While some have surmised that his murder set the stage for the feud, most historians now see this incident as a standalone event. Many people-even members of his own family-regarded Asa Harmon, who had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, as a traitor. The first event in the decades-long feud was the 1865 murder of Randolph’s brother, Asa Harmon McCoy, by the Logan Wildcats, a local militia group that counted Devil Anse and other Hatfields among its members. The families even intermarried and sometimes switched family loyalties, even once the feud had started. Family loyalty was often determined not only by blood but by employment and proximity. Both families lived along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River, which snaked along the boundary between Kentucky and West Virginia, and both families had complex kinship and social networks. Though not as prosperous as Devil Anse, Randolph owned some land and livestock. On the other side of the feud stood Randolph “Old Ranel” McCoy.

By the 1870s Devil Anse was an increasingly successful timber merchant who employed dozens of men, including some McCoys. William Anderson Hatfield, known as “Devil Anse,” had the appearance of a backwoods, rough-hewn mountain dweller. Who were the Hatfields and McCoys, and what was the source of this vicious and violent clash between the families?ĭuring the most heated years of the feud, each family was ruled by a well-known patriarch. Yet many people familiar with these surnames may know little about the faded history of these two families and the legends they inspired. It evokes gun-toting vigilantes hell-bent on defending their kinfolk, igniting bitter grudges that would span generations. Mere mention of their names stirs up visions of a lawless and unrelenting family feud.

The Land Girl by Allie Burns