Hatfields & McCoys

From West Virginia (WV) Cyclopedia

The feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families (along West Virginia's southern border) was born of pervasive socio-economic unrest during the region's early Industrial Revolution. The patriarch of the Hatfield clan, Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield likely fed the fuel of anomosity between the families when he broke from the socially accepted role of farmer and began to timber properties in the Tug Fork Valley area.

In 1878, a dispute over the ownership of two razor-backed hogs in a Hatfield pigsty provoked the first recorded violence. Upset when a court decision over the swine went against them, the McCoys ambushed a group of Hatfields who were deer hunting. None were killed, but a few days later, Staton Hatfield fired on brothers Sam and Paris McCoy, injuring one before he himself was killed by a shot to the head. In spring 1880, Anderson Hatfield's son Johnse grew enamored of Rose Anna McCoy, daughter of McCoy patriarch Randolph "Ran'l" McCoy. Ran'l was furious when Rose Anna left that night to live with Johnse, and even more enraged several months later when the relationship ended and his daughter came home a "ruined" woman.

In August 1882, during a county election, Ellison Hatfield insulted Tolbert McCoy, a son of Ran'l, then attacked him. Tolbert and a brother stabbed Ellison 26 times, and a third brother shot him in the back. The Hatfields quickly overcame the McCoys brothers, tied them to pawpaw trees and executed them with 50 rifle bullets. In 1987, Ran'l, who had been waiting for West Virginia to extradite the Hatfields accused of his sons' deaths, organized a raid into Hatfield territory, seized a McCoy who had married a Hatfield, and brought him back to a Kentucky jail.

See also: Hatfields & McCoys (http://www.newriverwv.com/Arts_Outdoor_Dramas.php)