Hatfield & McCoy - The Reunion They Said Would Never Happen
June 9-11, 2000By Kimberly Powell, About.com Guide
Dateline: 30 April 2000
One of the most notorious family feuds in history may finally be put to rest this summer. The rivalries
between the Hatfields and the McCoys began about 1863 and ran off and on for nearly 30 years.
Descendants of these famous families hope that any lingering effects will disappear at the first ever
Hatfield and McCoy national reunion to be held June 9-11, 2000 in Pikeville, Kentucky.
History of the Feud
The Hatfields and McCoys were prominent families who lived along the Kentucky-West Virginia
border, on opposite sides of a stream known as Tug Fork, off the Big Sandy River. Both clans
were part of the first wave of pioneers to settle the Tug Valley. The McCoys, led by patriarch,
Randolph "Randel" McCoy, lived on the Kentucky side of the river, while the Hatfields, led by
William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield, occupied the West Virginia side. Though it wouldn't
have been readily apparent from their crude log cabin homes deep in heavily forested mountain
territory, both men were prosperous farmers.
The true origins of the feud between these two men and their
families are lost in the mists of history, but legend has it that
the bitter feelings began in 1878 when Randolph McCoy
accused Floyd Hatfield of stealing one of his hogs. Such an
offense was taken very seriously in those times as hogs were
an extremely valuable part of the farming economy of the
valley. Tempers flared and soon the two faced off in court.
Trouble already existed between these two families prior to
the incident with the hog, however. Some people attribute
the beginning of the feud to animosities which developed during the American Civil War. Others
say that competition between the families in the timber market sparked the hostilities. Whatever
the origin, the peak of the hostilities came when three of Randel McCoy's sons, Bud, Tolbert, and
Pharmer McCoy, fatally wounded Ellison Hatfield after he insulted Tolbert on election day in
1882. Devil Anse Hatfield retaliated for the killing of his brother by executing the three without a
trial.
Violence ebbed and flowed for the next several years. In
1887 the feud was revived by a lawyer named Perry Cline, a
distant cousin of Randolph McCoy, who used his influence
to have the five year old murder indictments against the
Hatfields reissued and to start the extradition process to bring
them to Kentucky for trial. When people got frustrated with
the slowness of the legal system, a raid into Hatfield territory
was organized and several Hatfield supporters were captured
and brought back to Kentucky. The news of this successful
raid inflamed the Hatfields and resulted in an attempt by them to eliminate Randel McCoy on
January 1, 1888. This tragically resulted in the death of two more of his children and the burning
of his home.
The violence was now not only between the Hatfields and the McCoys, but between the states of
Kentucky and West Virginia. Both governors called in the National Guard as more raids were
staged by the McCoys into Hatfield territory. The governor of West Virginia, E. Willis Wilson,
accused Kentucky of violating the extradition process by kidnapping the Hatfields and appealed
the matter all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. In May of 1889, the Supreme
Court ruled against West Virginia and the Hatfields stood trial in Kentucky. All eight were found
guilty of murder. One of them was publicly hanged for the murder of Alifair McCoy, the daughter
of Randel McCoy killed in the January 1888 raid on his home, and the other seven were
sentenced to life in prison.
The feud, which lasted for over a decade and claimed the lives of twelve men, was finally over.
Study Guide for Saki’s “The Interlopers”
I. VOCABULARY: Be able to define the following words and understand them when
they
appear in the story.
precipitous______________________________________________________________________________________________________
acquiesced______________________________________________________________________________________________________
feud_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
disputed________________________________________________________________________________________________________
condolences_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
interlopers_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES: (what has happened prior the beginning of the story
II. LITERARY TERMS: Be able to define each term and apply each term to the story.
suspense__________________________________________________________________________________
conflict___________________________________________________________________________________
irony_____________________________________________________________________________________
*identify the conflicts in the story:
__________________ vs. ___________________ Explain: ________________________________
Man
animal
__________________ vs. ___________________ Explain: ________________________________
Man
nature
__________________ vs. ___________________ Explain:________________________________
Man
Man
__________________ vs. ___________________ Explain: ________________________________
Man
Himself
Who is the protagonist in the story? ___________________________
antagonist ______________________________ Example: _________________________________
metaphor ___________________________________________________________________________
Examples:_____________________________________________________________________
simile ______________________________________________________________________________
Examples: _____________________________________________________________________
Describe the mood of the story:____________________________________________________
Who is the narrator? From what point of view is the story told?
What is the theme of the story?__________________________________________________________
III. QUESTIONS: Answer the following questions.
1. How did the Gradwitzes receive all the land they have?
2. Why do Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym not get along?
3. What is Ulrich von Gradwitz hunting in the story?
4. What was Ulrich von Gradwitz’s wish when he wandered away from his crew?
5. What happened once Ulrich von Gradwitz and George Znaeym meet in the forest?
6. How do the two men behave once they are stuck?
7. What makes Gradwitz start to behave differently?
8. What happens to them at the end?
MENDING WALL
Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them
made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good
neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good
neighbors.”
What are the narrator and neighbor doing in this poem (lines 12-15)?
Why does the narrator see no need for a wall between his and his
neighbor’s land (lines 23-26)?
What does the narrator’s neighbor say after the narrator suggests that
there is no real need for the wall between them (lines 27-46)?
Have you ever heard this saying (or adage) before now? If so,
where/when?