The Blood Feud: Devil Anse Hatfield & the Real Mccoys

By Stephen W. Snuffer

The Hatfield-McCoy feud of the 1880s and some time thereafter is one of the noted stories of folklore in America.
Today the causes of that family and friends war between the Hatfields and the McCoys will be consideredthe events which led up to the tragedy. There were many causes, an accumulation of things, which finally touched off the feud, or private war, which it actually was, between two determined families.
First cause I think can be attributed to the very natures of those concerned. Both families were people of nerve because blood of British origin pulsed in their veins. That blood bespoke stubborn resistance and unflinching determination, an unwavering set.
Came the Civil War of 186165 and neighbor lined up against neighbor.
In the Union corner was Randolph McCoy, leader of the McCoy clan.
In the Confederate corner, six feet of devil and 180 pounds of hell, according to Randolph McCoy, was Anderson (Devil Anse) Hatfield, head of the Hatfield horde.
When the war ended in 1865, the internecine feelings of these two neighboring familiesonly the narrow Tug River separated themdid not make for friendly relations. Indeed it had been rumored that Devil Anse Hatfield, in the course of his warfare sometime before the Civil War ended, had slain Harmon McCoy, a brother of Randolph McCoy.
This rumor was never proven. In fact, some stated that Jim Vance, later to die in the feud as a friend of the Hatfields, was the one who murdered Harmon McCoy. Whoever killed Harmon McCoy is unknown for sure even to this day, but one thing is sure, his death created ill feeling between the McCoys and the Hatfields, from the McCoy corner, of course.
A third cause of the feud was a family quarrel, which wound up in the court of a justice of the peace. That was eight years after the Civil War had ended. In those days in the rugged regions of the Tug, the people let their hogs run loose and fatten on the mast of nut-bearing trees, chestnut, acorn, hazel, and other trees.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Sep 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466952034

Stephen W. Snuffer

Stephen W. Snuffer has been employed by the State of West Virginia as a substance abuse therapist with the Division of Corrections where he worked with maximum security inmates one-on-one. He has a BS degree in criminal justice administration from Bluefield State College. He did his masters degree work in correctional counseling at Marshall University. Snuffer has run for public office for State Senate and has been owner of Snuffer Insurance and Hometown Insurance Agency for over twenty years. He has owned Security First, a private investigation firm. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, where he has been the Sunday School president and also served as mission leader in the past. Over the last thirty years, he was written many newspaper stories that have been carried by several local papers. Mr. Snuffer lives with his wife, Linda, in a round house located in a pine forest in southern West Virginia. When asked why he built a round house, Snuffer replied, ”I do not live in a square world, so why live in a square house?” He has three children: Brian, Richard, and Stephanie. He wrote the story, “West Virginia, Land of Mysteries,” about the ancient people who once lived in West Virginia. They build huge dams, write about their faith in Christ on sandstone cliffs, and once built a wall over seven miles long.

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Copyright 2012 Stephen W. Snuffer.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or

otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Created in the United States of America.

isbn:

978-1-4669-5204-1 (sc)

978-1-4669-5203-4 (e)

Trafford rev. 11/20/2012

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Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter One - The Feud Begins in 1827

Chapter Two - Devil Anse and Pet Bear

Chapter Three - The Causes

Chapter Four - Background

Chapter Five - Cotton Top Hung

Chapter Six - McCoy Home Burned

Chapter Seven - How Did the Hatfield’s Turn Out?

Chapter Eight - How Did the McCoy’s Turn Out?

Chapter Nine - What the Women Endured

Chapter Ten - Pictures

A tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye

The divine command-death to the wicked

Chapter twelve - Capital Punishment Cruel and Unusual?

Chapter Thirteen - Preview of Other Books by Stephen W. Snuffer

U.S. Constitution

Bill of Rights

Mountain Mystery Pictures

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of Shirley Donnelly, the greatest historian, writer, and minister of the gospel that I have ever known.

Often I think back on the days I spent listening to him recall the stories of West Virginia’s history.

My parents both worked at the Veteran’s Hospital at 200 Veteran’s Avenue in Beckley, WV. Many times I found him ministering to young men returning from the war. He knew my love of West Virginia. He would say to me, got a moment? Have a sit and I’ll teach you a thing or two. Sometimes hours would past by unnoticed.

Stories about Billie the Kid, and the horse saddle he received from a man who was related to Jesse James. The one that I really liked was the story of Devil Anse Hatfield and the real McCoy’s.

Shirley, knew several of the men who lived out the feud. He even had one of Devil Anse guns. He interviewed several members of his family and traveled to visit the sites where much of the history took place.

This book is done in his memory so that a correct record may be passed down to new generations of Mountaineers. Hollywood tends to take great liberties with the truth. The recent movie was not even filmed in West Virginia, and many of the facts are exactly backwards. Randl McCoy was not a confederate soldier and he lived 91 years. Devil Anse did not desert in the war. To be short, this book will help the reader find the truth of those events. Most of this book comes from the lips of Shirley Donnelly and the stories he wrote about in the local newspapers over the years. I am just the complier of his words. I hope you enjoy it.

I am Stephen Wind in the Trees Snuffer.

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Recently a movie starring Kevin Costner, titled – The Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s was shown on the History Channel. I still have one of the last bullets Devil Anse Hatfield loaded in the chrome- plated revolver with pearl handles that he kept under his bed pillow. His wife also had a pearl handled revolver under her bed pillow. Both were loaded 38.20 revolvers. Now passed down from Father to sons over the years since the famous feud ended.

I have written about Anderson Hatfield in my other book titled Mountain Mysteries and Ancient History published by Trafford Publishing Company in 2007.

On May 4th, 1905 a story was run in the Fayette Journal about the Hatfield and McCoy war. The following is a reprint of an interview with Joseph, the son of Captain Hatfield, as given to the Milwaukee correspondent for the Chicago Chronic.

I was brought up an ignorant youth. When eight years old, my father took me out back of our home and showed me a rifle. He taught me how to shoot it and also to hate the name of McCoy. I learned both.

At Roanoke, Virginia, I later went to work railroading and have followed that most of the time since. I hope to be able to do well here and earn a living for my family.

I have brought my family here under an assumed name as a telegraph operator….. If I were to go back to Kentucky or West Virginia, it would mean the death of a few more McCoy’s or the death of me.

I left Bardstown, Kentucky, my home and birthplace, last fall 1904. Harvey McCoy had a Smith and Wesson revolver and the other was holding a Colt six-shooter in his hand when all was said and done the McCoy dropped dead.

My brother is now serving a life sentence in Frankfort, Kentucky Penitentiary for killing, but we have hope of getting him out within two years, as soon as we have raised enough money to continue the case in the courts. It was clearly a case of self defense, so we have no doubt of our ultimate success.

Joseph then said that he was later shot in his right leg while working at War Eagle on the N and W road on November 21st. First I heard of it when two black men, working with my crew came up the mountain to the company store asking for me. I walked up the track about three miles to see if I could get some .38 bullets for my revolver but failed to get any. Then I started down the tracks and had not gone far when a loud blast broke the air and I realized that they had shot me in the leg. I forced myself to run and manage to escape up the side of the hill while they kept firing at me.

When I went down the other side of the mountain I found my family who got a doctor who was able to remove the bullet from my leg and the family lent me eleven dollars, all they had, so I could ride forty-seven miles to Cincinnati, Ohio and from there I wound my way to Milwaukee.

Devil Anse is my grandfather and my father is Captain John, the feud started over a strip of land 47 feet wide and 2,700 feet long. There was an error in the deed

Image421124-6.tif

Back row, standing (left to right): Ock Damron, a hired hand; Elias Hatfield; Detroit or Troy Hatfield; Joe Hatfield; Cap Hatfield; Bill Borden, a friend who arranged for the picture. Front, sitting (left to right): Tennis Hatfield; Devil Anse Hatfield, Willis Hatfield, In background: Levicy Hatfield, wife of Devil Anse (sitting) and Mary, daughter of Devil Anse (standing).

Image421124-7.tif

The gun of Devil Anse Hatfield that he kept under his bed pillow.

and both families claimed it. A McCoy built a fence around it and all hell broke loose. That was in 1827. That McCoy was shot by one of my ancestors with a matchlock rifle and the fight has kept going to this very day.

Our feud was purely a family row. A Hatfield never beat a man out of a dollar neither did a McCoy as far as I know but 47 lives have been lost to date and the end of this thing is still not in sight.

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William Anderson (Devil Anse) Hatfield,

September 9, 1839-January 6, 1921,

The feud’s famous leader.

Library of Congress photo

An old acquaintances of William Anderson Devil Anse recently filled me in on some details of the leader of one side of the Hatfield-McCoy feud.

After his World War I stint in the Navy, Tamplin Farley, 130 Laurel Creek Road, Fayetteville, traveled some of the other counties of West Virginia and his path ended with the Hatfield people.

While telling me some of his experiences, Tamp, as he is called, tendered me a picture of Devil Anse and his pet bear.

The bear, captured when a cub, was kept chained to a small building in the backyard of the Hatfield home on Island Creek in Logan County.

In the picture, probably 60 or more years old, Devil Anse is standing astride the bear and holding the bear by the neck.

Shortly after Tamp gave me this picture, I showed it to Charles Victor Feller, 533 Morris Avenue, Mullens, an old commander to arms now holed up by Uncle Sam’s health emporium known as Beckley V.A. Hospital.

When I saw that bear, Vic, who then told me while being a passenger on a train in Logan was a young man in his twenties.

He was reading a newspaper when this gritchel on a seat beside him, when the train started and in strolled an elderly, bearded man who said to Vic, Sonny, is anybody sitting in this seat?

Vic told him no and proceeded to put his grip on the luggage rack overhead. There upon the stranger seated himself, introduced himself as Anderson Hatfield and struck up a conversation.

That was the beginning of a friendship between the two travelers, who were casually thrown together that day.

For sometime I have been after Vic to write more, but he passed before writing anything on paper.

Image421124-10.tif

Devil Anse Hatfield and his pet bear are shown in this old photograph, which is yellowed with age, cracked across the center and missing one corner.

(This caption was pla ced below the picture in the original.)

Devil Anse Hatfield, the chief of the Hatfield clan of West Virginia was a proud mountaineer and a historic folklore hero. A legend in life and in death his story continues to be told. He often stated that neither gun nor knife would take his life and like a prophet of old he lived to the ripe old age of 82 years, three months and 27 days.

A veteran and war hero of the great Civil War. He served as captain. He had many close calls with death, when fired upon from ambush and hand-to-hand combat with union forces, as well as from the real McCoy’s. Standing only 5’9 inches tall and some 175 lbs. soaking wet, yet there was something different, something unique about this man. He had dark cold eyes that almost seemed to see right through you. He spoke with confidence and authority. His voice seemed to boom through the high mountains and to echo with power in the hollows below.

When he spoke, those in his employ followed his orders without question. He was an amazing sight to glance upon. Some claim he had a crazed look and few doubted he could back up his words with his gun if necessary….. Dirty Harry is the closest Hollywood character that would fit his equal today. Family members share stories of his legendary feats. He knew the value of hard work and taught his children the value of hard work, true capitalism at its best. He believed in the good book, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, that was Hatfield justice. He said more than once, that lawyers lie and steal what they did not own and that judges seek to be popular rather than to administrator justice or seek the truth. He stated that Hatfield justice was fast and sure for anyone who ran afoul of his justice.

Many assassins came to his mountain in hopes of gaining a reward for taking his life. The wind blows the branches of the trees. You cannot see the wind but you see the results of what it moves. The Devil too is never seen but those who sought him found him and lie beneath the ground at the Devil’s hand.

Devil Anse was a throwback, utterly original. He escaped death more times than Houdini. He kept the petal to the metal and his life was like a roller coaster of a thriller ride, never dull.

Devil Anse life was an adrenaline-fueled concoction filled daily with genuine suspense. It was non-stop action. Before Homeland security started after September 1, 2001, their was homeland security in the southern hills of West Virginia. It was called Devil Anse. When he fired his gun it was with laser guided accuracy. He coolly analyzed his situation and then directed every attack with a better counterattack. His voice was like a snowball rolling down the mountain then all hell breaking loose. Everyone knew damn well that they had made a serious mistake