The bloody feud did not end until 1920, after Sid Hatfield on Tug Fork,
which with Levisa forms Big Sandy, had shot to death some nine men led
by Baldwin-Felts detectives. They had killed Mayor Testerman of the
village of Matewan. And when they came to arrest Sid on what he termed a
trumped-up charge he reached for his gun. Sid, then chief of police of
Matewan, West Virginia, had been accused of opposing labor unions among
the coal miners and the coming of the detectives was the result. Though
Hatfields and McCoys were both miners and coal operators, the killing of
the detectives by Sid had no direct bearing upon the early differences
between the clans. But the wholesale killing on the streets of Matewan
in 1920 marked the end of the Hatfield-McCoy feud.
Devil Anse lived to see peace between his family and the McCoys.
Through thick and thin Levicy Chafin Hatfield stood by her man, though
she pleaded with him to give up the strife.
They waged their blood battles on Levisa Fork and Tug, on Blackberry and
Grapevine, creeks that were tributaries to the waters that swelled the
Big Sandy as they flowed down through the mountains of West Virginia and
Kentucky, emptying at last into the Ohio.
Levicy bore her mate thirteen children and died a few years after 1921
when the old clansman had passed to the beyond. There was not even a
bullet mark on the old clansman. He died a natural death, mountain
kinsmen will tell you proudly. He was buried with much pomp, as pomp
goes in the mountains, on Main Island Creek of West Virginia, in the
family burying ground.
I knew Devil Anse and "Aunt" Levicy quite well. For, long centuries
after my illustrious kinsman had returned to Merrie England to report
upon his expedition for the Loyal Land Company in the Blue Ridge, I
followed the same course he had blazed out of Virginia into the
mountains of Kentucky and West Virginia. I lived for a number of years
on Levisa Fork and Tug Fork and on Main Island Creek in West Virginia,
where my nearest neighbors and best friends were Hatfields and,
strangely enough, McCoys.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account