The Hatfields and the McCoys (21 page)

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

T
HE 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 and 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.

Bradley, Joseph P.

Bradley, Solomon

Breathitt County, Ky.

Brown, George N.

Brushy Creek (Pike County)

Buckner, Simon Bolivar; rebukes Judge Lilly; and Perry Cline; and Frank Phillips; and extradition of Hatfields; refuses troops for Pike County; sends Sam Hill to Pikeville; sets execution date for Mounts

Burnett, Alfred, Burnett, John, Burnwell, Ky.

Cabell County, W. Va.

Caldwell, Alfred

Callahan, Ed

Callahan, Wilson

Campbell, John

Campbell, P.A.

Cannelton, W. Va.

Cardwell, Jerry

Carpenter, Charles

Carter County, Ky.

Caruth, Asher C.

Casebolt, Andy

Castleman, John B., Catlettsburg, Ky.

Ceredo, W. Va.

Chafin, Don

Chafin, Moses

Chafin, Thomas

Chafin family

Chambers, Henderson; Chambers, Thomas; rescue of Johnse Hatfield; capture of McCoys; indicted for murder; in New Year's Night attacks; captured

Charles family

Charleston, W. Va.

Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad

Christian, Dan

Christian, Moses

Cincinnati Enquirer

Civil War origins of feud

Clark, J.H.

Cline, Allan

Cline, Link

Cline, Perry; sketch of; letter from Devil Anse Hatfield; and Governor Buckner; and Logan County Regulators; letter to Governor Wilson; obtains warrants for Hatfields; duplicity of; McCoys move to home of

Cline family

Cockrell, James

Cockrell, Tom

Cole, A.E.

Combs, Josiah

Combs, Nick

Confederates: guerrilla activity of

Connelly, W.M., Cox, D.B.

Crawford, T.C.

Cunningham, Dan

Daniels, Bill

Daniels, Mary

Davis, Henry

Davis, Joe

Day, John C.

Delorme, W. Va.

Dempsey, William, detectives

Dils, John

Dils Cemetery (Pikeville)

Dyer, Bill

East Kentucky Magnet
(Louisa, Ky.)

Elam, Frank

elections: on Blackberry Creek

Elliott, J.M.

Ellis, French

Ellis, Humphrey E.

Eureka Detective Agency

Evans family

Eversole, Joseph

Ewen, J.B.

family: importance of

Farmers, Ky.

Ferguson, Lee

Ferrell, Anderson

Field, Stephen J.

Fleming, A. Brooks

Floyd, JohnB.

Fort Donelson

France, John C.

Francis, John C.

Francisco, James

French, Benjamin

Fulton

French-Eversole War

Gamble family

Garrett, Reverend William Dyke

Gayhart, Silas

Gerome, Octavo

Gibson, Eustace

Gibson, Treve

Gillespie, Charles

Glenn, Joe

Glover, J.W.

Goff Guards (W. Va.)

Gooslin, John

Grapevine Creek

Gray, W. Va.

Greenup Independent
(Ky.)

Gulnare, Ky.

Guyandotte River

Hand, John

Hanson, Carl

Hardin, Parker Watkins

Harewood, W. Va.

Hargis, Ben

Hargis, James

Hargis, John (“Tige”)

Hargis, Thomas F.

Hargis-Cockrell-Marcum-Callahan Feud

Harlan, John M.

Hatfield, Aileen

Hatfield, Anderson (“Deacon Anse”),; in hog theft trial

Hatfield, Anderson C.

Hatfield, Basil,; hogs taken; arrests Selkirk McCoy

Hatfield, Bill Tom; in attack on McCoy family

Hatfield, Cap.
See
Hatfield; William Anderson, Jr.

Hatfield, Coleman

Hatfield, Detroit (“Troy”)

Hatfield, “Devil Anse.”
See
Hatfield, William Anderson

Hatfield, Elexious

Hatfield, Elias (“Bad Lias”)

Hatfield, Elias (son of “Big Eaf”)

Hatfield, Elias (brother of “Devil Anse”); deserts army; rescues Johnse Hatfield; in McCoy murders; extradition sought; interviewed; accusations against newspapers

Hatfield, Elias (son of “Devil Anse”)

Hatfield, Elias, Jr.

Hatfield, Elizabeth

Hatfield, Elliott (son of “Devil Anse”)

Hatfield, Elliott (nephew of “Devil Anse”)

Hatfield, Ellison; deserts army; takes hogs; troubles with Sam McCoy; rescues Johnse Hatfield; killed by McCoys; funeral

Hatfield, Emanuel Willis Wilson

Hatfield, Ephraim

Hatfield, Ephraim (“Big Eaf”)

Hatfield, Ephraim (son of Jeremiah)

Hatfield, Floyd

Hatfield, G. Elliott

Hatfield, George

Hatfield, Henry Drury

Hatfield, Jeremiah (“Jerry”)

Hatfield, John

Hatfield, Johnson (“Johnse”); at 1880 elections; described; seized by McCoys; marriage; in capture of McCoy brothers; indicted for murder of McCoys; accusations against Cline; in New Year's Night attack on McCoys; imprisonment of; pardoned; death of

Hatfield, Joseph

Hatfield, Joseph (son of “Devil Anse”)