Sistersville oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1896-1901, 1898-07-27

prosecute him TO the bitter emu OF
the law.
1t has even been characteristic,
too, of the Hatfelds, when caught,
to confess, and the latest recruit
for the gallows from their ranks
was no exception to the rule. He
confessed and asked for a lie SEN
tence. There is possibility that
he may get it, a probability that he
may not.
The words he confessed" to
those unfamiliar with tragic Incl
dents of the Hatfield Mccoy feud IS
Ia phrase ambiguous. Hatfeld &C
knowledged his participation in at
least two Of the principal horrors OF
that deadly striie-that OF 1882 and
that Of 1885.
HISTORY OF a FFUD.
In 1882, old man Randolph Nc
! Coy was engaged in a petty law
! suit with Bill Staten over a seventy
FIVE cent shoat. Ellison Hatfield
ior Deacon, as he was known
he was a preacher before he be
came a corpse-was courting old
man Staten's daughter and natural.
!ly sided with his prospective father
! !;n.lsw. Oa election day in Pike
county, as was their wont, the Hat
fields crossed over the river and,
at the behest of certain interested
politicians as we'll as from a sheer
desire for devilment, proceeded to
iterro1ize the community and to run
the election to suit themselves. The
Deacon" was at Black Fork Pre-
cinct with a squad of cohorts.
Devil Anse" was at Peter creek
precinct, with another. Together,
the Hatfelds had twenty-ninc men
with them at these two precincts.
Talbot Mccoy approached tie polls
to vote. The Deacon" the hog
Incident fresh in his mind, asked
him how he was going to vote. Its
none of your business" said Tai
bot. "Ill make it my business, .
said the Deacon. Il am hell on
fearth," declared Talbot. 80 am
l." asserted the Deacon" emphat-
ically, and the two men mixed.
Knives were drawn and the battle
was getting bloody, when "Farmer"
Mccoy, Talbot's brother, rushed
up and shot the Deacon" The two
McCoys were arrested and several
deputies started through to Pike
vile with them. One OF the "Dea-
cons" friends notified Devil Anse,"
who with his posse headed off the
deputies, took charge of the Nc
Cows and brought them back to the
scene of the fight. where they found
little Randolph Mccoy and the
wounded Deacon. l." They took
the boy prisoner and carried all
three of the McCoys over
the river and held them in
an old school house near
what is now Matewan. A family of
West Virginia McCoys, living on
Mate creek, took the wounded man
lin. He died on the third evening
after the fight. That same even
ling Devil Anse" and fourteen
other men took the three boys
across the river into Kentucky and
| tied them to some pawpaw bushes,
where a year before they had
hanged three sheep killing dogs.
They hung lanterns above the
heads Of the doomed McCoys and
forming a squad fred below two of
the lanterns. Forty FIVE bullets
entered the body of Talbot ard
forty eight were pumped into the
Farmer" The little boy Randolph
they had not fired at and started to
leave him tied to the bushes. He
was crying. Dead men tell no
tales" said Alex Messer, one OF the
gang, suggestively. That's so;'
said Anse. Messer borrowed a shot
gun, went back and fred both bar
rels at the boys head, blowing the
top of it completely off. Part OF
the skull as large as mans hand
was found seven feet away from
where the poor little cold body
LAY, when discovered the next day.
TRAGEDY OF '88.
! So much for the tragedy OF 'S2.
The tragedy OF 1888, was, If posi-,
bic, even more terrible. It was on
New Years night. A crowd OF
HAITI f.ld's-nine in all-went over
into Pike county to the house Of old
man Randolph Mccoy, on Black
berry Fork of Pond Creek-a long