The Hatfields and The McCoys - A Bitter Feud

The Hatfields and The McCoys - you have probably heard of these names before, and after you read their story, you will probably recognize it...you will probably even notice its similarity to movies you have seen and songs you have heard. In fact, their legendary feud has become a metaphor for feuding families in general.

The story revolves around two families: the Hatfields, led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield (1839-1921), and the McCoys, led by Randolph "Ole Ran'l" McCoy(1825-1914). Both families had acquired a lot of land and respectability, with the Hatfields being more affluent and well-connected politically than the McCoys.

William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield


Randolph "Ole Ran'l" McCoy

The Hatfields lived on the West Virginia side of the Tug Fork River, and the McCoys lived on the Kentucky side. Both families were involved in the making and selling of moonshine, and both families were involved in pro-Confederate guerilla activity during the Civil War.

"Peace was never natural along the Tug's banks. Especially not in the mid-19th century.

The men here doted on their skills at guns and fights, their spit-the-devil-in-the-eye fearlessness, their huge families, their freedom. For them, government barely existed. Courts were few and police protection almost nonexistent, with public servants dreading to venture into the hollows and backwoods near today's Matewan, W.Va. and Pikeville, Ky.

Rugged outdoorsmen, often intelligent and usually illiterate, they made whiskey, logged timber, fished and hunted. And they excelled at their crafts. Many were such uncanny marksmen that the story is told of a shy mountain boy who put a bullseye through a coin thrown into the air without any of those present having seen him even draw his gun. The stuff of legend? Likely, but indicative at least of the tenor of the time and region." (from http://www.blueridgecountry.com/hatmac/hatmac.html)

Before the Civil War, there was actually peace among the two families. Often times, a Hatfield would marry a McCoy and nothing was thought of it. That would not be the case in later years.

The Civil War actually played a big part in the feud, and many people regard Asa Harmon McCoy as the first victim of the feud.

Devil Anse Hatfield formed The Logan Wildcats, the most feared guerilla band to patrol the Tug River banks, out of the need to defend his home against the Union soldiers. The Hatfields felt a great deal of hatred toward the McCoys as Asa Harmon McCoy, younger brother to Ole Ran'l McCoy, had joined the Union Army.

Asa Harmon McCoy

When Harmon was discharged from the Union on Christmas Eve in 1864 due to a broken leg, he was met with a warning from Jim Vance, Devil Anse Hatfield's uncle, that he could expect a visit from the Logan Wildcats. Several nights later, after having taken refuge in a nearby cave, Harmon was shot dead. The first suspect, of course, was Devil Anse Hatfield. But later, after having found out that Devil Anse had been confined to his bed during the time of the shooting, the blame fell on Jim Vance. Because joining the Union army had been seen to be a disloyalty to his family, even his own family believed that Harmon had brought on the murder himself. However, in the end, no suspect was ever brought to trial, though most people to this day believe that it was Jim Vance who had murdered Harmon McCoy.

For thirteen years after this incident, there was peace along the banks of the Tug River.

That was until the infamous "Pig Incident."

One autumn day in 1878, Ole Ran'l stopped by to visit Floyd Hatfield, his wife's brother-in-law. Upon his visit, he saw a familiar looking pig. He accused Floyd of theft and both parties went to court.

Floyd won the case. The feud was on again.

Bill Stanton, a nephew of Ole Ran'l, who testified at the pig trial, was the next one to be killed in the feud. Within months of the trial, he was shot and killed by Paris and Sam McCoy. Sam was tried for the murder of Bill Stanton in a Hatfield court and was acquitted. Some writers believe that Devil Anse had called for the acquittal as a gesture of peace, but the gesture was futile. The McCoys were angry that Sam was put on trial in the first place. Instead of gratitude toward the Hatfields, they felt even more rage toward them.

With the two families at war again, it seemed like a foolish idea for a Hatfield to fall in love with a McCoy during this time. But that is what happened.

Roseanna McCoy was the daughter of Ole Ran'l McCoy, and Johnse Hatfield was the son of Devil Anse Hatfield. The two met at a spring election in 1880. He was 18 years old at the time and already an established bootlegger and ladies man. She was about a year older than him and considered to be one of Pike's County's most beautiful girls. Soon after, she left her family to live with the Hatfields in West Virginia. Needless to say, Devil Anse was none too pleased with the idea of a union between the two lovers.

Roseanna eventually returned to her family, but when the two tried to rekindle their relationship, the McCoys kidnapped Johnse and took him prisoner. Fearing her brothers would kill Johnse, Roseanna borrowed a neighbor's horse and rode to find Devil Anse to alert him of his son's danger. Devil Anse and his sons and neighbors cut off the McCoys at a shortcut and rescued Johnse.

But Roseanna would not be rewarded for her bravery. She was shunned by Johnse, who ended up marrying her cousin Nancy only months later in 1881. Ole Ran'l considered her ride to save Johnse as an unforgivable sin. Roseanna, who was pregnant at the time, contracted measles and miscarried her child.

In 1882, during the election and seemingly without provocation, Tolbert, Pharmer and Bud McCoy murdered Ellison Hatfield, brother of Devil Anse, by stabbing him 26 times and shooting him in the back. After his death three days later, the three McCoy brothers would be murdered, tied to Paw Paw bushes, their bodies riddled with bullets.

Between 1880 and 1891, more than a dozen members of both families had been killed due to the feud. The violence between the feuding families was so bad that special officer Frank Phillips was appointed by Kentucky's Governor in 1887 to arrest the murderers of the McCoy brothers. Frank Phillips offered an outlandish sum of money as a reward and let loose dozens of bounty hunters to track them down.

Determined to leave no witnessed to their crime, the Hatfields raided the McCoy's home on New Year's Day in 1888, killing Alifair McCoy (daughter) and Calvin McCoy (son), and burning the McCoy home to the ground.

After the raid, Roseanna was left to tend to her mother's wounds. She grew more and more depressed, and younger than 30 years old, she died soon after.

The Hatfield Clan - 1897

Eight Hatfield men were kidnapped and brought to Kentucky to stand trial for the murder of Alifair McCoy. The Supreme Court became involved in the trial, due to issues of illegal extridition and due process. All eight men were eventually found guilty, seven of them getting life sentences and one executed in a public hanging, which was illegal at the time. Some say this was done to serve as a warning to end the violence. The families eventually agreed to end the violence in 1891.

On June 14, 2003, descendants from both families signed a truce in Pikeville.

Hatfield and MCCoy kids playing tug-of-war in the schoolyard

Both Devil Anse and Ole Ran'l survived the feud untouched, and both lived well into their 80's. Ole Ran'l died of burns on March 28, 1914, while Devil Anse died of pneumonia on Jan. 6, 1921.

Devil Anse's burial site

The story of their feud has inspired many songs, tv show episodes and movies. A few examples of this are:

- On the Flintstones cartoon, there was an episode of the "Flintstones vs. the Hatrocks" ... a parody of the Hatfields and McCoys

- Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has a section which strongly parallels the Hatfield-McCoy feud. In chapter 18, the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons is highlighted with a similar circumstance where a daughter of the Grangerford family runs away to join a boy in the Shepherdson family.

- "This successful life we're living has got us feudin' like the Hatfields and McCoys..." These are part of the lyrics to "Luckenbach, Texas," recorded in 1976 by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.

- In the Disney Channel show House of Mouse, a sketch in one of the episodes involved a family feud between two families called the Coyfields and the McHats.

- The 1951 Abbott and Costello comedy film, Comin' Round The Mountain was about a feud between the Winfields and the McCoys.

- In the 70s and early 80s, SeaWorld had a water ski show based on the Hatfield-McCoy feud.

- In the 1946 Disney animated feature, Make Mine Music, the first segment is a song by The King's Men Quartet about a Hatfield-McCoy style feud between two families, "The Martins and the Coys", set to animation.