Miles 0
Pikeville, Kentucky. Heart of Appalachia (pronounced Appa latch ia, not Appa lay chia).
We spent the day walking around this small but historical town in eastern Kentucky. President Garfield (elected 1880, assassinated 1881) received his commission as general here in 1862.
Pikeville College was founded here by the Presbyterian Church in 1889 as the first school of higher education in Appalachian Kentucky.
And the MyCoy's and Hatfields had their clan feud here in Pike County and the adjacent county in West Virginia. Pikeville was the center of the "justice".
John Dillinger spent time here during the depression bootlegging whiskey to the mob in Chicago. He was hiding from the "revenuers". Soon he had to move out to Tennessee. He was spending $100 bills in the 1930's and that caught some attention!
And last, Pikeville is the home of the largest earth moving project in North America. In order to avoid flooding that had ravaged Pikeville six times since 1900, the city and the Corps of Engineers moved 80 million cubic yards of earth. That's 16 million dump truck loads. They moved cut out the mountain, then rerouted the highway, railroad and river!
Dinner. Our hosts Brigitte and her boyfriend Steve drove us 30 miles to Whitesburg for dinner, as there were no upscale places in Pikeville. We ate at Courthouse Cafe and Misty was our server. She was very sweet and caring, but her grammar was atrocious. The dinner was good but the dessert was wonderful.
Tanglewood Pie:
1/2 of a package of cream cheese
equal volume heavy whipping cream
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 slices bananas
pie crust
Blend the cream cheese with the sugar. Whip the cream. Slowly fold the whipped cream into cream cheese mixture. Place the banana slices on the pie crust, and place the whipped cream/sugar/cream cheese mixture on top of the bananas. Refrigerate until you eat it.
Special Instruction from Misty: "Now don't buy the already whipped cream. It won't work. You gotta whip it yourself or when you fold it in it will all turn to soup."
Really, this was light and tasty.
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For more information on the Hatfield/McCoy feud, read the following from Wikipedia.
The McCoys, led by Randolph "Ole Ran’l" McCoy (grandson of William), lived mostly on the Kentucky side of Tug Fork (a tributary of the Big Sandy River), and the Hatfields, led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield (great-grandson of Ephraim), lived mostly on the West Virginia side. Both families were part of the first wave of pioneers to settle the Tug Valley. The majority of the Hatfields living in Mingo County (in what would eventually become West Virginia), fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. The majority of the McCoys living in Pike County, Kentucky fought for the Union army.
The first real violence in the feud was the murder of a returning Union soldier, Asa Harmon McCoy. He was killed by a group of ex-Confederates Homeguard called the "Logan Wildcats." "Devil Anse" Hatfield was a suspect at first, but was later confirmed to have been at home, sick, at the time of the murder. However, it was widely believed that his uncle Jim Vance, a member of the Wildcats, committed the murder. But in an area where Harmon's military service was an act of disloyalty, even Harmon's own family believed he had brought his murder on himself. In the end, the case died with no suspect brought to trial.
The second recorded instance of violence in the feud occurred thirteen years later, in 1878, after a dispute about the ownership of a hog: Floyd Hatfield had it and Randolph McCoy said it was his. The pig was only in the fight because some of the Hatfields believed that since the pig was on their land, it was theirs. Some of the McCoys objected, saying the "notches" (markings) on the pig's ears were McCoy marks, not Hatfield marks. The matter was taken to the local Justice of the Peace, and the McCoys lost because of the testimony of Bill Staton, a relative of both families. Presiding over the case was Anderson "Preacher Anse" Hatfield. In June 1880, Staton was killed by two McCoy brothers, Sam and Paris, who were later acquitted on the grounds of self-defense.
The feud escalated after Roseanna McCoy began an affair with Johnson "Johnse" Hatfield (Devil Anse's son), leaving her family to live with the Hatfields in West Virginia. Roseanna eventually returned to the McCoys, but when the couple tried to resume their relationship, Johnse Hatfield was arrested by the McCoys on outstanding Kentucky bootlegging warrants. He was freed from McCoy custody only when Roseanna made a desperate midnight ride to alert Devil Anse Hatfield, who organized a rescue party. The Hatfield party surrounded the McCoys and took Johnse back to West Virginia before he could be transported to the county seat, Pikeville, Kentucky, for justice the next day. Despite what was seen as a betrayal of her family on his behalf, Johnse thereafter abandoned the pregnant Roseanna, marrying instead her cousin Nancy McCoy in 1881.
The escalation continued in 1882 when Ellison Hatfield, brother of "Devil Anse" Hatfield, was killed by three of Roseanna McCoy's young brothers: Tolbert, Pharmer, and Bud. Ellison was stabbed 26 times and finished off with a shot during an election day fight that took place in Kentucky. The McCoy brothers were initially arrested by Hatfield constables and were being taken to Pikeville for trial. Devil Anse Hatfield organized a large group of followers and cut off the constables with McCoy prisoners in tow before they reached Pikeville. The brothers were taken by force to West Virginia to await the fate of mortally wounded Ellison Hatfield. When Ellison finally died from his injuries the McCoy brothers were themselves murdered in turn as the vendetta escalated.
The escalation reached its peak during the 1888 New Years Night Massacre. Several of the Hatfield gang surrounded the McCoy cabin and opened fire on the sleeping family. The cabin was set on fire in an effort to drive Randal McCoy into the open. He escaped by making a break but two of his children were murdered and his wife was beaten and left for dead. The remaining McCoy family moved to Pikeville to escape the West Virginia raiding parties.
Between 1880 and 1891, the feud claimed more than a dozen members of the two families, becoming headline news around the country, and compelling the governors of both Kentucky and West Virginia to call up their state militias to restore order[citation needed] The Governor of West Virginia once even threatened to have his militia invade Kentucky. Kentucky Governor S.B. Buckner in response sent his Adjutant General to Pike County to investigate the situation.
In 1888, Wall Hatfield and eight others were arrested by a posse led by Frank Phillips, and brought to Kentucky to stand trial for the murder of Alifair McCoy who was killed during the New Years Massacre. She had been shot after exiting the burning house. Because of issues of due process and illegal extradition, the United States Supreme Court became involved (Mahon v. Justice, 127 U.S. 700 (1888)). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Kentucky. Eventually the men were tried in Kentucky and all were found guilty. Seven received life imprisonment, while the eighth, Ellison "Cottontop" Mounts, was executed by hanging. Thousands attended the hanging in Pikeville, Kentucky.
The families finally agreed to stop the fighting in 1891. The trial of Johnse Hatfield was the last of the feud trials. It took place in 1901.
In 1979, the two families united for a special week's taping of the popular game show Family Feud, in which they played for a cash prize and a pig which was kept on stage during the games.
On June 14, 2003, on the initiative of Reo Hatfield, an actual peace treaty was drawn up and signed in Pikeville by representatives of the two families, even though the feud had ended over a century before. The idea was symbolic.
The 99 steps to Pikeville College
The Hatfields and McCoys
The Pikeville Cut
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