid., March 17, 1888.
9. Ibid., April 6, 7, 1888.
10. Wheeling Register, April 17, 19, 22, 25, 1888; Wheeling Intelligencer, April 17, 24, 1888.
11. Wheeling Intelligencer, April 24, 1888.
12. Ibid., May 15, 1888; Wheeling Register, May 12, 15, 1888.
13. Wheeling Intelligencer, May 19, 1888; Huntington Advertiser, June 30, 1888.
Chapter 11
1. Logan County Land Book, 1887–1892. See specifically the list for 1889.
2. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 137–38.
3. Crawford, An American Vendetta, p. 35; Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 138.
4. For the arms purchases, see, for instance, Cincinnati Enquirer, January 31, 1888; Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 139.
5. Wheeling Intelligencer, June 29, August 4, 1888. For the rewards, see Huntington Advertiser, June 16, 1888.
6. Quoted in Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 136–37. The Cincinnati Enquirer, October 7, 1888, carried a dispatch from Charleston that a McCoy leader had sent word to the Hatfields to “Kill every d—d detective they can find” on the West Virginia side of the Tug Fork and the McCoys would do the same on the Kentucky side.
7. Wheeling Intelligencer, June 29, 1888.
8. Interview with Dr. Elliott R. Hatfield, November 13, 1929, Spivak Papers; Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 140.
9. Wheeling Register, June 26, 1888. The Gibson fight is noted in Wheeling Intelligencer, July 27, 1888.
10. For rumor of the flight of the Hatfield partisans, see Wheeling Register, August 4, 1888; Pittsburgh Times, October 16, 1888; Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 140–41.
11. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 141–42.
12. Ibid., p. 141. Quoted material is from ibid., pp. 156–57.
13. Crawford, An American Vendetta, pp. 24, 26.
14. Ibid., pp. 26–31.
15. Pittsburgh Times, October 16, 1888; Wheeling Intelligencer, October 17, 1888.
16. Wheeling Register, November 18, 1888. For Messer’s killings, see also Huntington Advertiser, September 11, 1888.
17. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 157–58.
18. Ibid., p. 158.
19. Ibid., pp. 198–99.
Chapter 12
1. Testimony of Ellison Mounts, Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Plyant Mayhorn [Mahon], ’et al., Case #19601, Kentucky Court of Appeals; Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 159–60.
2. Testimony of witnesses cited is in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Valentine Hatfield, Case #19594, Kentucky Court of Appeals.
3. Ibid.; Huntington Advertiser, September 11, 1889.
4. Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Ellison Mounts, Case #19602, Kentucky Court of Appeals.
5. Louisville Courier-Journal, February 18, 1890.
6. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 163–64.
7. Ibid., p. 166.
8. Wheeling Intelligencer, November 21, 23, 1889.
9. For the Brumfield-MeCoy War, as the Lincoln County disturbances were called, see, for example, Huntington Daily Advertiser, November 2, 1889. Alderson’s report is in ibid., November 26, 1889. The alleged McCoy-Hand killing is noted in Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 164.
Chapter 13
1. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 174–75.
2. Louisville Courier-Journal, February 18, 1890.
3. Cincinnati Enquirer, February 20, 1890; Louisville Courier-Journal, February 19, 1890.
4. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 180–81.
5. Ibid., pp. 185–86.
6. Louisville Courier-Journal, July 12, 1890. See also Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 188–89.
7. Huntington Times, September 1890, cited in Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 189–90.
8. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 190.
9. New York Tribune, February 1891, and Wheeling Intelligencer, February 1891, cited in ibid., pp. 192–93.
10. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 195–96.
11. Williamson New Era, April 1894, cited in ibid., pp. 201–2.
12. Joseph T. Lambie, From Mine to Market: The History of Coal Transportation on the Norfolk and Western Railway (New York, 1954), pp. 39–40, 129–31.
13. Wheeling Intelligencer, March 1, 1888.
14. Fleming’s interests and outlook may be gleaned from John Alexander Williams, West Virginia and the Captains of Industry (Morgantown, W.Va., 1976), pp. 138–39, 249–50, passim.
15. William Alexander MacCorkle, The Recollections of Fifty Years (New York, 1928), pp. 285–86. MacCorkle, incidentally, remembered the support given him in his candidacy for the governorship of West Virginia by Devil Anse, who was the “controlling influence” in his district of Logan County. After proposing that the Logan County Democratic convention instruct its delegates to support MacCorkle in the state convention and meeting with no success, Devil Anse addressed the Logan countians. “My fellow citizens,” he declared, “I have
proposed instructions for MacCorkle, and you have not passed them, and you have broken up the convention two or three times, and I will say that if you don’t pass them this next time, Brother Toler and I will go over to my house and get our Winchesters and we will see justice is done.” MacCorkle, much gratified by the display of Hatfield decisiveness, received the endorsement of the Logan County convention. Ibid.
Chapter 14
1. For two very different accounts of the triple killing, see Charleston Daily Gazette, April 10, 1897, and Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 205–7.
2. Cincinnati Enquirer, November 6, 7, 1896; Hatfield, The Hatfields, pp. 160–61.
3. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 210–14. S. S. MacClintock, “The Kentucky Mountains and Their Feuds,” American Journal of Sociology 7 (October 1901): 184–85, gives the story of an organized effort to apprehend Cap and young Glenn after their escape and of a dramatic battle at the “Devil’s Backbone” in which Randolph McCoy allegedly played a conspicuous role. See also Mutzenberg, Kentucky’s Famous Feuds and Tragedies, pp. 95–108.
4. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 216–17.
5. Ibid., p. 217.
6. Hatfield, The Hatfields, pp. 171–72.
7. Huntington Advertiser, October 16, 18, 1911.
8. Raleigh Register (Beckley, W.Va.), October 19, 1911; Huntington Herald-Dispatch, October 18, 19, 1911; Huntington Advertiser, October 18, 1911. For an account by an observer who arrived on the scene within minutes after the shooting, see Interview of Stephen W. Brown with Dave Tamplin of Boomer. W.Va., April 2, 1973, transcript in the possession of the interviewer. A summary of the interview is in Charleston Gazette, October 10, 1975.
9. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 229.
10. Charles H. Ambler and Festus P. Summers, West Virginia: The Mountain State, 2d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1958), pp. 454–56.
11. Ibid., pp. 381–85; Hatfield, The Hatfields, p. 172.
12. McCoy, The McCoys, p. 215.
13. Huntington Advertiser, January 9, 10, 1921; Huntington Herald-Dispatch, January 8, 1921; New York Times, January 8, 1921; Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, pp. 239–41, 246.
14. Jones, Hatfields and McCoys, p. 247.
Bibliographical Note
THE EVENTS of the Hatfield-McCoy feud and the context in which it occurred must be reconstructed from widely scattered sources. There is not a single important body of personal papers. The John L. Spivak Papers in the West Virginia Collection of the West Virginia University Library contain records of interviews with several participants in the feuds, and a copy of one letter from Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield to Perry A. Cline is in the Special Collections of the University of Kentucky Library. The West Virginia Collection also contains a typescript, “The Feuding Hatfields,” by Coleman Hatfield.
Public archives are of somewhat more value. At the Logan County, West Virginia, Courthouse may be found Logan County Land Books, and those for the years from 1866 through 1892, in particular, shed much light on the holdings of the Hatfield family. There, too, may be found Deed Books B, E, F, G, I, and L, which provide data on Hatfield land transactions, and Law Order Books A and B, which give insights into Hatfield infractions of the law quite apart from the troubles with the McCoys. Pike County, Kentucky, Deed Books B, E, G, L, #2, and #5 shed similar light upon the economic situation of the leading members of the McCoy family.
Of utmost importance in understanding the relations between the Hatfield and McCoy families during the Civil War and through the 1870s are the Pike County Circuit Court Records, now in the Special Collections division of the University of Kentucky Library, as well as Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from Virginia: Forty-fifth Battalion, Infantry, Microcopy No. 324, Roll No. 891, in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. Material on the trials of the Hatfields and their partisans in the murders of the McCoys are available in the records of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in the Kentucky Division of Archives and Records, Frankfort. Records of the contescs between Kentucky and West Virginia in the United States District Court, the United States Circuit Court, and the United States Supreme Court are in the National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Printed public documents also provide information on the social and cultural milieu in which the feud took place. Useful for the educational climate are West Virginia, Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Free Schools … 1881 and 1882 (Wheeling, 1882); West Virginia, Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Free Schools … 1889 and 1890 (Charleston, 1890); and Kentucky, Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction … 1881-1886 (Frankfort, 1886). Valuable for the lawlessness in eastern Kentucky are Kentucky, Special Report on Rowan County Affairs, by Sam E. Hill, Adjutant General, and Captain Ernest MacPherson, to the Governor of Kentucky, Legislative Document No. 23 (Frankfort, 1887); Kentucky, Majority and Minority Reports and Testimony Taken by the Rowan County Investigating Committee, Made to the General Assembly, March 16th, 1888, Legislative Document No. 3 (Frankfort, 1888); Kentucky, Correspondence between the Governors of Kentucky and West Virginia, Legislative Document No. 2 (Frankfort, 1888); and Kentucky, Journal of the Regular Session of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky … [1887-1888] (Frankfort, 1888).
Although they often presented inaccurate and sensational accounts of events related to the feud, newspapers are indispensable to a study of the vendetta, if they are used with discrimination. Particularly useful are the Louisville Courier-Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Wheeling Intelligencer, Wheeling Register, Huntington Times, Huntington Herald-Dispatch, Huntington Advertiser and Daily Advertiser, Charleston Daily Gazette and Gazette, New York Times, New York Tribune, Pittsburgh Times, Big Sandy News (Louisa, Ky.), and Williamson (W.Va.) New Era.
Secondary works relating to the feud are legion, but many of them, unfortunately, are thoroughly unreliable. Among the books of special value are such general studies of the southern Appalachians as John C. Campbell, The Southern Highlander and His Homeland (New York, 1921; Lexington, Ky., 1969), and Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders (New York, 1913), both of which are useful for the culture of the feud country. More specialized, but more antiquarian in approach, is William Ely, The Big Sandy Valley: A History of the People and Country from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time (Catlettsburg, Ky., 1887).
More recent works dealing with Kentucky and West Virginia that contribute to an understanding of the era of the feuds include Thomas D. Clark, Kentucky: Land of Contrast (New York, 1968); Hambleton Tapp and James C. Klotter, Kentucky: Decades of Discord, 1865-1900 (Frankfort, 1977); Charles H. Ambler and Festus P. Summers, West Virginia: The Mountain State, 2d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1958); and John Alexander Williams, West Virginia and the Captains of Industry (Morgantown, W.Va., 1976). Two works of more restricted nature are William Alexander MacCorkle, The Recollections of Fifty Years (New York, 1928), a folksy commentary by a West Virginia governor who was widely acquainted with mountain folk, including some of the feudists, and Arndt M. Stickles, Simon Bolivar Buckner: Borderland Knight (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1940), a biography of the governor of Kentucky at the height of the feud.
General works on the feuds of eastern Kentucky include Charles G. Mutzenberg, Kentucky’s Famous Feuds and Tragedies (New York, 1917), probably the best single volume but not totally satisfactory; Noah and John Reynolds, History of the Feuds of the Mountain Parts of Eastern Kentucky (Whitesburg, Ky., n.d.); and L. F. Johnson, Famous Kentucky Tragedies and Trials (Lexington, 1972), which deals primarily with the Martin-Tolliver feud. Two articles of some discern - merit are S. S. MacClintock, “The Kentucky Mountains and Their Feuds,” American Journal of Sociology 7 (July 1901): 1-28, (October 1901): 171-87, and O. O. Howard, “The Feuds in the Cumberland Mountains,” Independent 56 (April 7, 1904): 783-88.
Book-length works dealing specifically with the Hatfield-McCoy feud include Virgil Carrington Jones, The Hatfields and the McCoys (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1948), the most satisfactory despite its journalistic approach a
nd occasional error; G. Elliott Hatfield, The Hatfields (Stanfield, Ky., 1974), which follows Jones’s work closely but adds some detail; Truda Williams McCoy, The McCoys: Their Story (Pikeville, Ky., 1976), useful for McCoy reminiscences; and T. C. Crawford, An American Vendetta (New York, 1889; Rich wood, W.Va., 1969), which has the advantage of contemporaneity and detail but reflects a greater desire on the part of its author to obtain a marketable story than to provide an objective study of the feud.
Briefer accounts include L. D. Hatfield, True Story of the Hatfield and McCoy Feud in the Hills of Kentucky and West Virginia (Charleston, W.Va., 1944); Shirley Donnelly, The Hatfield-McCoy Reader (Parsons, W.Va., 1971); John R. Spears, “The Story of a Mountain Feud,” Munseys Magazine (1900): 494-509, and “Two Razorbacks and the South’s Biggest Feud,” Literary Digest 68 (March 12, 1921): 48-55. Finally, a typical version of the feud as it was exploited by the dime novel is W. B. Lawson, The Hatfield-McCoy Vendetta; or, Shadowing a Hard Crowd, Log Cabin Library No. 292 (New York, October 18, 1894), pp. 1-29.
Index
Alderson, J.C.
Allen, Scott
Amis, John
Ashland, Ky.
Auburn (W. Va.) Guards
Auxier, A.J.
Baldwin, William G.
Baldwin-Felts detectives
Baptist Church
Barr, John Watson
Baumgartner, Stewart
Beckham, J.C.W.
Big Sandy News (Louisa, Ky.)
Big Sandy River
Big Sandy Valley
Blackberry Creek (Pike County)
Blackberry Fork (of Pond Creek)
Blackburn family
Blackmore, R.D.
Blankenship family
Boomer, W. Va.
Boone County, W. Va.
Bowling, A.M.
Boyd County, Ky.
The Hatfields and the McCoys Page 15