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The Hatfields and McCoys. The Original Family Feud. Grangerfords and Shepherdsons.
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The Hatfields and McCoys The Original Family Feud
Grangerfords and Shepherdsons “All of a sudden, bang! bang! bang! go three or four guns.... The boys jumped for the river - both of them hurt - and as they swum down the current the men run along the bank shooting at them and signing out, ‘Kill them, kill them!’ It made me sick.... I wished I hadn’t come ashore that night to see such things.” - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapter XIX
Family Feud • Long before the television game show, real families were involved in bloody family feuds. • Aside from the Shephersons and Grangerfords, other fictional feuding families include the Capulets and the Montagues.
The Hatfields and the McCoys • From 1878 to 1896, two Appalachian families, the Hatfields and the McCoys, were embroiled in the most famous historical family feud. • More than a dozen lives were lost. • Was this feud the inspiration for the Shepherson-Grangerford feud? Possibly… YOU be the judge.
Why did it happen? • The Civil War • The stolen pig • Romeo and Juliet of the Appalachians Devil Anse Hatfield
The Civil War • In the Civil War, the two families were on opposite sides of the war. The Hatfields fought for the Confederacy, while the McCoys fought for the Union. • During the war, Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield supposedly killed Harmon McCoy in battle. • Devil Anse came home a Confederate captain. Harmon McCoy Brother of Ran’l McCoy
The Stolen Pig • In 1878, there was a dispute over ownership of a razor-backed hog in a Hatfield pigsty. • The judge in the court dispute, a Hatfield, sided with his kin. • After the court decision, a group of McCoys ambushed Hatfields while hunting. Floyd Hatfield – Accused Pig Thief
Romeo and Juliet of the Appalachians • In 1880, Johnse Hatfield, son of Devil Anse, ran off with Roseanna McCoy at an Election Day picnic • This outraged Randolph “Ran’l” McCoy, Roseanna’s father. • The feud escalated.
1881 • In 1881 Roseanna and Johnse split up after she lived, unwed, with Johnse and the Hatfields for several months. She was pregnant. She caught measles while pregnant and the baby died. • Roseanna rode all the way back to Devil Anse’s home to warn Johnse of an ambush set up by her brothers. • Johnse married Roseanna’s cousin Nancy later that year.
1882 • On August 9, Bud, Tolbert, and Pharmer McCoy killed Ellison Hatfield. • The three McCoys were tied to bushes and executed by the Hatfields. • Jeff McCoy was later killed on the banks of the Tug Fork River.
1888 • Alifair and Calvin McCoy are brutally murdered in a Hatfield raid on the McCoy cabin. • The McCoy cabin is burned to the ground. • Roseanna McCoy died later that year.
Lessons Learned • When the dust settled, the two families eventually put the feud behind them. • The families intermarried. • Today, they hold an annual reunion, and the only feuding they do is on the baseball field.
Learn More • Read The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi • Visit http://www.libby-genealogy.com/hatfield-mccoy.htm • Visit http://www.blueridgecountry.com/hatmac/hatmac.html • Visit http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~dmcco01/McCoy/diversion.html