The feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families (along West Virginia's southern border) was born of pervasive socio-economic unrest during the region's early Industrial Revolution. The patriarch of the Hatfield clan, Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield likely fed the fuel of anomosity between the families when he broke from the socially accepted role of farmer and began to timber properties in the Tug Fork Valley area.
In 1878, a dispute over the ownership of two razor-backed hogs in a Hatfield
pigsty provoked the first recorded violence. Upset when a court decision over
the swine went against them, the McCoys ambushed a group of Hatfields who were
deer hunting. None were killed, but a few days later, Staton Hatfield fired on
brothers Sam and Paris McCoy, injuring one before he himself was killed by a
shot to the head.
In spring 1880, Anderson Hatfield's son Johnse grew enamored of Rose Anna
McCoy, daughter of McCoy patriarch Randolph "Ran'l" McCoy. Ran'l was
furious when Rose Anna left that night to live with Johnse, and even more
enraged several months later when the relationship ended and his daughter came
home a "ruined" woman.
In August 1882, during a county election, Ellison Hatfield insulted Tolbert
McCoy, a son of Ran'l, then attacked him. Tolbert and a brother stabbed
Ellison 26 times, and a third brother shot him in the back. The Hatfields
quickly overcame the McCoys brothers, tied them to pawpaw trees and executed
them with 50 rifle bullets.
In 1887, Ran'l, who had been waiting for West Virginia to extradite the
Hatfields accused of his sons' deaths, organized a raid into Hatfield
territory, seized a McCoy who had married a Hatfield, and brought him back to
a Kentucky jail.
Descendants of infamous feuding families, Hatfields and McCoys, sign truce with global message Saturday, June 14, 2003 (06-14) 10:48 PDT PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A pen and ink sealed the end of Appalachia's most infamous bloody feud instead of a shotgun and bullets. Descendants of the Hatfield and McCoy families gathered Saturday in Pikeville to sign the truce, making a largely symbolic and official end to a feud that had claimed at least a dozen lives from the two mountain families. "We ask by God's grace and love that we be forever remembered as those that bound together the hearts of two families to form a family of freedom in America," says the truce, signed by more than 60 descendants. Reo Hatfield of Waynesboro, Va., came up with the idea as a proclamation of peace. The broader message it sends to the world, he said, is that when national security is at risk, Americans put their differences aside and stand united. If these two feuding families can come together, anyone can, he said. "We're not saying you don't have to fight because sometimes you do have to fight," Hatfield said. "But you don't have to fight forever." The more than a century of feuding between the McCoys of Kentucky and Hatfields of West Virginia is believed to have its origins in a dispute over a pig. A court battle over timber rights escalated the tension in the 1870s, and by 1888, as many as a dozen lives were lost. Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton and West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise also signed proclamations declaring June 14 Hatfield and McCoy Reconciliation Day. Ron McCoy, a founder of Hatfield-McCoy Festival, now in its fourth year, said the families haven't decided what to do with the signed proclamations. "The Hatfields and McCoys symbolize violence and feuding and fighting," he said, "but by signing this, hopefully people will realize that's not the final chapter."