Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1915-10-14

held girls wrote on a white pillar at
the front of her often bereaved house:
There is no place like home" The
sequel tells that a cynical traveller
passing that way reflected on the am
nails Of that dwelling and added in
postscript: "Leastways not this side
of he'll"
The story of the Hatfield-McCoy
feud is in many ways that of other
wars" which have made of the roof
tree OF the eastern divide a land be-
leaguered and unique.
In the war between the Haveys and
the McBriars there was more than the
forgotten episode of a stray razorback
which was not surrendered to its law
full wne They had for decades
hated and killed each other with a
fidelity Of bitterness that made all
their truces and intermarriages fail of
permanent peace.
Between the territories where they
had originally settled stretched a bar
rier of hills broken by only n gap.
The McBriars had made their first
~habitations east of that ridge and gap
where the waters ran toward the sea
The Haveys had set up their power
to the west, where the creeks and
springs fed the rivers that went down
to the BLUEGRASS and to Tennessee.
Had the two clans been content to re-
main respectively on the sunrise and
sunset slopes of the backbone, they
might never have clashed, but there
were bright-eyed women to the west
and east. Feminine Havey eyes lured
McBriar s~uitors, and McBriar girls
seemed TO the Havey men worth any
dare that fate might set. So it has
been since young Montagues and
I Capuiets ignored d~eadlines-and long
before. Smoke went up from cabins
on both sides that housed men and
women Of both clans. Hatred scat
tered and set up new points Of infec-
ton all along Tribulation and beyond
its headwaters.
In Civil war and subsequent politics
a line Of fierce cleavage had yawned
between them-and each faction had
been a power.
1t vas to the leadership of such a
clan that Bad Anse had succeeded
when hardly twenty-one by the death
of a father whose end had not come
upon a bed Of illness.
1t was to the herding of such a flock
that he had ridden away from the
cabin Of Fletch McNash on the night
when the girls scornful taunt fol.
lowed him.
1t was an unfortunate thing that
Cal Douglas should, on a February
afternoon, have shot to death his
brotherin-law, Noah Watt, ever IL, as
Cal earnestly assured the Jury, "he
was jest obleeged an beholden ter do
it." All the circumstances of the af.
fair were inopportune for his kinsman
and the kinsmen of the man who died
with a bullet through his vitals.
Cal bore a name for surly character,
and even in a land where grudge-bear-
ing is a religion he was deemed ultra.
fanatical in tanning the flame of ha.
tired. Noah Watt himself was little
loved by either the Haveys, into whose
family he had married, or the McBri
ars, from whom he sprang. Neigh,
bors told Of frequent and violent bick
erings between the mar and his
shrewish wife, who was the twin sis
ter of Cal Douglas.
"Cal Douglas an Noey Watts WON
an air es much alike es two peas in 9
pod" went neighborhood pronounce
ment. They air both soured or
mankind an they glories in human
misery"
Had the fight on that winter eve
ming ended in the death of both par
' Elephants, McBriars and Haveys would
alike have called it a gentle riddanc,
and dropped the matter where it stood
But since a Havey had slain a Nc
Briar and the Havey still lived /
could not, in honor, be so dropped. |
left an uneven score.
Since the m~ountaineer has little t,
do in the winter and spring save COS
sip, the affair grew in importanc,
with rehearsing, and to each tellinI
was added new features. 1t was sig
~nificantly pointed out east of the ridg
that Noah had incurred the displeas
ure of Bad Anse Havey by the suspt
cion of ta~le-bearing to old Milt MS
Briar. 1t was argued that the particr
lar wife.beating which led to the traf
edy might have passed as %uneventfull
as several similar episodes heretofore
had not the heads Of the Haveys mad
8 it a pretext for eliminating a Mc2ria
d / who dwelt in their midst and carrie
news r the ridge to his ow
people.
I For several years the feud ha
Q slept, not the complete sleep OF deatl
but the ftful. simmering sleep Of cal
tious animosity. But neither clan fe,
SC overwhelmingly strong as to coui
/. an Issue Just yet and. realizing tn
s desperate quality Of any outbreal
Ii both Milt McBriar "over yon" an
e Anse Hayey over here had guarda
the more b~elIigerent kinsmen wit
Jealous eye. They had until now bel
them checked and leashed. thong
growing.
Ie For these reasons the trial OF c,
1t Douglas had been awaited with
3. sense Of crisis In the town Of PER-