The Hatfields and the McCoys (10 page)

Dejected, the Hatfield party mounted their horses for the ride home. Charley Gillespie's horse had broken loose during the attack, and he rode behind Cotton Top Mounts, who fainted from the loss of blood on the way. From the ridge above Blackberry Fork they could see the burning cabin and the trees outlined against the reddened sky. Faintly, in the distance, they could hear the wails of the McCoy girls, crying for help in their distress.

Behind them the Hatfields left a scene of unmitigated horror. Calvin and Alifair lay dead, and Sarah McCoy remained unconscious. When Randolph McCoy emerged from a pigpen, where he had taken refuge, he saw that his daughters Adelaide and Fanny, who were seventeen and fourteen years old, had built a small fire to protect their apparently dying mother from the penetrating cold. Randolph found Sarah with her arm and hip broken and her skull crushed. He saw the dead bodies of Calvin and Alifair, the latter with her long hair frozen to the ground. Even a less vindictive man than he might have vowed revenge at such a sight.

Shortly afterward neighbors, attracted by the fearsome nighttime fire, arrived at the McCoy homestead. They placed Sarah on a cot and carried her to the home of her son Jim, who lived about a mile farther down Blackberry Fork. A few days later they bore the bodies of Calvin and Alifair to the McCoy cemetery, where they laid the two most recent victims of the feud to rest beside their three brothers—Tolbert, Pharmer, and Randolph, Jr.—who had been buried in a triple grave less than six years earlier.
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Left without a home and with sorrows and hatred weighing upon him, Randolph McCoy left Blackberry Fork. He moved Sarah, still valiantly clinging to life, by wagon to Pikeville and to the home of Perry Cline. There they found Rose Anna, who made the care of her mother her own reason for living. Two pictures of Randolph during the succeeding weeks have emerged. Truda McCoy describes him as a silent, morose, and broken man. Virgil C. Jones, however, states that, in contrast to the women of the family, who bore their grief in silence, “the wails of the father were uncontrolled” and that he frequented the streets of Pikeville cursing the Hatfields and threatening revenge. Perhaps both descriptions contain some truth, as both appear to be in keeping with aspects of McCoy's character.
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The violence of New Year's night of 1888 diverted some of the attention of the newspaper press from other feuds of the Kentucky mountains. Attracted by the sensational aspects of the events, but lacking reliable information, the press seized with avidity upon grossly inaccurate and often totally unfounded rumors. The
Louisville Courier-Journal
of January 8, 1888, like other Sunday newspapers of the week following the attack upon the McCoy family, carried a brief account based upon a letter written to State Senator A. H. Stewart by a friend in Pikeville. The
Courier-Journal
declared, “It appears that in 1882 parties led by a man named Hatfield, abducted three boys named McCoy, and conveyed them to West Virginia. A reward was offered for the arrest of the Hatfield party, and one of the gang was captured, who is now in the Pike County jail. On Sunday last others of the same party went to the residence of Randolph McCoy, in Pike County, and killed his wife, mother of the three boys mentioned, and his son, also set fire to the house, which, with its contents, was entirely consumed.”

The newspaper article further stated, “Two little girls, daughters of McCoy, escaped, and succeeded in recovering the dead bodies from the flames. McCoy escaped in his night clothes under fire of the murderers, shooting as he went, but without effect so far as ascertained.” The account noted, “The Pikeville jail is strongly guarded, but fears were entertained at the hour of writing that an attempt would be made to release the member of the gang [Selkirk McCoy] confined there.”

Although it provided more accurate background material, the
Wheeling
(West Virginia)
Intelligencer
of January 9, 1888, drew upon a dispatch from Catlettsburg, carried by the
Cincinnati Enquirer,
for an equally erroneous version of the attack upon the McCoy dwelling. “A few nights since,” the dispatch stated, “the Hatfield party visited the residence of Randolph McCoy and set fire to the house. Alafara, his eldest daughter, was the first to open the door and make her appearance, and in the glaring light she was shot dead by the fiends outside, who were concealed. His son Calvin next appeared, and he was shot dead. His wife made her appearance in escaping from the burning building and was shot through the head, and although she was still alive at last accounts she will die.” Adding to the errors and simplifications, the account further declared, “Randall M'Coy escaped from the burning house with his shotgun, and although a volley was discharged at him he escaped unhurt, and opened fire upon the attacking party. He is known to have killed one of the gang by the name of Chambers, and, it is said, shot Cap Hatfield in the shoulder, and putting the rest to flight. So ends the chapter.”

The
Intelligencer
added that $2,700 in rewards had been offered for members of the Hatfield clan charged with the murders of the three McCoys in 1882 but that “no one seems anxious to take them, as they are strongly barricaded in the wilds of West Virginia.” Declaring that the outlaws had killed McCoy's wife, three of his sons, and a daughter, the writer also speculated that “retributive justice is now likely to follow, as their last acts have stirred up that whole section,” but he observed that “if the Hatfields are ever taken, dead or alive, the men who undertake the job will experience some fun, as this set of West Virginia toughs is a determined and desperate band.”

Remoteness from the scene of the tragedy only partly explained the inaccurate stories carried by the press. One of the most erroneous accounts appeared on January 12, 1888, in the
Big Sandy News
of Louisa, Kentucky, the closest newspaper. It reported that it had received “reliable information” from Pikeville that “Cap Hatfield was killed and that John[se] Hatfield and other members of the gang were badly wonded [
sic
] by Calvin McCoy and his father.” It declared that Calvin “mortally wounded two of the squad before he was killed.” The article also carried the mistaken news that “A seventeen-year-old daughter of McCoy [Adelaide] has become insane over the awful affair” and that “One of Johns [
sic
] Hatfield's arms was so badly lacerated and shattered that it has been amputated.” After the type for the article was set up, the editor added later information to the effect that Cap had not been killed, but he injected another error by declaring that Chambers, rather than Selkirk McCoy, was then under heavy guard in the Pikeville jail.

Just as Perry Cline's activities introduced a political dimension to the Hatfield-McCoy feud, so the Hatfield attack upon the McCoys on the night of January 1, 1888, placed it in the journalistic sphere. The newspapers proved no more able than the politicians to bring truth to the surface and to promote a resolution of the turmoil that beset Pike and Logan counties. Yet, in the long run, both contributed to a conviction by the people that, for the good of the two states, the mountain dwellers would have to settle their differences by more peaceful means.

8

THE HATFIELDS ON THE DEFENSIVE

W
ITH MUCH OF Pike County seething with anger over the events of the night of January 1, Randolph McCoy demanded that Sheriff Harmon Maynard take action, but Maynard declined to go into West Virginia without extradition papers. Frank Phillips, however, was of different mettle. Sensing the support of the people and posing as a state agent armed with full authority, he organized a band of some twenty-seven men for a foray into Hatfield territory.
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Expecting a new effort on the part of Governor Buckner to extradite them to Kentucky, the principal leaders of the Hatfield clan took oaths before Justice of the Peace Joseph Simpkins that they were nowhere near the McCoy residence on the night of the attack. They hoped that affidavits setting forth plausible alibis would prevent Governor Wilson from honoring any requisition for their extradition. Devil Anse apparently felt deep concern for the fate of his two stalwarts, Cap, who, according to most accounts, had killed Alifair McCoy, and Jim Vance, who had beaten up her mother. Rumors also circulated that the three chief leaders of the Hatfields had attempted to save Cap and Vance by paying Ellison Mounts five hundred dollars for a confession that he had killed Alifair.
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Frank Phillips and his posse caught the usually wary Hatfields off guard. They concentrated their first efforts upon Cap and Jim Vance, who had gone to Vance's home. The two men remained there longer than they had intended because Vance had become ill after eating raccoon meat, which his wife, Mary, had prepared. They set out for Caps residence, with Mary Vance walking along the trail ahead of them. At the crest of a hill, she shouted that she saw Phillips and “a whole passel” of men on the other side. Vance directed Mary to continue on, and he and Cap took cover behind large rocks. When Phillips and his men came near, they opened fire, emptying their guns in rapid succession to give the impression that they had several others with them. Phillips, also knowledgeable in the ways of mountain fighting, was not deceived. He and his posse spread out, and one of his men got a clear line on Vance and shot him in the stomach. Vance at once commanded Cap to flee to safety.

Taking no chances with the sly Vance, Phillips and his men closed in with caution. Phillips walked up to Vance and fired a bullet into his head. Newspaper accounts of the incident, based upon misinformation, reported that not only Vance but also Johnse Hatfield and Tom Chambers had lost their lives in the encounter.
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Following the death of Vance, the leaders of both sides pursued a policy of guarded aggressiveness. Phillips and his posse returned to the hills of Kentucky and ventured into West Virginia only in brief, daring raids. The Hatfields, as anticipated, swept up and down the banks of the Tug Fork but did not cross the river lest they provoke the dispatch of state troops into Logan County or alienate Governor Wilson.

On January 19 the opposing forces met in pitched battle on Grapevine Creek, a West Virginia tributary of the Tug Fork. Phillips and some eighteen men had returned to West Virginia for another raid when they encountered thirteen Hatfield partisans, led by a constable, J. R. Thompson, armed with a warrant for the arrest of the murderers of Jim Vance. The two parties rushed for cover behind rocks and began to fire furiously. The first man wounded was Bud McCoy, regarded as one of the most dangerous of his clan. Soon afterwards the McCoys claimed their first victim, young Bill Dempsey, who suffered a shattered leg. Dempsey crawled into a shuck pen and was calling for water when Phillips, Dave Stratton, Jim McCoy, and three other men began to abuse him. The youth told them that the sheriff had summoned him as part of a guard to pursue the Kentuckians, whereupon Phillips walked up close to Dempsey, “drew his revolver and shot his brains out with one shot.”
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Newspaper accounts embellished the battle of Grapevine Creek. Inaccurate and based upon the flimsiest of rumors, they informed readers that Phillips and his associates had robbed Dempsey of a silk handkerchief and $2.50 which he had in his pocket when he died; that Jim Vance's killers had shaken hands over his dead body; and that Randolph McCoy had sent Cap Hatfield word that he intended to kill him, cut out his heart or a piece of flesh, and broil and eat it. The
Wheeling Intelligencer
declared that if “one half of the stories of brutality and murder are true, the case would seem to warrant the authorities of both states in taking hold and ending the trouble, even if it is necessary to call the state troops into action.”
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Despite the gory accounts in the press, Frank Phillips had reason for gratification. In his forays into West Virginia he and his men captured Wall Hatfield, a Logan County justice of the peace, Tom Chambers, Elias Mitchell, Andrew Varney, L. S. McCoy, a son of Selkirk, Moses Christian, Sam Mahon, Dock Mahon, and Plyant Mahon, who joined Selkirk McCoy in the Pike County jail. The Hatfields were stunned by the depletion of their ranks, and West Virginia offered rewards for the capture of Phillips and twenty-one members of his posse.
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The hostilities of the early weeks of 1888 broke up the already crumbling marriage of Johnse Hatfield and Nancy McCoy. Johnse, always one of the weakest of the Hatfields, could not resist the pressures to join them in their moves against the McCoys, and Nancy, high-spirited and determined, always remained loyal to her family. When they parted, Nancy returned to Kentucky with their two children. In time she went to Pikeville, where she met Frank Phillips, who had separated from his wife. Nancy and Frank found at once that they were kindred spirits and began to live together. About two months later, when they received their divorces, they were married.
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Meanwhile, Rose Anna began to falter. She continued to care for her mother, who had fainting spells and needed assistance in walking, but she herself grew more and more depressed. Sarah McCoy sent for a doctor, who found nothing wrong with her daughter. Rose Anna, however, continued to lose ground, and one day she slipped away into death, much to the shock of residents of Pikeville. Her family laid her to rest in the Dils Cemetery in Pikeville. Rose Anna, perhaps as much as her sister and four brothers who rested in graves on Blackberry Creek, was a victim of the feud with the Hatfields.
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In late January 1888 Pike County Judge Tobias Wagner and County Attorney Lee Ferguson, both instrumental in action by the state the previous autumn, went to Frankfort and requested Governor Buckner to protect the lives and property of Pike County residents. Buckner listened attentively to their plea, but he professed to see no provocation sufficient to justify the dispatch of state troops to Pike County. He advised that its citizens organize a local militia force, with responsible men in command, and expressed the opinion that this force, backed by civil authorities, would be adequate to deal with the situation.
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