The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-06-16
FAMOUS FAMILIES
DISAGREE ONLY ON
PROHIBITION NOW
Back in 1895 Bill M'Coy Took
His Bride, Pretty Mary,
From Hatfie|ds
NEIGHBORS IN WASHINGTON
Moved From Kentucky to West
ern State Seeking New
Lands and Not Peace

Messy Rock, Wash, June l6.-Here
in this little valley, surrounded by
handicapped peaks and far from the
rumble of commerce, live the last sur
vivors of the strange western migra-
ton of the fighting Hatfields and the
battling McCoys.
Shortly after the turn of the pres
ent century, a group of the feudists.
weary Of the fighting that had kept
West Virginia and Kentucky in a tur-
MOL for several generations. quietly
slipped away and found a new home
IN the west. Strangely enough, mem
bers of both families came here, but
they never resumed their warfare.
Two men still live in the valley.
Ben DAM Hatfield at one end and
Bill Mccoy at the other. They live
in peace and plenty, but although
they are IN good terms there is no
great depth of friendship between
them. The men folks among the Hat
fields and the McCoys are funny that
way. even the descendants Of the earl
Ter generations.
Hatfield and Mccoy agree on most
things, but they split on the burning
issue of the day-prohibition.
I'm a Temperance Hatfield, and
don't drink, Ben says.
Mccoy admits to taking a little
nip now and then to warm his bones
and observes, out of his experience
In the old days, they used to make
moonshine out of corn. Nowadays.
they make llkker out Of sugar, and
1t is not near SO good"
X X
Why did these members Of the
great fighting families move west
ward, just when the war between
their clans was drawing to a close?
THE folks got tired of all the fight
ing and carrying on" says Ben Hat
field, known as Dan to many. Out
here we found a good living and not
all that ruction. So here We came,
and here we are"
But Bill Mccoy, 20 years senior to
Hatfield. disagrees.
Hatfield is all wrong" he declares.
There was no Mccoy or Hatfield
ever came west looking for peace. The
was over back there and we
wanted new land. that's all. My pap
py had told me about Washington
when I was a boy, and here I am. If
they had needed me back there, I
wouldn't nave come. No. sir. no Nc
Coy or Hatfield, either, ever ran from
a fight"
X X X
Bill McCoy's marriage was the talk
of all Kentucky in 1895. For, like a
page from Shakespeare's tender
Romeo and juliet" he took his bride,
Mary, from the Hatfields.
"A few years before that. when !
Jonse Hatfield ran off with a Mccoy
girl, there was the dickens to pay"
Bill Mccoy laughs.
But that was when the feud was
hot. When Mary and I slipped off
and got married. everything was rosy.
Nobody cared then"
Theirs has been a fruitful union. |
Five strong son were born. now scat
tered throughout the west. Mary
Hatfield Mccoy. a grandmother now,
IS visiting relatives this summer, and
Do Bill is lonesome.
II surely miss the old lady" he says.
"A man couldn't have had a finer
Why not? The Hatfields and
The McCoys both are the finest fam
Lies in the south. I've told my BOYS.
and I'll tell my grandson, Willie,
when he grows up, that he couldn't
be luckier than to get him a Hatfield
Tor a wife"
The start of the famous feud is an
,ther point Of difference between
two men. Ben Hatfield holds
20 the classical, accepted theory that
he great family conflict. which
caused the deaths of o than 100
persons. was started in an argument
,ver a hog.
"All Hatfield knows about it is what
he read in books" Mccoy laughs. HE
vas juSy a soy when he came west. I
vas a grown a The real start of
he whole trouble wa over elections.
What finally stopped it was the gov
of the two states. It was
hot toward the end, too"
Mccoy raises hogs. He is a grand
nephew Of the great Mccoy leader.
Randall Mccoy, a fierce daredevil
vho delighted in shooting as many
1atfieldS as he could.
\
Ben Hatfield is a gr~eat-grand-
nephew Of the fiercest, "fightingest"
Hatfield of them all, old Devil Anse"
datfield-a kindly, bearded patriarch,
a very devil when it came to war
ing on the McCoys. Ben has a gar
len. a pretty wife. two small sons, and
'ome cattle.
Between the two, near the Messy
lock postoffice, lives old Aunt Sarah