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| McCoy House – Pikeville, Ky. |
The History Channel’s Hatfields & McCoys miniseries has brought renewed national attention to the deadly family feud that embroiled the Tug River valley for much of the nineteenth century. The Hatfield clan of West Virginia had a long-standing dispute with Kentucky’s McCoy family that included numerous deaths in both genealogies from 1865 to 1890.
During the New Year’s Night Massacre in 1888, the Hatfields rode to and torched the McCoy home on Blackberry Creek. Two of the McCoy children were injured, but the McCoy patriarch (Randolph, aka Randall) and his wife Sarah (aka Sally) escaped.
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| McCoy House Historic Marker Pikeville, Ky. |
The governors of Kentucky and West Virginia had urged the families to distance themselves from one another, and the New Year’s Night loss was enough to push Randall and Sally to Pikeville. There, the McCoys purchased a house at the corner of Main Street and Scott Avenue and Randall operated a ferry at the near crossing of the Big Sandy River.
Sally died first, date unknown. Randall lived until 1914 and both are buried in Pikeville’s Dils Cemetery along with other members of the McCoy family.
Pikeville’s and Pike County’s Hatfield-McCoy history lives with a number of other sites and markers; it is well worth the trek into history.
Source: C-J; Hatfield-McCoy Driving Tour Brochure