Hatfields & McCoys

Poirot

Poirot

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Tried to watch the series, which was on for 3 days this past week, but had a rough time trying to keep straight who were Hatfields, and who were McCoys. All those beards made them all look a lot alike. LOL
However....in the summary for Day, May 22, there was an interesting few posts. I did not want to move them...so hopefully, copied them o.k.

  1. I think Stefano has selective memory. My great-grandfather, Larkin McCoy, killed many men in the Hatfield/McCoy feud. It is said that, in later years, he covered his face with a bandanna when he slept so he wouldn't see the faces of the men he had killed. Maybe ol' Steffie does something similar. :)

    Jammers, looks like we were posting at the same time. Great minds....​
    The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away. ~ Barbara Kingslover
    http://www.heraldanewday.com/index.html
    KathyLu, May 23, 2012 Edit Delete IP Warn Report
    #14
    Jammers appreciates this.

  2. Poirot Administrator
    :OT: Oh my gosh, KathyLu....So you are related to the McCoys? Are you going to watch the series (I think on the history channel) about the Hatfields vs. the McCoys?)Kevin Costner & Bill Paxton are the patriarchs... Starts Monday 5/28 at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. Central. Runs for 3 nights. :back:​
    flag2-1.gif

    Poirot, May 23, 2012 Edit Delete IP Report
    #15

  3. KathyLu Well-Known Member


    GA ~ USA
    Yep!

    d0e4af68-b45c-48de-be1a-c69e92efa6c8-3.jpg
    994543cc-94dc-4852-b784-7e1e3293da5c-3.jpg

    :back:​
    The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away. ~ Barbara Kingslover
    http://www.heraldanewday.com/index.html
    KathyLu, May 23, 2012 Edit Delete IP Warn Report
 
Barb, I have almost finished watching the series and, I have to say, it's based very loosely on what actually happened. I heard many of these stories as I was growing up and the movie was different in so many ways. I know they couldn't include everything but Johnse Hatfield and Nancy McCoy had four children and she had four more with Frank (Bad Frank) Phillips. Nancy was the sister of my great-grandfather, Larkin McCoy, who wasn't even mentioned in the movie. The part where Jim Vance hit Sarah Sally McCoy in the face with the rifle was partially true but it was actually Johnse Hatfield who did it. Jim Vance didn't beat Nancy; he beat her sister, Mary McCoy Daniels and her daughter because they were known to be gossips, then Cap Hatfield murdered their brother, Jefferson. Johnse Hatfield was married four times in addition to his involvement with Rosanna McCoy. Rosanna died in 1889, not 1888, as depicted in the movie.
 
So, I admit I did not watch the final episode, but talking about the series with a friend, who said her daughter claimed the ending wasn't true (I have no idea)...I looked up the feud, and was reading in Wikipedia about it. They nicely included family trees for both the Hatfields & McCoys. And lo & behold...KathyLu's McCoy ancestor ended up marrying a Hatfield.Facinating.

I am so into geneology and have been researching my family for a lot of years now. Haven't found anyone historical yet, except for one who was a drummer boy during Sherman's march thru Georgia during the Civil War, and so probably, the burning of Atlanta.

However, the series on TV about the Hatfield/McCoy feud drew enormous numbers of viewers, and guess I was just one of those who found it hard to follow. There sure were a lot of deaths, tho. Wow.
 
@KathyLu....I did read where the writers or whoever said they "combined" 2 or 3 family members into 1 here and there, as the families were so large. Gosh, when that poor woman was being beat so badly, twas heartrending. I was listening and looking hard for Larkin, and then figured he was undoubtably one of those who got "combined".
 
Larkin was the son of Asa Harmon McCoy, a civil war veteran. Asa was wounded and sent home where he hid in a cave because the Hatfields had threatened to kill him because he fought for the north. He was only 37 when Hatfields murdered him but he had a huge number of children. That is why Nancy McCoy, daughter of Asa, hated and plotted against the Hatfields.

I loved Mare Winningham's portrayal of Sarah Sally.
 
Totally agree, she was really terrific. I read somewhere they filmed in Europe..Belgium or Yugoslavia...seems the countryside there looked more like West Va. & KY did back then.
Wonder if they will rerun it at some point????
 
I love reading the posts about this, especially with KathyLu's input of personal knowledge. I, like Barb, had trouble following the movie. It is on again right now so I may check in and out on it tonight. It is fun thinking back to interesting things our ancestors did, good or bad, but the bad wouldn't be fun if we were living in the real time of it. A little like being entertained by things that happen in a soap opera, when it would be unacceptable in real life. Our ancestors were real life but far enough removed from us by time that we don't feel the sting of it. My g-grandfather was involved in a vigilante group that meted out "frontier justice."
 
What an interesting thread! I'm watching it on the History Channel right now and I'm having some trouble following who's who. I love Mare Winningham. I used to watch her in the 80s Brat Pack movies.
 
I loved & watched the series. I too had a small problem following who's who in the beginning but I eventually got the hang of it. So cool KathyLu you are a relative. What a very interesting history. There was a show on NBC called Who Do you Think You are and each week a celebrity checked out their family ancestry. I saw Paula Deen, Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones. I loved this show also. I think the season ended and not sure if renewed though.
 
I watched all 3 nights and enjoyed it very much, don’t know if it was true or not, but I think the main reason I liked it, it wasn’t a re-run!
 
Ahhh, KathyLu knows her family's history and while the series took some liberties with the truth, she knows what was true, and what was "fudged" a bit. I think she may have taped it, to watch at what would be a better time for her probably....so, she will have to come and "report" on how accurate it all was.
 
WOW! We've been watching the series too. My husband's family lives in Virginia and they are directly related to the Hatfield's. Though, they aren't very proud of the feud, and even though the feud "officially" ended in 2003 (families got together and signed a treaty type document)...... there's still a little tension there. My brother in law fell (note: we are Hatfields) in love with a Cantrell (they are directly related to McCoy's). They were going to have a big wedding---but there's still a LOT of tension there...it was kind of weird, families were trying to be civil...but you could tell it was stressful. They ended up just getting married at the courthouse (which was finally decided when they realized they were pregnant).... 9 months later little Grant was born and both families love him and we get along just fine (well, i can't say I see much of her side-but my brother in law says things are good).

my hubby's dad calls him and tells him the "real" story - where the television series confuses it a little bit.
 
DaysLady, I enjoyed hearing your perspective, and how the feud ended and the families were drawn together over the baby. I'm sure after that many generations of feuding the tensions don't go away overnight. I know some Cantrells who came from somewhere back that way a few generations ago. Maybe they are related to the McCoys too.
 
My great grandfather, Larkin McCoy, was very active in the Hatfield/McCoy Feud and told his children he was the one who shot Jim Vance (Devil Anse Hatfield's uncle), the man who killed his dad, Asa Harmon McCoy because he had fought with the Union Army during the Civil War.

While Vance lay mortally wounded, Frank Phillips, Sheriff of Pike County, shot him in the head and used his brain to polish his boots. Larkin McCoy had 11 children (including my grandpa, Jacob) with his first wife, Mary Elizabeth Coleman McCoy, and no children from his two subsequent marriages.

Hatfield-and-McCoy.jpg
Devil Anse Hatfield and Randolph McCoy
 
Oh my, KathyLu, I guess the extent of the violence wasn't exaggerated in the tv movie after all. Thanks for posting the pictures. Seeing them makes all of it seem more realistic.
 
Randall (Ol' Rannel) McCoy worked as a ferry boat captain in his later years. His beloved, Sarah Sally, never recovered from the beating Johnse Hatfield gave her when the Hatfields burned the Randall McCoy home on New Years Day, 1888, and killed two of their children, Calvin and Alifair. This happened after the Hatfields killed the three McCoy men who had killed Ellison Hatfield. Ellison "Cottontop" Hatfield Mounts was subsequently hung for the killing of Alifair. Some people say he wasn't the one who killed Alafair but was used as the scapegoat because he was dimwitted. He was the illegitimate son of Ellison Hatfield and Harriet Hatfield, who were cousins. Cottontop took the name of Mounts after his mother married a Mounts.

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Ellison "Cottontop" Hatfield Mounts​
 
I loved this series I thought all the actors where great very well done show lovedddddd it:love:
 
Old Cowgirl: yep- i'd bet money they are related if they are from that area.
KathyLu: I really appreciate the pictures- my father in law says he has some and will share them with us when we visit next....maybe he'll let me scan them in to share them with you all. the picture you have of Devil Anse Hatfield...he is closely related to my husband's side. I think my father in law (Arvil Pilkenton) has cousins named after him.
 
Poirot -- it was filmed in Romania, I think. There was supposed to be a documentary on the subject that aired last Saturday, but I missed it. The documentary was actually filmed in WV.
 
They are going to rerun it next week, I believe.
 
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