The Hatfields and the McCoys Read Online Free

supported by troops, stiffened his attitude. As soon as the grand jury made indictments, he ordered the transfer of the prisoners to the Clark County Circuit Court for trial. By removing the trial from the scene of the disorders, the court broke the back of the feud. The only flare-up afterwards came in 1894 with the assassination of Judge Combs. 4
    The troubles between the unschooled Hatfields and McCoys in the mountain recesses of the Tug Valley hardly appeared exceptional when compared with the feuds that raged in the seats of Breathitt and Perry counties between prominent political and business figures. None of them excited the concern at the state level that arose from the Tolliver-Martin-Logan vendetta, which made a shambles of law and order in Rowan County.
    The Rowan County troubles had their origin in a political contest in 1874 in which young Thomas F. Hargis, a former Confederate captain and a Democrat, ran against Republican George M. Thomas for judge of the circuit court. Opponents of Hargis charged that he was neither old enough nor had the experience required by law for the position. When Hargis tried to produce proof, he found the entry concerning his admission to the bar cut from the record book at Morehead and data concerning his birth missing from the family Bible. He accused his political enemies of the excisions, and they charged that he himself had removed the evidence. Hargis lost the election by twelve votes in a race which left the county deeply scarred and divided. In 1876, however, he won election to the newly created Circuit Court of Kentucky, and three years later he succeeded Judge J. M. Elliott as a member of the Appellate Court of Kentucky.
    Political tensions generated by the 1874 election continued to stimulate election-day troubles. On August 1, 1884, Floyd Tolliver, a resident of Farmers, near Morehead, shot and wounded John Martin, the son of a prosperous Rowan County farmer. A battle ensued in which Solomon Bradley, an innocent bystander, was killed and Adam Sizemore was wounded. Sheriff John C. Day was charged with the shooting of Size-more. Without delay, the Tolliver, Martin, Sizemore, and Day factions began to line up supporters.
    The following December, Floyd Tolliver and John Martin met in a barroom. A fight took place, and Martin killed Tolliver. Fearing that a mob might try to lynch Martin, the county attorney arranged for his transfer to the Clark County jail at Winchester. After unsuccessful efforts to have Martin returned to Morehead, A. M. Bowling, a Tolliver kinsman who served as town marshal of Farmers, and four deputies presented a forged document to the jailer at Winchester and prevailed upon him to release Martin to their custody. A short time earlier Martins wife had visited her husband and assured him that Rowan County officials would not ask for his return. When the eastbound Chesapeake and Ohio train left Winchester, Bowling had Martin aboard. As soon as the train pulled into Farmers, Craig Tolliver, a brother of Floyd and the recognized head of the Tolliver clan, boarded it with a large party and killed Martin. Only when she heard the commotion did Martin’s wife, who returned home on the same train, realize what had happened.
    In the weeks that followed, members of the Martin faction shot from ambush and wounded County Attorney Z. Taylor Young, whom they accused of being pro-Tolliver. Acting in revenge, Tolliver supporters killed Deputy Sheriff Stewart Baumgartner in almost the same spot. In April 1885 the Martins, led by Cook Humphrey, and the Tollivers, led by Craig, took up positions in Morehead and engaged in a battle that raged for hours and left the town and the county in a state of anarchy. Adjutant General John B. Castleman, with state troops, restored order and summoned leaders of the two factions to Louisville, where they agreed to a truce.
    The compromise lasted but a few weeks. An unsubstantiated confession by an associate of Humphrey that the family