Time for a Quick Road Trip in Kentucky...Day 3...

Wednesday, August 2nd, would be the longest day of touring for us. We started our day with our cups full of ice, soda or water, and a bagel in our hands as we drove from Prestonsburg to Pikeville. 

This is a timeline of the feud. 

First we would visit the eastern Kentucky Hatfield/McCoy sites.

In Pikeville we turned north on Hwy 119 in search of Aunt Betty's home on the Tug River. 

Roseanna McCoy was Randolph McCoy's daughter. She was beautiful. He took her to an election day where she met Johnsie Hatfield, Devil Anse Hatfield's son. He was handsome and quite a lady's man. This meeting would exacerbate a chain of events that had been in motion. Randolph and Devil Anse were original settlers to the area. They were both good men who had been friends. They fought in the Civil War together but that would also begin their feud. They were leaders in their community, sort of Elder Statesmen if you will. By the time in the story their kids meet, this feud was well established and the hatred very strong between the two families. Roseanna and Johnsie are smitten with each other. Through a turn of events, Roseanna is left at the election fun with Johnsie and her family returns home thinking she has returned home with others in their party that left at different times. Roseanna ends up at night with no family to take her home. Johnsie takes her to his home where her reception is polite but cold. She ends up staying there as her father now wants nothing to do with a daughter who has spent a night with the Hatfield's. Roseanna will become pregnant with Johnsie's child. They are not married. Great shame for each family. Roseanna will go to her Aunt Betty's home along the Tug River and live there, giving birth to a baby girl. The little one will get the measles and that leads to pneumonia from which she will succumb. Roseanna's baby will be buried at Aunt Betty's. 

As we drove along the Tug River, I was fascinated that almost every home was on top of a full solid foundation. You always had to go up stairs to get to the living area. It reminded me of the flooding in these hollows that is very destructive. I am sure this way of building is an effort to deal with living in a flood plain that will most likely flood. 

The hollows are very narrow with a stream or creek running through them. The homes have very little yard and are often set right on the only street running through the little communities. The mountain walls are behind each side of the road behind the houses. I took this picture in Hardy, Kentucky. 

Our favorite stop of the day would be at the McCoy homeplace. This was the site of their original home that the Hatfield's would burn down. It is in Hardy, Kentucky. The man who owns the spot is named Neil Warren. He is a HUGE Hatfield/McCoy history buff. He knows family members, has visited with them, they have given him real artifacts from their family history. When he bought his home, he knew it was the site of the McCoy's original home. There is a gravel parking area across the street from his home in which to park. Then you are invited by signage to walk up his driveway and into the backyard of his next door neighbor. There are three homes there and they have an easement for the hill behind the middle home where the homesite was located. Neil arrived home as we were parking and looking at the situation to see what we could actually visit. He parked his car in his garage and came out and called to me to come on over and visit. Claude joined me and we visited with Neil. He is on his third book where visitors list their names. Whenever he is home, he shares his vast knowledge of this entire bit of history. He told us where there were errors in the History Channel documentary. He shared the errors in some of the sites we visited. He shared family photos he has been given and the stories behind them. Claude said it was like getting a drink from a firehose. It was a delight. Then we walked to the home site. 

This marker for a cemetery was in the gravel parking lot. I couldn't imagine where anyone was buried. Neil had watched me try to figure it out. When we talked with him he explained the situation. The actual cemetery was down the road a bit. It was owned by a man with the last name of Vance. The Vance in the Hatfield/McCoy feud was on the side of the Hatfield's. This current day Vance will not allow anyone on the property to visit the cemetery. In fact, when the historical society approached him about putting this marker on the site, he refused. Note, it is a McCoy cemetery. So, the historical marker is in the gravel parking lot down the road from the actual cemetery. Through legal proceedings, Vance finally agreed that the McCoy family could come on his property two times each year to visit the graves of their ancestors. At no other time are they allowed at the cemetery. I am thinking there is still some people with a lot of pent-up emotion about this feud to this day. Although, we didn't really feel that anywhere we visited. If Neil hadn't explained it to us, we would not have known of this situation. 

This home is Neil's home and if you look up the hill between the two houses, that is the actual homesite of the original McCoy home. 

This is Blackberry Creek. You will here of this in the story and a community named after the creek. 

This is Neil Warren. I very nice man who loves sharing his personal knowledge of this part of American history. 

Claude walking to the well. It is still a well that could be used today. 

Randolph McCoy statue.

There is a lovely meadow that goes up the hill to the side of where the home would have been. Neil shared that they knew exactly where to place their home. It gets good morning sun. It has a nice breeze coming through this meadow. If they opened windows in their home, they would have had good, cool air. 

From the statue of Randolph McCoy and the well, you can see Claude standing where the home would have been built against the hill. The meadow was to Claude's right.

View from the well site back down to Neil's home. 

Next we drove to a cabin that was the site of the Hog Trial as well as where the two elections that fit into the story were held. The cabin was in great disrepair and the historical society has restored the cabin. They used the original steps up to the cabin front. The children's footprints can still be found in these steps. Another neat fact Neil shared with us. 

The people raised hogs that roamed the hills eating nuts. In the fall, the families gathered their hogs and brought them in. Several were chosen for fattening for winter food. All their hogs had their ears clipped in a way that noted each family. A big part of the feud came when Randolph found one of his hogs on a Hatfield's property. The accusations led to a trial in this home. A jury of 6 Hatfield's and 6 McCoy's decided it was a Hatfield pig. This only deepened the feud. 

The first election is where Johnsie and Roseanna met and fell in love. The second election ended with a fight between the Hatfield's and McCoy's. A Hatfield was mortally wounded and that led to three McCoy sons being captured and eventually killed by the Hatfield's. 

On to the Paw Paw Tree incident. The three McCoy brothers were taken to West Virginia by the Hatfield's. They were told they would be released if their family member lived. If he died, they would be killed. Sally McCoy, their mother, would come and plead on bended knee with Devil Anse to release her boys and stop the killing. Devil Anse promised her he would bring her boys alive back to Kentucky. His relative did die. He brought the McCoy boys back across the Tug River alive. They were tied to Paw Paw Trees and executed. Devil Anse kept his promise to bring them to Kentucky alive. Then he killed them. 

From here we crossed the Tug River into West Virginia at Matewan. Then followed the roads across King Coal Highway and north on Hwy 44 to the last home of Devil Anse Hatfield and the Hatfield cemetery. Other than Claude being pulled over for speeding as he coasted down one of the many mountains, we had a lovely ride. He was only given a warning...thank goodness.

The road was blocked so we did not climb the hill to the cemetery. 

At the homeplace of Devil Anse Hatfield, there was a shop with a little museum and a nice little covered area that served barbeque. We opted to have a light bite to carry us till dinner. 

We returned to Kentucky the way we came with only one missed road. Thankfully my car does U-turns and we were able to find our way. 

One of the very first stories in the feud is the killing of Asa Harmon McCoy. He returns from the Civil War and is shot at for his choice of sides in the war. He hides out in a cave away from his family to keep them safe. He will be hunted down and killed. And...there goes the feud.

There is a monument to the Hatfield's and McCoys. 

Time to try for a good Chinese dinner. We had noticed a Peking Buffet in Pikeville. We returned to Pikeville and located that restaurant and had a wonderful Chinese dinner. 

Where's Claudo??

Back to Prestonsburg for another good night's sleep before our journey home.