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New York Times
January 8, 1921
The New York Times, Page 10
“Devil Anse” Hatfield Dead
Noted Feudist of Hatfield –
McCoy Mountain War Dies at 85
Huntington, W. Val., Jan. 7 –
Anderson Hatfield, long ago nicknamed “Devil” Anse” for his exploits
in the Hatfield-McCoy feud that brought violent deaths to so many
members of both clans, died quietly in his bed last night of
pneumonia at the family home at Island Creek, Logan County. The old
mountaineer was in his 86th year.
The famous feud started in 1880
with the theft of some hogs by a McCoy, but did not become murderous
until Ellison Hatfield was fatally wounded in a gun fight two years
later. “Devil Anse” then captured three McCoys and kept the in the
mountains until the wounded Hatfield died, when he and his followers
shot all three prisoners.
The brutal burning of the McCoy
home in 1888 and the killing of male and female McCoys as they fled
from the flames has been laid to “Cap” Hatfield, eldest son of
“Devil Anse.” The latter, in 1911, after two of his other sons had
been shot to death announced his reformation, was baptized and
joined the church.
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