Thursday, January 7, 1897
IS THE general character of our climate on this planet changing? Neither summer nor winter seem just the same as of old. Even persons comparatively young notice the fact, and the old see it plainly.
When I was a child, I often trudged to school when the snow lay almost level with the fences, (not in the open country, but a thickly peopled village in northern New York State.) The summers vary, too. What with long continued heat, repeat-ed droughts and hurtful storms, we are fain to ask what natural changes are going on around us, above us, and within our habitable globe?
One thing appears highly probable, that the felling of immense tracts of timber has some effect that is wonderful and far-reaching. Whatever changes work, we have the promise of God in his Holy Word, that “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” ~ A. L. P.
BURNER – RILEY
The home of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Riley was thronged on last Thursday evening at 3 o’clock, when their daughter, Miss Nora E. Riley, was married to Mr. A. C. Burner, an influential young businessman from Bolar, Va. The wedding was one of the most brilliant of the season.
The bride entered the parlor leaning upon the arm of the groom and was most elegantly attired.
They were united in an appropriate and impressive manner by Rev. J. T. Maxwell. They then repaired to the dining room, where a most luxurious repast was served.
We would venture our safety on the assertion that this young couple are fully prepared for the duties which they assume in thus entering upon matrimony. We wish them happiness and that their pathway may be strewn with wreaths of flowers twined by the hand of a Supreme Being.
MARRIED – In Mingo County, W. Va., Aaron Hatfield, Nephew of ‘Cap’ Hatfield, to Mary McCoy, Daughter of Rudolph McCoy.
Continued…
Election day of 1882 marked the beginning of a series of fights, each of which claimed one or more victims. A relative of both of the families was running for office, and the members of the two factions agreed to suspend their differences and work for their kinsman’s election. But before the day was over, Talbot McCoy and Elias Hatfield became involved in a fight. At first it was merely fisticuffs McCoy threw his opponent, and was pummeling him severely when Deacon Ellison Hatfield and his brother appeared on the scene and several of the McCoy gang had gathered around their representative, ready to take a hand in the fight when the time came. Talbot McCoy and the Deacon advanced on each other with open knives, and when in reach, the slashing began.
Hatfield’s knife closed on his hands, and throwing it away, he used his fists, while McCoy wielded his weapon with telling effect. The fight became general, and when it was over, though no one was killed, several of the participants were carried away with injuries that afterward proved fatal. Ellison Hatfield died the following Wednesday. He had been cut twenty-seven times besides being shot. Three of the McCoys were arrested – Talbot, Randolph and Farmer.
The night of the fight, the Hatfield clan gathered together seventy members, and, waylaying the deputy sheriff, who was taking the prisoners to the Pike County jail, captured the three McCoys. They were taken across the river to the West Virginia side, and there held to await the outcome of Deacon Ellison’s injuries. When news came of death, the imprisoned McCoys were notified that they were to die. The following morning, they were taken back to the Kentucky side and, after being bound, were forced to a kneeling position on the river’s brink.
At the word of command, a dozen rifle shots barked in the crisp air, and Talbot and Farmer McCoy fell over dead.
The thirteen year old boy, Randolph McCoy, had been a witness to the killing, and it was decided to kill him also. One of the party was sent back to do the work and two barrels from his shot gun riddled the boy’s body.
The next move of the Hatfields was to try and kill Randolph McCoy, the head of the family. Two desperadoes of the clan waited in ambush one night near a road over which he would have to travel. Fortunately for the intended victim, a brother, Calvin McCoy, passed the concealed assassins before the man they had marked. In the darkness they mistook their man and fired at Calvin. He was not killed outright but was maimed for life. Soon after this, word of a Hatfield raid was betrayed to the McCoys, and they escaped. The wife and mother-in-law of Bill Daniels, one of the Hatfield faction, were suspected of betraying the secret. For revenge, “Cap” Hatfield and Tom Wallace went to Daniel’s house one night and, covering him with a shot gun, gave both of the women a fearful beating. The wife died from her injuries, and her mother had several ribs broken by the force of the blows.
Jeff McCoy was the next to go. He was a brother of Daniel’s wife and was looking for Tom Wallace. “Bad Anse” Hatfield agreed to assist him in his search, but instead enticed him into an ambush, where he was killed.
In 1885, the Governor of Kentucky put a price on the head on Anse Hatfield and his brother, “Cap,” and called upon the Governor of West Virginia for their requisition. This was at first denied, but in 1887, the officials of both states united in an effort to suppress this bloody feud. The McCoys had suffered so much that their spirit for revenge rarely showed, but they eagerly grasped at the proposition that they join the officers in search of the Hatfield leaders. Three of the gang were captured, and subsequently sent to the state prison.
The zeal of the McCoys in joining the officers aroused the ire of their enemies, and a raid was planned for New Year’s night of 1888…
To be continued…