I was watching the History channel special “Hillbillies” last night, and I realized that there is still a persistent myth about how the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud cam to be. This special never address that fact that the romantic myth of it starting over a love affair is simply false. The whole thing started over a hog!
Well, more so than the hog… It started over where the hog was grazing. Floyd Hatfield claimed ownership of the hog. Yet, it was spending it’s days on Randolph McCoy’s property doing what hugs do. Since the notion is that possession is 9/10ths of the law – McCoy wanted possession of the hog. The case was presented to a judge, and through the testimony of a man related to both families involved in the squabble, Bill Staton, the ruling came down in favor of Hatfield. Staton was later killed by two McCoys, Paris and Sam, who ended up getting off on a self defense claim.
It was only after this initial entry into the feud that romance got involved. The feud escalated after Roseanna McCoy began an affair with Johnse Hatfield, and the kidnapping of Johnse by the McCoys, when he went to fetch his errant bride-to-be, who had returned to her family.
The romantic entanglements continued, as after his kidnapping and the desperate ride Roseanna made to bring him aid, Johnse abandoned the pregnant Roseanna, and married her cousin, Nancy McCoy.
More bloodshed followed, as Ellison Hatfield, Johnse’s paternal uncle was murdered by Roseanna McCoy’s brothers, Tolbert, Pharmer, and Bud. These three were murdered by Hatfields that were never named.
For 11 years (1880-1891) the Hatfields and McCoys continued kidnapping and killing each other, until over a dozen family members from both sides were dead. It is rumored that the State Militias of both Kentucky and West Virginia were called upon to help restore order between the two feuding sides.
On June 14, 2003 – descendants of the Hatfield and McCoy clans signed an official truce in Pikeville, Kentucky, but this was more of a media stunt for tourism, as the feud had really ended in 1891 with the kidnapping and trial of eight Hatfields in Pikeville. The United States Supreme Court got involved, and all eight were found guilt of murder, finally ending the bloodshed between the two families.
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Hi Bob! Thank you for the forwards
I think that whoever wrote the Hatfield-McCoy entry needs to read about the feud. This piece flirts with the facts, but is erroneous on several points — most strikingly on the idea that the feud started over the Floyd Hatfield-Randolph McCoy hog. It didn’t. That was an element, but not the cause.
Nor, apparently, did it start because of the Johnse Hatfield-Roseanna McCoy love affair or the murder in 1865 of Randolph McCoy’s brother, Asa, or the shooting of Bill Staton by Paris and Sam McCoy. Like the hog incident, all these events are understood to have contributed to the feud. And it shifted into overdrive following the 1882 election day murder of Ellison Hatfield by the McCoy brothers, Tolbert, Pharmer and Bud — and their murder by gunfire in cold blood while tied to paw-paw bushes two days later.
I can suggest that the writer read any or all of three definitive books on the subject: “Feud” by Altina L. Waller; “The Hatfields and the McCoys” by Otis K. Rice and “The Hatfields and the McCoys” by Virgil Carrington Jones. Ms. Waller’s book is the most recent and students of the feud tend to regard it as the most credible in ascribing its causes to socio-economic conditions and the changing culture of the Tug Valley region.
All three of these books are informative and interesting. There are many other books on the topic, as well, including some written by direct descendants of both the Hatfields and McCoys. Good reading. I think you’ll enjoy them.