The Hatfield family tree and the McCoys, the two families of the feud

At the head of the Hatfield family tree is William Anderson Hatfield, called Devil Anse, born on 9 September 1839 in what is now Mingo County.² In the Civil War he fought for the Confederacy in the Logan Wildcats. He later farmed and logged, and won timberland in a lawsuit against Perry Cline, a relative of the McCoys.^2,7

He married Levicy Chafin in Logan County on 18 April 1861, and they had thirteen children.^7,2 The chart draws eight, the eldest sons Johnse and Cap and six who sat for the photograph of 1897, Betty, Elias, Troy, Joe, Willis and Tennis.⁷ Devil Anse was baptized in 1911, died on 6 January 1921 and lies under a life-size statue of himself in Logan County.²

On the Kentucky side of the Hatfield family tree stands Randolph McCoy, born on 30 October 1825.⁸ Like Devil Anse, he sided with the Confederacy in 1861.⁶ On 9 December 1849 he married his first cousin Sarah McCoy, called Sally, and they had sixteen children.⁸

The chart draws the six children the feud turned on, Roseanna, Tolbert, Alifair, Calvin, Pharmer and Randolph Jr., called Bud. Wikipedia says in one place that Randolph lost five children to the feud and in another seven.⁸ Randolph, Sarah and Roseanna lie in Dils Cemetery at Pikeville.⁵

The earliest killing e-WV counts in the feud is that of Asa Harmon McCoy, Randolph’s brother and a Union veteran, murdered in Pike County in January 1865. He was believed killed by the Logan Wildcats.¹ A Kentucky marker gives 1864.³ He had enlisted in the Kentucky Home Guards in February 1862 at the age of 32, which places his birth about 1830.¹⁰

In 1878 Randolph accused Floyd Hatfield of stealing a hog. Bill Staton, Randolph’s nephew, testified for Floyd, and the juror Selkirk McCoy, Randolph’s cousin, cast the deciding vote to acquit.¹ Two other nephews of Randolph killed Staton in June 1880.⁶

At an election on Blackberry Creek in the spring of 1880, Johnse Hatfield left the grounds with Roseanna McCoy, a daughter of Randolph.¹ He was 18 and she was 21, by the Kentucky marker, which says Devil Anse refused to let them marry.³

Their daughter Sarah Elizabeth McCoy was born in 1881 and died of measles and pneumonia a few months later.³ That same year Johnse left Roseanna and married her cousin Nancy McCoy.⁶ The marker for Nancy calls her the youngest daughter of Asa Harmon McCoy, married at 15, though its main text names Randolph and Sarah as her parents. The chart follows the first reading.^4,3

This marriage is the Hatfield family tree’s one line into the McCoys. Nancy left Johnse, took up with Frank Phillips soon after the fight at Grapevine Creek in 1888, married him in 1895 and died about three years after him.⁴

At the Blackberry Creek election of 1882, Ellison Hatfield, a brother of Devil Anse, was mortally wounded in a drunken brawl with Tolbert, Pharmer and Bud McCoy. When Ellison died, the Hatfields tied the three to pawpaw bushes on the Kentucky side of the Tug and shot them.¹

Governor E. W. Wilson of West Virginia refused Kentucky’s request to hand over the Hatfields.¹ On 1 January 1888 a party led by Jim Vance, an uncle of Devil Anse, and by Cap Hatfield set fire to Randolph’s cabin. Calvin and Alifair were killed, and Sarah was beaten and nearly killed.^1,6

A Kentucky posse under Frank Phillips killed Jim Vance, and on 19 January 1888 the sides fought at Grapevine Creek.¹ Eight men were indicted, among them Cap, Johnse, Robert and Elliott Hatfield. In Mahon v. Justice, on 14 May 1888, the Supreme Court ruled that they could be tried in Kentucky, and seven went to prison.⁶ Their cousin Ellison Mounts was hanged at Pikeville on 18 February 1890, which e-WV says ended the family war.¹

Cap Hatfield studied law in prison and became a deputy sheriff of Logan County. His article gives his birth as 1863, his father’s 1864.^9,7 Randolph McCoy died at Pikeville on 28 March 1914.⁸ On 14 June 2003 descendants of both families signed a truce at Pikeville.¹¹