Monday, June 05, 2000
Hatfields, McCoys try to bury stereotypes
By
The Associated Press
PIKEVILLE, Ky. — Descendants of the famous feuding Hatfields and McCoys say they hope an upcoming joint family reunion will help debunk enduring Appalachian stereotypes that were fueled by the feud.
“We want people to see where the families have actually gone,” said Sonya Hatfield, who lives in Belfry, Ky. “We are not ignorant, illiterate hillbillies who killed each other over a pig.”
National publications such as the New York Times covered other feuds in post-Civil War Kentucky, but interest in the Hatfield-McCoy feud escalated after Ellison Hatfield — brother of patriarch William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield — was shot and stabbed on Election Day 1882 by three sons of Randolph McCoy.
After Ellison died, Devil Anse Hatfield and others tied the three McCoys to bushes and executed them.
The feud was covered extensively in the LouisvilleCourier-Journal, and many of those stories were rewritten in national publications.
Mountain folk were often portrayed in the stories as illiterate people who carried pistols and resolved conflicts with violence.
Ever since, the feud between the Hatfields of West
Virginia and the McCoys of Kentucky has been alluded to and exaggerated in cartoons, dime novels and other aspects of pop culture.
“I think probably more than any other single event it helped to set the stage ... for many of the negative images that have persisted,” said Ron Eller, director of the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky.
The last believed death associated with the feud occurred in 1890, when Ellison Mounts, the rumored illegitimate son of Ellison Hatfield, was hanged in Pikeville after he pleaded guilty to taking part in an early morning raid on the McCoy homestead that resulted in the deaths of two McCoys.
Conflict associated with the feud ended by 1900, and many family members were left feeling ashamed, said Altina L. Waller, author of Feud: Hatfields, McCoys and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900.
“They'd been really berated and degraded in the press as being wild, backward hillbillies,” Ms. Waller said. “They wanted to wipe it out and not talk about it.”
James Klotter, a Kentucky historian, said the inner tension that existed among families in the region has been replaced with resentment toward outsiders who perpetuate this stereotype.
“A lot of people in the region feel they've been portrayed in a very negative way generally, and they don't see themselves in that light,” Mr. Klotter said.
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