Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1888-02-02
ress apd 1akotaian
DISCOUNTING ALL FICTION
THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH or THE
HATelELp-McoY FEup.

Dime Novel Tales of Blood Are Fairy
Stories IN Comparison with the His
tory Of no Fiendish Murder on the
Ksntncky-west Virginia Border.
PITTsBURd, Pa, Feb. 1.-The Times
prints in detail the first true statement
published Of the famous Hatfeld-McCoy
outrages that have been for six years con-
tinued, without serious attempt being
made to punish the outlaws. The story
from start to finish is a tale of horrors
rarely equaled, and has caused a blot on
the names Of the two great states of Ken
lucky and West Virginia. Charles
Howell, of the Times editorial staff, re-
turning from q personal investigation,
reports to his paper that the Hatfield
Mccoy trouble threatens to develop into
serious Interstate complications. AL
though Governors Buckner, of Kentucky,
and Wilson, of West Virginia, have or
dered their militia to return to their
homes, 1t must not be understood that
the troubles are ended. This Hatfield
Mccoy war, Invested of all sentiment
with which the representatives OF the two
oeApCc hdNC lnVSbbSu IL, Is SIMPLY
A SUCCESSION OF cowARDLY MURDERS
by day and assassination and house-burn-
ing BY night. All of the murders have
been cruel, heartless and almost
without the shadow of pr%oyocation.
Given on n hand the family
with its %contingents of the same blood,
allied and comented by a common desire
to ayenge an imaginary afrront, and on the
other a family, small in the matters of
alliance and collateral %sympathies,
doomed to destruction by the larger, and
the case is stated. The scene of nearly
all of the murders and a-ssassinations Of
the years named is the narrow bottom of
Tug river, above and below the mouth of
Pond creek, Oh the Kentucky side. Ran
dali Mccoy, with wife and thirteen chill
dren, ak years ago lived in g log hut
near the mouth Of Pond creek. To-day
day his house is in ashes. Four of his
som and one daughter
LIE IN LooDY GRAVES,
and himself and family are wandering in
the mountains, well-nigh penniIess. In 1871
q warrant was issued for the arrest of
johnson Hatfield, a son of Anderson, who
eluded the official. for several months.
Talbot Mccoy was deputized to serve the
warrant. Mccoy captured Hatfield and
started with him for Pike court house.
twenty miles distant. McCoy's two
brothers acted as guards. A friend APP
prised the Hatields of the arrest, and the
elder Hatfield, accompanied by his allies,
intercepted the McCoys, and rescued his
son attbe point of the gun, and returned
to West Virginia. A year later, at an
election in Kentucky. Elias and Ellison
Hatfield engaged in u quarrel
with Talbot Mccoy, over an alleged debt,
during which Mccoy stabbed Ellison
Hatfield in the back. Hatfield began
pounding McCoy's head with q stone.
whereupon McCoy's younger brother
STABBED AND H o HATFIELD,
i'aa'ItsE f,.ttsE .saas, All the parties
were arrested, Thirty of Hat6eId,s
friends promptly assembled and a com
pact wa made to release the prisoner.
which was done. They took the threa
McCoys with them, keening them pris-
oners two days and a night, pending the
resulsyOf Ellison Hatfleld's injuries. They |
refused to allow a justice to give the Nc !!
Coys a hearing, saying they would take
care OF both trial and punishment. The
McCoys-father, mother, brothers and
sisters, appeared on the scene and begged
Tor the lives OF the three boys, but were
told to leave or they would be killed, too,
That night Farmer and Talbot McCoy
were taken into the timber and shot.
Randall was tied to the dead bodies of his
brothers, and tine party started home.
Once Hatfield said: Boys, dead men
tell no tales, al stepping near the boy.
discharged both barrels OF his shotgun
into his head, bursting it open. The bod
les remaiped tied to the bushes for hours,
their friends fearing to remove them.
AN ABSOLUTE MONARCHY.
Nc concentrated effort was ever made
to capture the perpetrators of the crime.
Anderson Hatfield, ST., styling himself
"Deytlance,n purchased fire armsin large
quantities, and organizing an absolute
monarchy, himself taking command.
Comparative quiet reigned for another
year, when by mistake for Randall Mccoy
and one OF his sons, John and Henderson
Scott were waylaid and permanently
crippled by q yolley from the Hatfield
Winchesters, Following this mistake
came a period of '.stock raising'i by the
Hatfield gang. About one year q JEFF
Mccoy, cousin of the murdered man. |
was waylaid and shot by sCapn Hat |
field and Zim Wallace. The history |
OF this crime has more elements
OF hellish fendishness, IL possible, than !
the hrst- Tit shots were fred while the
victims aged mother, grovelling at their
feet, her arms entwined about their
limbs,
sHRrEKED FOR PITY.
Squirting her with their boots, the fatal |
shots were fred. The old lady waded I
the stream to where her son lay dead, and /
fell in anguish upon his body. Jeff Nc
Coy's father had, some years previously, |
been assassinated by the Hat6elds within
a few yards OF where his son fell. Porry
"A. Cline, uncle OF JEFF, an attorney, se-
cured acquisitions for the arrest Of the
band. AT an election In August
last; Louis Varney was beaten al.
most to death by 'Cap'' Hatfield.
The Hatfields took possession of the
polls and broke mp the election. The |
browning piece of deviltry was reserved |
for the night of Jan. /, 1888, when thir- |
teen Of the Hatfield gang, headed by Jas.
Vance, surrounded the Paul Mccoy
homestead. near the mouth Of Pond
crees, burned the house, with Its con-
tents,
I'LL HIS SON nj DAUGHTER,
beat the mother over the bead with the
butt of a gun until they thought she was
dead, and left the little children to die in
fhe cold on the mountain side, among the
bushes to which they had escaped in
their night clothes While the house wis
burning the father and husband ased two
shots with telling effect. Three new
made graves are to. be found on the Hat
field settlerient, and a number are known
70 be Wounded After burying his dead.
Mccoy moved his family to Pike court
house last week.
The story was obtained principally
from Mr. and Mrs Mccoy, who show un.
mlstakeable evidence OF the intensity OF
their suiferings, and is fully corroborated