Nature did what the McCoys never could to Devil Anse, in the casket in 1921

Violent feud, natural death

Despite the Hatfield-McCoy feud killings, on January 6, 1921, Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield died of pneumonia at his Island Creek home in Logan County.

He was one of the leaders of the historic feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families in the mountains of West Virginia and northern Kentucky. Shot at from ambush and in hand-to-hand combat scores of times with the McCoys, he had always predicted he would live to die a natural death, as he did at the age of 80.

He spent the last 15 years of his life quietly and peaceably on a small farm he owned in Logan County near the cabin where he was born.

When federal agents were sent to Williamson, West Virginia to settle the feud, Hatfields and McCoys fired on them as they left the train. 

Neither side cottoned to outsiders interfering with family business.

There's a Hatfield-McCoy trail for hikers and bikers in Mingo County today. Much more tranquil than in the Hatfield-McCoy feud days.