The Devil's Son

by Anne Black Gray, Geoffrey Cameron Fuller (Foreword)

You think you know who they were, why they fought, why they died. You know only the black-and-white version-now experience the feud in full color. Over 100 years ago the Hatfield-McCoy feud bloodied the West Virginia-Kentucky border and threatened the lives and fortunes of Cap Hatfield and his family. Encouraged by wealthy men who used courtrooms and political power to their advantage, the feud threatened to explode into a second War Between the States. In The Devil's Son, follow the journey of Cap, son of Anderson Devil Anse; the feared patriarch of the Hatfield clan. Leading the family's efforts to survive, Devil Anse loses too many battles, and Cap must step up. Armed with intelligence and determination, Cap sets out to save his family while he wrestles with coming of age in the shadow of the Devil. The Devil s Son, a powerful novel, takes the reader on a journey alongside Cap, son of the feared Devil Anse Hatfield who raises his children illiterate and unguided in an isolated region of late nineteenth century southern West Virginia. The family earns a living at timbering, but is frequently forced to halt work to engage in deadly battles with McCoys and posses marauding from across the border in Kentucky. Wealthy and powerful, land and mineral-hungry coal and railroad interests enter the region. The lives and fortunes of Cap and his family are now simultaneously threatened by armed marauders and wealthy men adept at using courtrooms and political power to their advantage. Leading the family s efforts to survive, hampered by his illiteracy, ignorance of modern business practices and ethics, and refusal to adapt to the changing times, Devil Anse loses too many battles. The Hatfields are descending into poverty and defeat. Armed with only his intelligence, determination and the reading and writing his wife has taught him, Cap sets out to save his family, but must contest his father s will every step of the way.

354 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 2012

Reviews

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars--This book was slow to get started (which means most of my book club probably abandoned it early), but I ended up enjoying this book more that I was expecting to.

The infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud is perhaps Exhibit A for Greater Appalachia border folk on their worst behavior. A novelized version of the infamous feud that was unlikely inspirational fodder for a huge variety of cartoons created in the '20s through the '60s, THE DEVIL'S SON reminds us that there was a lot more going on than hillbilly gags. One son is trying to atone for the violence of his past and create a new, more peaceful existence for his family.

[David Kinchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Anderson Hatfield II -- known to everybody as "Cap" -- considered himself to be the "captain of tomorrow" Anne Black Gray writes in a novel about the Hatfield-McCoy feud, "The Devil's Son: Cap Hatfield and the End of the Hatfield and McCoy Feud". Cap considered his father, Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield, the undisputed patriarch of the Hatfield clan, to be the "captain of yesterday."


Cap, born 1864, died 1930, succeeded in ending the feud between the West Virginia Hatfields and the Kentucky McCoys, but it wasn't easy standing up to the fierce "Devil Anse"-- as the author so graphically and eloquently writes.


"Devil Anse", born 1839, died at the age of 83 in 1921 and a Confederate Civil War veteran, belittled education, while Cap, who was taught to read and write by his wife Nancy, realized that the native cunning of his dad wasn't sufficient to succeed in the industrial post-Civil War era.


Cap wants education so much, Gray writes, that at age 24 he travels to Knoxville, Tenn. to enroll under the assumed name of William Anderson (he didn't want the notoriety of the feud affecting his life in a strange state) in the University of Tennessee law school. He spent less than a year there before he came back in 1889 to end the feud and put the Hatfield family on the road to prosperity as railroad and mining interests come to West Virginia.


The feud wasn't about the ownership of a straying sow and her piglets and it certainly wasn't the "Hillbilly Romeo and Juliet" scenario between Cap's brother Johnson (Johnse) Hatfield and Roseanne McCoy, the author demonstrates. There was animosity between the Confederate favoring Hatfields and the Unionist McCoys over the Civil War, but perhaps a more important element was control of the resources of the Tug Valley, the border of West Virginia and Kentucky. (A geography lesson: The Tug Fork joins with the Levisy Fork at Louisa, KY and Fort Gay, WV to form the Big Sandy River, which empties into the Ohio River west of Huntington, between Kenova, WV and Catlettsburg, KY).


Interest in the Hatfield-McCoy feud is being fueled by books like Gray's novel and two upcoming television events. F. Keith Davis, the publisher of the Gray novel and an author himself, alerted me about the TV events in an email:


"The History Channel documentary, which will air on Friday, May 25, 2012, used this book, along with "The Tale of the Devil" by Dr. Coleman C. Hatfield and Robert Spence (Woodland Press), and "The Feuding Hatfields & McCoys" by Dr. Coleman Hatfield and yours truly (Woodland Press), as resource material for the Hatfield side of the story," Davis wrote me. "There are other books, like 'Images of Logan County: Logan County' (Arcadia Publishing) by yours truly also used for resource material. Woodland Press supplied all the vintage photos, which were part of the Coleman C. Hatfield collection, for the documentary, as well.


"The dramatic mini-series on History Channel airs a few days later, on May 28, 29 and 30th, and features Kevin Costner [as Devil Anse Hatfield and Bill Paxton as Randolph "OlRan'l" McCoy]. I'm not sure what resource materials they used in preparation for this project, although I know they were aware of our books."


Davis added that he was interviewed about the feud for the History Channel documentary, adding that "I found it especially neat that Anne [Black Gray] put flesh and bone to the story -- and her history rings true throughout."

Gray's historical novel digs into the real story behind the legend, putting -- as Keith Davis so eloquently phrases it -- flesh and bone to the story. "The Devil’s Son" is a wide-ranging historical epic that breathes life into the individuals and families on either side of the Tug Valley -- and to the east in the boomtown of Logan.

Gray, who grew up in West Virginia and now lives in Los Angeles takes the reader on a journey alongside Cap, son of a set-in-his-ways patriarch who raises his children illiterate and unguided in an isolated region of late nineteenth century southern West Virginia. The Hatfields originally lived in the western part of Logan County, in an area that became Mingo County in 1895 (The Mingo County town of Matewan, on the Tug Fork, became famous -- or infamous -- as the scene of the Matewan Massacre of 1920, link: http://www.matewan.com/History/battle... large Hatfield family earns a living at timbering, floating the logs down the river to mills in Catlettsburg, KY and other areas, but is frequently forced to halt work to engage in deadly battles with McCoys and posses marauding from across the border in Kentucky. The wild frontier between West Virginia and Kentucky changes immeasurably when wealthy and powerful, land and mineral-hungry coal and railroad interests enter the region.


The lives and fortunes of Cap and his family are now simultaneously threatened by armed marauders and wealthy men adept at using courtrooms and political power to their advantage. Leading the family’s efforts to survive, hampered by his illiteracy, ignorance of modern business practices and ethics, and refusal to adapt to the changing times, Devil Anse loses too many battles. The Hatfields are descending into poverty and defeat. Armed with only his intelligence, determination and the reading and writing his wife has taught him, Cap sets out to save his family, but must contest his father’s will every step of the way.


Gray says she decided to write about Cap Hatfield and the feud because of stories she heard as a youngster: "When I was a child, my mother and her sisters often spoke fondly of their Uncle Cap, One Easter, when they were children, he gave my aunts baby ducks and my mother a baby rabbit, by far the nicer gift in her estimation. Mother told me Cap was 'your Granddaddy’s friend.' Since Granddaddy was a reserved, well spoken man, a West Virginia mayor, state senator, and judge of the circuit court at one time or another, I pictured my mother’s uncle as a man with similar traits and disposition. Cap died six years before I was born, denying me any opportunity to know him personally."

Years later, as an adult, Anne came to learn that “Uncle Cap” was Cap Hatfield, notorious killer and right hand man to his father Devil Anse Hatfield, during the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feuds. It seemed altogether impossible to her that Uncle Cap and Cap the killer could be one and the same. Her book, "The Devil’s Son", is the result of her efforts, long after her mother’s and aunts’ deaths, to discover how Cap made the great transition he seemed to have made and, concomitantly, how the Hatfield-McCoy feud ended.

"After reading histories, memoirs, two master’s degree theses, and numerous old newspaper articles, I began to put a story together, a story that was never totally clear because information was sparse about many of Cap’s adventures, sources conflicted concerning names of sparring parties and dates of events, and very little was written about motives and interpersonal relationships. In fact, some tales and films portrayed the Hatfields and McCoys as cartoonish, irrational figures. To put together a coherent story, I had to re-create motives and conversations and provide scenes of life inside the Hatfield family. When data were sparse or conflicting, I chose words and actions that fit the flow of lives and the changes in them. That is, I have written a novel, not a history. The characters, events, and settings in southern West Virginia and northern Kentucky in the 1880s are actual, but conversations and details of some events are fictional.

"I have traced the flow of Cap’s life as though mapping the course of a river I have never seen and never can see. There are good, detailed maps of some portions of the river and stretches where no information at all is available or where sources conflict. Because a river is prevented from excursions that defy physical laws, such as gravity, one can draw a reasonable likeness of its course between known points. I have mapped some of Cap’s life in just such a way, making informed guesses about its flow between known events," she said.

[Darryl Updegrove · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recognizing this is a novel and not all the conversations and events are necessarily word for word, it is a very enjoyable read, and not at all what I expected in terms of content and direction. It makes me want to read more about this famous family feud and what happened afterwards as well.