What started the Hatfield and McCoy feud?

Question

What started the Hatfield and McCoy feud?

Answer 1

it started cause one family thought they stole a pig  i cant recall which family sorry

Answer 2

According to historian Michel Sellers, the feud began when a Hatfield wanted to marry a McCoy, but the clans disagreed and strife resulted. "Most people believe that the Hatfield-McCoy feud began with the death of Asa Harmon McCoy (Randall McCoy's brother) on January 7, year unknown." The uncle of Devil Anse, Jim Vance, and his "Wildcats" despised Hans Hall McCoy because he had joined the Union army. Harmon had been discharged from the army early because of a broken leg; several nights after he returned home, he was murdered in a nearby cave.

The first recorded instance of violence in the feud occurred after an 1873 dispute about the ownership of a hog: Floyd Hatfield had it and Randolph McCoy said it was his.[2] But in truth, the dispute was over land or property lines and the ownership of that land. The pig was only in the fight because one family believed that since the pig was on their land, that meant it was theirs; the other side objected. The matter was taken to the local Justice of the Peace, and the McCoys lost because of the testimony of Bill Staton, a relative of both families. The individual presiding over the case was Anderson "Preacher Anse" Hatfield. In June 1880, Staton was killed by two McCoy brothers, Sam and Paris, who were later acquitted on the grounds of self-defense. But the court decided later on it was not self-defense; it was murder in the first degree.

[edit] Escalation

The feud escalated after Roseanna McCoy began an affair with Johnse Hatfield (Devil Anse's son), leaving her family to live with the Hatfields in West Virginia. Roseanna eventually returned to the McCoys, but when the couple tried to resume their relationship, Johnse Hatfield was kidnapped by the McCoys and was saved only when Roseanna made a desperate ride to alert Devil Anse Hatfield, who organized a rescue party.

Despite what was seen as a betrayal of her family on his behalf, Johnse thereafter abandoned the pregnant Roseanna, marrying instead her cousin Nancy McCoy in 1881.

The escalation continued in 1882 when Ellison Hatfield, brother of "Devil Anse" Hatfield, was brutally murdered by three of Roseanna McCoy's brothers, Tolbert, Pharmer, and Bud. Ellison was stabbed 26 times and finished off with a shot. The brothers were themselves murdered in turn as the vendetta escalated. They were kidnapped and tied to pawpaw bushes, where each was shot numerous times. Their bodies were described as "bullet-riddled."

Between 1880 and 1891, the feud claimed more than a dozen members of the two families, becoming headline news around the country and compelling the governors of both Kentucky and West Virginia to call up their state militias to restore order after the disappearance of dozens of bounty hunters sent to calm the conflict.[citation needed]

In 1888, Wall Hatfield and eight others were kidnapped, by a posse led by Frank Phillips, and brought to Kentucky to stand trial for the murder of Alifair McCoy.[3] She had been shot after exiting a burning building that had been set aflame by a group of Hatfields. Because of issues of due process and illegal extradition, the United States Supreme Court became involved (Mahon v. Justice, 127 U.S. 700 (1888)). Eventually the men were tried in Kentucky and all were found guilty. Seven received life imprisonment, while the eighth was executed by hanging. Public hangings were illegal in Kentucky, but to evade the law the scaffold was fenced, and was placed at the foot of a hill so it was visible to the throng.[4] Thousands attended the hanging in Pikeville, Kentucky.

Answer 3

Thank you and satan xx for this story.

I hadn't read or thought about it since I was a child!

Answer 4

To abbreviate and make things simple. The feud was over a stolen pig.