4. The pig issue unleashed the feud in 1878
Pigs were valuable commodities among the people of Appalachia, and the theft or killing of a pig was considered a serious crime. In 1878, Floyd Hatfield, a cousin of Anse Hatfield, was accused of stealing a pig by Randolph McCoy. The hog had been marked by notching its ears, and Randolph claimed the notches were those used by the McCoys. Floyd Hatfield denied the theft and claimed that he had cut the notches in the pig’s ears. The issue was brought to the authorities in Kentucky – McCoy territory – but the justice of the peace who considered the case was yet another cousin of the Hatfield’s, also named Anderson Hatfield and differentiated from Devil Anse by the name Preacher Anse. Preacher Anse found, not unsurprisingly, for Floyd Hatfield.
The Hatfields produced a witness named Bill Staton. Staton was a member of the McCoy extended family by blood, but had married into the Hatfield clan. His testimony was such that Preacher Anse found in favor of Floyd, removing the charge of theft and allowing him to retain possession of the hog, The McCoys found the decision to be an infuriating miscarriage of justice, and two years after the dispute over the hog Bill Staton was killed. The culprits were nephews of Randolph McCoy, Sam and Paris McCoy, who claimed that their actions had been in self-defense. The court ruled in their favor and the event was added to those which in the minds of the feuding families demanded retaliation to exact justice.